Recent Acquisition Gives the Yankees' Playoff Hopes a Lift
The Yankees did not make any blockbuster moves at the July 31 trade deadline, but they acquired several veteran players who they believed could provide help toward a playoff run. One of those players, Martin Prado, might have helped keep them in the playoff race Friday.
Prado, who had homered earlier in the game, singled with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning to send the Yankees to a 4-3 victory against the Chicago White Sox. Prado pointed to the dugout as his line drive on a 3-2 pitch from Chicago reliever Daniel Webb headed toward center field. Teammates rushed to the field to greet him.
Ichiro Suzuki started the rally with a single to center against Webb. Suzuki was sacrificed to second base by Brett Gardner before Derek Jeter flew out to shallow center. Jacoby Ellsbury was intentionally walked to bring up Mark Teixeira, who also walked.
Three Yankees relievers (Shawn Kelley, Dellin Betances and David Robertson) combined to shut out the White Sox for four innings after the rookie starter Shane Greene could not get out of the sixth.
The Yankees have come to expect good performances from Greene, who has pitched ably after being put into the rotation in July.
If the Yankees are to take any positives from all the injuries to their starting rotation this season, it is that they have been able to discover that players from their farm system, such as Greene and David Phelps, are capable of pitching in a major league rotation. The Yankees are likely to consider Greene for next year's rotation even if C. C. Sabathia and Ivan Nova recover from their injuries.
'I like watching Shane pitch,' Yankees starter Brandon McCarthy said about Greene. 'I don't care if I'm not here anymore. He's a really fun kid for me to watch pitch because he lies and calls it a cutter even though it's a disgusting unhittable slider. His fastball is just explosive. He's a guy I've never heard of before I came here and 10 years ago that's a kid who is on the cover of Baseball America and he's the next big thing. It's crazy where pitching is going now. It shows how good he is because nobody knows who he is and I guarantee that hitters when they go back to the dugout they say, 'I don't know what I just saw.' '
But Greene struggled in the first inning Friday, eliminating almost any chance he would pitch deep into the game. The first two Chicago batters in the first inning, Alejandro De Aza and Carlos Sanchez, singled, and then scored on Jose Abreu's 32nd home run of the season. Greene threw 28 pitches in the inning. He was removed from the game in the sixth when he allowed the first two batters in the inning to reach base. But Kelley came in and kept the White Sox from scoring.
The Yankees scored their first two runs of the game on Prado's two-run homer in the third inning against John Danks. They tied the game in the fifth inning when Ellsbury's double scored Gardner.
The Yankees put on the lead runner on in the sixth and seventh innings, but were unable to score. They entered Friday's game having scored just 23 runs in the past 10 games. The offensive struggles caused several of the position players to hold a players-only meeting before Thursday's 3-0 win against the Houston Astros.
'I've said all along these guys have worked hard and they're doing whatever it takes to figure it out,' Manager Joe Girardi said before Friday's game in reference to the meeting. 'They're going to do whatever it takes to get better and to improve the production. I'm all for that. It's something where they come to work and say, 'O.K. this is what it is.' They look for every road every day to get getter.'
INSIDE PITCH
On Friday, Yankees pitcher David Phelps, who was placed on the disabled list on Aug. 8 with right elbow inflammation, threw on flat ground from 60 feet, the third time he had done so. Phelps projected that he was likely to begin throwing from the mound sometime late next week. Joe Girardi said that when Phelps returns to the roster, he would pitch out of the bullpen. 'I just think it's this late in the season now if I were to be stretched out to be a starter,' Phelps said. 'It would take too long. It's one thing if this had happened in June or July even - you could take that month and get stretched out. But if I were to get stretched out to be a starter now, we'd have a week or a week and a half left. You're talking about one or two starts max.' ... In the ninth inning, David Robertson recorded his 500th career strikeout. In terms of innings (376 2/3), Robertson is the quickest to record 500 strikeouts in Yankees history.
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