Boy , the Yankees must be happy to finally get out of Citizens Bank Park , because what they have there is contagious!
Just one night after seeing their opponent suffer an offensive power outage, the Yankees did the same on Wednesday night in a 3-0 loss to the Phillies, who were able to avoid the sweep by salvaging the final game of this 3 game series in Philadelphia.
Coming into this game , you knew it was going to be tough for the yankees to come out with a win as the struggling Luis Cessa wasn't able to duplicate what his teammate Luis Severino did on the mound the previous night, which was shutting down the Phillies offense . Those struggles were shown early as in the bottom of the first inning , Cessa got into a jam, as the Phillies had the bases loaded and 1 out before Cessa answered with 2 straight strikeouts to get out of the inning.
But trouble loomed once again for Cessa in the second, as he couldn't get out of this one unscathed ,as with 2 men on and 2 outs Rhys Hoskins lofted a 3 run homer to right field that just cleared the wall and landed in the first row of the right field seats to give the Phillies a 3-0 lead.
The bottom of the 3rd inning, would prove to be Cessa’s last as he would have allowed at least 2 runs if not for some amazing plays in the yankees outfield. The first out of the bottom of the 3rd inning, came when Brett Gardner robbed Carlos Santana of at least a double with a gorgeous leaping grab ,while slamming into Citizens Bank Parks tall outfield wall. The other great defensive play by the yanks that inning, was when Giancarlo Stanton beautifully ran down a hard hit ball by Aaron Aitherr that looked like would be a double as Stanton reached up to snag that ball!
Cessa would go on to allow a single , before getting Makal Franco to ground out and finish with a pitching line of 3 innings , 3 runs , 5 hits , 2 walks ,while striking out 2.
As for the Phillies ,their starter Zach Eflin was brilliant tonight as he limited the bombers to 0 runs on 4 hits while striking out 6. The yankees could do every little against Eflin tonight as he seemed to have one quick inning after another, Zach had help from his defense as well as Carlos Santana helped seal one of those quick innings in the 4th, when he robbed Neil Walker of a hit with a sensationl reflex of the glove. After that, Zach cruised even more as he allowed only two men to reach base in his final 3 innings of work , as well as catching a lot of yankees down looking at called strikes throughout his start.
Newbies and the bullpen was a big reason why the yankees were able to stay in the game as newly recalled Giovanny Gallegos had an amazing outing as he went 3 innings , while allowing 0runs on 2 hits while striking out 6. part of this brilliance was due to another newly call up in Kyle Higashikoa , who was behind the plate tonight as catcher for the Yankees and showed some potential , especially when Giovanny was on the mound.
Meanwhile, only one pitcher was needed from the Phillies bullpen as Seranthony Dominguez recorded 6 straight outs ( including 3 strikeouts) to seal the win for the Phillies.
KEY STATS:
This was only the 3rd time this year, that the Yankees have been shutout.
This shutout victory is the 7th of it's kind this year for the Phillies.
Yankees finish 6 game road trip at 2-4 ( lost 3 in a row to the Rays and one out of 3 to the Phillies)
yankees win series 2-1 ( 4-2, 6-0, 0-3)
YANKEES MAKING MOVES:
After the loss, the yankees sent Luis Cessa back down to triple A . The reason why the Yankees let him start in the first place , was to save their rotation for the big upcoming series against the Boston Red Sox.
THROWING IN THE TOWEL:
With the game all but lost, Yankees manager Aaron n Boone sent starter Domingo German for an inning of work as he is a possible starter in one of the 3 games against the Red Sox.
German worked a 1,2,3 inning tonight.
MVP:
Zach Eflin, for his brilliance on the mound tonight ,limiting the Yankees offense .
ON DECK:
The yankees will have an off day on Thursday,before their HUGE series against the Boston Red Sox as both teams are fighting for first place in both the AL East, and the MLB. It will be the " Big lefty " CC Sabathia ( 4-3 ,3.18 ERA) against the southpaw Eduardo Rodriguez ( 9-2 3.86 ERA). Both pitchers faced off earlier this year at Yankee Stadium on May 10th , and although Eduardo pitched better then CC in that game, both pitchers came away with a no -decsion in a 5-4 Red Sox victory. Game time is set for 7:05 PM Friday night at Yankee Stadium.
YANKEES RECORD : 52-26.
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