Last night, baseballs were flying out and around Yankee Stadium with such velocity, that the New York Transit Authority had to stop service on the 4 train running past right field, for fear of injuring passengers. Whether it is the ball being juiced, the velocity of the pitches thrown or some new way of making bats, things are not what they used to be.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, Gary Sanchez hit a moon shot himself. A 481 foot blast into the left center field bleachers.
Yes it is good to be a Yankee fan right now. The 41,166 in attendance who came to see Aaron Judge make his first start after coming back off the IL were treated to another display of power hitting, good defense and gutsy pitching.
Yankee lefty starter James Paxton did not have his best stuff but worked hard to get through every inning. In the second inning, he walked the first two batters and then struck out the next three and put his team back in the dugout. He would eventually get through five innings with 3 walks, 7 strikeouts and 100 pitches, while leaving with a 2-1 lead.
The Yanks had a nail biter in the eighth when, after one out, Zack Britton walked the next two batters. After getting the first out he faced Josh Reddick who battled him to an eight pitch at-bat, where it culminated in a crushing, inning ending double play for the Astros.
Two not so happy things were Giancarlo Stanton striking out three times and hitting into a double play. Stanton left three men on base. He does not look comfortable at the plate. The other bad note was Cameron Maybin, who had to leave, after scoring ahead of Sanchez’s blast, with a strained left calf.
The Yankees play the Astros, (who have now dropped their last six games) two more times in this home stand. The Yanks are riding a seven game winning streak and will send Masahiro Tanaka (5-5, 3.23 era) to the mound to face lefty Wade Miley (6-4, 3.30 era) where they hope to continue making their fans happy in the Bronx.