Pretty solid weekend of Yankees baseball. We got to see a couple wins, another series victory, first place in the East, and Old Timers Day! Plus Nick Swisher in full Swisher form…but we’ll get to that later.
The cherry on top would have been sweeping the Rays in 4 games, but they got lucky against us yesterday. But yeah, that would’ve been the cherry on top…on top of a nice vanilla-chocolate swirl sundae from Carvel. Whip cream, chocolate sauce, the whole nine yards.
Fuck. Now I really want a damn Carvel sundae. I feel like I’ve done this multiple times – saying a phrase, then ranting about a food that the phrase reminded me of, and then being hungry for the rest of the blog.
I dig myself into a deeper and deeper hole each time. I really gotta start working on that.
Anyways, let’s recap! I went through the first game of this series, Thursday’s 4-3 victory, in my last post, so we’re going to start on Friday!
FRIDAY:
JOHNNY. LASANGA.
What a debut for the new starting pitcher we called up, otherwise known as Jonathan Loáisiga. BUT that last name is difficult to type and a mouthful to pronounce. For those who have been living under a rock, or a giant boulder (either or), Yankees Twitter has officially branded this dude with the nickname “Johnny Lasanga.”
To be fair, he actually had this nickname throughout the minor leagues. But, as rumors began to swirl about this 23-year old Nicaraguan making the jump from Double A to the Show, the nickname was established for a wider audience.
Side note: Jumping from Double A to the Big Leagues is awesome. Props to you, Johnny.
When I first heard the name Johnny Lasagna, I thought we were dealing with some Italian guy. And as Johnny Pinstripes, I began loving the idea of a new pitcher with the nickname of Johnny and then a phrase after it. BIG FAN.
While the announcers on YES are continuing to say Loaisiga, Yankee blog boys, like myself, are sticking with Johnny Lasagna.
And yes, blog boys, is a real phrase, shout out Pardon my Take. Actually, it came from an insult by Kevin Durant, ya know the King of Twitter burner accounts. But PMT decided to run with it as a term of endearment.
With that being said, I’m proud to be a blog boy now! Thanks KD and your burner accounts!
Okay, back to Johnny Lasanga! God damnit… I love writing Johnny Lasanga. First off, as an Italian-American, it just makes me really hungry. Lasagna is fuckin delicious. But, it also is a perfect nickname for a pitcher.
You’ve had it easy, Johnny! It usually takes some time for an unknown rookie to become a fan favorite in the Bronx. BUT, thanks to your awesome nickname, you took the fast pass line straight to fan approval.
Do you know how long fast pass lines usually cost at amusement parks like Islands of Adventure? A LOT. But you got to use it for free! Lucky guy…
Now, in order to keep that approval, Lasagna just has to keep pitching well. Because he was AMAZING on Friday in his debut.
5 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, 4 walks, 6 K’s
A shutout in his MLB debut?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! He was actually pitching no-hit ball into the 4th, which was impressive as well. Here’s a little taste of his start:
A very strong Major League debut from Jonathan Loaisiga.
So yeah, hell of a start for our boy, Johnny Lasagna. After he got pulled, the bullpen did their job. Holder, D-Rob, Betances (He’s soooo back), and Warren kept the shut-out in tact. D-Rob was the only one of the 4 who gave up a hit.
Oh and Dellin struck out two! Very solid job by the ‘pen!
This was a little different than most of my previous recaps – I’ve only talked about pitching so far.
I haven’t even gotten to Friday’s offense…well, let’s get to that!
We faced off against a very familiar face: Nathan Eovaldi – memba’ him?
Eovaldi let it be known that he was VERY pumped up to pitch against us for the first time, as well as being back in Yankee Stadium.
Thankfully, we sent him back to Tampa with a big fat L. He actually pitched pretty solid, but a loss is a loss.
Eovaldi is like that vengeful ex who is trying to get back at you.
He was broken up with, humiliated, and ran off to Florida to deal with the break-up. After a few wild weekends at some Tampa strip-clubs (Mons Venus, for example), our old buddy Nathan rebounded with a local girl.
Now, he has returned to New York to flaunt his new girl (aka the Rays). Sorry Nathan, the Yankees are not jealous of your rebound. We’re still going to beat you.
DIDIIII! HE’S BACK!
Uh oh. Didi Gregorius is BACK. He blast a long HR!
A nice moonshot in the 3rd got the scoring going for us! Giancarlo hit a sac fly in the 6th and our bats were pretty quiet besides that. We were content with our stellar pitching doing the job…
Until the 8th.. single by Judge, single by Didi, walk to Giancarlo. After a strike-out by Bird…
GARYYY!!! Speaking of Dellin and Didi being back, don’t look now….but GARY IS BACK (hopefully…)
But this 3-run double was a huge step in the right direction. It also allowed us to throw Warren out there for the 9th, instead of bringing in Chappie.
HUGE hit Gar!
Warren did his job and we won 5-0
SATURDAY;
Happy Sevy Saturday! After a loss in his last start, there’s NO WAY that Luis “Cy Young” Severino is going to lose a second start in a row right? RIGHT!
Oh, and by the way…while Gary’s hitting has been streaky, there is one important thing to always remember.
Hey, Rays. Never run on Gary Sanchez. NEVER. Unless you want to keep getting out…
Pro tip for the third day in a row: Do. Not. Run. On. Gary. Sanchez.
So yeah, on second thought, keep running on him. We’ll love it!
Sevy started off a little shaky, but even “shaky Sevy” is still an amazing pitcher. Of course, he didn’t let the Rays score because he is Luis Severino. Giving a run up to the Rays, even when he isn’t at his best, is beneath him.
Well, he actually was fucking amazing. I don’t want people to think I was criticizing his start. He settled into a groove after the first two innings and his stat line shows it:
8 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, 2 walks, 9 K’s. Sevy you are THE MAN.
Gleyber got our scoring started with a RBI double in the 2nd. Because the kid is unreal.
Didi knocked home Judge with a RBI single in the third to give us a 2-0 lead. Now, let’s shift to the 5th.
Cue the hit Drake single “Back to Back.” Because that is EXACTLY what we got!
GIANCARLOOOO
GIANCARLO STANTON CRUSHED THIS ONE-HANDED
GARYYY
Gary. Sanchez. Back-to-back. Belly-to-belly with Stanton!
Thanks, Aubrey. By the way, I loved the Degrassi reunion in the your last music video…even though I have never watched a full episode of Degrassi, that video was pretty lit.
So, after those BOMBS by Giancarlo and Gary, the rest of the game was pretty much smooth sailing. Call up Jack Sparrow. (Get it?! Okay sorry that was bad)
Sevy continued his dialed in performance and he turned the ball over to Shreve to end things. With a 4 run lead, Boone was looking to avoid using Chapman for the 2nd night in a row.
But…Chasen fuckin’ Shreve. What the hell are we gonna do with you Chasen? Full disclosure, I’m not a fan of the name Chasen.
Chasen sounds like the typical high school bully name in any recent “coming of age” movie. It is the perfect douchebag millennial name.
I honestly would not be surprised if Shreve was a real douchebag in high school. Now, keep in mind, I am only basing that off of his first name. Well, that and the fact that he has been pitching like garbage this year, with a whopping 4.76 ERA.
Shreve’s performance consisted of a lead-off homer, followed by a triple.
Boonie wasn’t left with many options, and promptly got the hook out for Chasen, the high school bully.
Chapman, on other hand, was probably like “Thanks, Shreve! I’ll add another save to my season…thanks for letting me pad my stats!”
Another 1-2-3 performance from Chappie, for his 20th save of the year, and we got the dub, 4-1.
SUNDAY:
OLD TIMER’S DAY! I’m going to briefly discuss this, since it was definitely more uplifting than our 3-1 loss to the Rays.
Old Timer’s Day is one of the coolest traditions in Major League Baseball. We’re the only team that has continuously done one, which is no surprise.
With 27 World Championships, and a plethora of baseball legends, it is only fitting for a team of our stature to honor the great players of the past.
I’ve been fortunate enough to go to a few Old Timer’s Days when I was a kid and they definitely are special memories for me. Seeing them at the Old Stadium made it even better. I miss that place.
This year, we got to see returning legends like Whitey Ford (seeing that guy stand out on the field at 89 is incredible), Reggie Jackson, Don Larsen, Ron Guidry, just to name a few.
BUT, we also got a few guys from my generation making their first appearances ever!
Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi we’re on hand for the first time! These are guys that I grew up watching.
But the big story of yesterday was another guy’s first Old Timer’s Day. NICK SWISHER. SWISHALICIOUS. Man, I loved this guy when he was on the Yankees.
And he was a ball of energy on the field yesterday, to say the least. You could tell he was really honored and overjoyed to be welcomed to the ceremony, and to be part of Yankee history, as a whole. That is what Old Timer’s Day is all about.
Oh and here’s his homer during the exhibition game!
HOME RUN! Nick Swisher drives one into the 2nd deck on #OldTimersDay.
Miss ya, Swish.
As for the actual game, it was definitely not as fun. We were trying for the 4-game sweep but that, sadly, did not come to fruition.
I do not have any stats to support this, but I’m pretty sure we have lost on most Old Timer’s Days. It seems like that has happened quite often…
Anyways, our own personal old timer, CC the big guy, pitched a pretty solid game. But he got basically ZERO run support.
Well, except for this homer by Hicksy.
HOME RUN! Aaron Hicks gets the Yankees on the board. New York trails 3-1 in the 5th. #YANKSonYES live stream: http://yesnet.me/2lgYJ8V
Other than that? NADA.
And CC wasn’t bad at all. 7.2 IP, 10 hits, 3 ER, 1 walk, 10 K’s.
Only giving up 3 runs on 10 hits is actually pretty impressive. It shows that he got out of multiple tough situations. And besides giving up a RBI double and a 2-run single in the 2nd, he was golden.
We just couldn’t mount any sort of offense. It wasn’t too much of a surprise, though, to have an off game like this. Oh well.
We still won the series 3-1!
NOW, let’s shift to the Nationals…this feels like the third series we’re playing them, but it technically is just resuming the first one back in DC.
At 5 PM today, we finally resume the 3-3 game that was halted by rain on May 15th. After that game concludes, the postponement from May 16th will be played.
So is this 1 and a half games, or 2 games? #EmbraceDebate
Doesn’t really matter. We have the potential to go out there and win 2 games today.
Let’s do that!!
LET’S GO YANKS
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