For the Third time, Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

That’s three series victories to start the season, and this was a good one against division rival Baltimore, a team that’s really on the rise and is going to be a problem this season. Just a reminder, bonus Pinstripe People content starts Wednesday when you will receive Chapter 1 of Hardball Hyperbole, re-living the incredible Yankees-Red Sox rivalry in the years 2003 and 2004. 

Franchy Cordero is not someone I thought I’d be writing the lead item about at any time this year, or any year, but here we are.

Obviously it’s a small sample size, but the 28-year-old outfielder has had quite a start with the Yankees, 5-for-14 with two homers and seven RBI which, believe it or not, is tied for the team lead with Aaron Judge. And maybe best of all, with four starts in right field, he’s helping to keep Aaron Hicks and Isiah Kiner-Falefa off the field, a very nice benefit.

“It’s been awesome,” Aaron Boone said Sunday. “Some big homers, a big one today to give us a little cushion. He’s done the job in the outfield, so he’s been a nice shot in the arm for us; maybe unexpected leaving spring training.”

Now, this could be a flash in the pan because the lefty swinger had been a dud of a player from 2018-22 for the Padres, Royals, and Red Sox with just 21 home runs in 726 plate appearances and a slash line of .222/.290/.386. When he was with Boston in 2021 and 2022 the Yankees saw a little of him, but in 24 plate appearances across eight games he hit just .150 with one home run.

In the offseason he signed with the Orioles and spent all of spring training with them, but he was cut on March 28 and the Yankees signed him the next day. Good for them because he had a two-run double in his Yankee debut against the Phillies on April 1, a three-run homer Friday in Baltimore, and a two-run bomb Sunday.

“I’m sure it’s a little weird, he spent 6-7 weeks with a team and gets to the end and all of a sudden you’re playing against them,” Boone said. “Anytime you can have success against an old team that’s always satisfying. As soon as we knew he was going to have an out, we were paying attention to him. He’s a young player with a lot of talent and a lot of upside.”

Again, given his career numbers I’m not sure what the Yankees saw, but so far, so good.

It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens when Harrison Bader returns. The move everyone wants to see happen is Hicks getting designated for assignment, but as I’ve said, I can’t see the Yankees eating nearly $30 million to do that. And they probably aren’t dumping IKF because as much as he drives us nuts, he’s a versatile piece to have on the bench.

➤ As expected, Josh Donaldson went on the injured list. Sorry, but I’m not gonna miss him killing rallies from the middle of the batting order. Take your time, dude, we’re all good with D.J. LeMahieu starting at third base every night.

➤ What wasn’t expected was that Jonathan Loaisiga is joining him, though is anyone really surprised that yet another Yankee pitcher would be hurt? It just never ends with this team. Loaisiga is a big loss because it will bump everyone up on the leverage meter and will lead to some games where we’re white-knuckling our way through innings by Albert Abreu and Jimmy Cordero. Loaisiga going on the IL paved the way for the return of Jhony Brito to make the start Saturday night. And Donaldson’s spot was taken by outfielder Willie Calhoun.

➤ Outfielder Estevan Florial cleared waivers, which is quite an indictment on what other MLB teams think of him. Not one was willing to sign him, quite a fall for a kid who in 2019 was considered the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect and was being touted as their next great center fielder. With no choice, Florial reported to Scranton.

➤ Game times are still pacing great around MLB, but can you tell that teams are starting to take advantage of the stall tactics at their disposal? There seem to be more mound visits in the past few days to give pitchers time to reset, and I’ve noticed more batters using their one timeout more often. The Friday game took an old-school three hours, four minutes and Saturday was a reasonable 2:47, but not as nice as Sunday’s 2:30. Hopefully, the umpires remain steadfast and strictly enforce the timer rules.

➤ Last year, Judge had one home run through 13 games; this year, after hitting two on Sunday, he has four in the first nine. That doesn’t mean he’s going to break his new AL record, but it’s nice to see him get off to a good start in the first year of his massive contract.

Here are my observations on the three games against the Orioles:

April 7: Orioles 7, Yankees 6

➤ Clarke Schmidt is officially a problem. I know it’s early, but I continue to say the same thing about him and he hasn’t proven me wrong: The guy struggles to put hitters away and that’s trouble, especially against a lineup that can hit like the Orioles. He threw 84 pitches and couldn’t even make it out of the fourth inning. He gave up four runs on five hits and three walks, and 11 batted balls were hit at least 95 mph which is ridiculous and clearly indicates that Schmidt wasn’t fooling anyone. That’s two starts, two stinkers, and the Yankees lost both games.

➤ Not a great day for the bullpen, either. Ron Marinaccio allowed the tying run, charged to Ian Hamilton, to score in the sixth when he lost an eight-pitch with Adley Rutschman who singled. And then in that mess in the seventh, Jimmy Cordero allowed one Marinaccio runner to score plus one of his own which gave the Orioles the winning run. Cordero was brutal. Two-thirds of an inning, an RBI double, a walk, and two costly wild pitches. But with Loaisiga out, Boone has limited options.

➤ Franchy’s three-run homer cut into the 4-0 hole Schmidt dug, and then Oswaldo Cabrera put the Yankees ahead with a two-run double in the sixth after Giancarlo Stanton singled and Gleyber Torres worked a tough walk. And then in eighth, Stanton doubled, and Torres and Cabrera singled to make it 7-6, but Jose Trevino killed the rally with a double play, and Kiner-Falefa struck out. IKF was in the game because he pinch-hit for Franchy back in the sixth when the Orioles brought in a lefty reliever. Such a dumb Boone move, and of course it backfired twice as IKF left a runner at third in both his at bats. He’s now 0-for-12 on the season.

BOX SCORE

April 8: Yankees 4, Orioles 1

➤ Brito got off to a rough start when the first two men reached base in the first, a bloop single by Cedric Mullins and then a Rutschman single that caromed off Brito’s leg. Anthony Santander then just missed a three-run homer and settled for a sacrifice fly. Thereafter, Brito was great. He gave up just one other hit, two walks, and no runs through five innings and earned credit for his second win, which is two more than Schmidt. “This is a dream ever since I was a little kid,” Brito said through an interpreter. “To me and to the staff, I just wanted to prove that I could pitch.” He’s proving it.

➤ Michael King finally looked like 2022 Michael King as he threw two dominant innings while striking out three. King becomes more important than ever now with Loaisiga on the IL and surely gone for probably a month. And then Wandy Peralta and Clay Holmes locked it down.

➤ The Yankees tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth as Hicks won the race with IKF to get into the hit column. He grounded an RBI single to left that scored Anthony Rizzo. But the key to that run was the at bat Torres had against Baltimore starter Cole Irvin, a 12-pitch battle where he fouled off seven pitches before taking ball four. That moved Rizzo, who also walked, into scoring position from where he was able to score on Hicks’ hit. Torres also drew a walk in the second and singled in the eighth,. What a great start he’s had. Even with an 0-for-4 Sunday, his on-base is .514.

➤ The game-changing inning was the fifth when the Yankees put up three runs. Anthony Volpe, who was in a 1-for-15 funk, hit one off the wall in right. For almost every other player on the team that would have been a double but he hustled it into a triple because he was running out of the box rather than posing, ala Donaldson. The kid can really run the bases. LeMahieu doubled him home and he later scored on a Judge sac fly. Then Stanton hit a 436-foot laser to left for a solo homer. “The Great Wall of Baltimore tried to hold him in, but it doesn’t hold Big G,” Boone said, speaking of the left-field wall at Camden Yards that was moved 30 feet back last season.

BOX SCORE

April 9: Yankees 5, Orioles 3

➤ The Yankees penchant for relievers allowing inherited runners to score bit Nestor Cortes in the sixth. Cortes was his usual mystifyingly effective self through five innings, but then Rutschman - who was basically impossible to get out all weekend - dumped a bloop single into left field and Mountcastle doubled to left. With runners on second and third and one out, Boone called for Abreu and on his first pitch, Santander drilled a double to right. Both runs were charged to Cortes and they cut the Yankees lead to 4-2.

➤ To his credit, Abreu struck out the next two batters to end the inning. When he walked Adam Frazier in the seventh, Marinaccio got two big outs to maintain control of the game. Then, after Judge hit a solo homer in the top of the eighth, Boone went to Jimmy Cordero for the bottom half and he promptly got tagged for a solo homer by Rutschman that made it 5-3. However, like Abreu, Cordero gathered himself and set down the next three guys - the heart of the order in Mountcastle, Santander and Austin Hays.

➤ Holmes closed it with an easy 1-2-3 ninth. After a bad first outing against the Giants, Holmes has four straight good ones, four scoreless innings with just one hit, one walk and seven strikeouts. The nightmare that was Aroldis Chapman thus drifts further into the recesses of our minds.

➤ Volpe’s average is down to .143, but the Yankees have to live with it. Keep playing him and let him learn and grow. What’s the alternative, IKF? And for anyone thinking they should call up Oswald Peraza, he’s dealing with a sore hamstring in Scranton.

BOX SCORE

 ➤ April 10, 1913: The Yankees played their first game as the Yankees on this day 110 years ago, and they played much the way they had during their first 10 years of existence when they were nicknamed the Highlanders.

They dropped a 2-1 decision to the Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium in the nation’s capitol as the great Walter Johnson scattered nine hits to beat New York starter George McConnell whose fatal mistake was allowing a two-run single to Danny Moller in the seventh inning which decided the game.

When the American League was formed in 1901, there was no New York franchise because the Giants of the National League refused to allow it. However, when the Baltimore Orioles were disbanded after the 1902 season, AL president Ban Johnson moved the team to New York where they became the Highlanders.

Coming off an awful 50-102 season in 1912 which remains the worst record in franchise history, 55 games behind the first-place and World Series-winning Red Sox, and 41 games behind the second-place Senators, not much was expected of the newly-named Yankees in 1913. And sure enough, they finished with a record of 57-94 record which placed them 38 games behind the eventual world champion Philadelphia A’s.

➤ Tampa Bay 9-0: Unbelievable. Tigers, Nationals, A’s, three of the worst teams in MLB, three teams who wouldn’t win division titles in Triple-A. That’s who the Rays have opened the season with and they’re now 9-0, the first 9-0 start since the Royals in 2003. And with a run differential of plus-57, they are the first team since 1884 to have outscored their opponents by more than 50 runs in the first nine games. I can’t possibly express how much I hate this team. Next up they host the Red Sox for four. They’re at least MLB caliber, but they’re probably the worst team in the division.

➤ Toronto 6-4: The Blue Jays spent the first 10 games on the road and they came out on the plus side because they won a wild game Sunday in Anaheim. They rallied from down 6-0 to take a 10-6, blew it in the ninth when the Angels scored times, and then won it in the 10th when Kevin Kiermaier doubled home a run and scored on a George Springer single. So they took two of three from the Angels and now come home to start a three-game series against the Tigers. Matt Chapman drove in five runs Sunday and is now hitting .475 while Vlad Guerrero is at .439.

➤ Boston 5-4: The Red Sox bounced back from getting swept by the Pirates and swept the awful Tigers, outsourcing them 24-9 in Detroit. Adam Duvall has been red-hot to start the season as he’s hitting .455, but he suffered a wrist injury in the ninth inning Sunday and it’s possible he could miss some time. That would be a blow for Boston. On the positive news side, the Sox might be getting starter Garrett Whitlock, the ex-Yankee, back at some point in the Rays series.

➤Baltimore 4-5: Rutschman is going to be a problem for about the next 15 years or so. The guy is a machine at the plate, plus he’s a great defensive catcher. He was on base 10 times in this series, 6-for-9 with four walks and is now hitting .389 for the season. But outside of Rutschman, the Orioles didn’t do a whole lot on offense as the Yankees limited the damage done by Mullins, Mountcastle, Santander and Hays. Now the Orioles get to beat up on the A’s for four games this week.

The Yankees and Guardians will play three at Progressive Field in a rematch of the 2022 divisional round series which New York rallied to win in five games. All three will be on YES with wonderful start times of 6:10 on Monday and Tuesday, and then 1:10 on Wednesday, a game me and my father will be attending. That said, the Thursday newsletter probably won’t be arriving by 7:30.

The Guardians (6-4) have had their fill of the Mariners in the season’s first two weeks. They began their season out West and took three of four in Seattle, then two of three from the A’s before returning home and dropping two of three over the weekend to the Mariners. They avoided a sweep with an exciting 7-6 victory in 12 innings Sunday. Cleveland tied it on a two-run double by Will Brennan with two outs in the ninth, and after a scoreless 10th, each team scored twice in the 11th, Brennan again tying the game at 5-5 with an RBI single. Finally in the 12th, Seattle scored once but the Guardians put up two to win it.

The good news for the Yankees on Monday is Cleveland rolled through six relievers after Zach Plesac gave them seven great innings. The bad news is that the Guardians may not need much of the bullpen because their ace, Shane Bieber, is pitching the opener against Domingo German. After that it’s scheduled to be Gerrit Cole vs. Hunter Gaddis Tuesday, and Schmidt vs. Aaron Civale on Wednesday.