In Quirk Filled Game Against Nats, Yankees Earn 7th Win In A Row

The Yankees 6-1 victory over the Washington Nationals was their 7th in a row, and represented Tanaka’s second straight dominant start off the DL. The Yankees broke the game open in the 7th inning via a questionable defensive play by Nationals SS Ian Desmond, followed by timely hitting from the meat of the order. Up until that point it was a close game, and it seemed that a few quirky plays just might make difference.

Every Yankees fan knows the “You Can’t Predict Baseball Suzyn” line made famous by the notorious radio team of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. Some, like me, love them and some can’t stand them, but you’ll rarely find someone who is indifferent.

Whatever your feelings, the two do know a lot about baseball, and Sterling is right when he says baseball is unpredictable. Last night’s game gave us four examples of just how quirky this game can be at times:

• Stephen Drew, he of the sub .200 BA, hit a 3rd inning solo HR off of Max Scherzer, he of the sub 2.00 ERA. It was the first HR that Scherzer has given up to a left handed hitter all season. Drew now has 9 HRs (including a second one last night) but his OBP is still below .350. Remember this moment for a future trivia question, especially if Scherzer keeps up his great year.
• Mark Teixeira was standing on third base when Carlos Beltran blooped a hit into CF. Michael Taylor, late addition to the Nationals lineup, snagged the ball, did a roll in CF, stood up relatively slowly and Teixeira was…still standing on 3rd base. Nobody understood it and nobody appreciated it. (By the way, all the replays seem to show that Taylor caught that ball and maintained control over it through his roll, but the umpires called it a hit. That’s not unpredictable; it’s why, after all, we have replay).
• Bryce Harper stepped to the plate leading off the top of the 7th inning with one impressive HR already under his belt, and promptly struck out on a foul bunt. Paraphrasing Michael Kay’s sentiments on the YES Network broadcast, why would a number three hitter who has already hit a HR try to bunt with two strikes? Al Leiter and Ken Singleton, working with Kay in the booth, had no answers, and if that trio can’t come up with something, it’s definitely unpredictable.

Such a quirk-filled game is a great reminder of just why we love this game so much.