Greg Bird's 8th Inning Homer Last Night Was One of the Biggest Hits of the Whole Season For The Yankees
I know it was the Royals. And I know it’s not even August yet. But Greg Bird’s home run last night to tie that ball game up at 4 was one of the biggest hits of the season. That’s not an exaggeration and I’m sure Red Sox fans will say “if you thought Mookie’s grand slam was nothing then how is this anything.” 1) Fuck the Red Sox 2) the importance of those homers were wildly different. If this team lost both games of a home double header to the Kansas City Royals I mean I wouldn’t be in a good place right now. It’s still not good because the fact we were on the verge of that being an actual thing is terrifying. From the afternoon’s loss with Severino being terrible once again to Zach Britton walking the bases loaded in the 7th (on eight straight balls), things were not great in Yankees universe up until that 8th inning. That’s when Greg led off the bottom of the 8th inning with a huge game-tying homer into the Royals bullpen. I actually was at Djais (shout out Rico Bosco) watching the game in the corner alone because I really don’t care about anything more in my life than this team, and I let out a giant sigh of relief when that ball cleared the wall. I wasn’t even happy or excited, but just massively relieved.
From there on the Yankees bats came to life. Neil Walker doubled to deep right field immediately after to set the Yankees up. It’s going very unnoticed how hot Neil Walker has been lately. He’s 10 for his 15 and 16 for his last 38 (.421). Neil Walker or Mike Trout? Austin Romine then came up to bunt Walker over to third. He even beat out the throw, making Gary Sanchez sweat as he watched on.
Mr. Heart and Hustle was fired up, and rightfully so. After a Gleyber Torres walk, Aaron Hicks delivered a sac-fly to put the Yankees up for good. Aroldis Chapman came in for the first time since his Mets disaster a week ago. It wasn’t pretty as Mondesi singled immediately to start the inning. He then stole second and third with Whit Merrifield due up. Thank God Chapman got Merrifield looking on a slider to end the game. It wasn’t the cleanest of innings from Chapman, but it was much better than the Mets debacle. Aroldis’ velocity was back up in the 99s and 100s, which he didn’t have last week so at least that’s a positive.
We Traded Chasen Shreve
After the game Cashman made a trade sending Chasen Shreve and Giovanny Gallegos to the St. Louis Cardinals for Luke Voit and international signing bonus money. Brian Cashman was able to convince another team to take on Chasen Shreve. Last year he did it with Clippard and now with Shreve. He’s truly a wizard. Chasen Shreve has been a disaster this year and was always a nightmare when he came in, but that post-game interview was sad man.
Chasen has been with this team for a while and obviously is close with a lot of guys. You could even tell in CC’s post game interview at his locker that he was still down from hearing the news. It sucks, but it’s a business and you have to perform. I truly wish him, and his new fiancee, well in St. Louis. On the other side of the ball, Cashman is up to something. This move cleared up two 40 man roster spots and where there’s smoke there’s fire. This means either Cashman is closing in on Chris Archer or Justus Sheffield is coming very soon to be another arm in the bullpen down the stretch (where I think he fits in 2018). The next 72 hours are going to be pretty crazy as certain teams decide if they’re going to sell or not. We could even see Sonny Gray traded to what looks like Atlanta. Anything is on the table when Cashman has this much ammo to play with.
J.A. Happ makes his first start for the team today and I’m excited to see him out there. I think he’s going to be a pleasant surprise to anyone who hated that trade. Let’s see what he’s got. Please God let’s take 3 of 4 from Kansas City.