It's Not Easy Pitching Green, But Yanks Win Anyway

The Yankees played most of yesterday's series finale with the Kansas City Royals as if it were easy. As it turned out, it wasn't.

James Paxton started, and he pitched 6 innings, allowing no runs on 3 hits and a walk, striking out 12. It was a fantastic performance.

It should have been more fantastic. It wasn't, through no fault of his. More on that in a moment.

Due to all the Yankees' injuries, Aaron Boone played around with the lineup a bit. DJ LeMahieu was the leadoff hitter, and he doubled to right in the bottom of the 1st inning. Luke Voit flew to right, getting DJLM to 3rd base. With Brett Gardner up, Royals pitcher Jorge Lopez threw a pitch in the dirt, and catcher Martin Maldonado couldn't handle it. The ball got away, and LeMahieu scored. One-nil to the Pinstripe Boys.

Austin Romine drove a run in with a 2nd inning single. With 1 out in the 5th, Voit and Gardner hit back-to-back singles, and Clint Frazier continued his torrid pace with a home run. 5-0 Yankees.

Now, a major league baseball team (capitalized or otherwise) should never blow a 5-run lead. Ever. But the Royals led off the top of the 7th with a double and a walk. Paxton had now thrown 104 pitches. Relieving him made a little sense, but maybe he could have gotten out of it.

At any rate, Boone brought in Tommy Kahnle. He got the next 3 batters out. With the game still 5-0 going into the 8th, leaving Kahnle in would have been a good idea.

Instead, Boone brings in Chad Green. Green had been a big help in the 2017 and 2018 runs to the Playoffs, but he has had nothing this season. To paraphrase the old line from Kermit the Frog, It's not easy pitching Green. He allowed 2 singles and a walk, and Boone had to get him out of there.

He brought in Adam Ottavino. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. (No, kids, that's not a Game of Thrones reference.) He allowed a 2-run double, a 3-run homer, and a solo homer. In the space of just 6 batters, the game went from 5-0 New York to 6-5 Kansas City.

Five-nil, and we fucked it up.

Boone left Ottavino in to finish the inning, which he did without further damage. As our old friend Phil Rizzuto would have said, "But the damage is done. I tell ya, Bill White, this is unbelievable. Holy cow."

Could this banged-up Yankee team, looking more like the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, possibly come from behind? Yes. Mike Tauchman led off the bottom of the 8th with a double. Gio Urshela and Mike Ford grounded out. But Austin Romine singled Tauchman home with the tying run. Unfortunately, Gleyber Torres struck out to end the threat.

Aroldis Chapman pitched a scoreless top of the 9th. Now, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I'd rather lose in 9 innings than lose in extra innings. But this game was tied, so that wasn't possible. And the Yankees did not score in the inning.

Zackary Grant Britton was professionally known as "Zach Britton," with an H, until this season. Now, he wants to be called "Zack," with a K. Well, he pitched a scoreless top of the 10th, so he can call himself whatever he wants.

He added 2 strikeouts. Between them, the 6 Yankee pitchers -- well, 5, as Green didn't get any outs, much less a strikeout -- struck out 20 batters, a team record.

Jake Diekman began the bottom of the 10th for the Royals. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. He walked Tauchman. Then he walked Urshela. Royals manager Ned Yost had seen enough: He brought in former Yankee pitcher Ian Kennedy. Thairo Estrada bunted the runners over. And Romine singled Tauchman home.

Final score, in 10 innings: Yankees 7, Royals 6. WP: Britton (1-0). No save. LP: Diekman (0-1).

Whew. It was Easter Sunday, and the Yankees rose from the dead -- not in 3 days, but in 3 innings.

Going into tonight's action, the Yankees are 11-10, above .500. And, thanks to the Boston Red Sox -- believe it -- sweeping the Tampa Bay Rays, the Yankees are now only 2 1/2 games out of 1st place, just 2 games in the all-important loss column.

Gee, maybe things aren't so hopeless after all.

The Yankees have now flown to the Pacific Coast. Tonight, they begin a series in Anaheim against the Los Angeles Angels.