Yankees: Adam Ottavino speculates Blue Jays ‘knew what was coming’

Yankees reliever Adam Ottavino thinks the Blue Jays had him and Chad Green figured out.

The Yankees put (hopefully!) the cherry on top of the worst stretch in recent franchise history on Monday night, blowing a fairly concrete 6-2 lead in a matter of minutes in the sixth inning.

Swiftly, a stirring win became non-competitive; Chad Green and Adam Ottavino combined to record one out before allowing 10 runs on Monday to plunge New York further into the abyss.

Now, a few innings from reestablishing the status quo, the Yanks are back well below square one, two games behind Toronto for second place, and 1.5 games up on the likes of the Tigers, Orioles, and Mariners, three teams who are fighting a lot harder than the Bronx Bombers right now. We unfortunately hit a deeper low on Monday as well with the first insinuation of … something nefarious on the other side.

In a bewildered postgame session that nobody really wanted to attend, even via Zoom, Ottavino went with the classic lost pitcher’s lament, claiming it seemed like the Blue Jays knew what was coming.

Ottavino likely wasn’t alleging illegal sign-stealing, but was probably defaulting to an excuse Yankees fans have certainly heard before: pitch-tipping.

The thought rears its ugly head every time Luis Severino struggles in a big spot, typically, but usually the accusation is a stand-in for, “The fastball was incredibly flat today.”

Did anyone who watched the game, as an outsider, believe that something untoward was going on? Green couldn’t spot the fastball whatsoever and quickly abandoned his curveball, which doomed him against Rowdy Tellez. Ottavino’s nasty breakers seemed to be spinning instead of dipping, which led to some very comfortable swings on the heater, too.

Unfortunately, it seems these two hurlers were as lost as we were.

After taking a step back, it’s easy to feel dreadful for Ottavino, a sterling contributor to this Yankees team whose role has been yanked around a bit this year for no good reason.

Now, suddenly, there’s a reason — his ERA has climbed up to 7.82 after an inning without much of an equivalent in Yankee history. Seriously. He’s just the fifth Yankees pitcher to have an inning featuring that many runs and zero outs recorded since 1913.

It’d be calming if the Jays really had sniffed something out, but that still feels like a pipe dream for now.

Yankees: 3 Ways Aaron Boone Can Creatively Use Pitching Staff in 2020

The New York Yankees have a 60-game season to work with, so Aaron Boone should use the pitching staff more creatively to throw off opponents.