Three takeaways from the Yankees' series in Atlanta
The Yankees' Aaron Judge walks off the field with Trent Grisham after Sunday's game against Atlanta. Credit: AP/Mike Stewart
ATLANTA — The Yankees, after an embarrassing loss to Atlanta on Friday night to open the season’s second half, took the next two games, including a wild 12-9 victory on Saturday night in which they rallied from 5-0, 7-2 and 8-6 deficits.
Three takeaways from the series as the Yankees head north of the border to face AL East-leading Toronto starting on Monday:
1. The Jazz Chisholm Jr. “controversy” from Saturday night was pure nonsense
By all accounts, during Saturday’s four-run sixth inning, Chisholm was relaying signs to Yankees batters while he was on second base. Once he reached third, he engaged in a back-and-forth with Atlanta’s Eddie Perez, a longtime well-respected-in-the-game coach. Perez multiple times pointed toward his head, which the Yankees interpreted as saying Chisholm might get one in his ear his next time up (Perez denied it). Regardless, as a former big-league catcher, Perez should know legal sign-stealing is a part of the game. And as another former big-league catcher, Joe Girardi, used to say while managing the Yankees from 2008-17: It’s your job to protect your signs. If the other team decodes them, that’s on you.
“If you’re going to ask about yesterday, no comment,” Chisholm said Sunday morning.
There was no reason to.
2. The Yankees’ best reliever appears to be ‘back’
Though Anthony Volpe (two homers) and Trent Grisham (tiebreaking grand slam in the ninth) rightly earned the headlines in Saturday’s 12-9 comeback victory, Luke Weaver had as much to do with the win as anyone else.
Brought on in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out and the Yankees trailing 8-7, Weaver struck out Michael Harris II, who had homered off Will Warren earlier in the game, swinging at a 96-mph fastball and retired Nick Allen on a fly ball to right. He then worked around a one-out walk in the eighth to keep it tied at 8-8 (Volpe homered in the top of the inning to tie it), eventually earning the win.
Weaver has not allowed a run in his last three outings, striking out six and allowing one hit and one walk in 4 2⁄3 innings. If he continues to rediscover his form from the first two months of the season, it would go a long way toward helping what has been a beaten-up bullpen.
3. Next up, an AL East showdown against first-place Toronto
The Yankees, who led the AL East for most of the first half, brought a 1 1⁄2-game division lead over the Rays into their series in Toronto on June 30 and left one game behind the first-place Blue Jays after a four-game sweep. They’ll get another crack against the still-smoking-hot Jays, who have won 10 straight at home and 32 of their last 45 games overall, starting Monday night at Rogers Centre.
“It is [a big series],” Giancarlo Stanton said after Sunday’s 4-2 victory. “But we’re ready. This set us up good, coming back [Saturday night] and into a quick turnaround today. We’re ready.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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