Games: New York Yankees, May 5: Judging the Royals with Lee Judge

Games » New York Yankees

May5

A lot happened

A lot happened, so let’s get to it: Felipe Paulino pitched great. I asked Ned Yost how Paulino got Derek Jeter out three straight times. The answer was excellent location with quality pitches. (Someone should’ve thought of that sooner.) It looked like the plan to get in on Jeter’s hands worked this time. Jeter grounded out 4-3, 6-3, 6-3, all on 2-seam fastballs between 94 and 97 miles an hour. It looked like Jeter never got his arms extended and was unable to hit the ball with authority. Paulino got the ball where he wanted with something on it.

Paulino didn’t give up his first hit until the 5th and I wondered what working out of the stretch would do to him. If a pitcher is dominating for several innings, he’s building up a rhythm out of the windup. Teams will try to find any way to get a runner on and force the pitcher into the stretch in hopes of breaking that rhythm.

Paulino threw one pitch out of the stretch in the 4th—after a walk—but immediately got a groundout. The only inning in which he had much trouble at all was the 5th and he was working out of the stretch from the second batter on. I don’t know if pitching from the stretch is any problem for Felipe, but it’s something for fans to watch for any time they see a pitcher go several innings from the windup and then have to make the switch.

Game notes

Eric Hosmer lined out two more times in this game. There’s a difference between being in a slump and not getting hits. Hosmer is not getting hits. Hosmer’s smoking the ball nightly, with little to show for it.
Bottom of the 5th and Billy Butler hits his second double of the game, scoring Alex Gordon from first. Gordon might not have scored if he hadn’t been in motion on the pitch. Before the game Ned Yost talked about when he likes to put the main in motion. With Butler at the plate it can keep the team out of a double play, but Ned’s got to pick the right count to start the runner. Yost guessed right twice in this game: He kept the Royals out of a double play when he sent Gordon on 2-1 count in the third and helped Gordon score from first when Ned sent him on a 2-2 count in the 5th.
Ned doesn’t want to hit and run all the time to avoid the double play with Billy, he wants Butler to be able to pick his pitch and drive it. But if he’s convinced Billy is going to get a good pitch to hit or might have to swing at a pitch with two strikes, Yost might start the runner to stay out of the DP.
Later in the 5th inning the dangers of playing station-to-station baseball showed up: Billy’s on second and Francoeur singles, but Butler only gets to third. Then Mike Moustakas hits a shallow fly to right, but it’s too shallow for Billy to tag. It looked like both decision were correct, but it shows how much pressure only being able to advance one base at a time puts on the offense. Aggressive base running or station-to-station—both have their risks.
It didn’t come up in this game—or if it did I missed it—but Ned told me he likes to use the 3-0 green light with a power hitter at the plate and a tough pitcher on the mound. The 3-0 fastball will probably be the best pitch a power hitter will see. Turn on the green light and give the hitter a chance to do some damage.
Top of the 6th and it’s the Jeff Francoeur defensive highlight show. Frenchy saves a run when he throws out Curtis Granderson attempting to advance to third and then ends the inning with another outstanding catch.
Bottom of the 6th: Chris Getz walks, Alcides Escobar singles to right. It appears to be too shallow for Getz to go first to third, but he does anyway and makes it without a throw. Afterwards Chris said if the Royals are down by two that’s a dumb play; Escobar’s the tying run. Down by one, tied or up by one or more and trying to tack on a run, being aggressive makes more sense.
Because Chris makes it to third and the Yankees are down 3-0 at that point, they have to bring in the infield. When Escobar takes off for second, the Yanks are afraid to throw down with Getz standing on third. Jarrod Dyson hits a sac fly, Getz scores and when Gordon hits a double, Escobar scores easily.
The Yankees play a shallow outfield, so anything that gets to the wall means they have to chase it a while. Gordon burned that shallow outfield when he hit the ball over Curtis Granderson’s head. But the Yankees will trade that double for all the balls Granderson catches as he comes in.
Bottom of the 7th, Chris Getz on first with two outs. Freddy Garcia is on the mound and generally takes 1.4 seconds to deliver the ball to home plate. Getz can beat a 1.3, so I expect him to go. Getz starts to, but the Yankees pitch out, Getz hits the brakes and goes back to first. After the game, Chris tells me something about Garcia’s delivery was different on the pitchout, so he shut down the steal. When Chris had time to sort out what his subconscious had noticed, it was Garcia speeding up his delivery. Chris says a lot of pitchers do that and you can pick it up if you pay attention.
Chris eventually stole the base off Garcia, but Alcides Escobar hit a groundball to end the inning. Even though it was the last out of the inning, Getz hit third, made the turn and kept coming home. He was almost rewarded for this heads-up base running when the throw nearly pulled Mark Teixeira off the bag. If the call goes the other way, the Royals would’ve picked up another run. All because Getz didn’t mail in his effort and slow down when it looked like the inning was over.
The other day Doug Sisson said you can’t play smart baseball without your smartest players on the field—and he likes Chris Getz on the field.
Kelvin Herrera was outstanding and one of his best pitches was his changeup. Before the game Dave Eiland and I talked about pitchers using the crowd to their advantage: people going nuts, the place rocking, adrenaline flowing—back off on the velocity and let the hitter come out of his shoes swinging at a slower pitch.
Mike Moustakas saved a run in the 8th inning. Granderson led off with a double and Alex Rodriguez hit a ground ball to Moose. Mike delayed his throw to first base in order to look Granderson back to second base. If he hadn’t done that, I think Granderson advances—at least his body language indicated that—and that meant a run would’ve scored on Robinson Cano’s grounder to second that immediately followed.
The last play of the game was a grounder hit to Getz, who was playing almost directly behind second base. We’ll all remember when a shift doesn’t work—give the Royals credit when one does.

Royals Chris Getz explains bunting to the Star's Lee Judge

Kansas City Royals infielder Chris Getz explains bunting to the Star's Lee Judge. May 5, 2012 (Video by John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star)

Comments

Joel Kallem
1 year ago

Great game - timely pitching, clutch hitting, and good “d”. The Royals have played well in 3 of the last 4 games. Hope this becomes typical of what we can expect over the rest of the season.
Derek Taylor
1 year ago

I think I’m going to enjoy watching the Jarrod Dyson show for the next few weeks. I’ve seen quite a few rushed throws (or bobbles, like the first play of the game) because of his speed on the basepaths, and he’s been on base every game he’s played so far. Seems like exactly what you want in a leadoff hitter to me (assuming he keeps to his current groundball approach and doesn’t go back to all the flyouts we saw last season).
Lee Judge
1 year ago

Joel: Jeff Montgomery said he thought this was the Royals most complete game so far this year.

I know they won’t always play this well, but they’ve got this in them.
Lee Judge
1 year ago

Derek: What you’re seeing is what the Royals are also seeing: balls thrown away because of his speed. There was also pickoff throw that got away with Dyson on first the other night.

They want Jarrod to hit the ball on the line or lower. That takes advantage of his running ability.
Steve Yeakel
1 year ago

Great observations Lee. So many things done right this game, so few done wrong. It is great to see this quality of baseball from the Royals, especially after all these past years of futility. They beat the Yankees, and it was not a fluke. Now whatever it takes to keep this up, I hope they can, or at least keep getting better and better at playing better. Do you sense an increasing confidence in the clubhouse, from the players and coaches?
Lee Judge
1 year ago

Steve: Yes, these guys were riding pretty high in spring training, started well against the Angels, had the weird loss to end the A’s series and then fell flat on their faces.

Ned Yost kept insisting the losing streak would ultimately make them better after they figured out how to handle the pressure that was coming their way.

As Sisson pointed out, playing well against Verlander in Detroit built their confidence (if they could compete with him they could compete with anybody) and that seems to be carrying over against New York.

But as they say in baseball, momentum is tommorow’s starting pitcher. Yesterday’s over, time to get after it again today.

The biggest thing from my point of view—which you touched on—is that they’re playing good baseball. Win or lose if they keep giving this kind of effort, things will be OK.
Aaron Bailey
1 year ago

Earlier in the game, with a Yankee on 2nd and two outs, the runner headed for 3rd on a the ground ball to 3rd. It looked like Moose could’ve just tagged the runner rather than make the throw across the diamond. I’m curious if the fielder just makes the throw on instinct or if the runner is trying to create a rundown situation - any thoughts?
Lee Judge
1 year ago

Aaron: At this level the throw across the infield is considered the sure out. Start chasing a runner and some goofy things can happen.

Reach out for a tag and miss and you may be too late for the out at first base. If the runner stops short, you now need a rundown that involves multiple players. Tag the runner and he knocks the ball out of your glove and you get nobody.

Most of the time they’ll just throw over and do the routine thing.
Lee Judge
1 year ago

BTW: Pouring rain at the park, but we’ve been told it’s supposed to end by noon.
Chuck Smith
1 year ago

I think it’ll be very interesting to see what happens when Betancourt and Cain return. I think Cain has a better chance of taking his job back, but, with the way Getz is playing, he will hopefully lock down the 2B job.
Larry Tindle
1 year ago

Lee, have noticed that the last few games Quintero looks absolutely lost at the plate. His swings are not aggressive at all. He looks like he is just trying not to miss the ball, not get a hit. At the beginning of the season he was swinging much better.
Jim Fetterolf
1 year ago

Kind of a slow day, so anyone wondering how the farm system is doing, whether Mike Montgomery, Johnny Giavotella, and Wil Myers are making the front office pay attention, Clint Scoles over at “Diamonds in the Rough” at Pine Tar Press has got it covered:

http://www.pinetarpress.com/diamonds-rough-55/

For those not quite curious enough, Montgomery is showing progress from a new release point, Gio is heating up with the bat, and Myers is batting .330 with 8 homers. And Myers has been playing quite a bit of CF, interesting because of Lorenzo Cain’s history of leg injuries.
Lee Judge
1 year ago

Chuck: You never know everything that goes into these decisions, but Getz is playing well. I assume they’d like to give Cain the chance to show what he can do, but I’ve got no inside information.
Lee Judge
1 year ago

Larry: Yeah, I don’t know which Quintero is the real deal, but as long as he does the catch and throw part, they’re probably getting what the want out of Humberto.
Patrick Redlin
1 year ago

Lee, I had a question I don’t think anyone else saw the other game. I was at the stadium and Bryan Pena was catching Chen in the Yankees game. A ball was fouled off and Pena grabbed a ball from the umpire, walked to the grass in front of home plate, bent over quickly and unhooked both of the top straps to his right leg shin guard. He then tossed the ball to Chen, walked back to home plate and the umpire pointed at Pena’s shin guard to tell him it was undone. Pena bent down, took his time to hook them back to the clips, then tapped the umpire’s leg to say “thanks.” I was curious if anyone else noticed this.

I couldn’t tell from my seat if the ball that was fouled off before he unhooked his shinguards hit Pena and he was taking some time to recover (but I doubt it hit him because the umpire would have walked out and tossed the ball and took time to dust the plate to give Pena time to recover.) So I was wondering if you could ask Pena about this… It was in the Top of the 4th inning with Cano batting. My only thought is that he may have been trying to disrupt Cano’s rhythm without actually going to the mound and talking? Very curious to find this out
Lee Judge
1 year ago

Patrick: When I get a chance, I’ll ask.
Chuck Smith
1 year ago

I’m a pretty optimistic patient guy, but I’m about done with Hochevar.

Judging the Royals