The Yankees split their doubleheader on Wednesday against the Angels
After their game on Tuesday was rained out, there was still rain in The Bronx on Wednesday but they were still able to get both games in.
The Yankees won the first game 5–2 but lost the second game 8–2. Will Warren, who was making second second MLB start, did not pitch well in the second game but an incorrect call by the home plate umpire made the results much worse than they could have been.
Since the Yankees lost the second game, they are tied with the Baltimore Orioles at the top of the AL East once again. They were in first place by half a game after winning the first game and after the game one win they had won eight of their last nine games and were averaging 7.7 runs a game in that nine game span.
Luis Gil pitched well yet again in game one of the doubleheader and was able to pitch through not having his best stuff to hold the Angels scoreless over five innings pitched. His 107 pitches were his career-high in his 29th start in his third MLB season (22 of his 29 starts have been this season).
Gil did not have his best slider because of the rainy inclement conditions. He adjusted and threw his fastball more and had success with it since 18 of his last 19 pitches were fastballs. Gil got strikeouts on two sliders and two fastballs.
He has 10 walks and 36 strikeouts in last five starts with 1.93 ERA. Gil has 14 starts allowing one run or less which is tied for second most by Yankees rookie all time. He is still a rookie since he had only pitched in 33.1 innings before this season.
It is a good sign that he has bounced back very well from allowing 16 runs combined in three starts in a span of 9.2 innings in his last two starts in June and his first start in July. In his last five starts since that three start span he has allowed a combined six runs.
Gil’s 3.06 ERA is eighth best in the AL and it is just barely behind Brady Singer, who is in fifth place with a 3.03 ERA. His WAR is ninth best in the AL and his 138 strikeouts are also ninth best in the AL.
Oswaldo Cabrera made a web gem diving play to end the first game of double header. Cabrera also hit a homer to the short porch in the second inning of first game of double header to make the score 3–0 Yankees. He got the start at second with Gleyber Torres getting the game off. In Cabrera’s last 17 games, he has a .324 average (12–37) with 10 runs scored, one double, two homers and seven RBI.
Austin Wells had an RBI single to left to score Alex Verdugo, who had a ground rule double to leadoff the game. Anthony Volpe hit a changeup to left field for an RBI double in the first inning. In the third inning, Wells hit a double to right to advance Aaron Judge to third with not outs but three Yankees got out in a row to end the inning without and run and strand Wells and Judge on second and third. They had a great opportunity to score at least two runs in the third but that did not prevent them from winning the game since they had already scored enough runs the first two innings.
Wells has been hitting very well recently. He was getting unlucky earlier in the season but now he has been very productive at the plate and has not been getting unlucky anymore. He has been the cleanup hitter recently and has been better than any other Yankees cleanup hitter. In his 63 plate appearances at cleanup through the first game of the doubleheader, he has a .358 average, a .439 OBP, a .976 OPS, two homers and nine RBI. All other Yankees cleanup hitters through came one of doubleheader in 441 plate appearances had a .201 average, a .261 OBP, a .577 OPS and 47 RBI.
In Wells’s last 12 games, he has a .383 average (18–47) with two doubles, one triple, two homers, nine RBI, a 1.052 OPS and he has raised his average from .213 to .249 and his OPS from .686 to .764. Wells has caught 16 out of 18 games since Jose Trevino went on injured list.
Gil allowed five walks in this game but pitched well with those runners on base since none of those runners came around to score. Gil walked two batters in the first but got a fly out to end the inning, he allowed one walk in the third but got a fly out by Kevin Pillar to end that inning and then he walked two batters in the fourth and got a fly out to end that inning. He retired the side in order in the fifth. The Angels in this game were 0–6 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base.
“I can tell he did not have the best feel for his pitches but he gave us five shutout innings and we will take that every time,” Wells said about Gil.
“The fifth inning was probably his best inning,” Aaron Boone said. “He found his delivery there. It was big for him to finish the way he did and it was not easy. Look up and it was five shutout and it was a grind for him.”
Judge went 2–3 with and RBI single in the fourth, a run scored and two walks with one being an intentional walk. Verdugo had an RBI double in the fourth for his second double of the game.Five different players knocked in runs and eight of nine players reached base. This was a game they were supposed to win with Gil pitching against an inferior opponent and they stepped up and won the game.
Verdugo had two extra base hits and went 2–5 in this game after going 3–20 with one extra base hit in his previous five games. In the second game of the double header he went 1–4.
Will Warren was the 27th man on the roster for the doubleheader, which meant he was sent back down to the Triple-A after making the start in the second game of the double header. In his first game with the Yankees this season, in a July 30 7–6 win in 12 innings over the Phillies, Warren was called up earlier in the day since Gerrit Cole was not able to make his schedule start due to fatigue and being sick.
In Warren’s first start his only mistake was a three run homer on his sweeper pitch. He ended up allowing four earned with with two walks and four hits in 5.1 innings. His sweeper then improved after the second inning. It was a positive that he pitched into the sixth inning in that game and after allowing that homer in the second inning to Austin Hays to make the score 4–1, Warren got 12 of the last 14 batters out that he faced.
Warren has pitched well in his last four starts in the minor leagues before Wednesday’s start in the second game of double header. He has a 6.11 ERA in 20 starts at Triple-A this season but Warren has allowed one earned run in three of his last four starts with the Triple-A Scranton RailRiders.
Warren started off pitching as good as he possibly could since he retired the side in order in the second inning. However, it was in the second inning where it really unraveled for the Yankees and they were put behind the eight ball.
The Angels had the bases loaded with no outs in the second inning with run run having scored in that inning after Warren allowed three consecutive singles and then one walk. He got a big strikeout on 93 MPH sinker of Charles Leblanc. He then struck out the №9 hitter on another sinker for second out of 2nd. He had a bases loaded walk of Nolan Schanuel for the second run but ball four should have been called a strike since it was on the corner, and it that was a strike it would have extended the at-bat. If he struck out or popped out, the inning could have ended with the score 1–0 but much more damage was done since he walked..
Zach Neto hit a grand slam on a 3–2 pitch on a flat fastball by Warren to make the score 6–0. That was his first grand slam of his career in his 195 career game. Neto did a lot of damage since he was 3–5 with six of the Angels eight RBI in this game and in game one of the doubleheader he had two RBI in the Yankees 5–2 win. He had eight RBI combined in the two games on Wednesday after having eight RBI in his previous 15 games.
DJ LeMahieu had a hard hit RBI single in the 2nd inning where he went the other way. He appears to be turning around his season since he went 2–4 with an RBI in this game and in his last three games he is 5–12 with two doubles, a homer and nine RBI. Before these three games (with two games in the middle where he did not get an at-bat), he had gone 2–33 going back to his game on July 9, which was stretch of 12 games that he got at least one at-bat in.
In the last 16 games going into the second game of the double header, Gleyber Torres was hitting .297. In the 8–2 loss, Torres went 1–3 with an RBI. In the last 17 games, Torres, who hit leadoff in the second game of the doubleheader, has raised his average from .223 to .235 and his OPS from .641 to .666. He hit a fly ball to warning track to end the second that was nearly 3-run homer.
Neto had a hard hit 2-run double in 4th to right center to make the score 8–1. Warren threw 41 pitches in second inning, and he had to throw more pitches since he did not get Schanuel out.
LeMahieu got a single in 4th inning for another hit and he has become platoon first baseman. Giancarlo Stanton had a hard hit ground rule double into the bullpen in the 5th inning. He had been struggling since coming back from the injured list since before that double he was 3–20 and with the double he is 4–22 in six games.
Judge has reached base 33 times in his last 10 games. He is the first Yankee since DiMaggio to achieve this incredible feat.
Carlos Narvaez played well when he got a rare start in game two of the doubleheader. He showed off his arm throwing out a runner trying to steal second base. They have viewed him as a plus defender in the minors for a few years. He hit a hard hit single to left earlier in the game before he threw out a runner that had a 108.2 exit velocity in addition to his two walks.
Narvaez has a .300 average (3–10) with a .417 OBP is his brief amount of playing time with the Yankees this season since Wells has been getting the bulk of the time at catcher since Jose Trevino has been injured. Narvaez, who will be 26 on November 26, has played seven seasons in the Yankees’ minor league system starting in 2017 with the Gulf Coast League. This season at Triple-A, he had a .269 average with a very good .386 OBP and a .829 OPS with nine homers, 17 doubles, 47 RBI and eight steals in 71 games.
Trevino has a contract that goes through the rest of the 2024 season, so it would make sense to have Narvaez be the backup catcher next season if Trevino is not brought back, which seems likely based on how well Wells has performed.
