Bronx, N.Y., April 3, 2019; Detroit 2, Yankees 1 — Ron Guidry had a glorious day in old Yankee Stadium in 1978, the day he whiffed 18 Angels to establish the Yankee record for strike outs in a game. It was an uplifting day in the Bronx, and my recollection is that it was the day the fan practice of standing and applauding once a pitcher had two strikes on the batter originated. Louisiana Lightning has been in the Yankee pantheon for what he did that day, and that year, ever since. Continue reading
Author Archives: Dan McCourt
Feel the Noize
Bronx, N.Y., March 30, 2019; Baltimore 5, Yankees 3 — James Paxton pitched well in his Yankee debut, but not good enough to avoid taking the 5-3 loss. The southpaw throws hard, pounding heat up to 97 mph, mixing in a slider, and a (very) occasional slow curve. He’s a strike thrower; James threw 21 of 24 first pitches for strikes, and 57 strikes and just 24 balls. Continue reading
Yankees Winners, O’s Help Out
Bronx, N.Y., March 28, 2019; Yankees 7, Baltimore 2 — Yankee fans could be forgiven for thinking Thursday’s home opening win was in the bag four batters into the bottom of the first. Staff ace Masahiro Tanaka had held the visiting Orioles off the board, and one-out sharp singles to right field by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton set up a monstrous home run by DH Luke “LUUUKE” Voit on a 3-1 count into Monument Park, 3-0 Yankees. That left fielder Dwight Smith, Jr., had to reach above the fence to corral a following drive from Miguel Andujar added to the certainty. Continue reading
Jonathan’s Ups and Downs
Tampa, Fla., March 6, 2019; St. Louis 9, Yankees 5 — A chilly, windy Wednesday Tampa morning became a perfect day for a ballgame IF you had a seat bathed in sunlight, as I did. And it figured to be an interesting contest, what with two cogs of the projected Yankee rotation likely to start the season on the Injured List. Continue reading
April in New York
Tampa, Fla., March 5, 2019; Yankees 5, Atlanta 1 — The perfect trip to Yankee land slipped a bit off the tracks Tuesday morning, as the Yankees were learning that nominal staff ace, Luis Severino, scheduled to start against the visiting Braves this day, was experiencing shoulder pain. Meanwhile, traveling Yankee fans, emerging from hotel rooms all around Tampa, were discovering that their 80-degree, blinding-sunshine trip had morphed into a rainy damp morning with temperatures in the 50s. Nevertheless, we trudged to George M. Steinbrenner Field, and the Yankees treated us to a 5-1 victory. Continue reading
Damn Yankees!
Tampa, Fla., March 3, 2019; Yankees 7, Detroit 1 — Masahiro Tanaka made his first game start of the 2019 spring season today, on Sunday afternoon. With three-plus weeks to go in camp, he already looked ready to go. Continue reading
A Good Bad Day
Bradenton, Fla., March 2, 2019; Pittsburgh 8, Yankees 7 — Righthander Danny Farquhar had another in a series of good days Saturday afternoon, taking the mound in a Spring Training game against major league hitters. The outcome — a five-run Pirates inning that morphed a 3-1 Yankee lead into a 6-3 deficit — wasn’t pretty, but the Yankees struggled gamely to recover from it, right up until the last pitch. Continue reading
Let’s Play Two!
Lakeland and Tampa, Fla., March 1, 2019; Mets 7, Tigers 1 and Baltimore 2, Yankees 2 — A lovely day, a lovely evening, and 15 innings of Spring Training baseball. We ended up in Tampa where the Yankees and the visiting Orioles played to a 2-2 tie, but not before watching the first six innings of the Mets 7-1 win over the Tigers. Of note from Lakeland was a solid outing from reigning NL Cy Young Jacob deGrom (three innings, four strike outs, one hit), the sloppy Detroit pitching (three wild pitches in a five-pitch stretch in the second), and two singleton home runs from the visiting team, its lone resemblance to the night game in Tampa that would follow. Continue reading
Good Day, Sunshine!
Tampa, Fla., February 28, 2019; Yankees 8, Pittsburgh 6 — The annual search for the perfect day to attend a Spring Training game in Tampa has been suspended, because it arrived today, Thursday afternoon. J.A. Happ got the start against the visiting Pirates, and the teams scored seemingly at will early, with the Yankee end-of-game replacements eventually pulling out an exciting 8-6 victory. Continue reading
You Win Some, You Lose Some…
Lakeland, Fla., February 27, 2019; Detroit 10, Yankees 4 — Dat’s it, I’m afraid; the eventual rain that delayed, then ended, Wednesday’s Yankee game vs the Tigers interrupted D.J. LeMahieu’s leadoff at bat in the top of sixth, not the fifth. Off a day of driving rain, dazzling morning sunny skies and 80-degree temps gradually devolved into a partly cloudy day, then a sky totally blanketed in clouds. Continue reading