After the Yankees took the W on Thursday night due to the rainout, they were back at it with the second game of their series against the Nationals on Saturday Night. After Stephen Strasberg was announced to have a nerve issue in his throwing hand and was scratched, Erick Fedde started for the Nationals, matching-up against lefty James Paxton.
The game started out sloppy on both sides, especially for the Nationals, who committed 5 total errors throughout the game. The Yankees’ stacked lineup failed to pounce on these errors early, which ended up hurting them.
After a clean first inning, James Paxton unraveled in the second inning, loading the bases, and eventually being taken out. He was charged with 3 earned runs, 5 HA, 1 walk, collecting just 3 outs before being pulled in favor for the right-hander Michael King, who couldn’t stop the bleeding. The Yankees would not be able to overcome this bad start, losing the game 9-2.
The Good:
Giancarlo Stanton was the only player to show up for the Yankees, and did so in a big way, going 2-3 with a 483-foot Homer, a double and a Walk. Stanton has looked good early in this season, with two homers in two games so far.
The Bad:
Gleyber Torres and Gary Sanchez have struggled thus far, especially last night. Gleyber went 0/4, and wasn’t able to get on base, and Gary Sanchez went 0/4 with a strikeout. Neither player has any hits in 7 ABs, and Sanchez has struck out 4 times so far.
The Ugly:
James Paxton did not get the job done last night, but worst of all is his regression from last season. Paxton had no control, and lost velocity on all his pitches, especially his fastball, which was registering in the low-90s, rather than being high-90s, where it usually lies. Hopefully, this can be chalked up to being the first start of the season, but it is not promising.
TheDyspatch 