Brandon McCarthy said Saturday afternoon he is “feeling like myself again,” and for the Yankees and their fans, that offers both promise and entertainment, neither of which has been in supply much during this turbulent season.
After all, the Yankees aren’t accustomed to having their starting pitcher’s wife tweet about the traffic she hits en route to Yankee Stadium. But there was Amanda McCarthy, the new Yankees pitcher’s outgoing spouse, updating us Saturday on Twitter: “Hi @mlb Amanda here, can you postpone the Yankees game today? I am stuck on the Deegan again. Thanks! Xoxo.”
“If everybody isn’t apprised of what she’s doing every few minutes, God knows what would happen,” the droll McCarthy, also a champion tweeter, quipped of his wife. “That’s how I find out what goes on with my wife. I read it when everybody else does.”
More important, McCarthy feeling like himself on the mound means the Yankees, their starting rotation decimated by injuries, have themselves a potentially pretty good pitcher. That’s what they saw as, in his Yankees home debut, he cruised past the Reds for a 7-1 victory, the Yankees’ second straight out of the All-Star break.
“He’s got top of the rotation stuff,” Brian McCann said, “and we’re really glad to have him.”
“I think it can energize him. I think it can motivate him,” manager Joe Girardi said of McCarthy’s recent trade relocation from the lousy Diamondbacks to the mediocre Yankees. “I think it can bring out the best in him. So far, that’s been the case.”
The right-hander, known for throwing strikes and getting groundballs, lived up to his reputation over six innings of work. He fanned nine and walked none while surrendering six hits, and of the nine non-strikeout outs he recorded, five came on the ground. Though his 2014 ERA remains unseemly at 4.63, it’s 1.42 in his two starts as a Yankee and 1.78 in his last four starts overall.
It’s a well-timed rise for a guy who has established his ceiling in the past with strong 2011 and 2012 seasons pitching for Oakland, and for a team in desperate need of pitching reinforcements as general manager Brian Cashman continues to work the trade market.
“For me, it’s at a point in my career when I wanted to be challenged,” McCarthy said. “I really wanted to be in a pennant race. I wanted to be close to the playoffs. I want to be in a market that is difficult. I wanted that kind of stuff to see if I could push myself to the next level. It’s a great opportunity.”
So far, the Yankees have aided him in capitalizing on that opportunity. While the Diamondbacks had curbed McCarthy’s usage of a cut fastball, Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild urged him to reintroduce it into his repertoire. McCarthy entered action Saturday having thrown cutters in 10.5 percent of his overall pitches, according to FanGraphs. In Saturday’s game, he more than doubled that ratio. According to Brooks Baseball,
McCarthy threw 23 cutters out of 99 total pitches, a 23-percent rate.
“The sinker can work, but it has to be kept alive,” McCarthy said. “The cutter, I thought, today that set that up well.”
Moreover, McCann, having known McCarthy from afar over the years as classmates in the 2002 amateur draft — the Braves chose McCann in the second round, while the White Sox popped McCarthy in the 17th round — saw comparisons between McCarthy and his old Braves battery mate Tim Hudson. McCann asked his new battery mate to consider more variety in the height of his four-seam fastball.
“He changes eye levels really well so guys just can’t hunt for a certain pitch,” McCann said of Hudson. “I just talked to [McCarthy] about that and he was able to execute it right out the chute.”
“There’s a lot of trust in McCann right now,” McCarthy said. “[I think], ‘This is a good pitch, let’s use this.’”
Upon the completion of his day, Amanda McCarthy tweeted, “So proud of that guy … YNWA,” which, Brandon McCarthy explained, means “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” the show tune played often at soccer matches.
He hasn’t felt alone among his new teammates, either, and why should he? He’s loving this chance, and they need him to cash in on it.