In Between the Pinstripes #33

In Between the Pinstripes_33: On to Cleveland
It’s been a long while since I’ve done one of these, but is there a better time to bring this series back? What an incredible game! If you told me when I woke up this morning that Luis Severino would only pitch a third of an inning and David Robertson would be the pitcher of record through 5 innings, I would have told you that you were insane.

Robertson pitched the most pitches and the most innings in his career [52 pitches, 3.1 innings],Chad Green continued his great season coming on in the first, getting the much needed two outs and resetting this ball club. Then, Tommy Kahnle showed what Brian Cashman saw in the middle of July when the Yankees where just hovering on the bubble of contention.

For me, this game could be described in just 4 plays. The first is Chad Green’s first hitter coming out of the bullpen, striking out Byron Buxton with second and third after Brian Dozier and Eddie Rosario hit homers to give the Twins a 3-0 lead before Ervin Santana even toed the rubber. The second was the Brett Gardner walk leading-off the first after that crazy top half off. That’s because the Yankees needed to run up Santana’s pitch count regardless of the score, but it was even more of an importance down three runs. The third was the Didi Gregorius 3-run homer to tie the game in the bottom of the 1st. This bomb got the crowd back into the game after being shell shocked after 3 runs, and a pitching change after just a third of an inning. That is something that the 2015 group could never do when Dallas Keuchel blanked the bombers in the 2015 Wild Card Game. The 4th play that mattered to me was the Aaron Judge 2-run homer in the bottom of the 4th. This gave the crowd a chance to blow the lid off the place, it gave the Yanks a chance to take a step back relax, and yet simultaneously put the peddle through the floor and finish off the Twins.

This game was an absolute basket case of emotions that I couldn’t even begin to describe. But hey, that’s why you play the game, and why we as fans love the game.

The next thing on the agenda is the best team record wide in baseball, the Cleveland Indians. This is going to be a tough task for the Yankees to get passed, but they did just come back from three runs down and saw their ace only last one out through this Wild Card Game. That is something to be concerned about, but this is something that I thought would have been something Severino would do in April, not in the Wild Card Game. But, he did and if Severino’s  2017 season was anything, it was resilient and I am confident that he can bounce back in Cleveland come Game 2 against the soon to be AL Cy Young Corey Kluber.


The Bronx Bombers were supposed to win this game according to many—so naturally anything after this win is a plus for this ball club. Us Yankee fans are used to winning so we want a World Series Championship, but putting up a fight against Cleveland and battling to a Game 5 could be as big as a World Series win for the morale of the team. This is the Post Season and if you’re in the dance, you have a chance. And if you have a chance, well, that’s as good as gold.   

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