About Yesterday: Yankees Outlast Rangers

By Mike Whiteman August 12, 2024 On this day in 1964, Mickey Mantle homered from both sides of the plate, leading the Yankees to a 7-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. This was the tenth time he did this, the most by far in Major League baseball at the time. Mel Stottlemyre was the beneficiary, as he spun a complete game in his debut. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA196408120.shtml

Sadly, the number of switch hitters is at a low point in recent MLB history - The Athletic had a really good article on this recently, basically claiming that the pressure of today's youth baseball encourage players to eschew what can be long process of becoming skilled on both sides of the plate . The only current Yankee switch hitter is Oswaldo Cabrera, and his .431 OPS batting righthanded basically makes him a switch hitter in name only. Very sad for a team with a long tradition of great switch hitters. Quick Stats: The Yankees are 70-49, tied for first place in the American League East with the Baltimore Orioles. They are also tied for the best record in all of baseball. You heard me right, all of baseball. Aaron Judge's home run is the 299th of his career, and ranks seventh in franchise history. Judge and Juan Soto are the only teammates in all of MLB to both have an OPS over 1.000. Big Story: The Yanks jumped out to an early lead when Giancarlo Stanton drove Alex Verdugo in from third base on a sacrifice fly. Soto increased the lead with a solo home run in the third. All the while the recently struggling Marcus Stroman held Texas scoreless. In the bottom of the fifth, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy intentionally walked Aaron Judge with a runner on third to pitch to Stanton, and at the same time brought in righthander Jose Leclerc to get the percentages in his favor. Stanton made Bochy pay by lining a three-run home run to left field, and the Yanks had a 5-0 lead. Stroman walked the leadoff batter in the sixth, and Aaron Boone went out to get him after he allowed an RBI double by Corey Seager. Jake Cousins got out of the inning without any further damage. The Rangers scored two unearned runs in the seventh after a Jazz Chisholm error at third base, but Yankee lumber asserted itself in the bottom half when Soto and Aaron Judge homered back-to-back. The Yanks were up 8-3. Mark Leiter came on in the eighth, and the Yanks' primary trade deadline bullpen acquisition served up two homers and couldn't get out of the inning. With the score now 8-6, Boone went to Clay Holmes for a four-out save. The Yankee closer got out of the eighth . He struck out the first two batters he faced in the ninth. Then it almost fell apart. Holmes walked the next two batters, and an Adolis Garcia single off the end of the bat pulled the Rangers within a run. Finally, Holmes induced Leody Taveras to ground out to finish the game and we Yankee fans could exhale. It wasn't the prettiest win, but it was a win. Yankees 8, Rangers 7. Notable Performances: Since returning from a month on the IL, Stanton is batting .250 with two home runs and seven RBI over nine games. Interestingly, he's only struck out four times. Who needs rehab?....Judge's three hits raised his batting average to .328. He leads all of MLB in home runs (42), RBI (106), and is second only to Bobby Witt's .347 batting average. Better to Forget: Volpe's sudden slump continues, as he was hitless in four at bats and struck out three times. They Said It: "He kept making pitches, and kinda outlasted them. I'm sure he was obviously tired there...I was going to go to the end" - Aaron Boone on sticking with Clay Holmes despite his rising pitch count (45), his most since he played for Pittsburgh. My Take: Boy was I happy for Stanton when he ripped that home run. As a one time elite power hitter, I'm sure he's used to be the guy pitched around, as opposed to the one that the manager now hopes to face. It had to feel good. I'm a Stanton fan. When I was in high school, I used to run track and field, and my favorite race was the mile. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to lower my personal best time. The mile consists of four laps around the track. As the runners begin the last lap, a bell is usually rung to signify this crucial time of the race. The Yankees are starting to run the bell lap. In first place. A great place to be! Yes, they are struggling a bit to keep up, but as one of my friends who's a Pirate fan told me told me recently "there's no such thing as bad first place, Mike". Let's go Yankees! Next Up: The historically bad White Sox should be a welcome sight for the Yankees. With this enigmatic group though, I still hold my breath a bit. Luis Gill (12-5, 3.06) takes the mound against rookie lefty Ky Bush (0-1, 6.75).