Game 94 Wrap-Up: BAL 3 NYY 1

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Saturday's win guaranteed the Yankees at least a .500 record at the All Star break this year.  I have to imagine they were hoping for and expecting much better than that when they dropped their half billion dollars this past offseason, but underperformance and another rash of serious injuries to major contributors have combined to keep that from happening.  The truth of the matter is that the Yankees are lucky to be where they are right now, and a road win against the Orioles to give the them the series and send them into the ASB with consecutive would have been a nice morale boost.  Instead, they got treated to a rain-shortened loss to send them into the break bumming.

Game Notes:

- Kevin Gausman is one of the best pitching prospects in baseball for a reason, but he made a classic rookie mistake throwing Brett Gardner 4 straight fastballs to open the game last night.  Gardner smacked the 4th one for a leadoff home run to right to get the Yanks on the board quickly.

- Chase Whitley looked pretty good making that stand up through 3 innings.  He was making pitches and getting outs when he needed to and getting swings and misses on his offspeed stuff.

- When the heart of the order got their second look at him in the 4th, things changed.  Nelson Cruz drew a 5-pitch walk to lead it off, Chris David crushed a 2-run home run the opposite way to give Baltimore the lead (on a pretty good pitch down and in), and JJ Hardy doubled off the wall to left.  Whitley got the next 2 outs, but couldn't keep the 3rd run from scoring and saw his night end before the 4th was over.

- Not much happened in the top of the 5th and then the rains came to delay the game.  The initial estimate was only a 30-minute storm, but that extended into 2+ hours and the teams agreed to call it a day.  Pretty fitting ending to the Yankees' first half.


F*ck Yeahs:

- Gardner: 1-2, 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K.  The best player on the team in that first half.  No doubt about it.

Oh Nos:

- Whitley: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K.  He really can't be allowed to stay in the rotation after the break.  He's giving the team nothing as a starter.  There has to be somebody else who the Yankees can use.

Next Up:

It's time for the All Star break and it's a break that couldn't have come soon enough for the Yankees.  Derek Jeter, and Dellin Betances will head to Minnesota for the week's festivities while the rest of the team gets a few days off.  The regular season resumes on Friday at The Stadium against the Cincinnati Reds.