Well we got some baseball over the weekend and to put it lightly it got me amped up more for baseball to actually start. There was a lot I was looking forward to during these exhibition games like how players will react to no crowd, and are the batters ready to face real pitching. Those questions were answered Saturday through Monday when the Yankees played their exhibition games against the Mets and Phillies. I was too excited for these games and they lived up to my expectations because we got Judge bombs, Stanton bombs and much more.
Mets vs Yankees 7/18: So for the first game the matchup was the young Michael King vs the veteran Rick Porcello. Michael King dominated the Mets lineup finishing with 4.0 IP, 3 K’s, 1 BB, and 1 ER which is pretty good for a youngling like Michael. King was dominating guys like Pete Alonso, Yoenis Cespedes, and Robinson Cano. Now King won’t amaze you with his stuff but he’ll pound the strike zone and will get outs. Turning to the offensive side we had Mike Tauchman slapping baseballs around the field on Saturday with 3 base hits, a RBI, and a run that was driven in by Gleyber Torres. Clint Frazier has always been a guy who cannot stay up on the main roster because of his defense because his bat is a premium bat to have in the lineup. In the top of the 4th, Clint hit a bomb to deep left field off former CY Young Award winner Rick Porcello which gave the Yanks a 3-0 lead. Those were the only two big things that happened in the game, everyone had decent at bats and looked ready to go.
Mets vs Yankees 7/19: The Baby Bombers were out tonight!! The pitching matchup was Jordan Montgomery vs Corey Oswalt. Montgomery was pitching very well before the world was put on hold, and here he continues to impress the Yankee faithful. Through 5 Innings pitched Monty had 6 K’s, 1 BB, 2 H’s, and 0 ER which was very impressive because the Mets put out possibly their opening day lineup against the left hander. Now if Aaron Judge wins MVP this year and looks dominant you can blame the New York Mets because they got him rolling tonight with 2 HR’s and had very very good at bats. El Gary Sanchez had a HR to left as well which was very nice. Then Giancarlo Stanton trying to shut up the haters hit a 440+ FT HR to tell everyone, “hey I’m here and you better like it.” And we got a Voit bomb to deep center field which is a delight to see because I was very optimistic if he lost his power losing weight during this quarantine. Yet again everyone looked ready expecting our main hitters which should scare everyone because the Yankees have never played a 1/4th of a season with the 4 main guys healthy with that being Judge, Stanton, Gary, and Gleyber.
Phillies vs Yankees 7/20: This game was a rollercoaster for me and most Yankees fans even though this was only an exhibition game. And why is that? Well because one of my personal favorite players of all time Didi Gregorius and Joe Girardi returned to Yankee Stadium for the first time in the opposite clubhouse. Now I did get very emotional for Didi because if you think about all the good moments over the last couple of years for the Yankees they mostly all include Didi Gregorius. Now let’s move on to the game, well this game was a dud and the reason why kids don’t wanna watch baseball, a long game low scoring, not a lot of hits, ext. Pretty boring game and the only exciting things that happened I didn’t even get to see them live, the Judge HR was during a commercial break, and I turned off the TV when Mike Ford tied the game in the bottom of the 9th. For the most part the At Bat were pretty good, Stanton and Gary were not chasing the sliders, Judge had a decent eye besides his 2 K’s that were off of pitches out of the zone. Devi Garcia proved he’s not ready for the big leagues and would 100% benefit from another season in Triple-A.
Verdict: LET’S GET THE GAMES GOING!! Everyone looks ready to go and everyone looks like they’re on the same page for one goal. Everyone looks healthy, everyone looks like they’re ready to face major league pitching again. The pitchers don’t look like they are 2 weeks in front of the hitters anymore like they did in the intersquad games. I’m excited to put it lightly and the Chase for 28 begins NOW!!
TheDyspatch 