Yankees: Andrew Heaney’s NSFW Wandy Peralta quote sums up escape

The New York Yankees won their 11th straight game on Tuesday night, but it took a lot of gumption, a lot of guts, and a lot of something else.

Riding a (theoretically) comfortable 5-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning against the bottom of the Atlanta Braves‘ order, Aroldis Chapman was called upon to finish the job quickly and easily, like he had done the day before.

He did not do it again.

Chapman retired two of the first three batters he faced, but completely lost the strike zone when light-hitting pinch hitter Ehire Adrianza strode to the plate in the nine hole. After getting Ozzie Albies to swing over a slider for strike three … before the umpire freelanced and called a foul tip, he surrendered an infield single. Then he walked Jorge Soler on a 3-2 slider in the dirt even though Soler had retired himself earlier on an eye-high Chad Green fastball. Does Chapman watch these games?

No fear, though, because in strode Wandy Peralta — with zero margin for error — to face reigning NL MVP Freddie Freeman and a one-run lead.

He joined the game by slapping himself silly, then sprinting to the mound. The rest of the outing also did not disappoint.

Yankees “closer” Wandy Peralta had a lotta nuts on Tuesday night.

How’d it go? Peralta fell behind in the count to Freeman 3-1, removing his ability to bounce a changeup or trick him with a slider. Everything had to be in the zone.

And apparently, everything also had to be a changeup.

After dotting the zone to get the count full, Freeman fouled off a few well-placed changes, and finally popped a center-cut one into medium-depth left field. Joey Gallo settled under it. Ballgame. 11 straight, and a win for the wild man.

Stunning, and all this for a few subpar months of Mike Tauchman in San Francisco, who’s since been demoted to Triple-A, where he’s languishing with a .159 average. Peralta, on the other hand, hasn’t allowed an earned run since the All-Star break, altering his arsenal after coming off the COVID-19 IL thanks to some sterling instruction from Matt Blake.

Following the game, starter Andrew Heaney summarized Peralta’s response to the pressure situation better than we ever could.

Hilarious, sure, but that’s exactly what you need to pitch out of the bullpen in New York: the supreme confidence that your best is better than the hitter’s best, and all you need to do is go out there and execute.

Execute, he did. Several times. A little bit of luck and a lot of cojones is how you get to 11 straight and beyond.

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