As is my way, I flew into New York on September for a month of close-up baseball observation. As I mentioned in my August articles, the New York Yankees are struggling to gather runs but also not conceding many. Their hitting is weak, but their piching is close to being immaculate.
In the six game West Coast roadtrip that began August 31 and covered Los Angeles (facing the Angels) and San Diego, they won three and lost three. They scored 24 runs (averaging 4 per game), and gave up 24 (obviously also averaging 4 a game. Two of these games went to 10 innings – they won one of these and lost one. They lost one game 1-10. This was the game that Elmer Rodriguez started and was covered in our previous pitching article.
Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon were the starting pitchers in their two most convincing wins (on the 1st and 5th). However, Cole took the loss in a close one on the 6th when he gave up three homers in the first inning, from which the Yankees never really recovered.
David Bednar took the win in a close one on the 2nd and continues to show great form. However, Paul Blackburn had something of an abberation in the game on the 4th, coming in the beginning of the 10th with a 2-1 lead to protect. He gave up a two-run home run to Luis Campusano for the walk off.
During the last days of the road trip, the best batting average was shared by Trent Grisham and Ben Rice. Both had hit .500. Grisham had an OPS of 1.167 whilst Rice had an OPS of 1.267 , but this is skewed by the fact that Grisham only played two games in this period before once again landing on the injured list.
Cody Bellinger hit a soild .278 and Spencer Jones .267. George Lombard Jr. (.100), Jazz Chisholm Jr. (.111) and Heliot Ramos (.125) were amongst those who struggled most with the bat. The figures in bracket indicate the batting average during the last 7 days of the roadtrip – including days off.
Once more we must note that the bats must come back to life as they return to New York, especially for the all important series against Tampa Bay later in the month.
