If Yankees manager Aaron Boone, his coaching staff and the analytics people had just realized what everyone else knew long ago while they were meeting daily to come up with lineup decisions, maybe their team wouldn’t be in last place.
At long last, Gary Sanchez was summoned into the manager’s office on Tuesday afternoon and told in so many words that he’s no longer the starting catcher. Presumably, this message was direct enough that the .182-hitting Sanchez won’t be whining again that he’s not clear of his role.
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Regardless, this important promotion for Kyle Higashioka perhaps was a message to the whole team that it’s time to wake up.
Higashioka’s presence behind the plate as a starting catcher certainly had a big initial payoff.
By night, Corey Kluber benefitted from having an elite receiver calling the game like Gerrit Cole has and the Yankees actually did a little hitting in a 5-1 road win over the Baltimore Orioles.
With Higashioka catching, Kluber turned in by far the best of his five starts as a Yankee with a 6 2/3-inning, one-run gem that earned the two-time Cy Young winner career win No. 99 two years and one day after he picked No. 98 on April 26, 2019 for the Cleveland Indians in Houston.
Meanwhile, the Yankees evoked past memories of romps at Oriole Park by mashing three solo homers — Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Higashioka doing the honors.
“Up and down the lineup, better at-bats,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Quality at-bats.”
The Yanks led from start to finish, as they scored a first-inning run when DJ LeMahieu belted a leadoff double and scored on cleanup hitter Gio Urshela’s sacrifice fly.
Kluber (1-2) was impressive starting with his 1-2-3, 10-pitch first. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth when Trey Mancini laced a leadoff double and came around to score the Orioles’ only run on an infield hit. Kluber wasn’t as sharp in his latter innings while he was building his pitch count up to a season-high 96, but he held Baltimore to six hits while striking out six and walking two before exiting with two on and two down in the Orioles seventh.
“Corey Kluber showed up and he was ready,” Yankees TV analyst David Cone said on the YES telecast. “Sweeping sliders, improving changeup and a little cheddar at the top of the zone.
“This is the best stuff he’s had in a Yankees uniform. Everything is up. Velocity is up, spin rate is up, which equates to just sharper stuff. It’s more than a subtle tick up. This is a significant tick up in stuff.”
Kluber touched 93 with his fastball, which sparked another interesting comment from Cone:
“Corey Kluber’s Cy Young years he was right there around 93-94.”
NOTABLE
— Judge normally isn’t subbed for defense, but he departed after striking out in the ninth inning due to lower-body soreness. “He’s been a little bit sore the last couple of days,” Boone said. “I’ve been wanting to give him a day here, so I just wanted to get him off his feet at the end. He’ll probably get one of these next two days off.”
— Higashioka was 2-for-4 with his fourth homer, lifting his average to a team-best .320.
— Clint Frazier was 0-for-4 with two flyouts and two groundouts, leaving him in a 2-for-41 slump since April 6 that has his average down to .132.
— The Yankees’ 12 hits were one shy of their season high.
— The Yankees made a pre-game trade dealing reserve outfielder Mike Tauchman to the San Francisco Giants for left-handed reliever Wandy Peralta.
LOOKING AHEAD
Wednesday: Yankees at Orioles, 7:05 p.m., YES. RHP Domingo German (1-2, 6.23) vs. TBA.
Thursday: Yankees at Orioles, 1:05 p.m., YES & MLB Network. LHP Jordan Montgomery (1-1, 4.57) vs. RHP Jorge Lopez (1-3, 8.15).
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