The Yankees scored double digit runs again to finish off a sweep over Oakland
The Yankees beat the inept Oakland Athletics 11–3 to finish off a sweep of the Athletics. The Yankees were able to get their first series sweep of the season, and it makes sense since the Athletics are the worst team in baseball and have the worst team ERA in MLB by more than a run.
The Yankees scored at least seen runs in all three games of this series after only scoring at least seven runs five times in their first 35 games of this season. The Yankees scored 28 runs in this three game series after scoring a combined 28 runs in their previous eight games.
The Yankees put on a great offensive performance in front of lots of school kids who were at the stadium. Bronx public schools took kids with good grades to the afternoon game and they heard words of wisdom from Aaron Boone and Aaron Judge before the game.
The Yankees had 10 hits in this game and were 3–7 with runners in scoring position with Anthony Volpe going 1–2 with RISP, Anthony Rizzo going 1–1 with RISP and Harrison Bader going 1–2 with RISP. The Yankees had three homers and three doubles in this game.
In Thursday’s game, the Yankees scored all of their runs in the first and fifth innings. In the first inning, Gleyber Torres hit a sacrifice fly to score Judge and Bader slugged a 362 foot 3-run homer to right center to make the score 4–0.
This would be all the runs the Yankees would need to be the Athletics, who have eight wins this season, which is three fewer than any other team in MLB. Oakland’s run differential of -142 is actually 75 points worst than the team with the next lowest run differential in MLB.
Athletics starting pitcher Kyle Muller allowed six earned runs with one homer in four innings. He came in to pitch in the fifth but did not get an out after allowing a double to Judge and then an RBI single to Rizzo and then being taken out of the game. Rizzo would score, which would be Muller’s sixth earned run.
With relief pitcher Garcia pitching in the fifth inning, DJ LeMahieu smashed a 398 foot homer to straight away center to score Rizzo and make the score 7–0. With the bases loaded after a double by Torres and two walks, rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe hit a grand slam, which was his first MLB grand slam, to give the Yankees as commanding 11–2 lead.
Volpe has been compared to Derek Jeter since they were both top prospects in the Yankees organizations who were shortstops for the Yankees at a young age. Volpe made his debut with the Yankees at 22 years old and Jeter made his debut during his age 21 season.
Jeter did not his first MLB grand slam until the 2005 season, which was his 11th MLB season and Volpe already has his first. Volpe is the 12th Yankee rookie all time to hit a grand slam and he is the 3rd youngest Yankee to hit grand slam. Melky Cabrera and Micky Mantle were the two who were younger than Volpe.
Volpe is the first Yankees rookie to hit a grand slam in a game he played at shortstop. Volpe in MLB career with bases loaded so far is a very impressive 3–3 with a homer, 7 RBI and a walk. This means that seven of Volpe 13 RBI this season have come with the bases loaded.
Jhony Brito got the start in this game and allowed two earned runs in 4.1 innings pitched. The two runs he allowed were on two solo homers in the second inning. Carlos Perez, who has a .327 average with two homers in 20 games, hit a homer in the second inning and Jace Petereson, who has a .214 average in 32 games, also hit a solo homer.
Brito had a 3.81 ERA in his six starts this season besides the one where he allowed seven runs in one start (0.2 innings) in his third start of the season. Brito missed multiple times with his location in first three innings but got a big out of Jordan Diaz as he flied out to Volpe with runners on second and third in the 3rd. Diaz hit three homers in the previous game.
Brito relies on his very good changeup. He then struck out Kemp on three consecutive changeups to strand those runners and keep the score 4–2 in the third inning.
Anthony Rizzo’s .370 average at home coming into this game was best home average in the league. Rizzo was 2–4 with two runs scored and an RBI in this game, which raised his batting average at Yankee Stadium up to .368 in 76 at-bats. He has five homers and 12 RBI at home. It’s a major plus that he has performed so well in The Bronx since he has been much worse on the road with a .222 average in 63 at-bats. However, he does have very good stats for the season with a .302 average in 37 games and a .388 OBP, 22 runs scored, five doubles six homers and 17 RBI.
Harrison Bader has returned off of the injured list hitting well at just the right time since they needed more production in the outfield. Bader has changed the type of bat he has been using and has made other adjustments that have made a big difference since he has been hitting better than anybody could have expected him to in his eight games played. The Yankees have gone 6–2 since Bader came off of the injured list.
He was 1–3 with three RBI in Wednesday’s game and in his eight games he is 12–28 (.429) with two triples, three homers, 11 RBI, an .893 slugging percentage and a 1.341 OPS. He very impressively has more RBI than games played in his eight games. Bader has 11 RBI in just eight games but on the other hand Oswaldo Cabrera has just 10 RBI in 33 games played, Jose Trevino has 11 RBI in 24 games and LeMahieu has the team lead of 18 RBI in 33 games, which is only seven more than Bader in three times as many games.
Bader has a 13.4 degree rise in his launch angle this season, he has been better at hitting breaking balls and in turn he has been better at hitting the ball the other way. This is a small sample size but this is very promising.
Deivi Garcia pitched in his first MLB game since May of 2021 and he made his first appearance at Yankee Stadium since September of 2020. He recorded his first strikeout since May 19, 2021. He came up through the minor league system as a top rated starter but this season in the minors he was converted to a relief pitcher. He had a 4.50 ERA in Triple-A as a relief pitcher and pitched very well on Wednesday and pitched so well that he was sent back down to Triple-A.
After recording his first MLB save (on an odd quirk in the rule) after pitching three innings and just allowing two hits and an earned run on a solo homer to JJ Bleday, who has a .379 average in eight games, he was sent back down to the minors after being called up the day before. He would not be able to pitch in a game for a few days so they opted to call up a fresh arm for the bullpen.
Garcia has very good stuff but had walked a few too many batters this season. He had good control in this game with good changeup and curveball. He did good job only allowing one walk in 3 innings. He has a unique delivery that can be hard to repeat.
Bleday hit a homer with two outs off of Garcia. Bleday hit a fastball when he was ahead in the count when a fastball was expected from Garcia.
It will help the pitching staff that Luis Severino made a rehab start in the minors on Wednesday, which will mean in about two weeks he will likely be able to replace Brito in the rotation. Severino will have at least one more rehab start in the minors and will throw about 65 pitches in that start.
Oakland has allowed 7.6 runs a game. Only two teams in MLB history have allowed more runs through 37 games than Oakland.
The expansion Mets in had a 40–120–1 record in 1962, which is the worst record in MLB since then. It is realistic that the Athletics could come very close to or have a worse record than the Mets did that season. It is actually really impressive that the Mets went from having a 40–120 record their first season in 1962 and then just seven seasons later finished 100–62 and won the World Series 4–1 over the Baltimore Orioles.
The Yankees will start a big four game weekend series tonight against the first place Tampa Bay Rays, who have the best record in MLB at 29–9 (.763 winning percentage). They are the only team with a winning percentage that is above .700 and they have five more wins than any other team in the American League.
The Yankees came very close to sweeping their series against the Rays last weekend at Tropicana Field since they won one game and lost two games by one run each. The Yankees are currently eight games behind the Rays in the AL East, so it is important that they at least split the series to not fall farther back in the division.
It will help the Yankees slim chance of winning the division since they will play fewer in division games this season due to the new more balanced schedule this season. The AL East is the best division in MLB as it is the only division with every team being above .500. The Yankees 21–17 record would put them in a tie for first in the AL Central, which is the worst division in MLB with four of five teams being below .500 and it also has the two of the three worst teams in MLB.
They Yankees will play six fewer games against their AL East opponents than in previous years, which will help since that should mean an increase in teams who are not up to par with their AL East opponents.
