AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
Former SI MLB editor Connor Grossman and I decided to go to last night’s Yankees-Angels game to watch Shohei Ohtani pitch (and hit, obviously). Connor texted his buddy Sam Blum, the Angels beat writer for The Athletic, to make sure we were correct about when Ohtani was scheduled to pitch. We bought the tickets Tuesday night, only for Wednesday’s game to get postponed due to rain to yesterday afternoon as part of a split-admission doubleheader. And … Ohtani would now be pitching the afternoon game instead of the night cap.
We were pretty bummed that we would miss Ohtani’s double duty. And it became even more disappointing when we did our best Mike Trout impression (that we could possibly do, anyway, considering we are not gifted ballplayers) and looked at the weather report, which showed torrential thunderstorms for most of the night.
Ohtani got lit up in the first game. He surrendered a leadoff dinger to new Yankees DH Matt Carpenter on an 11-pitch at bat, the first of three solo home runs Ohtani allowed in his three-plus innings on the bump. The game was well out of reach when it went into a rain delay before the top of the ninth. The weather looked bleak, and I was hoping they would call both games sooner rather than later. I didn’t want to take the train for an hour only to come back home after what I believed would be an inevitable rain out. Connor, too, was dreading the idea of going to the game during the storm.
But, after an hour and 28 minutes, the weather cleared and they resumed play. We went, though we were still not looking forward to the Jameson Taillon–Reid Detmers pitching matchup after getting all jazzed about seeing Ohtani. Boy, were we wrong.
As you probably know by now, Taillon carried a perfect game into the eighth inning. He was absolutely dealing. I turned to Connor sometime in the bottom of the fourth and said, “The Angels don’t have a hit.” He shushed me.
“I’m a member of the baseball media, so I get a pass,” I replied.
“I’m not anymore.”
So I told him not to say anything.
When we wanted to get food in the top of the fifth, we decided it was better to wait until the bottom of the frame when the Yankees were hitting. In any other context, it would have been ridiculous to choose to watch Luis Rengifo and Brandon Marsh bat over DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Judge. But we didn’t want to miss a single moment of history.
We got back just in time for the top of the sixth. Nobody has ever been more excited to see regular-season plate appearances from Kurt Suzuki, Tyler Wade and Andrew Velazquez. We saw the trio go down in order as we went to town on some ballpark food. (For those of you wondering, I got the hot sausage and peppers; Connor had the chicken basket with fries.)
Before the top of the seventh, Connor finally broke his oath of silence to say, “He hasn’t walked anybody yet.”
“No,” I said, “but we haven’t seen The Play yet, either.”
Just over 24 hours earlier, we were bitter upon learning we wouldn’t see Ohtani pitch. That afternoon, we were hoping the games would get rained out, so we could potentially catch the makeup game later in the year, with the chance of seeing Ohtani pitch then. Now, we were witnessing something even greater, something neither of us had expected.
For that to happen, though, Taillon had to get through the gauntlet atop the Angels order once more; Taylor Ward, Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout were leading off the seventh. Connor said Taillon needed to rip off the Band Aid now, and if he did, he likely would be in the clear.
The Play came with Ohtani batting. The reigning AL MVP sent a one-hopper up the middle. Isiah-Kiner Falefa, playing on the left side of second base, backhanded it and did his best Derek Jeter Jump Throw to nab Ohtani just in time.
“When Izzy made that play, you kind of start letting your mind go there a little bit,” manager Aaron Boone told reporters after the game. “And just, the energy of the crowd was cool.”
Can confirm: The energy was cool.
After Taillon got Trout to fly out to end the inning, Connor cheered, “The Band-Aid is OFF!”
I joked, “Watch, Tyler Wade is going to break up the perfect game with two outs in the ninth.” A few minutes later, I realized that would’ve been impossible, because if the perfect game was still intact, Wade would’ve batted with one out in the ninth. Alas.
It was scoreless when Taillon returned to the bump for the eighth to face Jared Walsh. The All-Star first baseman fouled off a cutter that broke inside for strike one. Taillon then dropped a curveball in for a called second strike. The 0–2 offering was a 94.3-mph high heater well above the zone. Walsh chopped it up the middle where a sliding Kiner-Falefa, once again playing on the other side of second base, couldn’t come up with the backhand. It deflected off his glove into shallow left-center field, allowing Walsh to reach second with a perfect-game-ending double. Suddenly, the Angels had a runner in scoring position with nobody out and a chance to score the first run of the game. With two outs, Suzuki lined an RBI single to left. 1–0 Halos.
via Baseball Savant
The Stadium was still buzzing when the Yankees came to bat in the bottom of the eighth. Torres smoked a deep fly ball to center, which Connor and I both thought was a game-tying homer. Instead, Trout raced back to make the catch on the warning track. Miguel Andújar doubled with one out, followed by back-to-back walks to Kiner-Falefa and Aaron Hicks. Archie Bradley came in and whiffed Joey Gallo, who walked back to the dugout through a barrage of Bronx boos.
Two outs. Bases loaded. Down 1–0. Anthony Rizzo pinch-hitting for catcher Kyle Higashioka. “Here we go,” I said to Connor. Rizzo has scuffled over the last month after his stellar start to the season. Bradley delivered the 1–2 four-seamer up and away. Rizzo sent it back up the middle for the go-ahead, two-run knock. The Stadium erupted for its favorite active Italian American player. (Sorry, Rizz, but Joe DiMaggio.)
In the ninth, Yankees closer Clay Holmes quickly retired Velazquez and Ward, but he walked Ohtani and hit both Trout and Walsh with pitches to load the bases. As this was unfolding, Connor, who is a Giants fan with zero skin in the game, began shouting “Cluh-AAAAAAy” after every pitch Holmes threw out of the zone. And three young girls played tag in the rows nearby. It was well past their bedtimes, but they couldn’t leave. Their parents were teaching them the most vital of life lessons: “Thou shalt not depart before the final out.” Their patience was rewarded when Rengifo grounded out to end the game.
Connor, who once interviewed John Sterling for an oral history he wrote in 2017 about Barry Bonds’s titanic Yankee Stadium home run 15 years earlier, threw up his head, waved his hands wildly and shouted, “Yankees Win … THAAAAAAAA YANKEES WIN!”
It was an absolute blast, a reminder of the infinite possibilities for joy that can come from a random, early-June game. Just a few hours earlier, we carried the gloom of the late afternoon storm onto the subway with us on our way to the Stadium. We didn’t want to go. We are so glad we did.
Special thanks to Emma Baccellieri for filling in for me on last week’s newsletter while I was away.
Have any questions for our team? Send a note to mlb@si.com.
Vincent Carchietta/USA TODAY Sports
1. THE OPENER
“In recent days, as the losses piled up and a promising team plummeted nearly out of contention, the Phillies have begun quoting statistics at one another: The 2019 Nationals, who won the World Series, started the season 19–31. Last year’s championship Atlanta team was under .500 as late as Aug. 4.
It’s true that both of those clubs looked hopeless just months before emerging victorious. It’s also true that the Phillies are in worse shape than either one.”
That’s how Stephanie Apstein begins her column this morning about the Phillies. Shortly after it was published, the team fired manager Joe Girardi. Things are pretty bad for Philadelphia.
It’s Getting Late Early for the Free-Falling Phillies by Stephanie Apstein
The players keep referencing the turnarounds of recent World Series winners, the Nationals in 2019 and Atlanta in ’21, but this once-promising team is in much worse shape than either of them.
2. ICYMI
Let’s run through some of our other great SI baseball stories from this week.
MLB Soon Will Limit Rosters to 13 Pitchers. What Impact Will This Have? by Emma Baccellieri
Baseball wants to boost offense and curb pitching dominance. This rule change should help, though it’s unclear how much of a difference it will make.
Checking In on the MLB Awards Races by Will Laws and Nick Selbe
Ohtani, Trout or Judge? Manny, Mookie or Goldy? Will Corbin Burnes repeat? Can Nasty Nestor outpace the rest of the AL arms? Here’s where things stand as the calendar turns to June.
Astros Shortstop Jeremy Peña Is MLB’s Most Professional Rookie by Michael Shapiro
On top of the typical first-year challenges, he has the tall task of replacing franchise icon Carlos Correa. So far, Houston’s youngster is performing just fine.
Adapt or Shake Your Head: Welcome Back to the New Normal, Hitters by Tom Verducci
This season’s home run rate has taken its biggest drop in 34 years, but baseball is not on its way to another Deadball Era.
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
3. WORTH NOTING from Matt Martell
This afternoon, the Astros and designated hitter Yordan Álvarez reportedly agreed to a six-year, $115 million extension, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The deal begins next season and will cover Álvarez’s three years of arbitration eligibility and the three after he would’ve reached free agency, following the 2025 season.
This is the fourth biggest contract given out to a player who has yet to reach arbitration, behind Fernando Tatis Jr. (14 years, $340 million), Buster Posey (eight years, $159 million) and Mike Trout (six years, $144.5 million), per Passan.
Álvarez, 24, enters today with a .272/.367/.574 slash line, 14 homers and a 171 OPS+ this season. According to Baseball Reference’s similarity scores, the closest comparison to Álvarez through his age-24 season is Hall of Famer Willie McCovey. Like McCovey, Álvarez is one of the most fearsome left-handed sluggers of his generation, and also like McCovey, Álvarez wears No. 44.
On the individual level, the Astros lock up one of the best hitters in baseball through the 2028 season. More broadly, they are smartly extending their window of contention with a new group of position players as the members of the previous one—Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa and George Springer—all either age out or depart in free agency. This next core features Álvarez, rookie shortstop Jeremy Peña and right fielder Kyle Tucker. Houston has a chance to dominate the American League in the 2020s the way it did in the latter half of the ‘10s.
4. W2W4 from Nick Selbe
All eyes will turn to Chavez Ravine as the streaking Mets take on the Dodgers. New York’s last postseason run began with a thrilling NLDS victory over the Dodgers in 2015, clinching the series win behind six strong innings from Jacob deGrom in Game 5. It’s early, but these two sides could meet again deep into October, making this weekend a potential preview for a much more consequential rematch in five months’ time.
Elsewhere, the Padres head to Milwaukee for another matchup between two of the National League’s other top squads. The first pitching matchup is a doozy, pitting two leading contenders for the Cy Young Award, Joe Musgrove and Corbin Burnes, against each other. That’s followed by a MacKenzie Gore-Aaron Ashby duel on Saturday in a showdown between two of the game’s best young pitchers.
5. THE CLOSER from Emma Baccellieri
Ah, the age-old question of “Was it the manager, or just the roster he was given to work with?” It’s hard to think of a better example in recent years than Joe Girardi and the Phillies. On the one hand, there was a track record with several cases of poor judgment or puzzling decisions, particularly with bullpen management and playing-time choices. On the other hand… you try managing a lineup with four designated hitters and see how you like it.
