Wed AM BRB (6-9-21)
This Day in Music (6-9-1915)
Key innovator of the electric guitar & multi-track recording, Les Paul, is born in Wisconsin.
Photo Credit: Jim Mone / AP Photo
Just as it seemed the 2021 Yankees were about to crash to a new low against the Minnesota Twins, the men in the beleaguered Yankees dugout dug deep and found something within themselves fans have not seen all season, grinding their way to an 8-4 win Tuesday night. Tied through seven innings after the Bombers, losers of four straight, were unable to distance themselves from a Twins team mired in the cellar of the AL Central. Starter Jordan Montgomery was once again steady for the Yankees after a rocky first inning saw the team fall behind 2-0, finding enough consistency to allow the struggling lineup a chance to break even with small ball. With a rally going in the top of the eighth inning, the Yanks once again took what the lowly Twins offered to them, as a routine DJ LeMahieu grounder to 2B Jorge Polanco was thrown wide of home scoring Tyler Wade, before Aaron Judge beat out a fielders choice of his own to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead. The rally was sparked by leadoff hits from Clint Frazier and Miguel Andujar, followed by a brilliant and all-too-rare bunt from Brett Gardner to move the young bats into scoring position. Credit to Aaron Boone for [finally] showing a little ingenuity and to the players for executing when the opportunity came about. It’s still more than concerning to see the normally preternaturally-clutch DJ LeMahieu continue to beat ball after ball into the ground, though last night contact was enough to make something happen. The conspicuously good vibes continued in the ninth inning, when Gary Sanchez tacked on a two-run HR before Andujar followed him shortly after with a solo shot to give the Yankees a rare five-run cushion. Both Sanchez and Andujar have begun to show signs of players they once were over the past few weeks, with Sanchez in particular providing the Yankees with one thing he, and they, have sorely lacked: consistency. Over the past seven days, Sanchez is hitting .318 with an OPS of .960. Last night was his first flash of power during this run, and the Yankees look to Sanchez to hit home runs, but take this run of good form for what it is! Like him or not, Sanchez has worked hard to earn this opportunity, and if Aaron Boone truly has his pulse on the team, he’ll find a way to keep his hot-hitting catcher in the lineup tonight with Gerrit Cole on the mound. Cole will look to right himself after going through something of a funk over the past month, though he won’t exactly be heading to the mound with a clear head tonight. With questions rightfully building about the current state of pitchers doctoring balls across baseball, Cole was left pretty speechless by a question yesterday in regards to such offenses across the game. Few people are naive enough to think that the game’s greatest pitchers are not (by and large, allegedly, etc.) gaining a bit of an edge in order to maintain sub-2 ERA’s across the league. It’s been fairly well-documented that baseball has been aware of this problem and done nothing about it, which is par for the course for a league that’s back-peddled on steroids and sign-stealing once the jig was up. It’s best to correct the mistake now that the movement has clearly plummeted major league averages to lows not seen since the early 1970s, but as always, holding anyone accountable seems a bit hypocritical given that you often have to fool MLB thrice in order to get any kind of reaction at all.
The Mets trip to Camden Yards started off auspiciously, but the wheels quickly fell off the wagon leading to a 10-3 loss to the last place Orioles. The Mets got the ball rolling in the first inning thanks to Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, with the latter driving in the former with a two-run HR to left field, Alonso’s eighth on the season. Lindor currently finds himself on the best stretch of his season to date, nearing .350 over the past week while Alonso trends over the .300 mark himself. The Mets dynamic first baseman would add his ninth home run on the year in the top of the 9th inning, but in between these flurries of offense was seven innings of pain for the Mets pitching staff. Though Mets starter David Peterson was able to escape a first inning jam mostly caused by a baffling call by the umpiring crew (one where replay once again did not project the right call), the Orioles first inning flash proved a sign of things to come. The Orioles offense hung nine runs on Mets pitching over the next five innings, with Peterson lasting just 2.2 innings getting tagged with four runs on eight hits and saw his ERA rise to 6.32 on the year. Robert Gsellman did not fair any better in relief, giving up four earned of his own as the bottom half of the O’s lineup pounded Mets pitching all evening. The Mets offense was not able to fair much better against Orioles pitching, as no player outside of the Mets 3-5 hitters recorded a hit Tuesday night. O’s starter Bruce Zimmerman held the Mets to two hits over five innings, striking out seven while having next to no trouble to work into or out of. The Mets lineup should lack no extra motivation to right the ship Wednesday, as 2015 pennant winner Matt Harvey takes the ball for the Orioles against Taijuan Walker. The Mets were able to hit Harvey hard at Citi Field less than a month ago, tagging him for seven runs back on May 12.