The New York Yankees went more than a season without being shut out, a streak that finally ended Monday afternoon at the hands of … Mike Minor and the Texas Rangers.
That’s right. Minor, who surprisingly has been one of baseball’s best pitchers this season, and two relievers beat the Yankees 7-0. It’s New York’s first shutout since June 2018, when a much more heralded pitcher turned the trick. That would be Chris Sale of the Boston Red Sox.
On Monday, Minor went 7 1/3 innings, and Shawn Kelley stranded a couple of runners to escape the eighth and Emmanuel Clase pitched a scoreless ninth.
Rangers win 7-0, end Yankees’ 220-game streak without being shut out. Mike Minor was fabulous. Jose Trevino is having himself a week. They are in a New York State of Mind, but I can’t find the Billy Joel GIF, so here’s your more contemporary Game Story in a GIF: pic.twitter.com/TXGTezw290
— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) September 2, 2019
An uncommon occurrence
The first batter Minor faced Monday was D.J. LeMahieu, who lined a pitch off his back. Minor threw him out, shook off the training staff and went to work. Later in the inning, Gary Sanchez’s double put runners on second and third, but Mike Ford grounded out to end the inning.
The Yankees didn’t get another batter to third base until the eighth, when Minor had thrown 111 pitches and Kelley came on to get the final two outs.
He finished with four 1-2-3 innings and allowed five hits and a walk in his 7-1/3 shutout innings.
“Anytime we don’t score or have a good offensive showing, it’s always a little bit surprising just because our guys are so good, but it happens,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, according to the Associated Press. “When a good pitcher’s on top of his game, he can make it tough on you, credit to him.”
From @YankeesPR:
During the scoring streak, there were:
368 shutouts (12 by NYY)
28 of the other 29 MLB teams were shut out at least 7 times (Oakland 3x)
4 no-hitters in MLB
Yankees: .263/.338/.474, 1,247 runs scored (5.67/gm)Yankees: 137-83 record (.623 win%) in the 220 games
— Seth Rothman (@SethDRothman) September 2, 2019
Not a Minor deal
If you hadn’t been paying attention to the middling Rangers, you wouldn’t realize that Minor was having one of the best individual seasons in Major League Baseball.
Minor is 12-8 with a 3.12 ERA and 180 strikeouts in 180-2/3 innings pitched. According to Baseball Reference’s Wins Above Replacement statistic, which measures how valuable a player is compared to a minor-league “replacement” player, he has been the best pitcher in baseball.
Not many would take him over Mr. No-Hitter Justin Verlander or Gerrit Cole. But on Monday, he’s the one who finally made the Yankees take a goose egg.
Mike Minor is having a terrific season, but how in the world is he leading the American League in Baseball-Reference’s pitching Wins Above Replacement? Let’s take a look (warning: mega-thread commencing)… pic.twitter.com/Beuq9LzneZ
— James Smyth (@JamesSmyth621) September 2, 2019
