Yanks Make Spaghetti Out of Arrighetti’s Meatball Pitches. NY 9 Houston 4

May 9, 2024 paperbacklou 2024 0

Spencer Arrighetti is not related to Dave Righetti. Doesn’t pitch like him either — not yet.

Arrighetti was Houston’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2023, after going a combined 9-7 4.40 with AA Corpus Christi and AAA Sugar Land. After 2 good starts with Sugar Land this year, he was called up but hasn’t looked like a Rookie of the Year type yet — entering with a 0-3 8.27 record.

And now he’s 0-4 8.57 after the vaunted Yankee lineup ate him for dinner with 5 runs on 8 hits in 5 innings, including homeruns by Juan Soto (in the 1st), Aaron Judge (in the 3rd), and Giancarlo Stanton — a MISSILE in the 3rd right behind Judge.

That was all Carlos Rodon needed. He rebounded from his poor outing against the Orioles last week to pitch into the 7th, allowing 2 runs on 7 hits, striking out 7. A nice start and he goes 3-2 3.56.

On a beautiful-night-for-baseball, warm May Wednesday night in the Bronx.

The Yankees made mince meat of the Houston bullpen for 3 more runs in the 6th to make it an 8-1 laugher at one point, while much of NY focused their attention on the Knicks, who were beating Indiana in another barnburner — game 2 of their 7-game, 2nd round series.

“Juan getting it going — jumps ’em early,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “Volpe gets on — smokes a ball to start the inning. Then first pitch to Juan, fastball up — to hit it there with that trajectory — not a lot of people hit it to the back of the bullpen on a line like that. Then Aaron with a really good swing to start the next rally, and G being weird again. Definitely you feed off of those a bit. I think if you hit it 120 (MPH) you win.”

NY improves to 25-13 and remain in a virtual tie for 1st place with the Orioles. Houston drops to 12-24.

1. Soto HR in 1st Puts NY Up 2-1

Carlos Rodon did not get off to a good start — coughing up yet another solo HR (he gave up 3 in the game against Baltimore last week). This one came to Kyle Tucker in the top of the 1st to give Houston a 1-0 lead.

But thank heaven for Juan Soto and the Yankee offense, which came right back. Anthony Volpe led off the bottom of the 1st with a single, and Juan Soto parked one to opposite field leftcenter for a 2-1 NY lead.

2. Soto RBI But Gleyber Baserunning Blunder in 2nd

The Yankee offense peppered Arrighetti again in the 2nd — Anthony Rizzo a leadoff single, Gleyber Torres walked, and Anthony Volpe worked a 2-out walk to load the bases with 2 outs.

Juan Soto hit a weak dribbler down 1st, and beat it out on the throw to Arrighetti covering the bag — scoring Rizzo. But Gleyber didn’t run hard around 3rd, stopped down the 3rd base line, and ran back to 3rd — where Volpe was already. Gleyber was caught in a rundown for the final out of the inning as Yankee Twitter Howled at yet another baserunning blunder by him.

It was a debatable blunder — some fans argued it wasn’t really his fault as the play could have been made to home, and he’s usually aggressive on the paths.

3. Judge HR in 3rd Changes Subject; Makes it 4-1 NY

While the debate raged on Gleyber’s baserunning play — his teammates picked him up — changing the subject.

Carlos Rodon got through the top of the 3rd on 8 pitches and the Yanks were up again.

Aaron Judge hit 1st pitch for a 404-foot homer to rightcenter and it was 4-1 NY.

4. Giancarlo MISSILE Makes it 5-1 NY

The Yanks continued their change-of-conversation attack: Alex Verdugo hit first pitch for a groundout, and then Giancarlo Stanton hit 4th pitch to him for a MISSILE 447-FOOT HOMER to left. And nobody was talking about Gleyber Torres’s baserunning anymore. For the moment at least.

5. Rodon Great

Carlos Rodon continued the “Great Night for the Yankees” the conversation, retiring the Astros with a dominating performance.

“He was really good,” said manager Aaron Boone about Rodon afterwards. “Had a lot of swing and miss going. I thought he did a good job — a better job than he’s done maybe all year — of really dictating some counts.”

And then Gleyber Torres helped change the conversation about himself by himself with a terrific defensive play helping Rodon in the 6th.

6. Judge 3 Hits; NY Makes It 8-1 in 6th

In the 5th, Austin Wells — who has been red hot, and went 2-4 in this game to raise his average to .200 — led off with a double. Oswaldo Cabrera and Anthony Volpe walked to load the bases, and Juan Soto grounded out to make it 6-1 NY.

Then Aaron Judge doubled in 2 and it was 8-1 and officially a laugher.

Aaron Judge went 3-5 with 2 doubles and a homer, and raised his batting average to .236.

7. Soto 3 Hits; Makes it 9-3 in 8th

Juan Soto also went 3-5, raising his average to .338. His single in the 8th plated Oswaldo who had walked and moved to 2nd on a groundout — and it was 9-3 NY.

8. Hamilton Still Sketchy

Caleb Ferguson and Victor Gonzalez got the Yanks thru the backend of the 7th and 8th — Gonzalez allowing a solo HR to Jeremy Pena to make it 9-3.

In the 9th, Ian Hamilton continued to be sketchy — allowing a double, fielder’s choice groundout to get the runner out at 3rd, single, and single to Jose Altuve to make it 9-4 — but then struck out Kyle Tucker and got Yordan Alvarez to fly out for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401569022

 

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