The Yankees entered Tuesday with a 6-1 record against Tampa Bay and when New York loaded the bases with nobody out in the first inning it seemed like more evidence of the Yankees having the Rays number this year. Rays starter Chris Archer had other ideas, though, as he escaped the early jam down just 2-0 and the Yankees would score for the rest of the game. Archer went seven innings and struck out eight batters as the Yankees offense went without an extra-base hit for the first time this season. Yankees starter Nathan Eovaldi was cruising until he ran into trouble in the seventh inning and was burned on a game-tying two-run single by David DeJesus, which bring us to the top WPA play of the game.
Top WPA Play: DeJesus’ single (+.239)
Key Moment: After the Yankees failed to score in their half of the eighth inning, Joe Girardi was confident enough in Eovaldi to let him start the inning. After striking out catcher Rene Rivera, who made two great throws earlier in the game to catch Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner stealing, Eovaldi walked Kevin Kiermaier and was chased by a single by Steven Souza, which set the Rays up with men on first and third and one out.
While Eovaldi had been pitching well, Girardi left himself open to criticism by allowing him to continue after walking Kiermaier. It’s not even so much about Eovaldi, who had allowed just seven Rays to reach base at that point, but the bullpen that’s behind him. The Yankees ended up bringing in Dellin Betances after the Souza single anyway, but by then there was already a man on third with one out. Betances would have had a much better chance of escaping the inning with the game still tied had he been brought in one batter earlier.
Trend to watch: As BP Bronx’s Nick Ashbourne pointed out in his article from yesterday, the Yankees starting rotation is leading the league in slider percentage. While it’s still early in the season, this is a potentially dangerous trend as the slider is one of the tougher pitches on the elbow. Perhaps Eovaldi read Ashbourne’s piece or at least is aware of the potential danger he is facing because he only threw 21 sliders out of his 101 pitches last night. That’s still a pretty good amount of sliders, but since he and the rest of the staff having been throwing so many, that actually brought his and the overall rotation’s slider percentage down.
Up Next: The Yankees have another two games in Tampa Bay and Wednesday night it’ll be Adam Warren (2-1, 4.65 ERA, 3.90 DRA) against Nate Karns (2-1, 3.79, 3.69 DRA) on the mound.
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