Yankees pitching tight as Maybin sets new HR record in 12 inning loss

Yankees pitching looked tight most of the game as Cameron Maybin is the 14th Bomber with 10 home runs, and Yanks 299th of season, both MLB records.

The Yankees night ended on a sour note with a 12th inning loss, but plenty of good things happened to make the game a real success. The bullpen had their night tonight, starting with Jordan Montgomery hurling consecutive scoreless innings.

C.C. Sabathia made his first regular-season bullpen debut of his career and his first relief appearance since the Game 5 of the 2011 ALDS against the Tigers. He tested out with a perfect fourth, striking out two batters, and strutted off the mound with full knowledge of what his likely spot will be on the postseason roster. Per Newsday:

"Catcher Austin Romine, who’s been holding the house for Gary Sanchez to return soon said of Sabathia, “The cutter is at 88, 89 (mph), with really good movement…with a guy of that caliber, you know what you are getting with him…he showed he can do it.”"

Reliever Stephen Tarpley gave up the tying home run in the 5th inning, and the Rays’ bats were kept quiet until the 12th inning, when Ji-Man Choi continued his late-season dominance with a homer off of the hard-to-hit Cory Gearrin, giving the Rays a 2-1 walk-off victory.

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Despite the silent Yankee bats tonight, the bullpen was sharp most of the game and showed off why they are the No. 1 ‘pen in the game, warning playoff opponents, that they can pick up any starting pitcher at any point when needed. The starting staff received a much-deserved rest in preparation for next week’s playoffs. The club has just four games remaining in the regular season.

It’s looking like the Yankees three starters for the first round will be James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka and Luis Severino. These are three guys I would not want to face by any means when the season is on the line.

Veteran outfielder Cameron Maybin made his team the first in MLB history to have 14 hitters with 10 home runs in a season and helped them move within being the first baseball team ever to hit 300 home runs in one season.

Considering how busy the hitting has been for the past couple of weeks, it wasn’t a shocker to see most everyone have an off-night.

In my opinion, a tight loss a few days before the playoffs can be healthy in a way that it reminds the team how hard they have to work against good pitching to win and takes the pressure away from winning multiple games in a row to close out the season.