Aaron Judge Wakes Up, Yankees Sweep The Tigers

The Yankees bounced back very nicely from their series flop in Baltimore and pulled off a three-game sweep against the Tigers, another good, young team. Once again the pitching staff was impressive while the offense wasn’t great, but it did enough in each game to pull out victories.

In the euphoria of Friday’s dramatic walk-off win in the series opener against Detroit, Aaron Judge was spinning a yarn about how we shouldn’t give up on the Yankees offense.

“We’ve got a lot of good hitters. It’s been a slow week for us, but you hope something like this can kind of ignite that fire a little bit and get the offense cranking,” Judge said.

It was a little bit of an eye roll for me because I’m tired of the Yankees - most especially Judge and Aaron Boone - telling us how good their offense is when on so many days and night, it’s not.

But maybe Judge was on to something because while the Yankees didn’t exactly run the Tigers out of Yankee Stadium Saturday and Sunday, they did score five runs in each game and because the pitching staff had another fine series, those run totals were enough for the Yankees to complete the sweep.

“The offense didn’t put much together,’’ said Rizzo, who had the decisive hit on both Friday and Saturday. “But with this offense, it takes one guy to get on and we just keep grinding. Winning like this, when we’re not clicking, is big.”

Now there’s some truth from the first baseman. The Yankees haven’t been clicking, so to get this sweep - their first since opening weekend when they swept Houston - must be acknowledged as some pretty damn fine work.

Still, there are concerns, and they start right at the top with Anthony Volpe. His free fall from his blazing hot start continued and he’s now batting .207 with a lame .305 on-base percentage since moving into the leadoff spot on April 10.

Naturally, Boone says all is well.

“He’s been all right. He’s still mixing in his hits. Hasn’t been as hot as he was probably the first couple of weeks,” Boone said. “But I think it has zero to do with the leadoff position. That’s the ebbs and flows of the season, especially with young players. It’s hard to hit in the league. I don’t feel like he’s far off from (breaking out), and I feel even watching him now, he’s such a better major league hitter than he was a year ago at this time.”

Saturday’s third inning, when the Yankees scored four runs en route to a 5-3 victory, is exactly what we all want to see from the batting order. Volpe led off with a six-pitch walk as he showed great discipline to lay off three pitches that were down and out of the zone. Juan Soto followed with a single and Volpe’s speed was on display as he motored to third. And then Judge lined a double to left for the go-ahead run.

If the Yankees can get Volpe back on track, with Soto still locked in and Judge showing signs of life, then I might believe Judge when he serves up his platitudes.

May 3: Yankees 2, Tigers 1

The Lead: Five good minutes

Baseball is meant to be entertaining, but there are so many nights when the Yankees are the antithesis of entertaining, and that was certainly the case for 8 ½ innings Friday night. I even tweeted that I need to have my head examined for watching these games night after night, but the results of those tests would be inconclusive because my head would be too damaged due to all the banging of it against a wall.

The Yankees’ offense was just next-level horrible the first eight times they came to the plate against Tigers starter Reese Olson and relievers Alex Faedo, Andrew Chafin and Shelby Miller. They had no runs on two hits and five walks and at this point, they had scored six runs in their last 45 innings.

And now they had to face Tigers closer Jason Foley who started the night with a 1.32 ERA and nine saves in 14 appearances and had not allowed an extra-base hit to the 56 batters he had faced.

What happened next was absolutely stunning. Judge singled, Verdugo dropped down a beautiful bunt single, Stanton - after striking out his first three at bats and looking as clueless as ever - doubled to right to tie the game, and then Rizzo singled through a drawn infield to win it. So two hours and 39 minutes of misery, five minutes of ecstasy, and somehow that was enough to win the game.

“The offense didn’t put much together,’’ Rizzo said. “But with this offense, it takes one guy to get on and we just keep grinding. Winning like this, when we’re not clicking, is big.”

That’s very true. We talk a lot about how ever game matters, and how a bad loss in May could really mean something at the end of the year. This was a game that looked hopelessly lost, so maybe this win will really mean something at the end of the year.

Game notes and observations:

➤ Marcus Stroman pitched great for five shutout innings, but he completely lost it in the sixth when he walked three men to force in Detroit’s only run. And what was maddening about that is he got ahead 0-2 on rookie Colt Keith, who was hitting .156 at the time, and couldn’t put him away. He low on everything and I don’t know why he couldn’t just throw it over the plate and let Keith get himself out. Anyway, that ended his night. Stroman’s command has been problematic his last two times out as he walked five men each time, the first time he’s done that in his career.

➤ Ian Hamilton has been struggling so when Boone called on him with the bases loaded and one out, I wasn’t expecting what happened. Within five pitches he whiffed Spencer Torkelson and got Zach McKinstry to ground out, a huge escape which obviously mattered by the end of the night.

➤ Hamilton did give up two hits in the seventh so Victor Gonzalez, and after he walked the bases full, he got Matt Vierling to ground out. Gonzalez then went 1-2-3 in the eighth and Dennis Santana had an easy ninth to set the stage for the winning rally.

➤ This was the Yankees’ first walk-off win when going into the inning facing a shutout loss since Sept. 28, 2016. That night, a game that meant nothing because the Yankees were eliminated from the postseason, Mark Teixeira hit a walk-off grand slam off Boston’s Craig Kimbrel.

May 4: Yankees 5, Tigers 3

The Lead: Aaron Judge shows a pulse

What did I just say the other day about Judge never showing any emotion and just being a robotic, monochromatic bore? Well, how about the big guy getting ejected for the first time in his 870-game career. That was pretty shocking.

Now, it was also complete bullshit because it wasn’t like Judge went nuts on home plate umpire Ryan Blakney. He used a couple choice words while he was walking away after Blakney rang him up in the seventh inning, but it was ridiculous that the rabbit ears ump had to make it all about him. Judge has enough cache in the league that he should be allowed to tell the umpire he disagreed with strike three.

The funny thing was, that pitch did clip the outside corner and was a strike, but the problem was that Blakney had missed a bunch of calls throughout the day for both teams. I get that no one wants to take the abuse these umpires get, and I’m sure Blakney was sick of it, but you can’t throw a key player out of a 5-3 game for that.

“Very surprised,” Judge said. “Especially a 5-3 game, late in the game, battling 3-2 count, kind of walking away saying my piece. I’ve said a lot worse. I usually try not to make a scene in situations like that. So little surprised walking away that happened.”

Game notes and observations:

➤ More important than Judge showing he can actually get pissed about something was the fact that he went 2-for-4 with a home run. It was just his sixth multi-hit game of the season

➤ Clarke Schmidt gave up a home run to Greene on the third pitch of the game, and then right after the Yankees stretched their lead to 5-1 with a big third inning, he coughed up two runs in the top of the fourth. But he wound up getting through five innings and allowing just four hits with no walks with seven strikeouts. Again, he was good for most of the way, hit a couple speed bumps, and ultimately did not provide enough length as Boone pulled him at 91 pitches.

➤ The Yankees tied the game with a nice two-out rally in the first as Judge, Verdugo and Stanton hit consecutive singles with Stanton coming through on a 3-2 pitch from Casey Mize.

➤ In the third, Rizzo came through with the big hit for the second game in a row, a two-out, three-run homer following the Volpe walk, Soto single, and Judge RBI double. It looked like the rally was going to die, but after Mize retired Verdugo and Stanton, Rizzo drove a 1-1 mistake deep to right. It felt like the Yankees would go into cruise control, but the Tigers made it 5-3 in the fourth and the Yankees couldn’t do anymore danger so that’s where the score tied.

➤ And it stayed that way because Luke Weaver was great across 2.2 innings, and then Clay Holmes was excellent again. Boone asked him for a four-out save and he left a Weaver runner on base in the eighth, then gave up a single in the ninth but immediately induced a double play before a strikeout ended it.

May 5: Yankees 5, Tigers 2

The Lead: Juan Soto delivers again

In the third inning, Tigers starter Tarik Skubal - one of the best pitchers the Yankees have faced this year - was fired up. He had given up single runs in the first and second and that was notable since his ERA was 1.72 starting the day. And now he had to face Soto, Judge and Stanton.

The result was three strikeouts on 12 dazzling pitches, and while I expect Judge and Stanton to whiff, when Soto strikes out it feels like breaking news. And I was irritated on that at bat because Soto just refused to swing. He took the first two pitches for strikes and the first one looked like a pitch he could do damage on.

He then took a ball that could have been called a strike, took one low, and then looked at a third strike, another pitch that seemed hittable. I was irritated because as great as Soto is, and as keen as his batting eye is, sometimes there are times he could swing without chasing out of the zone, and he doesn’t.

In the fifth, Skubal struck him out again, but this time Soto swung twice, fouling off the first pitch and missing the fourth pitch. It was better than the at bat in the third because he was looking to drive something, and Skubal just beat him. I want Soto swinging because he’s so magnificent at putting the ball in play, and that’s exactly what happened in the seventh when he won the game with a three-run double.

Granted, Skubal was out and a lefty who is not nearly as good, Andrew Chafin, was in so that helped. But with the bases loaded, Soto very easily could have taken Chafin’s fourth pitch which barely caught the bottom of the zone, but instead he got aggressive and ripped it down the line in right to clear the bases.

Swing the bat Soto. Because when he does, going things usually happen for a guy with a .980 OPS and 28 RBI which ranks fourth in MLB.

Game notes and observations:

➤ The story of the game was shaping up to be Nestor Cortes who was flat out great for six one-hit shutout innings despite miserable weather which eventually ended the game in the bottom of the eighth. However, Cortes gave up his second and third hits in the seventh so with one out, Hamilton was given the ball and he promptly blew Cortes’ individual victory. He gave up an RBI double to Torkelson, walked Keith, and though he got Javier Baez to hit a grounder, the Yankees couldn’t turn the inning-ending double play and the tying run scored. Victor Gonzalez then stanched the bleeding by getting a ground out.

➤ But just when you started to think that gut punch might come back to haunt them, the offense put together what became a trend this weekend: One good inning which decided the outcome. In the bottom of the seventh, Jon Berti - back on the roster after a three-week IL stint - walked and Jose Trevino delivered a hit-and-run single. With one out Volpe drew a walk and that brought Soto up and there isn’t another player the Yankees would want up in that spot. Not surprisingly, he did the job.

➤ Judge had another two-hit game including a solo homer to right-center in the first. In the second, another guy looking to break out, Torres, singled with one out, went to third on a single by Berti, and with two outs, Cabrera punched a ground-rule double to right for a 2-0 lead on Skubal.

The Yankees finally get a day off Monday after playing 17 days in a row. That’s a grind for any team, I’ll admit that, and to have gone10-7 in that stretch is nice work, even though there were some really frustrating games in there.

Now it’s time to get revved back up Tuesday because nemesis Houston is coming to town for three games, and not only will the Astros be loaded for bear after the way the Yankees slapped them around in that memorable season-opening four-game sweep, they have also started playing like the Astros we’re accustomed to seeing. After a horrific 7-19 start which had many people thinking they were done, the Astros have gone 5-3.

They blew a game Sunday, losing 5-4 at home to the Mariners to fall seven games behind first-place Seattle, but the usual suspects on offense are doing their thing. Jose Altuve his hitting .343 (eighth-best in MLB) with a .963 OPS (seventh-best). Kyle Tucker has a .934 OPS and has nine homers. And Yordan Alvarez, though he hasn’t gotten red hot, has seven homers and 18 RBI.

The Astros rank third in average (.259), seventh in OPS (735) and on-base (.326), and tied for seventh in homers (39).

What has killed them is injuries to much of their rotation, and a way below average start from their bullpen which as a 4.44 ERA, 21st in MLB, as both Ryan Pressley and Josh Hader (6.14 ERA) have struggled.

The pitching matchups are as follows: Tuesday at 7:05 on YES it’s Luis Gil (3.19 ERA) against Justin Verlander (2.08); Wednesday at 7:05 on Amazon Prime it’s Carlos Rodon (3.68) against Spencer Arrighetti (8.27); and Thursday at 5:05 on YES it’s Marcus Stroman (3.41) against Ronel Blanco (2.09).