Pinstripe Alley

Jake Bauers hits his first of two homers in tonight’s game. | Photo by Harry How/ Cole left early with cramping, but he didn’t allow a dinger and the Yankees hit four, including two from Bauers. The Yankees reversed their fortunes after a tough loss to the Dodgers last night, defeating LA on relatively low-stress night. They pulled away early thanks to a pair of homers from Jake Bauers off Dodgers starter Michael Grove, despite a career night from the young hurler, and they didn’t look back in a 6-3 win. Grove came out firing, his fastball velocity up more than...

Josh Donaldson celebrating the second of two home runs in his return from the IL last night. | Photo by Ronald Martinez/ Fresh off a two-homer night, Josh Donaldson and the Yanks will look to capitalize on a favorable pitching matchup. Last night, the Dodgers’ six-run first obscured the return of a quartet of Yankees, despite Josh Donaldson and Giancarlo Stanton’s best efforts. The two sluggers, out since April 5th and 15th, respectively, combined for three homers in just eight trips to the plate. Tommy Kahnle, meanwhile, made his long-awaited return to the Yankees...

Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports Out in the bullpen, the injured Ryan Weber was also swapped out for lefty Nick Ramirez. Two days ago, in our staff post on Oswaldo Cabrera’s demotion among the roster moves to activate Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson, and Tommy Kahnle, we said this at the end (emphasis mine): This isn’t necessarily the end of the road for Oswaldo Cabrera in pinstripes, of course. The good thing is that he remains relatively young with a distinct possibility of returning in the event of further injury since he can play basically anywhere. With a roster...

Photo by Ronald Martinez/ Taking a look at Tommy Kahnle’s season debut with the Yankees. On an otherwise forgetful night for the Yankee faithful, as its ball club dropped the opener of this West Coast series 8-24to the Dodgers, there was little to spin on a positive note. There were a couple silver linings, though, among the proceedings, most notably Josh Donaldson’s huge return game, and also, the season debut of right-handed reliever Tommy Kahnle. Pitching against the team he departed in favor of the Yankees over the winter, Kahnle produced a scoreless outing in...

Photo by Richard Levine/Corbis via What can other teams learn from the success of the YES App? Earlier this week, United States Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Lopez ruled that Diamond Sports Group (DSG) — a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group and operator of the Bally Sports network of regional sports networks (RSNs) — is required to pay the full value of their TV contracts with the Rangers, Twins, Guardians, and Diamondbacks. All four teams sold their broadcasting rights to Bally Sports, yet were at risk of missing out on those payments due to DSG’s...

Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports Investigating one potential source of the lefty’s woes. Nestor Cortes’ struggles have been well-documented this season. He’s got a 5.16 ERA on the year, but in terms of the way his stuff is working, he doesn’t seem to be terribly different than he was last season. By now, the pattern has been established: He looks like his usual excellent self through four or five innings before hitting a wall that didn’t seem to be there in 2022. His time-through-the-order splits tell the entire tale — he’s getting absolutely walloped...

The Yankees’ first ever game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays was also another notable Bronx debut. The 1998 season was notable in a lot of ways. There’s, of course, the ‘98 Yankees’ exploits which these diary posts have been remembering. Even more notable than that to the general baseball watching public was the home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, which saw McGwire surpass Roger Maris and set a new single-season record with 70 homers. However, 1998 was also interesting for there being two new expansions teams making their debut. Out in Phoenix, the...

Stephen Brashear-USA TODAY Sports He struggled with the new pitch in April, but did what quality pitchers do and made the adjustment in May. In April, Clarke Schmidt was in search mode, developing a new pitch on the fly and experiencing all the growing pains inherent in that endeavor. Though the results were ugly and Yankees fans clamored for better, he didn’t panic, instead making significant adjustments to his usage of the cutter and tweaking the shape until he found something that worked in the month of May. April also had some inherent flukiness to it. His...

Photo by Ezra Shaw/ Baltimore got a bit of distance in their second-place standing after a late homer in San Fran. The Yankees got blitzed by the Dodgers in their series opener, giving up six runs in the first inning. It was basically over from there, though Josh Donaldson and Giancarlo Stanton had good showings in their return to the lineup at least. Meanwhile, their rivals were active before things even kicked off on the West Coast — aside from the Rays and Red Sox, who got rained out. Let’s see what went down: Baltimore Orioles (36-21) 3, San Francisco Giants...

Recapping the Yankees’ minor league affiliates’ results from June 2nd. Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders: L, 6-3 at Lehigh Valley IronPigs LF Estevan Florial 1-5, 2BSS Oswald Peraza 1-4, BB, CSC Ben Rortvedt 1-2, 3 BB, K, SB, passed ball3B Andrés Chaparro 1-5, RBIRF Elijah Dunham 1-4, 2 KDH Willie Calhoun 0-3, BB1B Carlos Narvaez 0-2, 2 BB, KCF Billy McKinney 2-3, HR, 2 RBI, BB2B Wilmer Difo 0-4 Randy Vásquez 4.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 5 K, 1 HR — rough comedown after his big league debutAaron McGarity 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 KMichael Gomez 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB,...

Photo by Ronald Martinez/ A Saturday in LA. The West Coast trip rolls on, though the mood has soured a bit compared to how things started out. The Yankees got a day off after a tough loss in Seattle, and opened their series in LA with a bad loss to the Dodgers. No matter, they have the man they want on the mound when a losing streak is starting to develop, Gerrit Cole. He’ll be opposed by the less-heralded rookie Michael Grove. This morning, check out Madison’s recap of Friday night’s AL Action, and Matt’s entry in the 1998 Yankees diary. Later, we’ll see Noah...

Photo by Steph Chambers/ Judge named AL Player of the Month for May; Torres is a “veteran young guy” in clubhouse; Another NL Central arm to potentially keep an eye on; Yanks trade José Godoy to O’s SNY | Phillip Martinez: After hitting like Barry Bonds for a month, it’s no surprise that Aaron Judge earned the American League Player of the Month honors for May, but MLB made that official on Friday. Judge slashed an absurd .342/.474/.882 with 12 homers and 25 RBI in 21 games to make his case, good for an MLB-best 1.356 OPS over the month. His numbers are now...

Photo by Ronald Martinez/ Luis Severino never really had it as he put the Yankees in a 6-0 hole, and the Dodgers are just too good. Gleyber Torres lined the first pitch of the game into left-center for a single, and that was the closest thing the Yankees had to momentum all night. Luis Severino was dreadful in his third start of the season, and the only New York hitters to make an impact were Josh Donaldson and Giancarlo Stanton, fresh off the IL. All in all, the Yankees dropped the opener in this matchup of baseball’s best brands, 8-4 to the Dodgers. The game really...

Photo by New York Yankees/ Baseball’s marquee franchises kick off a weekend series in California The Dodgers may not be the best team the Yankees have faced so far this year, but they’re certainly the highest profile, as New York continues its west coast run in taking on the National League’s standard bearer in a three-game set this weekend. Tonight’s opener features a terrific starting pitching matchup, with a future Hall of Famer going up against a righty with some of baseball’s best stuff. Luis Severino is still looking for his first decision of the year,...

Photo by Jim McIsaac/ The mailbag is back to discuss a pair of top prospects and a pair of role players. Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com. BFear04 asks: After Bauers’ homer the other night and his playing what do you think of Jake? Well, a single homer doesn’t change much on Bauers’ profile, but it was overall a great game for Bauers and when he does get the bat on the ball he’s got a...