It took longer than it should have, but the Yankees have won their fourth straight, and captured the series against the nominal best team in baseball. It took a dozen innings and two blown saves, but New York ended up on top in the 7-6 triumph.
Since they did win, and we’re being positive, we have to talk about Jazz Chisholm Jr., who’s adapted to the pinstripes like few before him. The third baseman — who is GOOD at third — drove in five runs on the day, with two more home runs. Four days ago we might have considered Jazz to be a pretty medium splash, trade-wise, but I don’t think we think that anymore. We’re going to start with that big hit, which came in the seventh inning. The Yankees were down 4-2, and while it wasn’t a bad offensive night, they needed that one swing to get themselves going:
One of the narratives around Jazz when he was dangled by the Marlins was how he would respond in high-pressure situations — the kind Miami doesn’t find itself in very often. Now, it’s only been three games, but it’s been three games against the Yankees’ most bitter rival, and then the club with the sport’s best record. Jazz hasn’t just risen to the occasion; he’s been the star of the show, a show that includes Juan Soto and Aaron Judge of all people. With today’s effort, he becomes the second player in MLB history to hit four home runs in his first three games with a team, the other Trevor Story with Colorado in 2016 (per Sarah Langs).
I think it was pretty obvious that Will Warren was a little amped up early. It’s totally natural, to be just a little too eager for your MLB debut especially one on such short notice. He ran into some walk trouble and surrendered runs in each of the first two frames — an RBI double off Alec Bohm’s bat in the first and an Austin Hays three-run home run in the second inning.
After that, just two other batters reached base against Warren, who struck out the side in the fifth, and personally tormented Bryce Harper all night:
I don’t know what Will Warren will become. Nobody does. But he’ll always be able to say that he got Bryce freakin’ Harper twice in his first MLB start.
Warren’s fastball location was solid, netting 10 called strikes and balancing out a pretty wayward sweeper. At times, the pitch that he worked on all spring was devastating, but when he missed it was crushed:
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25553108/968c5758_4564_4983_a75f_37512cb497f1.jpg "Yankees 7, Phillies 6: Chisholm shines again in 12-inning thriller (1)")
The YES broadcast and indeed Gerrit Cole himself didn’t seem too concerned about the Yankee ace missing another start, so Warren will likely find himself back at Triple-A by the morning. Still, barring that one bad sweeper, he held his own against a pretty impressive lineup, and should be first on the list of call-ups should the club need another spot start.
And then, the relievers came in. Jake Cousins and Luke Weaver did their jobs, delivering a one-run lead to Clay Holmes, who was on the cover of ESPN The Magazine and declared the game’s most unhittable pitcher. LOL, you might say.
Holmes allowed a weak groundball off the bat of JT Realmuto, one man on. Two more grounders were too slow to turn into double plays — one that Gleyber Torres flubbed — and a groundball to right put the tying run 90 feet away, when Holmes spiked a pitch and we were knotted at five.
It actually does matter how you get your outs. The reason why teams fetishize strikeout stuff the way they do is exactly because of games like tonight. Yes, JT’s roller was bad luck, as was the would-be double play ball, as was Trea Turner’s worm burner to load the bases. The thing about Clay Holmes is that he’s so much more likely to be a victim of that bad luck, because he puts so many balls in play.
Holmes strikes out 24.5 percent of batters faced. That is the 86th best mark among all relievers in the game. He is on the third FanGraphs page when you sort by K%. This is who he is — sometimes the groundball will be hit medium hard, right at a guy, and it’ll be an out by 15 feet. He’s now blown four saves in his last eight appearances because sometimes the grounder will not perfectly go exactly where it needs to go. Clay Holmes faced seven batters today, and couldn’t strike out one of them. (And he needed a miraculous play by Torres to pick up both him and DJ LeMahieu, forcing extras.) It actually does matter how you get your outs.
The Yankees to their credit put runs up in both the 11th and 12th, not their usual behavior for extra innings.
Torres and Alex Verdugo both did their jobs — with runners at third and less than two out, a fly ball gets you a run. In true proof that all fanbases are exactly the same, some Phillies fans even expressed admiration for good old Yankees small ball.
Michael Tonkin did allow the Phillies’ sixth run in the 11th after a wild pitch and single. But his offense was able to pick him up on a sacrifice fly by Torres, and Tonkin made good in the 12th, striking out the last two hitters of the game. Imagine that.
We also got our first look at Mark Leiter Jr., who threw a clean 10th inning while sporting the customary clean shaven look.
Clay Holmes is a problem for this team, because I believe his inability to strike batters out leads to him forever being at the mercy of batted balls. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is certainly not a problem for this team, and his power output the last two days is exactly what the club has need from someone in the second third of the lineup.
The Yankees can sweep the series in a matinee affair tomorrow, with Nestor Cortes on the hill after surviving the deadline. Like most games tomorrow it’s an early one, with 12:35pm Eastern the scheduled first pitch.
