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Post by kaybli on Sept 12, 2024 14:52:01 GMT -5
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 12, 2024 15:45:44 GMT -5
It was the Red Sox who started the Yanks down the wrong road from their season-high perch of 28 games over .500 in mid-June by crushing them in back-to-back games at Fenway in mid-June, but the Yanks have to opportunity to basically end the Red Sox' season in a 4-game series at the Stadium this weekend.
The Yanks come in playing essentially .500 ball for the last 6 weeks, 19-17 since they swept the Phillies at the end of July. The Sox got hot for about a month before the All-Star Break, going 19-9 from the 2nd game of that series in Fenway until the Break. Since the break, they've floundered, going 21-29, falling back out of the race for the divisional title (Their tragic number for elimination from the East crown is 7 coming into the series, which means they're eliminated if the Yanks sweep them, which they won't. Probably.)
The Sox have speedster David Hamilton on the IL along with pitchers Whitlock, Horn, ex-Yankee Joely Rodriguez, ex-Yankee James Paxton and Lucas Sims. They got firstbaseman Tristan Casas back from the IL He was hot his first 10 games off the IL, but has been cold since, 4-35 in his last 10 games. The Sox still have the same hitters who seem to give the Yanks more trouble that other teams: Yoshida, Abreu, the elite hitter Devers, and Ceddanne Rafaela murders the Yanks, doesn't hit against the rest of MLB: .340/.364/679/1.043 against the Yanks in 55 PA with 3 steals and 5 HR, 9 runs and 9 RBI in 13 games started. Against all other teams not name Yankees; .247/.285/.375/.660 in 558 PA with 17 SB, 12 HR, 70 runs, 65 RBI in 138 starts. Some of their pitchers have pitched big games against the Yanks: Houck, Crawford and Bello as well. Danny Jansen is now the starting catcher, and Trevor Story is finally off the IL and back at shortstop. Tyler O'Neill has been on a rampage lately; his walkoff 3-run HR last night against the Orioles was his 5th in his last 5 games and his 30th of the season. Devers is 7-18 in his last 5, but with no RBI and Duran is 3-22 in his last 5. Connor Wong is 8-17 in his last 5 games.
The Sox have an excellent offense. They're 3rd in the league in runs, 2nd in hits, 1st in double, 4th in triples and 4th in HRs, 2nd in BAVG, OBA and OPS, and 3rd in slugging. They're also 3rd in the AL in stolen bases. The Yanks have scored more runs, but the Sox offense is much more balanced, being very good to excellent in just about everything. They're 3rd in the AL in BAVG with RISP with 2 outs, and 4th in OPS, but in late & Close, they're 8th and 9th in those categories. In high leverage, 10th and 10th. On the pitching side, not so good. Their starting got off to a brilliant start their first 3-4 turns through the rotation this year, but slid downhill as the year went along. They're 9th in ERA and K's, 4th in fewest walks, and 6th in most HR allowed. Their relief pitching is even worse: 13th in ERA, 12th in WHIP, 8th in K's, but they are 3rd in K/BB ratio. The Yanks have the 3rd worst rates of inherited runners scoring in the league, but the Sox are 4th worst at 35%.
On defense, the Yanks are 11th in team DER, but the Sox are 13th. They're the only team in the AL with more errors than the Yanks. The Yanks are 8th in the AL BIS Defensive Runs Saved at +25, but the Red Sox are 4th at +41. The average AL team has allowed 55 unearned runs; the Yanks are near that with 59 unearned runs, the Sox have the most in the AL: 88. The Sox do have a very good manager in Joey Cora. The last two times the teams played, he used his fast young players to run wild on the Yanks, routing them in a few games. Unlike Boone, he rarely seems caught without a good option, and his players play hard all the time. Well, nearly all the time. The Yanks appear to have the better of the starting pitching matchups in this series, so I think they should at least split, and I'm while I'm hopeful they'll take 3 of 4, the Sox have a way of raising their games against the Yanks. That's Cora in the details.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 12, 2024 15:49:15 GMT -5
The Sox open the series with #5 starter, Cooper Criswell, and they don't usually let him get deep into games. In 17 starts, he's gone more than 5 innings just 3 times, and less than 5 in 9 of them. Five-and-fly, indeed. Criswell started against the Yanks in the series in Fenway in June, so no recap of his history is needed. Since then, he's pitched in 11 games, 6 of them starts, and he's 3-1 with a 4.05 ERA. On the season, he's 6-4 with a 4.11 ERA in 17 starts and 6 games in relief. He's pitched 92 innings, allowing 96 hits, 48 runs, 42 earned, 9 HR and 27 BB with 66 K's. His WHIP on the season is a sub-par 1.337. He's pitched very well in his last four starts, but has pitched just 4 2/3, 3 1/3, 4 and 5 innings. In his last start, he went 5 innings against the White Sox for a win, allowing 2 runs, but didn't strike out a batter. Against the Yanks, Criswell has made one start and one relief appearance, both this season. The start was June 15th in Fenway, and he made it through 4 innings, giving up 3 hits, 2 runs (earned), and 2 BB with 6 K's. He left with a lead but didn't qualify for the W in a game the Sox won 8-5. The relief appearance was an inning of mop-up work in a game at Fenway the last weeks of July. He gave up 2 hits and a run, striking out 1, finishing up a 9-2 Sox loss. He's 0-0 with an ERA of 5.40 against the Yanks, and in 5 innings, some quick addition will tell you he's allowed 5 hits, 3 runs (earned) and 2 BB with 7 K's. His WHIP against the Yanks is 1.400, and their team quadruple slash line against Criswell is .263/.318/.263/.581 in just 22 PA. As the SLG implies, all 5 of the hits the Yanks have against Criswell are singles.
Repertoire: Criswell is a junkballing 5-pitch righty, throwing sinker, slider, sweeper, cutter and changeup. The sinker has elite drop (9th most in MLB out of 285 pitchers who throw a sinker) and some run in on righties. The sweeper has below average drop but above average sweep away from righties. The change also has elite drop (5th best among 253 MLB pitchers who throw one) but less than average tail away from lefties. The cutter has literally no break, and less than average drop. The slider is rarely used, and has more or less average movement in both directions. In run values, the sinker, change and cutter are all moderate plusses, the sweeper is a significant minus pitch, and the slider is even worse, way sub-par, which is why he's mostly dropped it for the sweeper. The FB velo is near the bottom of the league, and the spin rate is also bottom 10%, which actually helps a sinker drop more. He does get excellent extension, and his chase rate is right around average. His exit velocity is league average, and the barrel and hard hit rate are a little bit better than average. His line drive and flyball rates are below average, the groundball rate well above average (50%), and the popup rate is a bit low. Criswell doesn't have nearly enough innings to qualify, but if he did, his swinging strike rate would be the lowest among MLB starting pitchers, and the called strike rate would be top 10, and his CSW would be 6th lowest. His BABIP is a bit higher than average, the Strand Rate is significantly lower, but the HR/FB rate is quite low. The luck factors tend to wash out, and his ERA estimators think his ERA should be 4.21 rather than 4.11. The pitch mix this season: Sinker averaging 89 about 30% of the time, sweeper 77 about 27%, change 84-5 about 26%, cutter 86 about 16% and slider 82 about 2-3 times a game.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 12, 2024 15:51:56 GMT -5
Playing the Name Game: There have been 23 MLB players with the last name Cooper, the best of them is Cecil Cooper, the left-hand hitting firstbaseman who plagued the Yankees with the Red Sox and Brewers in the 70's and 80's. Other famous major league players with last name Cooper include the brothers Mort and Walker Cooper, who formed the pitcher-catcher battery on the 1942-4 Cards that won the pennant all 3 seasons, but lost to the Yanks in the 1943 World Series. Mort made 8 All-Star teams and Walker made 4. Mort won the MVP in 1942 and would've won the Cy Young as well, but they didn't start handing those out until 1956. Walker finished 2nd in the MVP vote the next season, and Mort finished 5th. I can't guarantee this is true, but I'm willing to bet that's the only time two brothers have been top 5 in the MVP voting in the same year and league. The only Cooper in the Hall of Fame is left-hand Negro League pitcher and player-manager Andy Cooper, who played 11 seasons in the Negro National League from 1920 through 1930, then seems to have retired for 6 seasons, returning as a pitcher-manager for the Kansas City Monarchs and winning 3 straight pennants from 1937 through 1939, managing future Hall of Famers Willard Brown, Turkey Stearns, Buck O'Neill, and Hilton Smith.
Criswell is of just two major leaguers with the first name Cooper, another recent name trend for boys. The other is Cooper Hummell, and outfielder/DH who has brief stays with the Diamondback and Marines in 2022 and 2023. By default, Criswell is slightly the better Hummell (-0.5 bWAR to -0.8 bWAR), plus Hummell is back at AAA this year with the Astros, but has missed most of the season. Cooper is also the only Criswell in MLB history.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 12, 2024 15:54:43 GMT -5
Nestor Cortes rejoins the starting rotation, at least for this time through, and starts the opener for the Yanks. He won the game in his last appearance, piggybacking on Clarke Schmidt's 4 2/3 inning start with 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to beat the Cubs, 2-0 in the middle game at Wrigley Field. He gave up just 1 BB in that appearance, and struck out 3. On the season, Nestor is 9-10 with a 3.97 ERA. In 29 games (28 starts), he's pitched 163 1/3 innings, allowing 155 hits, 73 runs (72 earned), 23 HR, just 33 BB and struck out 147. His WHIP on the season is a solid 1.151. Cortes is in several top 10 lists, for good and bad: He's allowed the 10th most hits, is 5th in fewest BB per 9, 7th in K/BB ratio, 8th most HR, 9th most HR per 9 innings, 9th most hits per 9. He's your basic #4 starter in an AL rotation.
Against the Red Sox, Nestor has struggled in 6 starts and 6 relief appearances: 2-0, but with a 5.22 ERA. In 39 2/3 innings, he's allowed 42 hits, 23 runs (earned) 8 HR and 13 BB with 47 K's. His WHIP against Boston is 1.387, and the Red Sox team quadruple slash line vs. Cortes is .264/.320/.497/.817. His most recent start against the Sox was July 5th this year at the Stadium, and he pitched very well: 6 innings, 3 hits, 1 run (earned) on a solo HR by Romy Gonzalez, 1 BB and 8 K. He left with a 3-1 lead, but Clay Holmes melted down giving up Yoshida's 2-run HR with 2 outs in the 9th to tie it and Tommy Kahnle lost it in the 10th on another 2-run HR, this one by Rafaela, the Sox winning 5-3.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 12, 2024 15:56:41 GMT -5
Yankees' lineup vs. Criswell
1. Torres (2B) is 0-3
2. Soto (RF) is 0-1 with 1 BB and 1 K
3. Judge (CF) is 0-2
4. Wells (C) is 0-2 with 2 K
5. Stanton (DH) is 2-2
6. Chisholm (3B) is 1-1
7. Dominguez has never faced Criswell
8. Rizzo (1B) is 0-1 with 1 BB and 1 K
9. Volpe (SS) is 1-3 with 2 K
On the bench: Grisham is 1-1; Cabrera is 0-1 with 1 K; Verdugo is 1-3 with 1 double, and 1 RBI
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Rd Sox' lineup vs. Gil:
1. Duran (LF) is 2-7 with 2 K
2. Devers (3B) is 4-15 with 1 double, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 3 BB and 8 K
3. Refsnyder (RF) is 8-16 with 3 doubles, 1 RBI and 1 K
4. O'Neill (DH) is 1-6 with 1 double, 1 RBI (sac fly), 1 BB, 3 K
5. Gonzalez (2B) is 4-5 with 2 doubles, a solo HR and a K
6. Wong (1B) is 3-9, with 2 doubles, 1 RBI and 2 K
7. Story (SS) is 1-2 with a solo HR, and 1 K
8. Jansen (C) is 1-7 with a double and 2 K
9. Rafaela (CF) is 0-4 with 3 K
On the bench: Yoshida is 0-4 with a sac fly/RBI and 1 K; Casas is 0-2 with 1 K; and Valdez is 1-2.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 12, 2024 15:57:35 GMT -5
Yesterday: the Yanks came from behind twice and outfought a game Royals team to win 4-3 in 11 innings. The Royals struck first in the 4th on a solo HR by Massey off Luis Gil; it was the only run he allowed in 5 innings. The Yanks took the lead in high style in the 6th, when Juan Soto got to Cole Ragans, who had shut the Yanks down for 5 innings. After fouling a pitch off his ankle and crumpling to the ground in pain, he shook it off and jumped on a curve in the zone down and in and belted it: 102.7 mph, 402 feet, 32° launch angle, to the back of the lower stands in front of the right field bleachers, a HR in 44 of 30 MLB parks (had to catch up with that; completely forgot last night), and the Yanks had a 2-1 lead...which prompted Boone to go to Clay Holmes in the 7th, and he promptly coughed up the lead on singles by Isbel and Pham, a deep fly to right by Witt, moving Isbel to 3rd with 1 down, and a sac fly to deep left by Perez. The game stayed 2-2 through 9 innings. In the top of the 10th, the Royals ran base stealing specialist Blanco for Pham, and he stole 3rd immediately against Cousins., who miraculously fanned Witt on a slider in the zone. Instead of just intentionally walking Sal Perez, who'd hit everything this series, Boone flatulated around with Cousins pitching around him, firing a wild pitch on 2-0, Blanco scoring for the 3-2 lead. I think I used up the regional supply of "stupid"s in the game thread about the decision to screw around with Perez instead of putting him on. And then he walked anyway on the next pitch. S-M-D-H. Weaver got out of the inning with no further damage, and with Volpe the ghost runner for the Yanks, Cabrera almost popped his bunt into a double play, but pitcher dove for it and missed, and Volpe got to 3rd with 1 down. Austin Wells PH for Trevino against a lefty, and got a waist high FB on the corner away and hit about a short as a sac fly gets, about 250 feet to left. The Yanks had two TOOTBLANS earlier in the game, but Volpe challenged and won, as the throw bounced twice before hitting him and bounding away from Fermin, and again the game was tied. In the 11th, Weaver got the Royals 1-2-3 with 2 K's, and in the bottom of the inning, with Berti pinch running as the ghost runner, he got to 3rd on a weak grounder up the middle by Soto, and with Royals' manager Quattro having his brain switched on, they immediately intentionally walked Judge and brought the infield in for Chisholm. He went with a slider away, and slapped a grounder that Witt had to layout to his right for, and with the speedy Berti going on contact, his rushed throw home was wide on the 1st base side and the Yanks had a hard-fought much-needed extra inning win, 4-3 in 11 innings. Weaver got the win in relief to raise his record to 5-3 on the season. Bubic took the loss, his first decision of 2024. The win improved the Yanks' record back to 22 games over .500 at 84-62 with 16 games left on the calendar.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 12, 2024 16:01:34 GMT -5
In other East games yesterday: In the rubber game at Rogers Centre, the Mets and Jays had themselves a pitcher's duel. Sean Manaea pitched an outstanding 6 2/3 innings for New York, giving up just 1 run on 3 hits with 8 K's, with the Jays scoring on a fielder's choice grounder to 3rd in the 4th inning. For 8 innings, Bowden Frances was even better, no-hitting the Mets on just one BB and one HBP, but Francisco Lindor lead off the 9th with a HR on an 0-2 FB up in the zone, and they took Francis out with the game tied. Chad Green came in and promptly loaded the bases with nobody out on a single and two walks. He gave up a sac fly, another walk, another sac fly, and Francisco Alvarez put it out of reach with a 3-run bomb, his first HR in 3 1/2 weeks, to make it 6-1, Mets. Ryne Stanek made things a bit interesting in the 9th as he walked a man who came around to score on a single, and gave up another single, turning it into a save situation with the tying run on deck; 4-run lead, 2 men on base and 2 outs. Closer Edwin Diaz came on to get Lukas to fly out to Nimmo to end it, earning his 18th save. Danny Young got the last out of the Jays 8th, getting himself a cheap W and moving to 4-0 on the year; Green took the loss by being charged with the 4 runs after the Lindor HR; Green has been struggling lately, dropping to 4-6.
In Philly, the home team struck in the bottom of the 1st on a 2-run HR by Castellanos, but the Rays got 1 back in the 2nd on a Walls RBI single. Aranda tied it up at 2 with a solo HR in the 6th, but the Phillies got that one back in the bottom on a RBI single by Weston Wilson, and the Phils' bullpen held the Rays to one hit in 3 innings, wrapping up a 3-2 win to complete a sweep of the Jays. Zack Wheeler continued his run at the NL Cy Young with 6 innings of 4 hit, 2-run ball, walking 3 and striking out 9, raising his record to 15-6. Drew Rasmussen gave up the run in the 6th, taking the loss and his first decision this season. Phils closer Estevez pitched the 9th for his 25th save of the season.
At Fenway, the O's got a run in the 3rd on a solo HR by Rivera; the Sox got it back in the bottom of the inning on a RBI single by Abreu, then took a 2-1 lead in the 4th on a RBI single by Rafaela. The O's tied it in the 8th on Santander's 41st HR, then took the lead in the 10th when ghost-runner Slater moved to 3rd on a deep fly and scored on a grounder by Rivera. Keegan Akin replaced closer Seranthony Dominguez to start the Sox' 10th, and after he struck out the dangerous Devers, Holliday's error moved the tying run to 3rd and put the winning run at first. Tyler O'Neill suddenly walked it off with his 30th HR of the season, giving the Sox a 5-3 win. Ex-Yankee Greg Weissert gave up the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th, but got the cheap W on O'Neill's blast. Weissert is now 4-2 on the season; Akin dropped his head after the HR which dropped his record to 3-1.
Coming into the games tonight, the Yanks' lead in the East is back up to 1 1/2 games. The Sox stayed 10 games back, but the Rays and Jays fell to 13 and 15 1/2 games back, respectively. The Tigers' and Mariners also won, so the O's, Royals and Twins are still the wild card teams, while the Sox are tied with the M's one game back of the Tigers in the Wild Card Runner-up battle. Detroit is still 3 games behind the Twins, who also won.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 12, 2024 16:04:52 GMT -5
The only other game in the East tonight: The Rays travel to Cleveland to start a 4-game series with the Guardians at 7:15 pm. Ryan Pepiot (8-6, 3.66 ERA) starts for Tampa; he bounced back from two poor starts in a row with a solid 5 1/3 against the O's for a win his last time out. Gavin Williams (3-8, 5.25 ERA) goes for Cleveland; he got hammered by the Dodgers in his last start, knocked out after just 2/3 of an inning, giving up 5 runs.
The O's have the day off; they start a 3-game series against a hot Tigers club in Detroit tomorrow evening. The Jays also have the day off; they host the Cards for a 3-game set starting tomorrow evening as well.
And at 7:07 pm at the Stadium, it's Criswell vs. Cortes. See you in just over two hours for the game.
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Post by anthonyd46 on Sept 12, 2024 16:17:22 GMT -5
Smoltz is such a clown. First he says on Kay's show that people should watch out for the Guardians they might be the best team in the AL then the next breath he says its possible Kansas City could win the division and Witt could take MVP votes for doing that. He does know they play in the same division as Cleveland? lol
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Post by JEGnj on Sept 12, 2024 17:35:05 GMT -5
I'll watch until the Fin's game. Then bounce in and out during commercials.
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Post by pippsheadache on Sept 12, 2024 18:07:47 GMT -5
Playing the Name Game: There have been 23 MLB players with the last name Cooper, the best of them is Cecil Cooper, the left-hand hitting firstbaseman who plagued the Yankees with the Red Sox and Brewers in the 70's and 80's. Other famous major league players with last name Cooper include the brothers Mort and Walker Cooper, who formed the pitcher-catcher battery on the 1942-4 Cards that won the pennant all 3 seasons, but lost to the Yanks in the 1943 World Series. Mort made 8 All-Star teams and Walker made 4. Mort won the MVP in 1942 and would've won the Cy Young as well, but they didn't start handing those out until 1956. Walker finished 2nd in the MVP vote the next season, and Mort finished 5th. I can't guarantee this is true, but I'm willing to bet that's the only time two brothers have been top 5 in the MVP voting in the same year and league.
Qwik, the closest thing I can come up with is 1927 in the NL, Paul Waner of the Pirates won the MVP and his brother (and teammate) Lloyd finished sixth. That was just a shot in the dark, there might be others. I can remember Walker Cooper in the last year of his career in 1957. One of my first baseball cards. |
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 12, 2024 18:15:12 GMT -5
Sox take the field. Criswell throwing his final warmups. Duran getting ready to step in.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 12, 2024 18:16:09 GMT -5
Playing the Name Game: There have been 23 MLB players with the last name Cooper, the best of them is Cecil Cooper, the left-hand hitting firstbaseman who plagued the Yankees with the Red Sox and Brewers in the 70's and 80's. Other famous major league players with last name Cooper include the brothers Mort and Walker Cooper, who formed the pitcher-catcher battery on the 1942-4 Cards that won the pennant all 3 seasons, but lost to the Yanks in the 1943 World Series. Mort made 8 All-Star teams and Walker made 4. Mort won the MVP in 1942 and would've won the Cy Young as well, but they didn't start handing those out until 1956. Walker finished 2nd in the MVP vote the next season, and Mort finished 5th. I can't guarantee this is true, but I'm willing to bet that's the only time two brothers have been top 5 in the MVP voting in the same year and league.
Qwik, the closest thing I can come up with is 1927 in the NL, Paul Waner of the Pirates won the MVP and his brother (and teammate) Lloyd finished sixth. That was just a shot in the dark, there might be others. I can remember Walker Cooper in the last year of his career in 1957. One of my first baseball cards. Thanks, pipps. I feet there might be another pair of brothers who did that, but I didn't remember the Waners. |
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 12, 2024 18:16:57 GMT -5
Duran steps up to the plate.
Game underway.
FB on the low inside corner, taken for a strike.
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