About Last Night: Yanks Blank The A's, 10-0!

By Andy Singer

September 22nd, 2024

The Big Story

The Yankees absolutely demolished the A's on Saturday night. As bad as the Athletics' 67-88 record looks, the A's have played decent baseball through much of the season's second half, playing close to .500 ball since August 25th. In what has played like a tune-up series prior to the playoffs, the Yankees have made the gap between them and the A's look wider than the Atlantic Ocean. The Yanks have spent the weekend in Oakland announcing their readiness for the playoffs with authority.

Carlos Rodon was startlingly efficient on the mound, needing just 90 pitches to get through 6 shutout innings. Rodon navigated runners in scoring position with smart pitching, escaping some scoring chances in the first 3 innings. Rodon struck out just 4 through his 6 innings of work, hence the small pitch count, but he had good stuff working all night. While Rodon's fastball velocity was down a touch from his season average, he really showed command of all of his pitches throughout his outing. Rodon worked his fastball high and low while snapping off sharp sliders to his glove side just off the plate. The A's just couldn't handle Rodon's recipe for last night's game, rolling over and often swinging through breaking balls low and off the plate. Rodon had easily another inning or two left in his arm, but with a big lead, the Yanks were smart not to push him any further.

Even a much maligned member of the Yankee bullpen had a great night. Mark Leiter Jr. threw 2 perfect innings with 3 strikeouts in what was almost certainly his best performance in pinstripes. Leiter Jr. even displayed a new pitch mix, throwing his splitter 41% of the time. Hitters whiffed on the pitch 4 times in 6 swings, and all 3 of Leiter's strikeouts came from the splitter. It's telling that Leiter was used in mop up duty, but Leiter worked well against a lineup with plenty of firepower. The bullpen overall threw 3 shutout innings.

The offense was the star of the show, though. In fact, the team jumped out to a 6-0 lead through 3 innings against old friend, JP Sears. In the first inning, the Yanks loaded the bases with no outs in what looked like it was going to be a huge inning. Only two runs scored though, as Stanton drove the first run home while grounding into a double-play, and Dominguez followed with an RBI single to left.

In the 2nd inning, Volpe homered to deep left-center for a solo shot, showing an ability to pull the ball that seemed all but lost over his last 2-3 months of play. In the 3rd inning, Stanton hit an absolute laser out deep to left-center, scoring Judge and Soto to make the game 6-0.

From there, the Yanks broke the game wide open in the 7th inning. Judge led off the inning with a solo shot for his 54th homer of the year. From there, the Yanks just kept finding ways to keep the inning moving, drawing walks, moving runners along by putting the ball in play, and forcing the Oakland bullpen to pitch with runners in scoring position. A fielder's choice from Volpe, followed by the cherry on top, a 2-run single from Torres, and the Yankees had a 10-0 lead that they wouldn't relinquish.

Notable Performances

Carlos Rodon (WP) - 6 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 4 K

JP Sears (LP) - 5 IP, 9 H, 2 BB, 6 ER, 6 K

Gleyber Torres - 3-6, 1 R, 2 RBI

Juan Soto - 2-6, 2 R

Aaron Judge - 2-3, 1 HR (54), 1 R, 1 BB, 1 RBI

Giancarlo Stanton - 2-4, 2 R, 1 HR (26), 3 RBI

Jasson Dominguez - 1-4, 1 RBI, 1 SB

Anthony Volpe - 1-4, 2 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 SB

Jon Berti - 2-4, 1 SB

Better To Forget

Nothing! This was a nearly flawless performance!

My Take

Games like this are rare throughout a season - a day where everything clicks, and it's important to enjoy it when these games come. I enjoyed every minute of this one. The offense scored with power, speed, and timely hitting all at the same time. The pitching looked dominant with solid defense backing up the pitchers. All of a sudden, the additions of Dominguez and Berti, with Jazz Chisholm and Volpe already in the fold, the Yankees don't look so old and slow. With the playoffs around the corner, I think the Yankees look as good as they've looked all season.

To me, this is a team primed to make a real run in October this year.

Looking To Tomorrow

The Yanks will look to sweep the A's in their final series in Oakland. Luis Gil takes on Joey Estes at 4:07 this afternoon.