Sal's Game One Thoughts

Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares some of his thoughts on the Yankees.

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By Sal Maiorana

October 7, 2024

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For Sal's complete analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

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It’s pretty hard to believe that in the more than 100 years of MLB postseason baseball, what happened Saturday night at Yankee Stadium had never happened before, a game where the lead changed hands five times.

Thankfully, the last time came in the seventh, and it was the Yankees moving in front on Alex Verdugo’s RBI single that sent Jazz Chisholm home with the run that decided the opener of the best-of-five ALDS.

If you were a neutral fan watching this game, I’m sure it was pretty entertaining because there was so much going on - good and bad for both teams. But for us Yankees fans, and surely for the Royals fans, this game was quite a rollercoaster ride across three hours, 21 minutes.

And how about the guys who wound up being the pinstriped heroes of the night, specifically Verdugo who has been an absolute mess for the last four months and a player who would have lost his postseason roster spot if Jasson Dominguez hadn’t played so poorly when he came up from Triple-A. He had a huge game with two hits, a walk, two runs scored, the big game-winning RBI, and two really nice plays in the field.

“He’s a good all-around player, and it’s not always what you did, it’s what you’re capable of doing moving forward,” Aaron Boone said. “I think he’s been champing at the bit for postseason baseball. He’s had experience doing it before. He’s had success doing it before. I think this is one of those things that hopefully gives him a lot of confidence moving forward.”

Gleyber Torres continued to hum in the leadoff spot with a two-run homer, two walks and two runs scored. Austin Wells, who was in a 1-for-31 slump, came through with a bases-loaded walk and then an RBI single in the sixth that tied the game at 5-5. And Clay Holmes. Yes, Clay Holmes who retired five of the six men he faced which helped slam the door and gave the Yankees a chance to rally after Kansas City had taken a 5-4 lead in the sixth.

“This kind of baseball is going to take everybody,” Verdugo said. “It’s not going to be our big guys who are always going to come through, It’s going to take everybody. You can make up for a lot of things in the playoffs.”

As for those big guys, yeah, he was right about that. Juan Soto did his part with three hits, but Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton (OK, he’s not really a star) and Gerrit Cole were not good - at all.

It wasn’t pretty, but we have to give the Yankees credit for this victory because too often, when they get punched in the mouth multiple times like they did Saturday night, they did not respond, but in this game, they did so numerous times and got the job done.

Here are my observations:

➤ Let’s start with Cole, who was so massively disappointing. If it felt like every ball in play was hit hard, it was. He faced 23 men and 10 hit balls at least 95 mph according to Statcast. He wasn’t fooling anyone, and the Yankees were enormously fortunate to win a game where their best pitcher had nothing. He lasted five innings plus one batter into the sixth and gave up seven hits and walked two which led to four runs, three of which were earned. Lousy from the guy who is supposed to be the ace. “I made my fair share of mistakes, that’s for sure, so I need to be sharper,” Cole said. “But they put a couple really good pitches in play, too.” I agree with the first part of that statement, but not the second.

➤ Judge. Man, his postseason travails continued, and until he changes the narrative, he’s going to be looked at as a player who just shrinks once the calendar flips to October and that’s not going to help his quest to become a Yankee icon. Yes, he had an amazing season and he’ll win the MVP, and he’s been a great Yankee, but his career postseason average is now down to .208 and his OPS is .770 in 45 games. He went 0-for-4 with three whiffs and a walk.

➤ And then there was Stanton, who is a player I just don’t want to watch play baseball ever again. He is a one-trick pony, plain and simple, and in every other aspect of the game outside of hitting the occasional 120 mph home run, he is just an awful player. He single-handedly cost the Yankees two runs because he runs like my 88-year-old father. Seriously, I don’t know how you win a championship with a guy who just sucks the life out of scoring opportunities.

➤ This game started poorly for the Yankees as they wasted a golden opportunity to take early control. Torres led off the first against Royals starter Michael Wacha with a walk which began a trend as Royals pitchers doled out eight free passes. Then Soto doubled so it was second and third, no outs. The crowd was alive, ready to erupt, but Judge whiffed, Torres made yet another stupid baserunning blunder and got thrown out at home when Wells grounded right to the first baseman, and Stanton struck out. That was 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and the game wasn’t even 15 minutes old. By night’s end, the Yankees were an abysmal 2-for-13 and left 11 men on base.

➤ Cole’s problems started in the second and the Royals took the lead two hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly by Tommy Pham. It would have been worse but Salvador Perez was gunned down at the plate by Soto on a terrible send by the third base coach. Perez is about as slow as Stanton, so that was a big break for the Yankees, a gift out.

➤ Torres’ homer in the third followed a single by Verdugo so it was 2-1, but then Cole came out for the fourth and he walked 40-year-old former Astro Yuli Gurriel, and served up a two-run homer to MJ Melendez, a .206 hitter this season. Cole gave up two singles after that, but he was able to escape without another run scoring.

➤ To their credit, the Yankees answered in the fifth to go ahead 4-3 thanks to a Soto single and four walks to Torres, Judge, Wells and Anthony Volpe by Royals pitchers Wacha, Angel Zerpa and John Schreiber, the last two to Wells and Volpe with the bases loaded to push home two runs.

➤ Gurriel singled to start the sixth which ended Cole’s night. Tim Hill came on and got his first man, then should have been out of the inning when Pham hit a double play grounder to Volpe. Instead, Volpe threw the ball into right field putting runners at second and third and both scored when pinch-hitter Garrett Hampson singled for a 5-4 lead. The play by Volpe was so bad, and if he’s not going to play Gold Glove defense, he’s a completely useless player because his offense is so terrible.

➤ Once again the Yankees answered as Verdugo walked, took second on a Soto single, and after Judge struck out again, Wells came through with his huge hit to tie the game. They would have scored another run, but with men on first and third, Stanton hit a grounder to third that Maikel Garcia bobbled. Any other player on the team would have beat that out and Soto would have scored, but not Stanton, who as usual jogged to first and was thrown out by a step. This on top of what happened in the fourth. He was on first with two outs when Oswaldo Cabrera doubled to right and the ball bounced away from the outfielder. Again, any other player on the team scores; but Stanton trotted into third, and he stayed there when Verdugo popped up. Two runs directly attributable to a professional athlete incapable of running.

➤ The final run came in the seventh, and it was the result of the Yankees catching a break. Chisholm led off with a single, and then he tried to steal second while Volpe was striking out at a pitch in the dirt. Jazz got a terrible jump, then executed an even worse slide and it looked like the Royals nailed him. The call was safe, the Royals challenged, and even though it looked like he was out on replay, the call stood. Cabrera struck out, but Verdugo came through with a single and Chisholm flew home with the winning run. “Nobody could throw me out. That ain’t happening,” Chisholm said. “I kind of blacked out at the moment. As soon as he swung, I just was going. Didn’t look at a stop sign, didn’t do anything. I was just playing the score.”

➤ Tommy Kahnle (two outs) and Luke Weaver (four) closed it out, capping a night when the Yankees bullpen pitched four innings and allowed just one unearned run on two hits and a walk. Weaver has been a revelation. He came in with two outs in the eighth after Kahnle walked a man and he whiffed Garcia. In the ninth, he had to deal with the top of the Royals order and he struck out Michael Massey, Bobby Witt who had a brutal 0-for-5, and then got Vinnie Pasquantino to ground out to end it.