The New York Yankees played six games this week and went an even 3-3. The Arizona Diamondbacks took the first series of the week from the Yankees winning the initial two games in the Bronx. Following a bounce-back, 9-7 win over Arizona on Thursday, the Yankees left for Pittsburgh for their first road series of this season.
Overnight Cody Bellinger’s back acted up, forcing him to sit the first two games against the Pirates. Everything worked out as Trent Grisham more than filled in during Bellinger’s brief absence. The Yankees were also without closer Devin Williams for the series against the D-Backs, due to him being placed on the MLB Paternity List. Reliver Adam Ottavino was signed to fill in while he was out. Ottavino pitched both Tuesday and Thursday before being DFA’d on Friday as the corresponding move for Williams return.
Pitching struggled at times throughout the course of the week. The worst was by far the bottom half of the eighth inning (where Luke Weaver normally pitches) in Tuesday’s series opening loss vs Arizona. Tim Hill lasted just a third of an inning, giving up two hits to the three hitters he faced. Mark Leiter Jr. followed by walking two and then promptly giving up what would prove to be the game-losing grand slam to Eugenio Suarez. Fernando Cruz followed up a nasty scoreless outing vs Arizona with an abysmal one Friday. Ke’Bryan Hayes ended Cruz’s night after depositing a three-run homer into the PNC Park LF bleachers.
While being strikeout prone, the offense continues to slug. The Yankees have the most home runs in MLB history over the first two weeks of the season. Aaron Judge continues to look like an MVP and is still by far the most important piece the Yankees have. As Judge goes, the Yankees go. If GM Brian Cashman can acquire another bat (that can play 3B) to compliment him, lookout!
Player of the Week: Trent Grisham
Grisham stepped up in a huge way for the Bronx Bombers this week, starting all three games in Centerfield at Pittsburgh, playing gold-glove caliber defense and went a combined 5-12 (.416) with 2 home runs, 6 RBI’s, 2 runs scored and 2 walks. He also played a major role in the lone series victory vs Arizona on Thursday (4/3/25). At the plate Grisham went 3-4 with a home run, double, and 3 RBI’s. With his tremendous showing this week, Grisham leads now the Yankees in On-Base Percentage (.571) and Slugging Percentage (.848).
What’s next?
New York has another six games on tap for this upcoming week. The club plays the Tigers Monday-Wednesday, have a scheduled off day on Thursday, followed by a weekend series back home against the red-hot San Francisco Giants. Due to the frigid Detroit weather, Monday and Tuesday’s games have been moved up to 3:10p and 1:10p ET.
No responses yet