Pandemic Playoff Running Diary-Yankees vs Rays Game Two ALDS

Instead of limited myself to only “in the moment, 280 character, probable overreactions” on Twitter—I will combine my various tweets with a running game diary of Game Two of the ALDS between the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees. So, here we go, here’s a look into my brain as Game Two unfolded before me:

8:05 PM (ET)— I’m still in my zoom lecture and have the game on silent (given that it’s postseason baseball I prefer watching the game this way anyway) in the background as I finish downloading the files need for class.  

8:08— TBS shows a Tyler Glasnow feature I momentarily unmute the volume to hear Glasnow go on about how he throws his fastball while being mesmerized by how freakishly big his hands are holding a baseball (it’s like Kawhi Leonard holding a basketball), I mistook Glasnow for the Donkey Kong holding an apple, just for a moment.

8:10— Tyler Glasnow hums a 98 MPH fastball for a ball as Game Two gets underway while the blood in my body starts to warm with anticipation, I’m ready for war, LET’S GO YANKEES.

Despite a Hicks walk, nothing to show for the bombers in the top of the first. There’s still a lot of baseball to be played. Class is over, I walk downstairs, kiss my girlfriend hello, go over to the kitchen and start to warm up my dinner.

8:23— Deivi Garcia finishes his warm-up tosses, my dinner is being consumed, while Deivi proceeds to throw two straight balls to Rays lead-off man Austin Meadows. It’s alright kid, settle down, you may not be Whitey Ford, but throw strikes and try to get through five.

8:24— Meadows flies out to Hicks; I sit back on the couch with a giant sigh of relief the ball didn’t end up over the fence.

8:29— Randy “Radda Radda” Arozarena blasts a 3-2 fastball just over the wall in right field. One to nothing Tampa. *Breath Joe, remember it’s only the first* The whole game is left, it’s only one run, this offense can spot one. *Proceeds to open first beer of the game*

Garcia settles down allowing no further damage as the Bombers trot into the dugout with Stanton leading off.

8:38— Stanton smacks a Glasnow curveball over the right field fence. The only bad thing about the Stanton home run is that I went back into the kitchen to get more food, while receiving a text from my friend John reading “STANTON!!!!!!!” (you can think him for the Schnitzel nickname for Arozarena) and my girlfriend saying aloud “huh, Stanton” (forgive her lack of excitement, she’s a Mets fan, she’s still supportive though!), anyway tie ballgame. LET’S DO THIS.

8:44— J.A. Happ enters the ballgame. My arms and legs flail uncontrollably like Happ preformed an exorcism through the TV screen. My heart sank to the floor and blistering rage. THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING! REALLY? J.A. HAPP? NOW?!?!?! THIS IS THE PLAN? OVER TANAKA!? Why trust him here? What has Happ ever shown you ever to trust him in this big of a spot? *My phone goes off with a text from John: “NOOOOOOOOOO!”

To be fair, I’m not completely against deploying an Opener in a playoff game, it fascinates me when a team will be successful using the Opener in a playoff game—but not by wasting a guy who could legitimately win a playoff game by having him throw 27 pitches, get completely warm, and only use him for the first three hitters. What makes it worse is that you turn to a guy in Happ, who has shown he cannot preform in the postseason, don’t believe me here’s what Happ has done in his career in the playoffs:

1.      Six trips to the Postseason

2.      1-4 in 15 games

3.      5.86 ERA in 27.2 innings pitched

4.      5.82 FIP

5.      .349 BABIP

It is arguable that he shouldn’t be on this roster to begin with because regardless of what he has done in either of the last two regular seasons, playoff J.A. Happ is not worthy of taking up a roster spot.

8:55— Mike Zunino hits a two-run bomb off Happ 3-1 Rays. 

Not to say I saw this coming but what do you expect, but Zunino has 28 homers, 62 RBI’s, a .279 BABIP, and 130 hits in 710 plate appearances against left-handed pitching in his career. Zunino doesn’t murder left-handed pitching but he is a good enough hitter that a matchup against Happ would be an advantage for Tampa Bay (which is the exact opposite of what Yankee Manager Aaron Boone wanted when he put this plan together saying in game “they’re [Tampa Bay] at creating platoon advantages, kinda depending on the lineup and everything, we were planning on going to J pretty early.”) The plan failed miserably and now with Happ in for the foreseeable future, the window of opportunity is open by about a millimeter.

But after a four pitch walk that made me open my second beer of the game, with me proceeding to chug it at a rapid pace, Happ thankfully escapes the bottom of the second with the score remaining 3-1. The Yanks do nothing in the top of the third and we mercilessly have to witness the J.A. Horror-show again…

9:18— Margot homers 5-1 Rays. *An unavoidable urge to slam my head into a brick wall consumes me* However, I turn to the Twitter machine (because that seems like a logical thing to do in this moment), and actually find a tweet that describes my feelings in better words than I could have articulated myself:

(huh, who knew that could happen, thanks Michael Kay!)

9:24— J.A. Happ throwing error. My girlfriend quickly locates the remote as my eyes search for something to throw in a blind rage.

After the throwing mishap by Happ, Kiermaier pops out and J.A. gets his revenge on Zunino, further damage everted, inning over! It was at this moment that I said a prayer to the baseball gods that went something like this “for the love of all things holy, please convince to take J.A. Happ out of this game, so it can be salvageable. Thank you.”

9:34— Giancarlo Stanton SEND ONE INTO ORBIT. 5-4 Rays. The ball still has not landed and I asked my official home run distance guy (my dad), how far that homer went and his distance registered 893 feet (take that Statcast, seriously Stanton might have broken the machine Google uses, someone check Statcast!), I mean if you look “Moonball” in the dictionary you’ll see two things:

1.      A tennis ball that accidently bounced out of Apollo 11

2.      The remains of the baseball Giancarlo Stanton hit in the second game of the 2020 ALDS

9:51— After a Radda Radda single and a walk to Ji-Man Choi, Aaron Boone makes the long walk to put an end to the J.A. Happ portion of this game. THERE IS A GOD.

9:53— Ottovino comes in. Fresh off the high of Stanton’s mammoth shot, I have full confidence once again. We can still do this. Believe!

The reason why I trust Ottovino in this spot is because he’s pitching for his life in this postseason. I don’t need advanced analytics to see what is blatantly obvious! Ottovino must pitch well if he wants to pitch again in spots that he signed up for when he came over from Colorado. Ottovino gets out of the inning and the momentum is starting to shift back in the Yankees favor.  

10:18— Loaisiga enters. After an Ottovino walk to Joey Wendle, a Wendle steal, and an Adames ground out, Boone makes another pitching change.

Yet another move in this game that I disagree with due to the edge that Ottovino is pitching with. It seems like the Yankees would have been better off leaving the binders of analytics at the hotel. Advanced Analytics are frustrating sometimes.   

10:19— Kiermaier RBI single 6-4 Tampa. So much for Loaisiga’s 87 LOB%...

10:23— DJ double play. Huge momentum saver! Pay LeMahieu WHATEVER HE WANTS.

10:42— Austin Meadows homers 7-4 Rays. It was at this moment that my faith in winning the game took a slight hit. It could be the Rays night and there’s nothing we can do.

11:09— Bleeping CB Buckner.

Let me take a moment to set the record straight on CB Bucknor. Throughout the game I was fine with the way Bucknor was calling the game behind the plate because he was calling the pitch about two inches off the outside corner to right-handed hitters all game. I am fine with an umpire who gives a little room to the pitcher on either corner if he wants. BUT, Bucknor now calls a ball up above the letters and outside against DJ LeMahieu (who won the batting title and knows the strike zone). Bucknor did screw the Rays as well on some calls (like a ball that Sanchez didn’t squeeze at the top of the zone, but in a possible game changing spot, the umpire cannot make himself the star.

If you are an umpire, you can get by if you give some leeway on the corners OR up and down, BUT not both. You cannot have both.

11:30— Nick Nelson?! Who are you and why didn’t you start this game instead of Deivi Garcia?

11:44— CB F-ing Bucknor!

Yet again Bucknor calls a ball WAY high and WAY outside with the count 3-1 and the Yankees looking to come back in the game. I do not want CB Bucknor working another Yankee game ever again. He should be blacklisted for his performance.   

11:52— DJ RBI single 7-5 Rays. I LOVE YOU DJ. So clutch. Full faith restored. We can do this! Let’s go Judge!  

11:55— Judge grounds to third, ballgame. Tremendous sadness, but another game tomorrow. It’s Tanaka time now.

I cannot wait for Game Three. Playoff baseball is intoxicating. Cheers to Game Three!