Another tough loss in Washington, the second in as many days, dropped the Yankees to 2-7 for the road trip. New York returns home for six games starting Friday before heading out to the west coast and they’ll be without outfield Jacoby Ellsbury, who was placed on the disabled list with a knee injury. Anyway, the Yankees had trouble scoring runs again Wednesday despite scoring six runs on Tuesday. The two runs New York scored in the first inning were all they would get on the evening and marked the sixth time in the past eight games that the Yankees have scored two runs or less. That’s not a good trend to see and with it coinciding with losing Ellsbury for at least two weeks, somebody else is really going to need to step up on this offense if things are going to turnaround soon. As the Yankees have come to learn recently, it’s hard to win when you only score two runs.
Top WPA Play: Tyler Moore’s game-tying home run off Yankees starter Adam Warren in the fourth inning (+.153). Warren didn’t make a bad pitch, but his curveball seemed to leak inside Moore’s happy zone down and in and the rest is history.
While that only tied the game, the Nationals took the lead for good in the seventh inning on Denard Span’s ground ball single with the bases loaded (+.137).
Key Moment: It didn’t really feel like the Yankees would come back in this one, but they had a chance in the ninth inning when Didi Gregorius singled with two outs. The Yankees then pinch hit Alex Rodriguez, hoping for some fireworks. Instead, Rodriguez was called out to end the game on this pitch.
Strikezone Plot via Brooksbaseball.net
As you can see from the GIFs and strikezone plot above, the pitch wasn’t a strike. It just wasn’t, and Rodriguez’ reaction to the call was telling. There’s nothing he can do about the call at that point, the game was over, but instead of getting really upset he just looked stunned by the call as he sheepishly walked back to the dugout holding the bat behind his back with both hands as only A-Rod would do.
The Yankees are off Thursday so this will be the last game recap on the site this week. I hope it was good for you too.
(Photo: Evan Habeeb-USA Today Sports)