Once upon a time, Jacoby Ellsbury hit 32 home runs in a single season. Michael Pineda was once a valued pitching prospect. Mark Teixeira was once a dangerous offensive threat. It all feels like distant history. For one day in May, it all happened again.
The Yankees used some pieces of history to down the A’s 5-4 on Sunday afternoon, winning their fifth straight and completing a sweep of Oakland.
New York scored its first run on a solo shot down the right field line from Brian McCann. The second was on a 431-foot blast to right-center field by, of all people, Ellsbury. Ellsbury rarely unloads on a ball to that degree, but he took a Jesse Hahn pitch out into the overhanging porch next to the batter’s eye. Mark Teixeira hit an infield single into the teeth of the shift that scored Brett Gardner, and Starlin Castro added another run with a single of his own. Then in the seventh, the red-hot Carlos Beltran doubled home Aaron Hicks for the final Yankee run.
Lost in all of the offense, however, was a slight return to form for Michael Pineda. The beleaguered right-hander entered the day with a ghastly 6.60 ERA in eight starts, with much of the damage often coming in the first inning. Pineda did allow a first-inning run on Sunday, but it was the result of two stolen bases from the speedy Billy Burns and a Stephen Vogt groundout. Two more runs would eventually come home against Pineda, yet the outing was a productive one.
Pineda’s slider was sharp all afternoon. The pitch has been a source of serious trouble since the start of the season, but showed lots of depth and bite on Sunday. If Pineda continues to throw it that well, he could suddenly find some consistency as a back-end starter.
The Play: Vogt doubles in two (.314 WPA)
The play with the highest WPA in the game didn’t go in favor of the winning team. Vogt took an outer-half fastball the other way down the line to bring Billy Burns and Jake Smolinski home and give Oakland the lead. What’s important here is that Pineda didn’t surrender the lead on a hanging slider, but was rather the victim of a good piece of hitting from Vogt. That’s baseball.
Top Performers:
Yankees: Carlos Beltran (2-4, 2B, 1 R, RBI)
A’s: Stephen Vogt (1-4, 2B, 3 RBI)
Notes:
– Teixeira’s hit broke an 0-19 streak and gave him his first two-out RBI of the season. Get healthy soon, Greg Bird.
– Castro and Didi Gregorius booted consecutive ground balls to start the 8th inning, which eventually lead to an unearned run coming home. It was a rare bit of incompetence from a middle infield that’s been very solid this year.
– Andrew Miller, being Andrew Miller, kept the lead intact.
– Alex Rodriguez was supposed to return at some point this weekend. Once he does return, Carlos Beltran will likely be forced back into the field.
– Aroldis Chapman is now 6-6 in save opportunities as a Yankee.
– The Yankees are now just one game under .500.
The Quote
Having good things happen to the Yankees is a lot more fun than having bad things happen to the Yankees
— Ben Diamond (@_BenDiamond) May 7, 2016
The Highlight: Ellsbury demolishes a baseball
You don’t see that every day.
Up Next:
The Yankees come home to the Bronx. They’re off on Monday, and then on Tuesday they welcome the Blue Jays to town. R.A. Dickey and Nathan Eovaldi are the scheduled starters.
Photo: Kelley L. Cox; Videos: MLB.com