It wasn’t pretty, but the Yankees would take it. Josh Donaldson’s sacrifice at the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Yankees a 5-4 walkoff win at the stadium on Sunday.
The Yankees (39-15) have won six straight and won the last two series.
Anthony Rizzo’s line drive in the extra frame was overtaken by a diving Xavier Baez, but the ghost runner – Aaron Judge – was stopped by Jonathan Shoup at third base, setting up Donaldson’s heroics.
The Bombers tied it for the second time in the eighth inning, forcing the Tigers defense to make a mistake. Rizzo hits one pitch and steals the other. Second baseman Shoop missed a throw from catcher Eric Haase, which pushed Rizzo to third. He scored when third baseman Harold Castro threw his throw over Haase’s glove while charging a ball about 20 feet from home plate.
Jordan Montgomery was fine. He conceded two runs for five hits and one walk in 6.1 innings. He scored five runs. This ended a streak of five straight games where the Yankees’ debut allowed a run or less to be earned in at least seven innings. He extended his streak of going in at least six innings to 10 straight games.
The Yankees advanced to seventh when DJ Lemhieu worked a bass-loaded walk.
After the Yankees closed in the bottom of the fifth, he made the most of his second chance. He challenged the call on the field after Isiah Kinner-Falefa was caught stealing second base, ending the innings. Video replays showed he was safe, giving Joey Gallo an at-bat with a Yankees shortstop at second base. Gallo crushed a 3-1 sinker for his first homer in 45 at-bats. The 383-foot home run was his sixth of the season and only his second extra base hit since May 15.
Gallo has struggled since the Yankees acquired him last July. The lefty-hitting slugger was coveted amongst the analytics crowd mostly because of his power and ability to get to base. He hasn’t done much of either during his tenure at Pinstripe. In 103 games with the Yankees, Gallo has a .292 on-base percentage, significantly lower than the .336 he has in Texas. He has .336 OPS and 83 OPS+, which cannot be compared to the .833 and .116 that he had with the Rangers.
So far this season, the Yankees have dropped him to the No. 9 spot in the lineup, where he hadn’t hit since 2017, and he was relegated back into right field, a position he held extensively with the Rangers. played.
This season, in 45 games, Gallo has a 38.8% strike rate, which is in the lowest one percentage point in this season’s majors. He is in the lower 2 percentile in the whiff percentage. Gallo is hitting .176/.277.324 with .601 Ops
Aaron Boone said the Yankees were just trying to support Gallo, who heard the boom again in the seventh inning when he loaded bases and tied the game.
“He wears it, he wants it really bad, so trying to support him through this,” said the Yankees manager. “I mean, he’s a hard worker, but he also understands the importance of trying to do quality work and not just constantly overdoing this and that. So that part of it I really enjoy, I guess. that it’s supporting him through the tough times that he wears it, he wants to do well, he wants to do what he knows he’s capable of and so is making sure we’re supporting him and helping to put them in the best mental state possible, I think is our biggest challenge right now.”
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