J.A. Happ defuses Mariners' power bats
J.A. Happ of the Yankees delivers a pitch during the first inning against the Mariners at Yankee Stadium on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
On a 56-degree Thursday night in the Bronx when pine tar on any part of pitcher’s body would be encouraged rather than scrutinized, J.A Happ was steaming beneath his cap. Still furious about his previous turn on the Stadium mound, a demoralizing loss to the Twins, Happ felt like he had something to prove against the Mariners — at least to himself.
“I think I just held some frustration from the last start,” Happ said. “I was pitching with an edge, or whatever you want to call it.”
Carrying a 7.65 ERA in your own ballpark will have that effect, along with serving up seven homers in only 20 innings. Some thanks to the short porch, but mostly because of an errant four-seam fastball, the primary weapon that Happ builds everything else around. On Thursday night, Happ found that pitch again, and the result was a one-hit, seven-K performance for five innings that helped deliver a 3-1 victory over the Mariners.
Even when Happ left the mound, after a leadoff walk to Dylan Moore in the sixth, he was still worked up, jawing with umpire Ed Hickox on the way to the dugout. Aaron Boone later said that Happ was going to be replaced by Adam Ottavino anyway, but it didn’t cool him down much. And while Happ described his roiling emotions in the Yankees’ clubhouse, down at the other end of the corridor, in the visitors room, the Mariners’ Dee Gordon was hot about Happ nailing him in the third inning.
The Gordon drilling was one of Happ’s few mistakes, but it was in a particularly bad location — the 90-mph fastball struck the outside of his left wrist. Gordon was in obvious agony, walking around the plate area, his face twisted in pain, and had to be removed from the game. Later, his anger had yet to fade.
“I was [ticked] off,” Gordon told the Seattle Times. “It was the second time he threw up by my head. You’ve got to get the ball down. You can’t throw that pitch. I got a family. You need to get the ball the [expletive] down. That’s twice. If you can’t throw that pitch, don’t throw it.”
Happ needed plenty of pitches — 94 to be exact — just to get into the sixth, throwing only 55 for strikes. The inefficiency made his start relatively brief, but in the larger picture, it was good enough to give the Yankees’ a solid nudge to their 14th win in 19 games. Happ didn’t allow a hit until Tom Murphy’s two-out single in the fifth inning, but thanks to his inefficiency, Happ’s night only stretched two more batters.
It was Happ’s shortest outing since April 12, a four-inning loss to the White Sox, and his pitch total was the second-most to the 95 he used to beat the Giants (in seven innings) on April 27. The positive? Happ kept an opponent in the ballpark for the first time in five Bronx starts, and it just so happened to be the most prolific power team in the majors.
The Mariners ranked No. 1 overall with 74 home runs heading into Thursday night’s series finale, but they never came close to reaching the wall against Happ. After opening the game with a walk to Gordon, Happ retired 13 of 15 before Murphy ripped an 0-and-2 fastball through the left side of the infield. By then, the no-hit bid was virtually an afterthought thanks to Happ’s rapidly escalating pitch count. The scattered fans knew that, too, offering polite applause for the effort instead of a more robust appreciation.
In that sense, Happ’s night did feel slightly lacking because of the brevity. Fortunately for Happ, the Yankees’ bullpen insured that his work stood up as Ottavino stranded his tying run at third with a double-play grounder. To his credit, Happ appeared to straighten himself out, as the Yankees expected he would. Whatever concerns had lingered in the Bronx, Happ silenced them for an evening, like an experienced starter of his pedigree should do.
“You have to be really in command, I think, of your emotions over the long haul,” Boone said before Wednesday’s game, “because you have to continue to make pitches. The reality is that every now and then there’s gonna be a time that this park will get you in that way. You have to just go out and concentrate on making your pitches. If he does that, the results will be there.”
And they were, for five innings anyway. Long enough for Happ to allow a smile again when it was over.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
