Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Toronto Blue Jays at New York Yankees, New Yankee Stadium, New York, NY
August 19, 2018

Introduction

The random number feature in Excel that I use to pick these games chose its most recent season yet, 2018, for a mid-August AL East division battle between the 4th-place Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees, who entered play with the second-best record in baseball (77-46) but with the misfortune of sharing a division with the team with (by far) the best record in baseball, the Boston Red Sox.

Pitching for the visiting Blue Jays was 24-year-old rookie Ryan Borucki, who entered play with a record of 2-2 with a 3.29 ERA. His opponent was J.A. Happ, who was making his fourth start for the Yankees after being acquired less than a month earlier from his opponent on this date, the Blue Jays. Happ had been the Blue Jays lone representative at the 2018 All-Star game before the Yankees acquired him on July 26th. Between his two teams, Happ entered play on August 19th with a record of 13-6 with a 3.86 ERA.

First Inning

Happ started out well against his former teammates, inducing a pop-up to the shortstop from his former battery-mate Russell Martin (who played third base in this game). Devon Travis hit a line drive, but right at right fielder Shane Robinson. But Randall Grichuk greeted his old teammate with a long fly ball to left-center field that left the ballpark to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. The next two batters, Kendry Morales and Kevin Pillar singled, and it looked like perhaps it might be a short day for Happ. But he bore down and struck out Teoscar Hernandez to limit the damage to one run.

The Yankees promptly set about getting that run back - and more. Aaron Hicks walked. So did Giancarlo Stanton. They then worked a double steal putting two runners in scoring position with nobody out.

Miguel Andujar singled to left and Hicks came home with the tying run. Didi Gregorious beat out a hit to second base and Stanton scored the go-ahead run. Unfortunately, Gregorious collided with Blue Jays first baseman Kendry Morales and twisted his ankle. After a brief delay, Gregorious stayed in the game. Gleyber Torres hit a squibber in front of the plate. Torres beat the throw to first and the bases were loaded with nobody out.

Greg Bird promptly unloaded them with a grand slam to right field and the Yankees extended their lead to 6-1.

Borucki finally was able to get an out, as Kyle Higashioka flew out to center field. Borucki also got Shane Robinson on ground out to second. But that ended Borucki's day as Joe Biagini came in to face Brett Gardner. Biagini retired Gardner, ending the first inning with the Yankees leading 6-1.

Second Inning

The second inning was decidedly less eventful than the first inning. Happ worked around a one-out walk and a two-out single beginning and ending the inning with strikeouts. Biagini walked Stanton with one out but got Miguel Andujar to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Third - Fifth Innings

The third inning opened with a defensive change. Gregorious had to leave the game due to the ankle injury he suffered in the first inning. Gleyber Torres moved to shortstop and Ronald Torreyes came into the game to play second base.

Torreyes was the only baserunner of the inning, leading off the bottom of the third with a single.

The fourth inning saw three baserunners - a one-out double by Danny Jansen in the top of the inning and a one-out error by Martin that let Brett Gardner reach first base in the bottom of the inning followed by an infield single by Hicks. But Stanton hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end that threat.

The top of the fifth inning was Happ's second 1-2-3 inning of the game and included his 6th and 7th strikeouts of the game. The bottom of the fifth was a bit more interesting. The Blue Jays brought in a new pitcher, Justin Shafer, who was making his major-league debut. Ronald Torreyes got his second hit in as many at bats with one out. Gleyber Torres struck out for the second out of the inning but Bird walked and Higashioka was hit by a pitch to load the bases with two out. But Shafer got Shane Robinson to hit into a force play to end the inning.

Sixth Inning

And so the game moved to the sixth inning with the Yankees leading 6-1. Kendry Morales led off the top of the sixth with a home run and the Yankees lead was cut to 6-2. Kevin Pillar doubled and the Blue Jays were threatening to put up a crooked number. Happ bore down and struck out Teoscar Hernandez - his eighth strikeout in 5-1/3 innings of work. It was also the last batter faced by Happ.

The new Yankees pitcher was Jonathan Holder who retired Danny Jansen on a line-out to left field. Pillar was then caught trying to steal third base for the third out of the inning.

A new Blue Jays pitcher was on the mound in the bottom of the sixth inning, Tim Mayza. Brett Gardner beat out a ground ball to deep shortstop to open the bottom of the sixth inning. Aaron Hicks walked and the Yankees had something cooking. Giancarlo Stanton followed with a single to right field, scoring Gardner and putting Hicks on third base. Miguel Andujar hit a ground ball to second base. The ruling on the field was a force play, with Gardner scoring on the play. The Blue Jays challenged the call, arguing that the relay throw to first base beat Andujar. Upon further review, Andujar was ruled to have beaten the relay throw and the Yankees led 8-2 with only one out.

Ronald Torreyes batted for the third time and got his third hit of the game - this one a double putting Andujar on third base. Gleyber Torres was intentionally walked to bring up Greg Bird - a curious move given Bird's first-inning bases-loaded at bat. This at bat did not go quite so well. In fact, it looked like the intentional walk might have been a good move as Bird hit a ground ball to first baseman Morales who threw home to force Andujar for the second out of the inning. Bird beat the relay throw to first base on a close play. Toronto manager John Gibbons disagreed, but had lost his challenge earlier in the inning. He argued the play and was ejected by first base umpire Jansen Visconti.

Things got worse for Gibbons from there. The next batter, Kyle Higashioka, shot a ground-ball single up the middle and Torreyes and Torres both came home to score.

Thus ended Tim Mayza's day.

The fifth Blue Jays pitcher of the day was Thomas Pannone. He got Shane Robinson on a fly out to center field to end the inning. But not before the Yankees had extended their lead to 10-2.

Seventh - Eighth Innings

Holder and Pannone each pitched a 1-2-3 inning for their first - and last - full innings of work in the seventh inning.

The eighth inning saw new pitchers for both teams - Sonny Gray for the Yankees and Tyler Clippard for the Blue Jays. Gray worked around a one-out Randal Grichuk double and Clippard worked around a two-out Gleyber Torres single and the game moved to the ninth inning with the Yankees leading 10-2.

Ninth Inning

Sonny Gray came out for his second inning of work. Teoscar Hernandez opened the inning by popping out to the catcher. Gray then hit Jansen. But he came back to strike out Aledmys Diaz for the second out of the inning. Billy McKinney - who had been acquired by the Blue Jays in the J.A. Happ trade - kept hope alive with an infield single. Russ Martin walked to load the bases.

Devon Travis hit a line drive, but it was caught by Gleyber Torres and the Yankees had a nice, tidy 10-2 win.

Game Summary

With the win in this game, Happ improved his overall record to 14-6 and his record as a Yankee to 4-0 (with a 2.22 ERA). Happ would finish the 2018 season with an overall record of 17-6 (7-0, 2.69 ERA for the Yankees), easily the best season of his 13-year major-league career.

Happ's performance in this game was fine, but was probably best viewed as merely okay (he allowed 8 baserunners in 5-1/3 innings, although he did have 8 strikeouts). As measured by Player won-lost records, the star of this game for the Yankees was first baseman Greg Bird whose first-inning grand slam broke the game open for the Yankees. Everything after that was pretty much just icing on the cake.

Details of the game are shown below. First, I show Player won-lost records for all of the players who participated in the game. Baseball Player won-lost records are constructed so that the players on the winning team earn two pWins and one pLoss in the game while the players on the losing team earn one pWin and two pLosses. I also show expected wins and losses, eWins and eLosses, which are context-neutral. Full play by play details of the game are shown below the won-lost tables. My Player won-lost records are described in more detail in this article and throughout my website.

Retrosheet Box Score and Play-by-Play