About Yesterday: NYY 5, LAA 2 & NYY 2, LAA 8

By Ethan Semendinger

August 8th, 2024

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Yesterday was the Yankees 2nd doubleheader of the season. Unfortunately, the Yankees split the games.

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Quick Stats (Game One) -

• Winning Pitcher: Luis Gil (12-5, 3.06 ERA)

• Losing Pitcher: Davis Daniel (1-3, 6.04 ERA)

• Save: Clay Holmes (24)

• Home Runs (New York): Oswaldo Cabrera (7)

• Home Runs (Los Angeles): Zach Neto (15)

Quick Stats (Game Two) -

• Winning Pitcher: Hunter Strickland (3-1, 3.52 ERA)

• Losing Pitcher: Will Warren (0-1, 11.17 ERA)

• Save: N/A

• Home Runs (New York): None

• Home Runs (Los Angeles): Zach Neto (16)

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Big Story - The rain on Tuesday kept the Yankees from playing, but it did not keep them from winning. As the Yankees players got an unexpected day off, the team jumped back into first place in the AL East because the Baltimore Orioles lost on Tuesday night to the Toronto Blue Jays. This moves the then 67-46 Yankees into first place by half a game (the Orioles then had a 67-47 record).

This was also- and I find this interesting- just the second time the Yankees played a doubleheader all season. The only other time came in early April on the 13th, when the Yankees were in Cleveland and were rained out on April 12th. The Yankees won both games of that doubleheader: 3-2 and 8-2.

And, the Yankees were hoping to keep their AL East lead with another two wins yesterday.

Here was the line-up for Game One:

And here was the line-up for Game Two:

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Player of the Game -

• Luis Gil: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 5 BB's, 6 K's (Game One)

• DJ LeMahieu: 2-4, Run, Double, RBI (Game Two)

Notable Performances -

• Game One:

• Alex Verdugo : 2-5, 2 Runs, 2 Doubles, 1 RBI

• Aaron Judge: 2-3, Run, RBI, 2 Walks

• Austin Wells: 2-4, Double, RBI, Walk

• Ben Rice: 0-2, Run, 2 Walks, Strikeout

• Oswaldo Cabrera: 1-3, Run, Home Run, RBI, Walk

• Luke Weaver: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 2 K's

• Clay Holmes: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 2 K's, Save

• Game Two:

• Aaron Judge: 1-3, Walk

• Carlos Narvaez: 1-2, 2 Walks

• Michael Tonkin: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 2 K's

• Tim Hill: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 0 K's

• Mark Leiter Jr.: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 2 K's

Better to Forget -

• Game One:

• Juan Soto: 0-4, Walk

• Jazz Chisholm: 0-4, 4 Strikeouts

• Game Two:

• Anthony Volpe: 0-4

• Will Warren: 4.1 IP, 8 H, 8 R (8 ER), 3 BB's, 6 K's

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The Game - Let's keep these short and sweet, as I have two games to cover. Because of this, I am just going to briefly go inning by inning (where there was scoring), but I am not going to paint a great picture of either game.

Game One:

1st Inning: Luis Gil took the mound for the Yankees, and worked out of the inning without trouble, even though he walked two. (This would be a trend for his game.) Meanwhile, Davis Daniel took the mound for the Angels, and immediately got hit. Alex Verdugo hit a double, moved to third on a Soto groundout, Judge walked, Austin Wells singled Verdugo home, and then later Anthony Volpe hit a 2-out double to score Judge.

2nd Inning: Luis Gil continued to allow baserunners- this time allowing two singles- but again escaped without damage. In the bottom of the inning, the Yankees scored another run (3-0, Yankees) courtesy of Oswaldo Cabrera knocking a home run into right field.

3rd & 4th Innings: In the third, Luis Gil only allowed one baserunner (via walk), but again the Angels couldn't get much of anything going. The Yankees faced a similar fate after a Judge single and Wells double, but were unable to score. In the fourth, Gil allowed two more baserunners (both by walk) but again, the Angels were unable to score (even with two wild pitches that moved Anthony Rendon to third). The Yankees, however, used a lead-off Ben Rice walk to get a run via an Alex Verudgo double, and then that presented a second run after an Aaron Judge single. (Yankees 5, Angels 0.)

5th, 6th, & 7th Innings: Luis Gil would finish his night after his 5th inning, and his best of the night, where he knocked the Angels down 1-2-3. The Yankees had the bases loaded in the 5th (Grisham double, Rice and Cabrera walks), but didn't score. Enyel De Los Santos pitched the 6th, allowed a double and a walk, but the Angels still couldn't score. Neither did the Yankees, who also had two baserunners (Soto and Wells both walked). In the 7th, a lead-off walk ended De Los Santos' night for Jake Cousins, who immediately allowed a 2-run home run to Zach Neto. However, no other damage was done. The Yankees went down 1-2-3.

8th and 9th Innings: Luke Weaver came in for the 8th and sent the Angels down 1-2-3. The Angels could've done the same, but intentionally walked Judge with 2-outs and nobody on to get Austin Wells out. (It worked.) Clay Holmes came in for the save, sent the first two batters home with strikeouts, and got a groundout to end the game. Yankees win 5-2!

Game Two:

1st & 2nd Innings: The Yankees brought up Will Warren as their "27th Man" for the doubleheader, and he started the game with a quick 1-2-3 inning. Aaron Judge prevented the Yankees from having the same fate, by hitting a 2-out single, but nothing came of it. In the 2nd, Warren started the inning by allowing 3 straight singles, walked the bases loaded, fixed what was going wrong with two strikeouts, allowed an RBI-walk, and allowed a grand slam before his third strikeout of the inning. The Yankees answered with a Jazz Chisholm double and a DJ LeMahieu RBI single, but they left a sizeable gap in the lead. (Angels 6, Yankees 1.)

3rd & 4th Innings: The Yankees needed Warren to eat innings, so he came back out for the 3rd, only allowed a walk, and escaped the inning. The Yankees had singles from Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo, but didn't cut into the Angels' lead. Warren came out again for the 4th, allowed a lead-off single, a double, got an out, allowed a 2 RBI-double (to Zach Neto, who had 8 RBI's on the day between the two games), and then finished the inning. The Yankees would answer with a DJ LeMahieu double, Carlos Narvaez single, and Gleyber Torres sacrifice fly...but the scoring didn't continue. (Angels 8, Yankees 2.)

5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Innings: Well, the rest of the game featured no scoring. Will Warren was pulled with 1-out in the 5th after allowing a double. Michael Tonkin would finish the inning, pitch the 6th, and get an out in the 7th without much happening. During this time, the Yankees had a Giancarlo Stanton double in the 5th and two runners in the 6th (Narvaez walked, Torres singled), but they obviously didn't do anything with it.

Tim Hill replaced Tonkin, and Hill finished the 7th and the whole 8th without allowing much. All the Yankees did in those innings was an Aaron Judge walk. In the 9th, Mark Leiter Jr. came in, and allowed a Zach Neto single (of course, he had a day) before getting 3 straight outs. The Yankees didn't do anything in the bottom of the 9th. Game over. Yankees lose.

...

Outside of one bad inning in Game Two (when they allowed 6 runs in the 2nd), the Yankees did keep pace with the Angels, even when the team wasn't doing much with runners on base. (Though, to be fair, they didn't do much with runners on base in Game One either.)

I'm not going to think too much about splitting a doubleheader, especially one with the Game Two starter being a "27th Man" call-up. (Even as good as Will Warren is as a prospect, he's clearly not ready for the MLB.) Instead, I'm going to take it as a good sign that the Yankees- even when going a combined 5-21 with runners in scoring position (or a .238 AVG) and leaving 20 runners on base, they were able to win a game, and keep pace (sans that one bad inning) with the Angels.

It's not overly impressive, especially as the Angels are 49-64, but what I'm really trying to say is that I'm not concerned from yesterday.

Hopefully, Nestor Cortes has a great game tonight and the Yankees can take home another series win. (The Orioles won their lone game yesterday, so both teams are tied for the top of the AL East right now. A loss for them would also be nice!)

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Next Up - Tonight, the Yankees (68-47) will finish their 3 game series against the Los Angeles Angels, and will see who takes the series victory. Nestor Cortes (5-9, 4.16 ERA) will take the mound for the Yankees, as Tyler Anderson (8-10, 3.05 ERA) will take the mound for the Angels. Coverage will begin at 7:05 PM on YES. It is also Willie Randolph bobblehead night for the first 18,000 fans.