The Yankees finally ended their losing streak in their 2–1 win over the Mets

The 7-game losing streak that the Yankees were on ended with their dramatic 2–1 win over the Mets to prevent them from losing eight games in a row for the first time since August of the 1995 seasons. Every other team in baseball has had at least one 8-game losing streak since 2007, which speaks to their extended run of consistency. J.A. Happ had his best start of the season and somewhat surprisingly the most effective start of any Yankees pitcher this season.

Luke Voit provided the team’s first run when he went where the ball was pitched and hit a rocket homer to right field for his 12 homer of the season. He is in the MVP conversation as his homers are tied for second in the league, he has 22 RBI are tied for 14th, his slugging percentage is first in the AL and his 1.102 OPS is 3rd in the AL. He his hit seven homers in his last nine games to power the offense in the midst of many injuries to valuable hitters.

Voit has 12 homers in the 30 games the Yankees have played. He is tied for the fourth most homers through the first 30 games of season in Yankees history. He only trails Mickey Mantle (15 in 1956), Alex Rodriguez (14 in 2007) and Aaron Judge (13 in 2017).

The score was 1–1 going into the bottom of the ninth and the Yankees won in a way they had not since September 8, 2013 when they had a walk-off on a wild pitch against the Boston Red Sox.

Backup 40-year-old catcher Erik Kratz, who has become the backup catcher with normal backup Kyle Higashioka on the injured list, stayed in to hit with runners on first and third in the bottom of the ninth as manager Aaron Boone chose to leave Gary Sanchez on the bench. Kratz squared to bunt and then Dellin Betances threw a wild pitch that went high to the backstop that led to Clint Frazier scoring easily for the winning run. It was speculated Boone called a safety squeeze play but Kratz said he squared to bunt on his own since he was previously 0–3 with three strikeouts and was trying to make something happen.

Pitchers usually throw high when they know a batter is bunting but Betances was out of control as he is sometimes. The Yankees were fortunate to get that wild pitch to score Frazier since they were 0–5 with runners in scoring position and the middle of their order combined to go 1–9.

The real takeaway of this game was the outstanding performance of Happ. He pitched 7.1 innings, only allowed three hits and had five strikeouts. He became the only pitcher besides Gerrit Cole to pitch seven inning this season and is the only Yankees starting pitcher to throw at least seven shutout innings.

Happ got a double play, second to shortstop to first, to get to two outs in the 5th after Pete Alonso’s single. He struck out Dominic Smith to end the 5th and had a very economical 68 pitches through five innings, and the Yankees did not even have anyone warming up yet, which proves how effective he had been. Happ only need 77 pitches to get through the 6th after an easy and efficient inning.

Happ also retired the side in order in the 7th, which was the fifth time that he had gotten three outs in a row in his stellar performance. He threw 90 pitches in his 7.1 innings and 65 of those 90 pitches were strikes. The 37 year olds ERA is now all the way down to a respectable 4.05 after it was 6.39 coming into the game.

This was his first start in 12 days, as a result of being skipped due to rainouts and Covid-19 postponed games, after actually pitching very well on August 16 against the Red Sox when he allowed just one run and three hits in 5.2 innings. He was very ineffective in his first two starts of the season.

He had motivation in this start after being skipped a few times due to likely a combination of subpar performance and the Yankees not wanting him to pay him his bonus if the pitches a certain amount of starts. Happ was outstanding working with the veteran Kratz Saturday afternoon.

Mets catcher Wilson Ramos hit a homer off the foul pole to tie the score off of Adam Ottavino in the 8th inning to prevent Happ from getting the win. It’s a shame that Happ could not get the win after he dominated and did not allow a run for the first time since September 7 against the Red Sox and proved how effective he can be.

The Yankees are built on their bullpen in many ways and it really has not performed well in the last five games. The homer Ottavino allowed was the Yankees bullpen’s 8th homer in their last 11 innings.

Ottavino has a outstanding 1.08 ERA after his game on August 16 (his 11th game of the season) but he now has a 4.22 ERA after allowing four earned runs in his last three games. The Yankees bullpen is still without Zack Britton, so it is important that Ottavino bounces back soon.

Aaron Boone thought Happ had a great performance and had a really good 4-seam fastball and took Happ out after one out in the 8th since he thought he was running out of gas. Kratz thought he showed no signs of rust after the long layoff and was aggressive in the strike zone and was able to throw all his pitches for strikes. He also had a good slider to go along with his 4-seam fastball.

Happ got 11 outs via the grounder and got season high 13 swings and misses.

“I feel like I got in a rhythm with my delivery,” Happ said. “I was able to change fastball speeds to keep hitters off balance.”

The Yankees will not skip Happ again if the continues to pitch like he did Saturday afternoon.

At the halfway point of the season, the Yankees still have eight players on the injured list and are 17–13. They will likely string together many wins as more of their players come off the injured list.

DJ LeMahieu, who leads the American League with his .403 average (he does not qualify for the batting title right now since he doesn’t have enough at-bats), returned from the injured list on Saturday and went 1–4. LeMahieu hit a triple off the wall that Michael Conforto barely missed after crashing into the wall.

He is one of the best pure hitters in baseball and going back to August 6 he has at least one hit in nine of his last 10 games. Third baseman Gio Urshela has been day-to-day with an elbow injury, after not playing since the double header games on Wednesday, but Boone said he could return today.