The appeals of Yankees catchers Gary Sanchez and Austin Romine regarding their suspensions stemming from the recent brawl with the Tigers are expected to be heard Friday.
Major League Baseball special assistant to the commissioner John McHale is scheduled to conduct the appeal hearings for Sanchez, who was hit with a four-game ban, and Romine, who received two games, for their involvement in the nastiness last Thursday. In all, five participants received suspensions and fines while seven others were just fined.
The Tigers’ appeal date is Sept. 11. Miguel Cabrera received a seven-game ban, pitcher Alex Wilson was docked four games and manager Brad Ausmus was suspended for one game.
“I haven’t heard anything,” Romine said Wednesday, a day the Yankees were swept by the Indians.
The old line is you will see something you never have seen before at any baseball game. That held true Wednesday in the doubleheader opener.
Yankees reliever Chad Green struck out seven of the eight batters he faced. That was the most strikeouts in a single major league game by any pitcher when facing eight of fewer batters. Of course, it would be sort of hard to strike out seven when facing, say, four batters.
“That’s pretty cool I guess,” Green, who commanded his fastball to near-perfection, said of the record. “I obviously didn’t know that when I was pitching today. Yeah, I guess that’s pretty good.
“That’s something you really can’t put your finger on,” Green said of his fastball success. “I’ve always been a big fastball pitcher. I guess something just clicked really. Location is probably a little better this year, but other than that I’m not doing anything too different than I’ve done in the past.”
Both Aaron Judge and Starlin Castro sat the start of Game 1 — both pinch hit and struck out in the ninth inning. But both were back starting in Game 2. The Yankees are trying to get Judge right while Castro is recently back from a DL stay.
“Castro, with his issues of the hamstring, I didn’t think it was in our best interest to play him in two games today,” manager Joe Girardi said.
The Indians were down a ton of talent as stud reliever Andrew Miller (knee tendinitis), starter Danny Salazar (elbow inflammation), OF Lonnie Chisenhall (hamstring strain), second baseman Jason Kipnis (hamstring strain) and OF Michael Brantley (ankle sprain) all are on the DL.
Jaime Garcia has allowed three runs or fewer in four straight starts and seven of eight. Still, he’s 0-2 with the Yankees. … Jose Ramirez went 4-for-4 for Cleveland in first game, his third straight multi-hit game. … Francisco Lindor hit his 25th homer in nightcap, that tied Asdrubal Cabrera for the Indians’ record for a shortstop.
Jordan Montgomery was sent back to Triple-A after the second game of the doubleheader. Caleb Smith was also optioned to Triple-A.
— Additional reporting by Ken Davidoff