Yankees bats go cold again, but J.A. Happ thrives out of the bullpen

Yankees bats couldn’t handle the trickery of Ray’s Morton, but J. A. Happ did some fine bulk relief pitching of his own, allowing just one run in 5 innings.

Yankees bats were stifled until the sixth inning when D.J.  LeMahieu did what he does best and broke it up with the only hit of the game, lacing a line drive into right field. In relief of Jonathan Loaisiga who had a shoddy first inning giving up 2 hits and 2 runs, Happ nailed down six strikeouts.

Charlie Morton (16-6, 3.05 ERA) did what the Tamp Bay Ray’s called on him to do. Shut down the most monstrous lineup in baseball, and he seemed to do it with ease tossing a no-hitter into the sixth inning. His pitches were downright snarky and had the Yankees hitters off-key all night long.

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Happ who was recently informed of his new reliever role for the playoffs stated that he will do whatever it takes to help the team win a 28th World Series Championship this year in any way he can.

The Yankees hitters were handcuffed and only Brett Gardner threw up the toughest at-bats of the night, fouling off pitch after pitch against Rays ace Charlie Morton. The Yanks had a chance to take a lead in the sixth inning, but with runners at first and second with two outs Gardner grounded out to end the threat.

Although the Yanks are already in the playoffs, they are still fighting the Astros for home-field advantage come October, but their chances got much thinner last night. After Wednesday night’s loss it’s looking more and more likely that the Yankees will face the Twins in the ALDS. The Yanks only have three games left and they’re 2.5 games behind Houston for best record and even if they ended up finishing tied the Astros hold the tiebreaker after winning the season series 4-3.

Despite being held without a home run last night, a rarity indeed, and only one hit, the lone bright star was Happ showing he could be effective out of the bullpen in long relief situations, and that could be a highly valuable position if the starting pitching fails to do their job in October.