Yankees drop 2 of 3 to Phillies

After taking two of three games from the Detroit Tigers, the Yankees faced a good opportunity in facing one of the worst teams in baseball in the Philadelphia Phillies. With a ton of offense in games one and two, the Yankees came up on the short-end of them but took game three to avoid the sweep.

GAME ONE (6/22)

NYY 8 VS. PHI 11

Game one of the series was an outing to forget for Michael Pineda as he struggled greatly not even getting through the fourth inning. Pineda was shelled for 11 hits and 8 runs (all earned) with 1 walk and no strikeouts across 3.1 innings. It was Pineda’s first outing without a strikeout this year. Phillies 1B/3B Maikel Franco got off to a hot start taking Pineda deep in the first as he went 4-5 with 2 homers and 5 RBIs.

The Yankees scored 8 runs by getting two in the first, three in the fourth inning, one in the seventh and 2 in the ninth. The Yankees picked up runs in the first on a Brian McCann sacrifice fly and a Carlos Beltran double, his first of two doubles in the game. Brett Gardner kept his red-hot hitting alive with a solo home run in the 4^th and McCann hit a solo shot in the 7^th. The Yankees rallied in the 9^th a bit on a 2-RBI double by Garrett Jones but it was too little, too late.

GAME TWO (6/23)

NYY 6 VS. PHI 11

The Yankees jumped out to a 3-1 lead going into the top of the fourth inning thanks to a sacrifice fly from A-Rod in the first, a solo home run from Garrett Jones in the second inning and a solo dinger from Brett Gardner in the third inning. The Phillies then got to CC Sabathia in the fourth putting up 5 runs to take a 6-3 lead. The Yankees would jump right back into the game by back-to-back home runs from Chase Headley and Alex Rodriguez. Headley’s 100^th career home run went into the bullpen, instead of in the hands of one Zack Hample so Headley shouldn’t have a problem getting it back. A-Rod’s home run was a lazar into the leftfield seats. Chris Young tied the game at 6 with an RBI double in the same inning (bottom five).

With Dellin Betances entering his second inning of work in the ninth, the Phillies tagged him with 4 runs and his first career loss. Betances’ ERA skyrocketed from 0.26 to 1.25. Disappointingly, the Yankees dropped the first two games to the Phillies.

GAME THREE (6/24)

NYY  10 VS. PHI 2

The series finale featured the highly anticipated debut of Ivan Nova after a 14-month absence due to Tommy John Surgery against the potential Yankee, Cole Hamels. In the first inning, Hamels hit A-Rod in what appeared to be intentional in retaliation to Maikel Franco being hit by Justin Wilson the night before. Both benches were warned which had Joe Girardi on edge for the rest of what was a short afternoon at the ballpark for him. Girardi was ejected in the top of the third inning after loudly protesting a check swing by Maikel Franco. The ejection was anti-climactic as Girardi’s actions didn’t seem to warrant an ejection.

The Yankees tagged Hamels with two runs on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Jose Pirela in the second inning. A second run came home on that play by a throwing error by Phillies third basemen Andres Blanco. Didi Gregorius led off the fourth inning with a double that was an infield pop-up lost in the sun by Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis. Brett Gardner stayed hot with an RBI single in the third that was followed up by a pretty lucky RBI double by Chase Headley to push the score to 4-0. Mark Teixeira kept the inning alive with an RBI single to give the Yankees a 5-0 lead.

The Yankees then picked up runs on an RBI single from Chris Young, an RBI double off the centerfield wall from Jose Pirela, an RBI single from A-Rod and another RBI single from Mark Teixeira as the Yankees put up 10 runs. Diego Moreno struggled a bit in the ninth inning allowing 2 runs but nevertheless, the Yankees won 10-2.

MY TAKES

Brett Gardner continued his hot pace going 4-4 with a home run and 2 bunt singles as he was one of the main contributors for the Yankees. Carlos Beltran looked good at the plate going 3-5 with 2 doubles. Chasen Shreve continued his dominance since May lowering his ERA to 1.88. The Yankees bats were alive in this game but a poor outing from Michael Pineda really hurt the team. Giving Pineda 10 days of rest was perhaps a very bad thing to do for Pineda’s rhythm as he’s struggled since then (aside from the one hit outing against Miami).

The bats came to play once again in game two of the series. The team hit four home runs including Headley’s 100^th career homer which was good for him to get out of the way. Brett Gardner continued his blistering hot pace as he’s one of if not the hottest hitter in the major leagues. At this point, he’s got a good case for playing in Cincinnati in the All-Star game.

The Yankees hot hitting as a team was present in all 3 games. In game three, everyone in the starting lineup picked up a base hit except Carlos Beltran. Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez also helped their cases for playing in the All-Star game in Cincinnati.

LOOKING FORWARD

The Yankees will now travel to face the first place Houston for a four game series through Sunday. Game one will feature Adam Warren (5-4 3.62 ERA) against Dallas Keuchel (8-3 2.35 ERA) at 8:05 PM ET. Keuchel has been one of the best pitchers in the MLB this season while this could be Warren’s final start for the time being. We will see Nathan Eovaldi (6-2 4.95 ERA) vs. Vincent Velasquez (0-0 4.15 ERA) in what could potentially be Eovaldi’s last start before a move to the bullpen. The starting pitchers for Saturday and Sunday are to be determined but we’ll keep you posted on our twitter page.

Article by: Chad Raines

Follow me on twitter @Chad_Rain

Follow our blog on twitter @BronxBomberBlog

CC Photo Via http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/betances-sabathia-yankees-11-6-loss-phillies-article-1.2268874

Gardy Photo Via http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/hot-hitting-brett-gardner-does-it-all-at-the-plate-1.10570689

Girardi Photo Via http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2015/06/yankees_joe_girardi_ejected_throws_tantrum_vs_phil.html