The Pinstriped Baseball Lane

Philadelphia Phillies vs. New York Yankees,8-3-2020, Free MLB Picks And Predictions

Philadelphia Phillies (1-2) @NewYork Yankees (7-1)

MLB Baseball: Monday, August 3,2020 @ 7:05 PM (Yankee Stadium)

The New York Yankees made sure they started their home stand with a sweep against their American League East rivals. Everybody knows that the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is the most fierce competition in all of the sports’ world and it definitely showed in this three game series. The Yanks absolutely dominated the 1st two games, but the finale had that classic “We Won’t Back Down That Easy” sort of mentality.

It was a night filled with so much offensive power that poured out both dugouts at Yankee Stadium.

There is only one way for me to describe every inning of last night’s competition between the two rivals. The best way for me to put it is, “It was simply a slug fest”. Every time one side scored, the other side countered with their own set of run production.

There was a lot of offense, but the story of last night featured Aaron Judge’s name. This season has been great so far the Yankees’ right fielder and the end of last night’s match, he made another major mark on his career. It would seem that since this season started, every time his team gets into trouble, Judge would just come to the plate and either tie the game or get the Yanks right back in the lead.

His manager, Aaron Boone, spoke about the right-handed power slugger’s mindset yesterday. Boone believes, if he is “on a mission”, then that should be terrifying news for any opposing pitchers. As a Yankee fan and a definite Judge fan, I felt like I was in a dream yesterday. Obviously, I knew it was not a dream, because it was a fortunate reality for the Yanks. When I saw that blast by Judge and realized that he extended his career-best streak by homering in a fifth consecutive game, I just knew it had to be real. Then, he added a go-ahead blast in the eighth inning, powering his team to a 9-7 victory over the Red Sox in a Sunday matinee. I mean this is what everyone was hoping for, a hot bat held by a healthy Judge and and a dominating Stanton. It is just so amazing to see the production poring out from different parts of the lineup.

To that very point in the last sentence of the previous paragraph, Bryan Hoch reported that, “No big league team owns more wins than the Yankees, who have won six straight games and boast a 7-1 record that equals the best eight-game start in franchise history.”

“We’re clicking on all cylinders right now,” Judge said. “Our offense is feeding off of each other, our bullpen’s doing their job. We’re just having fun out there. I think a lot of us are glad to be having some baseball and to be back out on the field…”

I am glad baseball is back too and I am glad you’re back on the field Mr. Judge.

This lineup is one of the most special things that a baseball organization could ask for. Yes, Judge has delivered heavy blows since the season began, but besides his production, the Yankees are in a good spot because the guys above him are putting him in the position to capitalize. This team has a “pass-the-baton” type of attitude and you got to love that about them.

A perfect example of that attitude was shown in last night’s victory over the Sox.

The Red Sox were ahead by a run heading to the eighth inning, their attack powered by Xander Bogaerts’ two-homer performance and claiming the lead on Rafael Devers’ seventh-inning homer, and I am sure some of us thought, “Oh boy, we are in trouble”, while others were enjoying a classic Yankee-Red Sox showdown. The Yankee lineup didn’t stay quiet, they stepped up and struck the baseball. DJ LeMahieu, the leadoff hitter, delivered a key at-bat with a run-scoring single off Barnes.

After LeMahieu took his base, Mike Tauchman wasted no time to worked a two-out walk and stole second base. LeMahieu lashed Barnes’ 2-2 fastball into right field, allowing Tauchman to steal home, who had entered the game in the seventh for defense.

“Tauch did a great job of getting on and stealing a base,” LeMahieu said. “Once he stole that base, I had a little extra focus there. Barnes, he’s a good pitcher. Fortunately, he left me a pitch I could handle a little bit.”

It great that Yanks are feeling confident about playing their best baseball.

LeMahieu, a.k.a “The Machine”, set up Judge’s homer one batter later, as Barnes fell behind in a 2-0 count and spun a knuckle-curveball over the middle of the plate.

It just goes to show that if you make a mistake with this Yankee offense, you will severely be punished for it.

In a shortened season, pitchers don’t want to have the worries of making a mistake against the Judges in the game. If pitchers aren’t careful, a guy like Judge can send you back to the drawing board

“He’s been all over everything,” Barnes said. “He’s pretty locked in right now. It seems like he’s been handling the high heater pretty well recently. You certainly can’t put a hanging breaking ball middle up and in on him.”

Speaking of drawing boards and pitchers who need to go back to them, James Paxton needs to work out of his funk soon. Paxton is lucky that his offense is on a roll right now, because for the second straight start, he has struggled to curve of the strike zone with swing-and-misses.

The left-hander permitted five runs (three earned) over three innings, knocked for seven hits in a 62-pitch effort. Just like in Tanaka’s start, Boone had to call on his bullpen early. We are aware that Pax is returning back to his original form, as he had back surgery in February, but it is a bit concerning that The Big Maple’s fastball averaged 91.5 mph and maxed at 92.9 mph, that is down from his 2019 average of 95.4 mph.

According to Paxton, he said, “I am concerned, I’m trying to do everything I can to figure out what’s going on. I don’t know if it’s just going to take some time to build it back up, but I’ll get back at looking at the video [Monday] — try and make some more tweaks and just figure out what I can do.”

I just hope that we can get both Paxton and Tanaka back on track before we reach postseason competition.

It is unfortunate that Paxton can’t find a way to be efficient for now, but on the bright side Michael King picked up his starter by holding the Sox to 3 2/3 innings. Then Boone turned it over Adam Ottavino, or “Ottabot”, as I like to call him. Ottavino picked up the W by tossing four outs in relief and Zack Britton closed it out with  a perfect ninth inning for his third save.

All and all, the back end of the pitching staff was yet again the highlight of the Yankee bullpen.

Boone told the media after the game, “It was a good job by the ‘pen, coming in to hold them down enough.” The Yankee manager noted that he thought King was good. He added, “There were a lot of good things that happened tonight, with people contributing to a big win.”

With the “big win” as Boone put it, the Yankee club will look to continue on a roll. This evening, the Yankees will host the Philadelphia Phillies and will look to keep their winning ways going.

As the Phillies didn’t test positive in Sunday’s round of coronavirus testing, they will resume their season as they will head to Yankee Stadium to part take in a Monday night competition.

The Phillies will travel to New York and play two games there against the Yankees before the teams travel to Philadelphia for two more games starting Wednesday.

On the hill for the visiting Phillies at the stadium, RHP Jake Arrieta will make his season debut and will go up against Yankee ace RHP Gerrit Cole.

Just a brief reminder, the Phillies originally were slated to play the Marlins in a three-game series beginning Tuesday in Miami, but that series will be rescheduled. With that being said, you should note that the Phils have not played a game since Aug. 26 against the Marlins.

What more can I say than, that scenario explains how unorthodox this season has been.

Pitching Breakdown

As Arrieta will take the mound in Yankee Stadium for the Phillies, he will be looking to rebound from an injury. He missed the last half of the 2019 season due to bone spurs in his elbow. Take note, he did pitch with the spurs through the first half, I just wonder if overwork the arm may have cause more harm than he needed to endure. I guess we will have trust what he said about how he is feeling. According to Phillies’ righty, he said that he is feeling fine and ready to have a strong season in the final year of his contract.

On the opposing side, the home team will counter Arrieta with their ace. Cole will be aiming to collect his third victory in pinstripes, as he is coming off a 6 2/3 innings of work that he pitch on Wednesday against the Orioles. The Yankees ace stroke out 12 against three walks 11 2/3 innings. He is 4 and 3 with an ERA of 3.38 in seven career starts versus the Phils