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

Adam Weinrib
Adam Weinrib

Yanks Go Yard

Adam Ottavino #0 of the New York Yankees reacts after giving up six runs, including a grand slam to Danny Jansen #9 of the Toronto Blue Jays, during the sixth inning at Sahlen Field on September 07, 2020 in Buffalo, New York. The Blue Jays are the home team and are playing their home games in Buffalo due to the Canadian government’s policy on coronavirus (COVID-19). (Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)

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.

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib is a Content Director on the FanSided network, and has been the co-editor at Yanks Go Yard for 6 years. He also co-hosts The Baseball Insiders Podcast thrice weekly, alongside FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray, as well as the Yanks Go Yard Podcast. Previously, he was a Senior Editor at 12up.com, and has been covering MLB and NFL for 10 years. He was also a headline and features contributor at ClickHole and Onion Sports, as well as the Associate Producer of the ESPN 30 for 30 film "Believeland". An avowed fan of the New York sports teams -- specifically the Yankees -- as well as the North Carolina Tar Heels, you can find Adam complaining mid-game on Twitter, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn if the game goes really poorly.