Game 2 started in September and ended in October. It had a rain delay both without and with actual rain. It was filled with walks and runs, yet basically crawled to a major league record for a nine-inning game of 4 hours and 50 minutes.
The Yankees only won this marathon and clinched this series against the Indians because the length, discipline and power of their offense overcame the shoddy work of their bullpen.
The final was 10-9, the Yanks scoring two in the ninth via their once-again awakened circular lineup as ninth-place hitter Gary Sanchez lifted a sacrifice fly and leadoff man DJ LeMahieu Sojo-ed a bouncer up the middle for a two-out, two-strike RBI single.
“You don’t have to pour champagne to appreciate what an epic game that was,” Aaron Boone said. Even a bubbly-free environment enforced by MLB rule could not douse the spirits of a team that amassed 22 runs in two games against the team that led the AL in ERA to eliminate the Indians.
The Yankees beat up the majors’ best regular-season starter, Shane Bieber, in Game 1 and arguably the best reliever this year in James Karinchak in Game 2 before deciding this series by inflicting the first blown save on Cleveland closer Brad Hand, who led the majors in saves by going 16-for-16 during the regular season.
Now, they move on to face the Rays, whose pitching is more formidable because there is so much of it. Tampa Bay, for example, had 12 relievers earn a save during the regular season and then Peter Fairbanks recorded one in Game 1 of the playoffs against Toronto. Yep, he was the 13th Ray this year to do that.
What would the Yanks have done for a Fairbanks on Wednesday? Their two main relievers, Chad Green and Zack Britton, stumbled and Boone ignored Adam Ottavino at a key moment. The Yankee manager insists he has not lost faith in the righty, though all of the usage patterns suggest that trust began evaporating for the righty last postseason in poor performance against Minnesota and Houston, and it has continued this year.
Remember, there are no off-days in the best-of-five Division Series that begins Monday in San Diego. So having faith in a lot of relievers is going to be vital because Boone is unlikely to use even his main guys more than two or three days in a row. And after a season of going through a lot of Jonathan Holders and Nick Nelsons and Brooks Kriskes, Boone never really found a replacement for Ottavino or Tommy Kahnle, who was lost when he needed Tommy John surgery.
A key sequence of Wednesday night’s Game 2 came down to Boone summoning a righty reliever to face a righty hitter who really struggles against righty pitching. When the Yankees signed Ottavino for three years at $27 million after the 2018 season, that pretty much was his calling card; using his slider to obliterate righties.
Except at this vital moment, Boone picked the inexperienced Jonathan Loasiga to try to retire Jordan Luplow with a two-run lead and two outs in the seventh inning. He said he wanted Loaisiga to provide length to extend through the eighth to get to Chapman in the ninth. But if he believed in Ottavino he could have had him get Luplow then used Loaisiga in the eighth. After all, Luplow hit .128 vs. righties this year and .194 for his career. But against the righty Loasiga he doubled to the center-field wall to drive in two runs.
The Yankees needed to go to their bullpen early because Masahiro Tanaka had his shortest outing in nine postseason starts. He failed to retire a batter in the fifth. Perhaps two rain delays totaling an hour, 27 minutes impacted the righty. The first one came before the first pitch when there was no rain, then the game began and it almost immediately poured, forcing Tanaka to start and stop.
His early departure initiated a failed chain of relief that would cost the Yankees. Green inherited two Tanaka runners in the fifth and allowed a two-run Jose Ramirez double that tied the score. Protecting an 8-6 lead in the seventh, Britton got two outs before walking Carlos Santana and Franmil Reyes consecutively. That led to Loaisiga, who also made bad, worse in the eighth when he walked the first two men he faced. Boone turned to Chapman to try to strike his way out of this problem. But Cesar Hernandez parachuted a single to left that brought in the go-ahead run.
However, Gio Urshela, who had a grand slam earlier, made a brilliant play to initiate a double play that helped get Chapman out of further trouble. He also had a two-strike single in a Yankee ninth that accentuated the clutch, disciplined at-bats for the Yankees against the Indians.
The offense was overwhelming, enough to help protect a short bullpen in this series. That worked against Cleveland. The Yanks will need more and better relief against Tampa Bay.
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Yankees able to bail out the bullpen — this time: Sherman - New York Post
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