The Yankees swept their first series of the season
The Yankees swept their season opening series against the Astros, who have gone to the ALCS in each of the last seven seasons. The Yankees are 4–0 to start the season and the last time they started 3–0 was in 2003.
The Yankees impressively outscored the Astros 21–11 in the four games on the road with Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres and Anthony Rizzo getting off to a slow start to the season and Gerrit Cole being on the injured list. However, the team is being competing at the plate at a high level, having a better overall approach and having a much better success rate at getting on-base than they did last season.
The Yankees also have 21 walks in the four game series, which has helped them have a .372 on-base percentage to begin the season (second in the AL). Last season they had low a .304 OBP, which was 12th out of 15 teams in the AL. This is obviously a small sample size, but it is a positive that the Yankees are off to a good start getting on base at a high rate.
Another positive from the first series of the season besides the offense was that the Yankees are the only bullpen in baseball that did not allow a run so far. The bullpen pitched a remarkable 15.1 scoreless innings against the Houston Astros on the road.
The bullpen was highlighted by closer Clay Holmes who got a save in each of the three games he appeared in. He did not allow a walk in his 3.0 innings and pitched well with runners on base since he allowed three hits in his first game (Opening Day) and two hits in his third game (Sunday) and was still able to have scoreless innings despite having runners in scoring position in two of his three games.
A big reason the Yankees are off to a 4–0 start and have a high OBP is blockbuster off season addition Juan Soto. The Yankees traded Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Jhony Brito, Randy Vasquez and Kyle Higashioka to acquire Soto and the very good defensive outfielder Trent Grisham on December 6. With Soto and Judge, the Yankees have two of the five best hitters in baseball.
Soto is known for his exceptional plate discipline, as he ranked 5th all time in walk rate and 10th all time in career on-base percentage among hitters with least 2000 plate appearances at the conclusion of the 2021 season (his first four seasons). Soto impressively has more walks than strikeouts in his career and has led the league in walks in the last three seasons.
So far this season, Soto is a very impressive 9–17 (.529 average) with one double, one homer, four RBI, three walks, a .600 OBP and a 289 OPS+. He has also had a game-saving throw to nail a runner at home to end the game on Saturday.
After his monster hack that led to a foul ball on 3–1 count with the bases loaded in a tie game on Friday he was patient and got a walk. On Saturday, he was right on target and fouled a ball back with the score tied and then got the same breaking ball again and went the other way and hit the ball just over the high wall in left to give the Yankees the lead and get his first homer with the Bronx Bombers. He did a good job controlling the at-bat.
He was aggressive on approaching the ball in the outfield and threw a one hopper to Jose Trevino, who made a nice tag.
On offense, he had a clutch opposite field homer in Sunday’s game.
He had 10 outfield assists last season and his defense is a little underrated.
“I don’t see why you would ever want to pitch to that guy.,” Aaron Judge, who hits behind Soto, said.”
So far in his career, Soto is a three time All-Star (2021–2013), a two-time All MLB first time selection (2020 and 2021), a four-time Silver Slugger award winner (2020–2023), a one time NL batting champion. He finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in 2018, he finished second in MVP voting in 2021 with 20 doubles, 29 homers, 95 RBI, nine steals, a league leading 145 walks, a .313 average, a .465 OBP and a great 175 OPS+. Last season, he finished sixth in MVP voting after having 32 doubles, a career-high 35 homers, 109 RBI, a career-high 12 steals, a .275 average, a .410 OBP and a 158 OPS+. He will likely hit more homers this season due to the short porch at Yankee Stadium.
He has helped transform the team so far in the first four games to be more dynamic than the were last season.
Another player who has been key to the team getting off to their 4–0 start has been the Venezuelan Oswaldo Cabrera. He is 7–16 (.438) with one double, three runs scored, two homers, six RBI and a 875% OPS. Cabrera has really taken advantage of his opportunity since if DJ LeMahieu was not on the injured list with his right foot contusion then Cabrera would not have been in the lineup.
Cabrera has two homers and six RBI in his first three games. It took him 31 games to hit his second homer last season and 17 games to get to six RBI last season.
In the 7–1 win over the Astros in the second game of the season Soto and Cabrera went a combined 7–9 with a walk, two doubles and four RBI. The rest of the lineup went a combined 5–30 (.166) with eight strikeouts. Cabrera and Soto have combined to hit three homers in the first four games and the rest of the Yankees offense have combined to hit just two homers. Nobody would have guessed that Cabrera would have been the second best hitter after Soto in the first series of the season.
Cabrera has said that being around Soto during spring training and so far this season has had a positive influence on his performance and has improved his approach at the plate after not hitting as well in the 2023 season as he did in his rookie 2022 season.
Anthony Volpe, who missed the fourth game of the season due to having an upset stomach, has been the third best hitter after Soto and Cabrera. He has looked really under control and his revamped approach has been helping. In three games, which is a small sample size, he is 4–10 (.400) with a double, three runs scored, a homer, two RBI and a .571 on-base percentage.
Volpe was the 15th rookie in MLB history to have 20 steals and 20 homers and the first player in Yankees history to have a 20/20 season. He had 21 homers and 24 steals last season. He would have had many more steals but had a stretch in the second half where he really struggled to get on base. He should be able to improve his OBP from the .283 it was last season to about .340 to .350, which should help give him about 10 more steals than last season and he could also have at least 25 homers this season.
Clarke Schmidt allowed three earned runs with one homer allowed ,seven hits and no walks in the series finale. He allowed just one run through five innings but then allowed two earned runs in the sixth inning.
This is what Schmidt said about sweeping the Astros: “It’s just kind of like letting them know and letting everybody know that we’re here. We’re excited about this year. We’re ready to get going and this is just the start for us.”
“It’s very eerily similar to how we were in 2022 when we started off on that really good start,” Schmidt said. “We just felt like we weren’t going to lose at the end of the games. We felt like we were always gonna come back. There’s an energy and excitement in the clubhouse.”
Carlos Rodon pitched well overall in his first start of his season and showed some improvement from last season as he allowed just one earned run in 4.1 innings. He pitched well with runners on base since he allowed five hits and three walks in his 4.1 innings and only one of those runners scored.
Rodon was not able to get the win since he lasted just 4.1 innings. He threw 5.0 innings or less in nine of his 14 starts last season. He will look to give the Yankees more length and he should be able to do that in his second start. He allowed three runs or more in eight of his 14 starts last season and three of those starts included allowing six, seven and eight runs, so it is a positive that he allowed just one run in his first start this season.
The pitcher who had the best start of the four Yankees starting pitchers in the season opening series was the free agent acquisition Long Island native Marcus Stroman. He was the only one of the four who lasted six innings as he threw six scoreless innings while allowing four hits, two walks and striking out for Astros. He was the only starting pitcher of the four who got a quality start and the only one who got the win.
He could not have been much better than he was in his first Yankees start on Saturday in the third game of the season. He is on track to pitch the home opener against the Blue Jays on April 5.
Stroman is back healthy again and is looking to be the pitcher he was before he got injured last season. He was an All-Star last season and in the first 2.5 months of last season through his start on June 15 he was the best starter in the NL as he had a 2.45 ERA (first among qualifiers), 1.04 WHIP (first), .191 batting average against (also first) and 13 quality starts out 15 (also first).
In his next start after June 15 he threw seven shutout innings to lower his ERA to a dominant 2.28 in 16 starts. In the beginning of August, he was put on the injured list with inflammation in his right hip and then in mid-August he was diagnosed with a rib cage cartilage fracture. He missed the entire month of August and beginning of September and his injuries were a big factor in his ERA going up from 2.47 after his last start in June to 3.85 after his last start in July on July 31. He allowed at least four runs in five of his six starts in July after allowing less than three runs in 14 of his first 17 starts of his season in 2023.
Of the seven Yankees to make double-digit starts in 2023, Cole was the only one with an ERA below 4.00 Stroman has not had an ERA above 4.00 since he made 19 starts during an injury-ridden 2018 season.
With the four-game sweep the Yankees have won seven games in a row against the Astros going back to last season. Alex Verdugo, who was another offseason addition to improve the outfield who can be a very good on base piece when he is on, made a great sliding catch for last out to seal the win on Saturday against the team that has gone to seven consecutive ALCS.
Soto played very well in his first series with the Yankees. Soto is the first Yankee in the expansion era (since 1961) with a go ahead RBI in three of his first four games with the team.
Soto has the mentality that he wants be at the plate in a pressurized situation in the ninth inning with the chance to win the game.
Soto on batting w/ the game on the line:”I always want to be up in that situation,” Soto said about his mindset with the game on the line. “That’s what we play for. We all know there’s going to be times where u fail. But I always want to be up there. I don’t mind to be up there & get all the boos or all the claps. I’m always ready for it.”
It was a positive that the Yankees came from behind to win Thursday’s game after being down 4–0, they came from behind to win Friday’s game after being down 1–0, they came from behind to win Saturday’s game after being down 3–1. Sunday’s game was tied at three and then the Yankees scored a run in the ninth on Soto’s RBI single that ended up being the game winner. Two out of the four wins were legit come from behind wins which is a good reversal of many previous games against their rivals since the Astros have had many come from behind wins against the Yankees the last seven seasons.
