New York Yankees: The 6’6, 245 lb. “small” bright spot in Red Sox rout
By Sean Dyer
The New York Yankees got annihilated by the Boston Red Sox 14-1 on Tuesday night but, believe it or not, there was one “small” bright spot.
Watching the New York Yankees was painful on Tuesday night. The Boston Red Sox scored one run right off the bat in the bottom of the first and it was 4-0 by the end of the second. After a nine-run sixth inning made it 14-1, there was no coming back for the Yanks.
Luis Severino gave up five runs in five innings, Tommy Kahnle gave up another five runs in 0.2 innings, and Chasen Shreve gave up four runs before getting the final out of the sixth. To their credit, only three of Kahnle’s runs were earned and all four of Shreve’s runs were unearned thanks to a two-out error by Miguel Andujar on a simple ground ball.
Offensively, newcomer Shane Robinson went 1-for-3 with a walk, Didi Gregorius continued his hot start by going 2-for-4, and Aaron Judge went 3-for-4 with a home run after entering the game 0-12 with 10 strikeouts against Chris Sale in his career.
In a 14-1 rout, it’s tough to find bright spots. However, in this particular rout, there’s one small bright spot. Well, that’s if you consider 6’6, 245 lb. small.
The struggling strikeout machine Giancarlo Stanton actually put the ball in play on Tuesday night … twice! Stanton did strike out in his first two at-bats (two of Sale’s eight punchouts on the day), but he then singled in the fifth off Sale and doubled in the eighth off Brian Johnson.
Normally when a team loses 14-1, one specific player’s two hits are meaningless. However, in this case, it’s a huge stride for Stanton. Stanton’s slump got to the point where he seemed to lose the strike zone and was swinging at anything thrown his way. His confidence disappeared and a strikeout seemed inevitable as soon as he stepped into the box.
Stanton has now picked up a pair of hits which should help his confidence. Finally seeing the ball drop in for a hit should remind Stanton that he’s the reigning NL MVP. He hit 59 home runs last year!
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Tuesday night was an ugly game but it still only counts as one loss in the standings. If Stanton gets going offensively and the New York Yankees get healthy in the coming weeks, this 14-1 blowout will be a distant memory.