After morphing into an unlikely midseason savior -- the first pitcher to win his first five starts as a Yankee since Bob Turley in 1955 -- J.A. Happ was clubbed in his sixth start at Detroit.
Even still, Happ (15-6, 4.00 ERA) has not lost a game since he was traded to the Bombers from the Blue Jays, with a tidy 2.37 ERA in those five starts. Despite hemorrhaging 10 hits, three homers and five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Tigers, he did not get tagged with the loss. Now Happ is charged with another crucial start, Tuesday night in Oakland against the hard-charging Athletics, part of that potent trinity of baseball clubs jousting for the AL West crown, with the second-place team likely traveling to the Bronx to play the Yanks in the wild-card game.
There's some other curious symmetry between Happ and his new team. Not only did he join Turley in the Yankees' archives, he also last played in a World Series in 2009, against the Yankees, surrendering a two-run double to Hideki Matsui in Game 6, giving the popular Japanese import six RBIs for the game, which tied the World Series record for one game.
So not only did Happ, who won a World Series ring the previous year for the Phillies, lose to the Bombers in 2009, both are now trying to return to the Fall Classic for the first time since '09.
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When Justin Verlander was shipped from Detroit to Houston last summer, it was a hopeful effort to drain some final flame from a formerly sublime pitching arm. With Verlander deep into the back nine of his career, the Astros would have been happy with some solid, late-season starts. Instead, Verlander jumped through some symbolic time portal, pitching as though he were 10 years younger, leading the Astros to the 2017 World Series.
The Yankees don't expect that from Happ. But for someone also closer to the end of his career than to the beginning, Happ, who turns 36 next month, has become refreshingly crucial as the Yanks sharpen their playoff pitching arsenal. With a win in Oakland, he could go 6-0 as a Yank and solidify his spot as an invaluable part of their October rotation.
Luis Severino is pitching much better after his midsummer yips. CC Sabathia is back from the DL. And Masahiro Tanaka could be the implicit ace of the playoffs. But Severino, 24, is the only starting pitcher of note under 29 years old. Though both clutch pitchers, Sabathia and Tanaka have both suffered injuries this year, making Happ's role even more italicized.
Sonny Gray, who has pitched way more like Ed Whitson than the pitcher he was in Oakland, was supposed to be this year's iteration of Happ -- a middle-of-the-rotation guy who could hurl a solid start every week, and double as a corporeal bridge to the more heralded veteran pitchers. Now that Gray has been banished to the bullpen, the Yanks need Happ more than ever.
Happ is not, and was not, Verlander. But he was 20-4 in Toronto just two years ago. The Yankees would be thrilled to tap into some of that old Blue Jays magic for a few more starts. Happ even won a playoff game for the Jays that year. The Yankees would settle for that. Or maybe one or two more, and let both Happ and his former pinstriped rival forge a dual run to the World Series, a place neither has been in about a decade.
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