Yankees 11, Astros 6: Fiers Is Fungible, Bullpen Is Human

** NOTE: I hope the readers will forgive me for being a little short in the Game One recap today, everyone is busy for Mother’s Day and I’m no different. I will try to give greater detail in the Game Two recap. **

Let’s start by saying the tums stayed closed for the first couple innings of this game.

Don’t get me wrong, Mike Fiers still wasn’t very good, but the defense was a greater concern in innings one and two. Yuli Gurriel booted several plays that he should have made, and one of those cost Carlos Correa a tough luck error...however, Correa probably came out of that about even, because a difficult play didn’t go his way and a ball hit in his glove and bounced away in shallow left field that was ruled a double instead of an error. I’m sure Carlos would agree that the catch in left field, while difficult, was one he probably should have made. But I digress!

The team defense was really, really shaky in this game.

All of that said, there were good things in this game. The offense was very patient against Luis Severino, running him from the game in the third inning. The Astros were able to continue scoring runs late, though they did give up a lot of runs in the seventh as well.

In fairness (with a pointed look down the nose at game thread commentators), this team came into play today outscoring opponents twenty-seven to three in the seventh inning...the Astros were very-much due some serious regression in the seventh. Chris Devenski and Will Harris were each charged three runs, and both were probably due some regression as well. They’re human, and they’re probably not going to keep ERAs below two all season.

Evan Gattis quietly had himself a solid game on both sides of the ball, driving in two runs on two different hits and performing capably behind the dish. Josh Reddick and Yulieski Gurriel also had two-hit games, and the latter raised his wRC+ to an even 100 on the season after his two singles and sacrifice fly in this contest. As has been this writer’s fear, Gurriel thus far is hitting well enough to keep playing but seemingly not really well enough to justify being an every-day first baseman. That last sentence is an opinion, to be sure, but it seems a fair one. The defensive lapses in this game didn’t help, but being that first base is primarily a bat-first position, the bat is this writer’s primary concern there. More to come on that as it develops - perhaps Gurriel goes back on a tear soon.

All things considered, this was a fairly forgettable game from an Astros fan’s perspective. Here’s hoping it’s a forgettable game from the player’s perspective, too - on to Game 2 of the Double-Header against New York!