While Monday night’s game in Baltimore was a come from behind victory for the Yankees, New York fell behind early on an Adam Jones solo home run in the first inning off of CC Sabathia on Tuesday, in a game the Yankees would never lead. Sabathia went on to hurl seven innings while allowing four earned runs, but it wasn’t enough as he took his second loss of the season. The Yankees offense didn’t do much against Miguel Gonzalez as he settled in and struck out 10 of the 26 batters he faced in seven innings while allowing just one earned run. Zach Britton came on to in the eighth inning with the tying run on second base and secured a four-out save, his second of the season.
Top WPA Play:
(.115 WPA)
As you probably guessed, Jones’ solo shot was the high WPA play of the game. It narrowly edged out Alejandro De Aza’s fielding gaffe with two outs in the eighth, which we’ll make our key moment.
Key Moment:
(.110 WPA)
Not only was this with two outs, but it allowed Chase Headley to score and forced the Orioles to use their closer for more than three outs. De Aza somehow managed to screen himself with his glove. As you can see at the beginning of the above GIF, despite being a left-handed thrower he brings his glove hand right in front of his face. De Aza forgot to bring his X-Ray goggles, though, and only saw the ball hit off of his glove. The lesson, as always, is to keep your eye on the ball. Yes, even if you’re some quack Orioles fan and ARod is up, if you’re in the stadium you should know where the ball is at all times.
Trend to Watch: It’s only been two starts, and his ERA is 5.68, but Sabathia hasn’t had a problem getting strikeouts so far this season as his strikeout rate is 28.3 percent right now. He’s also walked just one batter, so his walk rate is 1.8 percent and his SO:BB ratio is 15-to-1. Sabathia doesn’t have the ERA that someone with these strikeout and walk numbers should have right now, so if he’s able to continue these rates his ERA should begin to normalize.
Up Next: Nathan Eovaldi against Bud Norris in a hitters park is a recipe for a lot of runs on the board. Both starters managed to strikeout just one batter in their first starts of the year. Eovaldi recorded just three swinging strikes in his last turn against the Red Sox. Norris failed to make it out of the fourth inning. It could be a long night. First pitch is at 7:05.