That guy would have a fighting chance against the Astros.
That guy showed some resiliency.
Any chance that guy will be wearing a Yankees uniform in October?
Yankee Stadium rocked Friday night once Gleyber Torres crushed a first-inning grand slam, and from there, James Paxton did his part to ensure a smooth landing. The first-year Yankee, the club’s best healthy hope to dominate a ballgame, avenged his recent Fenway Park beatdown — and overcame continued first-inning blues — by leading the Yankees to a 4-2 victory over the Red Sox in this first game A.D. (After Deadline).
“We’ve kind of settled down a little bit here, obviously, in the rotation the last several days after that stretch,” Aaron Boone said, referring to the eight-game stretch from July 20-27 when the rotation tallied a 14.90 ERA. “It’s good to see another guy go out there and really pitch aggressively, pitch like they’re capable of. Pax absolutely set the tone for us.”
The Yankees’ American League East lead over the third-place Red Sox now stands at 11½ games — the second-place Rays lurk 7½ games behind — and really, at this point, we’d be talking about some serious history being made for the defending champions to climb out of this well all the way into the division penthouse. While plenty of work remains for the Yankees to secure their first AL East title since 2012, it’s also fair to view these next couple of months through the “How in the hell are they gonna get through the Astros?” prism, especially in light of their silent deadline juxtaposed against Houston’s mammoth addition of Zack Greinke.
While their offense and bullpen naturally will be paramount in any such initiative, the Yankees simply won’t have a shot unless their starting rotation can at least keep their team in games. Enter Paxton, Brian Cashman’s big import of last offseason, who had given up 11 runs over 7¹/₃ innings in his previous two starts, including a four-inning, seven-run showing a week ago against the Sawx.
By allowing only two runs over six innings Friday, giving up two hits and walking three while striking out six, The Big Maple displayed significant progress, if not quite dominance. An increased reliance on his curveball — he threw 19 curveballs out of 100 pitches, as per Brooks Baseball’s Pitchf/x tool, whereas he had thrown the curve about 14 percent of the time prior to this start, as per FanGraphs — helped, Paxton said.
“It’s something we talked about,” the southpaw said. “Just bringing it in a little more to slow them down. Mix it up a little bit, speedwise.”
He actually used his cut fastball to strike out the game’s first two batters, Mookie Betts and Rafael Devers, and that marked significant progress given that Paxton had surrendered homers to the very first batter he faced in his previous three starts. Alas, he then walked Xander Bogaerts and served up a two-run homer to J.D. Martinez, raising his first-inning ERA for the season to 11.37.
“Honestly, I don’t have an answer for that right now,” Paxton said of his first-inning woes.
Torres provided an answer in the bottom of the inning, and the game produced no more runs. Paxton hopes this game gets him and his teammates going on a run.
“I think the guys in this room can get it done,” Paxton said. “We have a very talented group. Very motivated. I have full confidence in the guys in this room.”
It’ll have to be the guys in this room, plus possibly injured guys Luis Severino and Dellin Betances and minor leaguer Deivi Garcia. Paxton remains as good a bet as anyone to produce an October quality start.
Can that guy come through? It only might determine the 2019 Yankees’ ultimate fate.
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