In between the Pinstripes #33

In Between the Pinstripes_33: The new guy in town

Well, it feels good to be writing this again. I stopped back in May because I just didn’t have fun anymore writing these columns. They felt forced and repetitive and I just didn’t feel like putting out content that I didn’t have my full faith behind. I love the Yankees and have continued to watch the ebbs and flows of the current season, and now I feel like is a good time to briefly bring back this series. It will only be for a few short days (for now), but will be back in full effect starting with September call ups on September 1^st. There will be random iterations of this column series throughout the month of August, but nothing regular.

Getting into tonight’s game against Cleveland, it was a special one. It was the first start for the prized jewel that the Yankees got at the July Trade Deadline in Sonny Grey. Grey was 6-5 with a 3.43 ERA in Oakland this year, and well his introduction in Pinstripes wasn’t the best of results. Grey himself didn’t pitch too bad giving up 4 runs (2 earned) on 4 hits through 6 innings of work, while also pitching his way through 3 errors and also having 6 strike outs.

The outing itself is a good sign given the circumstances that he was given, and the effort he showed in his first start has to be appreciated. I don’t know how this first start will be protrude its way through the New York media tomorrow morning, but I like the outing and the stuff that Grey had.

However, I don’t think he fits in the Yankee uniform. That was the first thing that I noticed when I saw him take his warm up pitches. He just looks odd with the jersey on. Maybe if he had an undershirt or sleeve or anything under the jersey I’d feel different, but everything to the way he wore the jersey top to the pant length/style didn’t look right. And I’m not just saying that because Grey is the new guy in town, Jaime Garcia looked like a Yankee in his first press conference, Grey just doesn’t fit the imaginary mold I have in my head of what a Yankee would look like.

Moving to the Focus Player of the Day it has to go to Gary Sanchez. Not only did he provide the only Yankee run of the day with an absolute blast to left-center but he called a good game behind the plate for Sonny Grey. It is extremely difficult learning ANY pitcher on the fly like Sanchez did with Grey—let alone a guy with Grey’s makeup. Hats off to Gary Sanchez today for his efforts in a masterpiece from former Cy Young winner Corey Kluber.

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s game against the Tribe, the bombers look to bounce back and take the second game of four against Cleveland sending Jaime Garcia out for his first outing in Pinstripes. Hopefully his first turn for the Yanks won’t have the same result as Grey but with Garcia never facing the Indians in his career, you never know. His opponent is Trevor Bauer and well, Bauer’s numbers against the Yankees are anything but stellar. Bauer is 1-4 with a 5.34 ERA in 32 innings against the Yanks with a .250 batting average against in 6 career starts. Hopefully history will be with the Yankees because with a win over the White Sox (9-5) the Red Sox are now 2 games up on the Yanks in the division. But the motto hasn’t changed , as always Let’s go Yankees!  

Sources:(mlb.com, baseballreference.com)

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