With Aaron Judge Hurt Again, There's a Massive Hole in Yankees Lineup

Not a banner start to the week for the Yankees as they dropped two out of three games to a White Sox team that has been one of the most disappointing in MLB this season. I ask every once in a while, but if you know people who you think would enjoy the newsletter, just send them this link so they can sign up. https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Just think, a little more than a week ago the Yankees had actually crawled to within five games of the Rays in the AL East and some of you - not me, of course, but I’m sure some of you - might have believed they were right back in the fight for the division.

This morning, they are 8.5 games out after dropping this series to the White Sox, a team that has been a dumpster fire for most of the first two months, so once again I’ll advise you to forget about the division race. The Yankees, with all their injuries that you damn well know are never going to stop occurring, aren’t catching the Rays.

Yes, the Yankees have played them tough in seven games this season, but the Rays are so much better than the Yankees, it’s laughable to even compare the two teams. So put the Rays out of your mind and focus on what’s realistic over the final four months: Making sure the Yankees secure one of the three wild-card berths because as we’ve all seen in MLB and all the major sports over the past few years, winning the division doesn’t really mean anything. Getting into the tournament is the key because once you’re in, anything can happen in a series.

The first two games of this series were another stark reminder of how mediocre the Yankees are, and it wasn’t like they were all that great - at least offensively - in the finale when they were able to avoid what would have been an embarrassing sweep, not to mention their first sweep of the season.

They scored 10 runs total against a team that ranks 25th in MLB in ERA at 4.68 and has given up the second-most home runs with 89. Without Aaron Judge, it just feels like it’s so hard for the Yankees to score and it illuminated once again how badly they miss him. It’s rare that one player can make so much of a difference in baseball, but Judge is that player for New York.

He’s on the injured list again due to his toe issue, and the fact that Aaron Boone has been pretty sketchy with the media about the severity of the injury, as has Judge, tells me that this won’t be a short-term IL stint like the one he had when he had the hip problem. It could be several weeks, and if I’m right, that’s obviously pretty terrible news because the other guys who are supposed to be making up for Judge’s absence have been awful lately.

I’m talking about Anthony Rizzo who’s in a 1-for-18 slide since he hurt his neck May 28 against the Padres; Gleyber Torres is in a 3-for-27 slump; DJ LeMahieu is in a 9-for-63 nightmare and his average is down to .234; and since returning from his injury Giancarlo Stanton is 2-for-14. Add to that Anthony Volpe is 6-for-57 and has dipped to .188; Isiah Kiner-Falefa is 3-for-22; Oswaldo Cabrera is 3-for-18 and is down to .200; and Josh Donaldson is batting .161.

There’s no way the Yankees can put together any sort of winning streak with that level of offensive ineptitude.

➤ Last week I referenced that crazy high school game that ended on a dropped third strike gone horribly wrong. Well, Yankees catcher Jose Trevino felt pretty bad for the catcher on the Hornell team, so he arranged a conference call to speak to the kid, some of his teammates and the coach which I read in a story by Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. It was a very cool gesture.

“I just felt bad for the kid, for his teammates, thinking they had won the championship,” Trevino said. “I won two state championships in high school. I know the satisfaction of winning and going through a whole year with the guys you grew up with around your town. That means a lot. I just know how much it would have meant for them to win.

“I watched the video again and it looked to me like he tagged him; he looked back at the umpire to make sure, like, ‘Hey, you saw that I tagged him.’ I can’t even imagine what was going through the catcher’s head. He’s a very important part of that team, and for him to go out that way and have that happen, it’s tough.”

Here are my observations on the three games against the White Sox.

June 6: White Sox 3, Yankees 2

➤ Sometimes you just have a feeling about things, and this was one of those nights when I just felt like the Yankees were in for a clunker. Man, was I right. They lost to the shitty White Sox because they were no-hit through six innings by Lucas Giolito, and Clarke Schmidt gave up two home runs to someone named Seby Zavala who, by the end of the night, was batting .170. It’s one of those losses where you shake your head and wonder how it happened.

➤ Of course, they had reasons for not being in the mood to play. Earlier in the day Judge went back on the injured list and right on cue, their offense went in the tank. Sorry, but getting Stanton and Donaldson back does not make up for the loss of Judge. And then came the news that Nestor Cortes won’t even be throwing for two weeks, so we’re looking at a month minimum that he’ll be out.

➤ Oh, and then there was the smoke from the Quebec wildfires that turned Yankee Stadium into a scene out of a horror movie. The easy joke is that the Yankees were all smoke but no fire in this game. It was even worse Wednesday, so the game was postponed and made up as part of a doubleheader Thursday.

➤ Schmidt drives me crazy. It actually felt like he was pitching OK. He had a good rhythm, he was throwing strikes (52 on 79 pitches, and the home plate umpire robbed him of a few on the edges) and he didn’t walk anybody. But he got burned by the short porch in the third as Zavala hit probably the shortest home run in all of MLB this season. Yankee Stadium is the only place it would have been a home run, too. And in the fifth Schmidt got the first two outs but gave up a single to No. 8 hitter Romy Gonzalez, then hung a meatball to Zavala who crushed it to left-center for the only runs the Sox would need.

➤ Giolito was removed after his six hitless innings and the Yankees scored their first run against Joe Kelly when Willie Calhoun walked with two outs in the seventh and Kiner-Falefa drove him home with the Yankees first hit, a double that should have been caught, but a miscommunication allowed it to drop. Trevino then singled, but Jake Bauers killed the rally with a groundout. The only other hit came in the ninth when Donaldson homered, but then Liam Hendriks wiped out Volpe, Calhoun and IKF to end it.

BOX SCORE

June 8 (Game 1): White Sox 6, Yankees 5

➤ This was such a putrid loss. Luis Severino was once again lousy, and now you have to think there might be something wrong with him. Again. The velocity on his fastball was down like it was in Los Angeles, and if you need proof - the Sox swung 18 times on his fastball and missed only one, and that was a foul tip. Five innings, six hits, two walks and four runs including three home runs. He had nothing and it would not surprise me if in the next couple days they make an announcement about some injury. How can we not think that’s coming with this guy? At least he owned it. “I’m not gonna come out here and make excuses to you guys. It’s just another bad outing. I need to get better.” Yeah, he does.

➤ Severino survived a grind in the first, but then Chicago jumped him in the second when Jake Burger, the guy who looks like he should be a bartender on the South side, hit a two-run homer. And then after the Yankees tied it with a nice two-out rally - a Billy McKinney triple, a Kyle Higashioka double and a Calhoun single - the Sox went right back in front in the third as Luis Robert and Yoan Moncada crushed home runs to make it 4-2.

➤ Calhoun, who batted leadoff (I can’t believe I just typed that), hit a two-run homer in the fourth off Lance Lynn, and the Yankees took the lead in the fifth when Bauers doubled and scored on a single by Cabrera. Lynn (6.72 ERA) is statistically one of the worst starting pitchers in all of MLB this season, yet the Yankees found a way to lose a game that he started.

➤ That’s because Michael King entered in the seventh, and within two pitches the White Sox scored their decisive runs, a double by Robert followed by a long two-run homer by Eloy Jimenez. And then of course, the Yankees offense did nothing the rest of the way.

➤ The Yankees had only four regulars in their lineup: Stanton, Rizzo, Torres and LeMahieu. They were a combined 0-for-15. With Judge out of the lineup, this team has no chance if those four guys are gonna do that.

BOX SCORE

June 8 (Game 2): Yankees 3, White Sox 0

➤ Another instance where baseball is simply impossible to predict. In the first game, Severino vs. Lynn should have been an easy win for the Yankees. It wasn’t. And then in this game, rookie Randy Vasquez making his second career start for the Yankees going against Mike Clevinger certainly seemed to give the advantage to the White Sox. It didn’t, and the Yankees earned the doubleheader split.

➤ Vasquez was way better than Cortes has been at any point in the last month. He pitched into the sixth inning and gave up just two hits and a walk. Ron Marinaccio - who hasn’t been good lately - turned in his longest stint of the season, an excellent 2.1 innings allowing just a walk and striking out four. Clay Holmes finished the two-hit shutout for his seventh save. For his effort, Vazquez was sent down to Scranton after the game because the Yankees have two off days next week and won’t need a fifth starter.

➤ Boone sat the slumping LeMahieu and ever fragile Stanton, and Rizzo stunk again as he went 0-for-4. But the other key regular in a major slump, Torres, delivered a two-run homer in the fourth after Calhoun had doubled. In the fifth, McKinney - who was called up from Scranton to be the 27th man for the doubleheader - homered to close the scoring.

➤ While all the key guys are struggling, this is what Calhoun, McKinney and Bauers combined to do in the doubleheader: 8-for-19 with four doubles, one triple, two homers and four RBI. In his last 12 games Calhoun is 12-for-39 (.308) with one homer, five doubles, and seven RBI while Bauers is 10-for-26 (.385) with three homers, five doubles, and seven RBI in his last nine games. So, at least not everyone is in the tank.

BOX SCORE

➤ June 8, 1969: There wasn’t much to cheer about for Yankee fans in 1969, which was a continuation of 1965, 1966, 1967, and 1968. These were down times for the franchise, the dynasty a mere figment of the imagination.

But on this Sunday afternoon in the Bronx, 60,096 fans - the first announced sellout since the 1964 World Series - showed up as the Yankees retired Mickey Mantle’s No. 7. Joe DiMaggio was on hand to present Mantle his plaque, and Mantle’s best friend, Whitey Ford, presented him with his jersey. Mantle joined DiMaggio, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as the only men at that point to have their numbers retired.

Mantle told reporters, “It was the biggest thrill I ever had in my life. I didn’t cry, but I felt like it. I wish something like that could happen to everyone in America just one time. It’s a great feeling.”

The Yankees then did Mantle proud by sweeping a doubleheader from the White Sox, 3-1 and 11-2. In the first game, Mel Stottlemyre pitched a three-hitter and Joe Pepitone provided the scoring with a three-run homer. In the nightcap, Roy White and Pepitone had two-run hits during a five-run fifth, and Horace Clarke hit a three-run triple in the sixth to blow the game open.

During his speech, Mantle referenced the iconic speech Gehrig made when the Yankees honored him on July 4, 1939. “I often wondered how a man who knew he was dying could get up here and say he was the luckiest man in the world. Now I think I know how Lou Gehrig felt.” 

Well, this much I can tell you: This weekend’s series against the Boston Red Sox won’t be quite as intense as what you’ve been reading in Hardball Hyperbole the past couple months. The rivalry is still strong, and I’m sure some ill feelings will arise once the teams meet for the first time this season, but it’ll be nothing like it was in 2003 and 2004.

That’s partially because the Yankees are no longer a dynastic team like they were back then, and the Red Sox have been mostly irrelevant since they won their last World Series in 2018. Seriously, who do we hate on the Red Sox these days? I’d say Rafael Devers because like Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, he seems to always kill the Yankees. But that’s pretty much it, unless we can conjure up some animus for Alex Verdugo, Kike Hernandez and ex-Yankees Rob Refsnyder, Garrett Whitlock, Corey Kluber and James Paxton.

The Red Sox are in last place at 31-32 which, believe it or not, would have them tied for first place if they were in the AL Central. But in the AL East that puts them 14 games behind the Rays and 5.5 behind the third-place Yankees. They just dropped back-to-back games to the Guardians and have lost five of their last six.

Pitching has been a big problem as they sit 26th in team ERA at 4.74 as starters Tanner Houck, Nick Pivetta and the now demoted to the bullpen Kluber have really struggled. On offense, they’re scoring runs as they rank fifth in MLB with 316 and they’re seventh in OPS at .757, well ahead of the 15th-place Yankees (.725). As usual, Devers is leading the way with 13 homers and 50 RBI, though his on-base percentage is just .299. Japanese rookie import Masataka Yoshida has been quite a find as he’s hitting .318 with a .391 on-base and a team-high .888 OPS.

Here are the pitching matchups: Friday, 7:05 on YES it’s Gerrit Cole (2.82 ERA) against Whitlock (5.61); Saturday, 7:35 on FOX it’s Domingo German (3.69) against Houck (5.46); and Sunday, 7:10 on ESPN, it’s Schmidt (4.96) against Brayan Bello (3.97).