And just like that, the team’s on a winning streak again.
The Yankees once again paired an excellent outing from their starting pitching, some zeroes from the high-leverage relief arms, and just enough hitting to get by on Saturday night. After that tough weekend facing the Dodgers, the club’s won their second straight series, with a 3-1 victory over the Phillies tonight.
It was going to be pretty difficult to top what Cam Schlittler did last night, and Ryan Weathers certainly didn’t. He did still
pitch a pretty fine game though. He ran into trouble right off the bat, hitting Trea Turner with two strikes on him to put the Phillies’ leadoff hitter on base, and Kyle Schwarber drove his second double in as many days to set two men in scoring position before an out was recorded.
Bryce Harper brought in Turner with a sac fly, but credit due to Weathers who immediately settled down. Alec Bohm’s groundout was followed by Edmundo Sosa whiffing through a gross changeup — Weathers had three Ks on his offspeed pitch that certainly was befuddling the Phils all day. After that it was also zeroes from the Yankee lefty.
The Phillies lineup hasn’t played up to expectations and both Schwarber and Harper have been pretty cold since the All Star break. The fans in attendance certainly grew more and more restless as the day went on, but none of that should take away from Weathers’ start. He pretty well entirely shelved his four-seam fastball, which is the right call given how terrible a pitch it is. One of the reasons I think he’d work well as a bullpen piece is that ability to pitch “backwards” — if you’re only seeing guys once a game, you don’t really need to establish a fastball in the same way.
Come the sixth, it felt like Weathers was starting to wear down a little bit. He got the first two outs of the frame, and it would have been really nice to see him finish up, but Bryan De La Cruz singled and facing the hot, righthanded JT Realmuto, Aaron Boone went to the resurgent Angel Chivilli. Realmuto stayed hot with a single of his own, before Bryson Stott fouled out on what was a 101-foot running catch from Cody Bellinger.
Offensively, you still want this team to score more than they are, and in particular, they need to get on base more. Case in point, the two home runs today:
A home run is never a bad outcome, indeed guaranteeing yourself a run is best possible outcome. However, over the last 30 days the Yankees have the worst OBP in baseball, a paltry .260. It’s a good thing that Austin Wells and Jasson Domínguez went deep today. Both guys would deepen the lineup significantly if they could be representative MLB hitters, maybe tonight can be the spark they need to get something going. But because this team is struggling to get on base, you’re only banking two runs instead of four or five, which obviously changes the circumstances of the game a great deal.
Cody Bellinger delivered a clutch single to put the Yankees ahead in the sixth:
Perhaps most ominously though, the leftfielder was taken out of the game after the top of the eighth, following a hustle double and appearing to favor his right leg slightly. I will be waiting with held breath for an update, the Yankees can’t lose a player that gives as much all-around value as Cody right now.
Paul Blackburn and David Bednar iced out the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings, and the Yankees officially have a three-game win streak. This was an important win to get, sealing the series win against a decent enough team in a hostile ballpark. It’s doubly important when Cristopher Sánchez is tabbed to start tomorrow for Philly. They treat Sánchez’s starts the way we treat Cam Schlittler’s, when he’s on the hill the team expects to win. Locking up a successful series tonight gives the Yankees a little breathing room if the second-best pitcher in the NL pitches like the second-best pitcher in the NL tomorrow.
Then again, with the way the Yankees have been hurling so far this weekend, it’s certainly not a game the team will roll over for. Will Warren will be under pressure to continue this streak of excellent starts, getting the ball for Sunday Night Baseball on NBC and Peacock. First pitch of the national broadcast comes at 7:20pm Eastern tomorrow.
