Trent Grisham was the star of the 2–1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays
The Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 2–1 on Wednesday and Trent Grisham, who has been playing everyday recently, drove in both of the runs.
Grisham was the star of the game since his RBI double to left that scored Anthony Volpe in the second inning and then his sacrifice fly that scored Gleyber Torres in the 4th inning gave the Yankees their two runs. He also made an impressive hustling catch in deep center to end the eighth inning to prevent two runs from scoring and to preserve the Yankees lead in the eighth inning.
Grisham, who went 1–3 with two RBI, has a .176 average in his 47 games but in his last nine games he is a productive and improved .276 (8–29) and his improved his OPS from .615 to .652. In his last 11 games he has seven RBI after having just seven RBI in his previous 25 games.
Earlier in the game DJ LeMahieu was hit in the hand by a pitch and in the 7th inning he fouled a ball hard off of his foot. Trainers checked on him but it was determined he would finish the at-bat. He struck out swinging anyway and went 0–2 in the game. LeMahieu, who has a not good .202 average with just three extra base hits in 34 games, had been showing signs of improving at the plate since in his previous eight games he was 8–28 (.286) with two doubles and four RBI.
Juan Soto stole second in the 8th inning. The Yankees had gone their previous 21 consecutive games without a steal since July 9.
Marcus Stroman allowed just one earned run in 4.1 innings while allowing seven hits and two walks. However, Tim Hill saved him from allowing possibly allowing four earned runs in 4.1 innings since Hill came into the game with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning and then got Josh Lowe to strikeout looking and then got Randy Arozarena, who has hit well against the Yankees the last few years, to line out to right to strand three runners and end the inning.
Stroman now has a 3.51 ERA in his 19 starts and has the third best ERA in the rotation. Even though he allowed seven hits and two walks in 4.1 innings his one earned run allowed was an improvement since he allowed five earned runs in 5.0 innings in his previous start on July 4 at Yankee Stadium and in his five starts in June he had a 5.13 ERA.
“The work ethic from every guy, the confidence hasn’t changed one bit,” Yankees starting pitcher Marcus Stroman said. “We’re going to go on skids, but definitely glad to get the win. Full-team team effort tonight. Bullpen was incredible. Grish was obviously big on defense and offense.”
Stroman wanted no part of Isaac Paredes and pitched him away walking him twice. Paredes is having a very good season with 15 homers, 50 RBI and a 138 OPS+ in 87 games this season.
The bullpen really performed well under pressure in this game. The four relief pitchers threw a combined 4.2 scoreless innings and only allowed three hits, three walks and had a total of six strikeouts.
Luke Weaver threw 1.2 hitless innings while allowing two walks and striking out one. Tommy Kahnle pitched 0.2 scoreless innings with one strikeout and Clay Holmes pitched 1.1 perfect innings after coming into the game with two outs in the eighth inning since there were runners on first and second with two outs. Holmes’s last save was all the way back on June 9 against Dodgers. He had only had two other save opportunities since then and both of those were blown saves.
He now has 20 saves and five blown saves with a 2.89 ERA in 30 games this season. He was named an All-Star earlier this week for his second time in his three full seasons with the New York Yankees. He said he was surprised to be named an All-Star.
Hill, who has a sidearm delivery, had a not good 5.87 ERA in 27 games with the White Sox this season but has a much better 2.38 ERA in eight games with the Yankees this season. Pitching coach Matt Blake does good job getting relief pitchers to improve on their results from their previous team with Holmes being a great example of this. Hill had a 5.87 ERA on June 11, which was his last game with the White Sox, and now his ERA is more than a run better at 4.72 after his eight games with the Yankees. Hill has allowed three earned runs in 11.1 innings with the Yankees after allowing four earned runs in his final 2.1 innings with the White Sox.
Yankees pitchers had allowed home runs in their seven previous games and 18 of 19. It is not a coincidence that they won this game after not allowing a home run.
“That was the ultimate bend but don’t break, playing the nickel defense. Just a great job,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “A lot of big moments in that game, especially with what we’re going through and guys just coming through over and over again.”
The Yankees needed this win since if they would have lost that would have meant that they would have gone eight consecutive series without winning a series. If they win tonight at Tropicana Field they will end their long series winless streak. Their last series win came when they won three out of four games against the Royals from June 10–13. Since the end of that Royals series, the Yankees have gone 7–16.
The win on Wednesday was also an important one since the Orioles lost to the Cubs 4–0, which means the Yankees are now just 2.0 games behind Baltimore in the AL East. The Yankees had the best record in MLB and had a 2.5 game lead over the Orioles on June 13 before the winless series streak began. The Orioles have lost three of their last four games but since June 7 they have gone 18–13. If you take away their last four games since June 7 they have gone 17–10.
