The June swoon has carried over into July for the Yankees, an embarrassing trio of losses to the Blue Jays giving away the outright lead in the division for the first time since April 13th. This poor play against Toronto means we have to go back to Sunday to find a performance worthy of mention in Sequence of the Week, and Marcus Stroman more than earned the distinction in his impressive return from injury.
A collective groan went around the Yankees fan base when Aaron Boone announced that Stroman would get the start in the rubber match against the Athletics in his first game back from a two-and-a-half month long IL stint. He posted an 11.57 ERA in three starts before going down with left knee inflammation and logged a worrying 6.97 ERA in three appearances with Double-A Somerset including five runs on ten hits and two walks over 3.2 innings in his final rehab start. Therefore, no one could have predicted that he would give the Yankees five innings of one-run ball on just three hits and two walks to help seal that series victory.
A single moment from that game stood out above all the rest, and so we join Stroman with one out in the bottom of the third, Jazz Chisholm having opened the scoring in the second with a leadoff home run. The A’s have runners on first and second after Stroman issued a leadoff walk to Willie MacIver and a one-out single to Lawrence Butler. AL Rookie of the Year frontrunner Jacob Wilson is at the plate, just the man the A’s want to cash in the runner in scoring position given his Luis Arraez-esque bat-to-ball skills. He places in the 99th percentile in strikeout rate, whiff rate, and squared-up rate, which helps explain how the rookie is second in baseball behind Aaron Judge with a .339 average. In other words, this is a huge spot for Stroman to navigate.
Stroman starts Wilson off with a sinker, looking to dot one on the outside edge for a called strike, or better yet, a first pitch ground ball.
Stroman achieves neither of these things, this ball starting way too far off the plate to tempt Wilson to chase. Still, it’s better to miss there than squarely in the zone.
Next, Stroman aims to bury a sinker in on Wilson’s hands hoping he can get the rookie to roll over a grounder now that he has set his sights for the pitch away.
This time, Stroman nails his spot right on the corner down and in. The pitch has such sharp late-breaking movement that all Wilson can do is pound it into the dirt foul off the label of the bat.
Now that Stroman has attacked both sides of the plate with the sinker, he’s got a good opportunity to get Wilson to chase a breaking ball out of the zone if he can start one aimed over the plate.
Unfortunately, this slurve leaves his hand aimed a little too far off the outside edge, and it ends up a ball in the dirt for a pretty straightforward take from Wilson.
Based on the missed execution of the previous breaking ball and Wilson’s aggressive swing against the second pitch of the at-bat, Stroman looks to attack inside with another sinker, only this time a little farther inside.
It’s another well-executed sinker bearing in on Wilson’s hands. The rookie swings hard looking to do damage, but the movement of the sinker tails it inside too far to do anything other than foul it off his leg for a rather painful strike two.
Stroman’s got his first two-strike count of the encounter, and seeing Wilson’s free swinging tendency creates an opening to go for the strikeout with the slurve.
Stroman executes yet again, starting this breaker toward the outside edge of the zone to trigger a swing from Wilson, who realizes too late that the pitch is breaking away from his bat. In the end, he has to dive out over the plate with an emergency hack, just about topping this ball foul to stay alive.
Based on the previous swing, the obvious choice is to repeat the delivery of the previous pitch, maybe starting it just a little further outside to miss Wilson’s bat.
He doesn’t miss his spot by much, but just like the first slurve he threw, it’s just a tad too far out of the zone to get Wilson to commit, though it’s worth noting that Wilson is eager to swing the bat and starts to dive out over the plate again before managing to hold up this time.
Wilson has worked the count full, and Stroman can’t afford to walk the bases loaded, so he needs to come into the zone with his next pitch. The movement of his sinker looks pretty crisp so far, so he doesn’t necessarily need to be pinpoint to the edges.
Even though this pitch ends up right down the middle, it’s set up by the previous pitches of the encounter. Stroman gets the job done, getting Wilson to bounce into the inning-ending double play to erase the early threat and preserve the slim lead.
Look at the way Wilson is almost lunging to hit a pitch he thinks is going to end up away, the previous breaking balls commanded off the plate causing the rookie to choose the wrong swing path for where this pitch eventually ends up. Stroman tunnels this sinker perfectly with the slurve Wilson topped foul two pitches prior — you can see why Wilson would be swinging as if to fight this pitch off rather than diagnose it as a sinker in the heart of the zone.
Here’s the full sequence:
Prior to the game, Boone talked about the need for Stroman to command both sides of the plate and not just live on one half of the plate, which can lead to him becoming predictable — not what you want from an older starter with diminishing stuff. This at-bat encapsulated that game plan in a nutshell.
By establishing the sinker inside, the breaking ball away becomes a more potent weapon. Equally important was Stroman’s ability to manage his misses with the slurve, the two slightly mis-executed pitches ending up well out of the zone rather than hanging in a spot where the hitter can do damage. Finally, this illustrated how Stroman’s veteran savvy beat Wilson’s rookie eagerness. Stroman likely knew that Wilson places in the worst 20-percent of the league in chase rate, so the key was to make pitches look like strikes out of the hand and allowing the movement to carry them out of the zone. If Stroman can continue to follow this game plan, the Yankees can feel a lot better continuing to pencil him in as fifth starter until the likes of Ryan Yarbrough and Luis Gil return from injury.