Clay Holmes Blows Another Game, Yankees Lose Series to Tigers

The Yankees spent a week playing two teams that they should have handled rather easily. Instead, they went 3-3 against the White Sox and Tigers, capped by yet another blown save by Clay Holmes which led to a loss to Detroit in the Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa. For all the kids who were there, that’s not how you do it! Lets get to it.

Honestly folks, I don’t know how many more times I can write the same god damn thing, but I will again, screaming from the top of my lungs: This team is going nowhere!!! Nowhere.

I don’t care what their record is, I don’t care that they are still somehow tied for first place in the AL East. This team is not winning a thing in October because in today’s baseball, you cannot win - I repeat, you cannot win - with a shitty bullpen and that’s what the Yankees have.

Seriously, when Clay Holmes took the mound in the bottom of the ninth in Williamsport Sunday night with just a 1-0 lead, did anyone really believe he was going to close the game out? If you did, you haven’t been watching for the last three months. As soon as he gave up the one-out double to Colt Keith I knew damn well it wasn’t going to happen. Even when he got the second out, I remained steadfast in my belief that he was still going to blow it. Naturally, I was right, so on to extra innings we went.

And then once that bum blew his 10th save of the season - more than anyone in baseball, and the first time a Yankee has blown 10 saves since Dave Righetti blew 13 in 1987 - was there any chance that the next bum Aaron Boone sent out there wouldn’t blow the game?

Of course not, because Mark Leiter Jr. is even worse than Holmes, yet another useless trade deadline acquisition by Brian Cashman. What a dumpster fire this guy is. Since he came over from the Cubs, where he was nothing more than a mediocrity, Leiter Jr. has a 6.48 ERA in 10 games and he hasn't had a single 1-2-3 inning since he joined the team.

With the automatic runner on second to start the bottom of the 10th, it took Leiter Jr. six pitches to lose the game. RBI single, stolen base, RBI single, Little League Classic over in classic Yankees bullpen meltdown fashion.

You will not be surprised to learn that Boone, of course, thought Holmes was good. Never mind that he gave up two hard-hit balls - the double to Keith and the tying RBI single to Jace Jung - which, oh yeah, blew the save. Boone is nothing if not consistent in his delusionality (not a word, but it works for me here).

“Clay was fine,” Boone said. “The double the other way, probably the one flat sinker he threw where it was up and out over the plate and he just rode it the other way. Other than that I thought he was pretty sharp. The sinker was good, the slider was good, but that one that set them up by Keith and gave them an opportunity and then a good at bat there by Jung to find a hole.”

God almighty, I can’t take it with this guy any longer.

At least he wasn’t quite as tone deaf regarding Leiter: “Just not real sharp, fell behind, base hit up the middle, probably a fastball too much on the plate, both of them there, so we got to get him a little sharper.”

Pressed further about his trash closer, Boone once again refused to acknowledge the problem we all see. “Look, we’ll see as we go,” he said. “We have a lot of really good options. Clay has had some tough breaks back there that’s led to (blown saves) ... The reality is he’s throwing the ball really well. That said, we’ve got a lot of guys that are throwing the ball well in certain situations. Right now, Clay is the guy.”

“Clay is the guy” because Cashman crashed and burned yet again at the trade deadline and rather than get an actual closer, he gave us Leiter and Enyel De Los Santos who was so bad that he has already been cut. You’ll love this - guess which was the only team willing to sign De Los Santos? The White Sox who are one of the worst teams in the history of the sport. Happy trails, pal.

Thus, thanks to Cashman not addressing the biggest problem on the team, and the fact that despite what Boone says, there are really no good options in this bullpen at the end of games, the Yankees cannot win in October.

Oh, and if you’re banking on the offense overcoming the frightful bullpen, is that realistic come October?

Hell, the Yankees just went 15-for-95 in this series (.157), scored a measly five runs, and were 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position. Against the Detroit Tigers. They were 2-for-20 with runners in scoring position in the first two games against the White Sox. Do that in a playoff series - which they have done in several Octobers during the Boone era - and your season is over.

The Yankees are going to have to win close, low-scoring games in the playoffs, that’s just how it is, and it simply won’t be possible if Holmes and Leiter are going to pitch the high leverage innings.

Aug. 16: Yankees 3, Tigers 0

The Lead: An easy, quiet, stress-free night

Don’t we wish every game could be as easy as this one? Yeah, it lacked in entertainment value, but it’s nice every once in a while when we don’t have to chew on our fingernails as the Yankees try to win a game. This went so well, even Holmes went 1-2-3 in the ninth.

Gerrit Cole continues to show signs that he’s getting closer and closer to his Cy Young form. He dominated the Tigers across six scoreless innings allowing just four hits (all singles) and two walks with eight strikeouts. Only twice did the Tigers have two runners on base against him at the same time - in the second and sixth innings, both with one out - but he got out of each jam with a couple ground outs and a couple strikeouts.

“Today was good; the last few have been really good,” Cole said. “I was able to dial it back, push it up and locate at both those ends of the spectrum. So that’s a good sign.”

Game notes and observations:

➤ The Yankees offense provided a sign of what was going to happen all weekend because it didn’t do much. There were only five hits, but two happened to be solo homers by Oswald Peraza in the fifth and Aaron Judge in the eighth and that was more than enough.

➤ Peraza made his first start of the season and riding a recent hot streak at Triple-A which earned him the call-up, he drilled his homer to left off Brant Hurter who pitched the final six innings for Detroit after it used an opener and a second reliever to cover the first three innings. “I’ve been working very hard in Triple-A to get that confidence back,” Peraza said. “To come up here and be able to help, especially in a win, to get results and help win a game, extremely happy.”

➤ The Tigers’ opener, Beau Briske, allowed a run in the first when Gleyber Torres singled and hustled to second when center fielder Parker Meadows misplayed the ball, and he eventually scored on Alex Verdugo’s sacrifice fly.

➤ After Cole departed at 95 pitches, the Yankees got three nice outings of one inning each by Luke Weaver, Tommy Kahnle and Holmes. The only threat came in the seventh against Weaver, and it wasn’t his fault. With two outs, former Yankee first-round draft pick Trey Sweeney was credited with his first MLB hit, a gift from the official scorer. He hit a ball that Torres fielded and then for some reason hurried his throw and was way off target, pulling DJ LeMahieu off the bag. It should have been scored an error. And then Anthony Volpe dropped a routine pop up to keep the inning alive, and after Weaver wild-pitched the runners to second and third, he got Meadows to pop up to end it. That was the only drama in the game.

Aug. 17: Tigers 4, Yankees 0

The Lead: A turd burger of a performance

That’s what I tweeted in the eighth inning, having grown disgusted that I wasted nearly three hours of a Saturday afternoon on this turd burger of a performance. Carlos Rodon delivered one of those patented Rodon-ugly performances, and the offense looked utterly feeble against a rookie pitcher named Keider Montero who came into the game with a 5.76 ERA in his first 10 career starts.

“Whoever they’ve had out there, Friday night even, we hit a couple balls out of the ballpark, but into today, they’ve held us down, flat-out,” Boone said. “We didn’t mount much today at all. It’s a team that’s been doing a pretty good job of limiting runs, especially lately and doing it in creative ways. But we just got flat beat on the pitching side today. We just weren’t our best today, period.”

Game notes and observations:

➤ You knew it was going to be one of those days for Rodon right away. He retired the first two men in the first inning but then gave up a ground rule double that he was lucky didn’t leave the park, and then he couldn’t put Keith away and he eventually hit an RBI single. “Just didn’t have that A-plus stuff,” said Rodon, who I don’t think has ever once has A-plus stuff since he joined the Yankees. “I was trying to go out there and compete and I need to be better than that. That was tough, putting the boys down 4-0 after the second.”

➤ Ah yes, the second inning. What a slog as he threw 36 pitches and once again could not put anyone away. He gave up a double to Spencer Torkelson, retired Jung, and then did something no one has ever done. He allowed free-swinging Javier Baez, who has the worst OPS in all of MLB, to work him for 13 pitches before he finally struck out. It was the longest at bat of Baez’s career, and he somehow stayed alive after falling behind 1-2 in the count thanks to seven foul balls. If you know anything about how terrible Baez’s plate discipline is, you know this was truly unbelievable. After finally getting Baez there were two outs but Rodon was gassed and then came an RBI single by Zach McKinstry, a walk, and a two-run double by Andy Ibanez to make it 4-0 and, as it turned out, ended the scoring.

➤ On the positive side, the Yankees bullpen put forth 4.2 scoreless innings allowing just three hits and a walk. Jake Cousins retired all five men he faced; newcomer Tim Mayza gave up a triple to Torkelson and then threw a wild pitch, but Austin Wells tracked it down and threw to Mayza who tagged Torkelson out on a close play at the plate; and Leiter and Tim Hill allowed one hit apiece in their scoreless inning.

Aug. 18: Tigers 3, Yankees 2 (10)

The Lead: Another classic bullpen failure

It was a damn shame that Holmes and Leiter trashed a game in which Marcus Stroman was outstanding as he pitched six scoreless innings allowing just four hits and two walks with five strikeouts. Stoman was given the difficult task of facing Tigers ace and AL Cy Young frontrunner Tarik Skubal, and he aced the test because when he walked off the mound after the sixth, he had a 1-0 lead.

Stroman was followed by Weaver and Kahnle who each had a shutdown inning, so it was all set up for Holmes to finish things off and salvage a road trip against two teams the Yankees should have swept. But nope, the predictable happened.

Game notes and observations:

➤ Skubal wasn’t great, but he was still plenty good enough to shut down the Yankees across his six innings. His only wobble came in the sixth inning when he had an uncharacteristic command issue. He started it by walking Torres and Juan Soto, then got Judge to hit into a double play with Torres moving to third. However, Skubal threw a wild pitch which allowed Torres to score the game’s only run until Holmes shit the bed.

➤ The offense was awful all weekend, and it did nothing in this game. The first run was a gift, and the only other run came in the 10th with Volpe starting at second as the automatic runner and LeMahieu drove him home with a ground single through the right side. The Yankees need Judge and Soto to produce every day and this was not their night - 1-for-7 with a walk and three whiffs, plus Judge’s big double play.

➤ Jasson Dominguez made his season debut as he was brought up from Triple-A as the 27th man. Each team was allowed to bring up an extra player because of the unusual nature of playing two games in Detroit and one in Williamsport. Boone decided to start Dominguez in left field over Alex Verdugo because he’s a switch hitter and could bat right-handed against Skubal, and the kid had a brutal game. He went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, and his fielding gaffe allowed the winning run to score in the 10th.

➤ After Leiter gave up the tying run, McKinstry stole second, and when Meadows singled to left, the Tigers were aggressive and waved McKinstry home even though there were still no outs. Dominguez fielded the ball but double-clutched when he went to throw, and that gave him no chance. Had he fielded it cleanly, he probably would have nailed McKinstry and the game would have continued, at least until Leiter gave up another hit or two to end it.

➤ There was a great stat on X about home runs this season. This was the 30th game in which the Yankees did not homer, and they’re 10-20 in those games. But here’s the thing: Every team in MLB has a losing record when they don’t hit a home run. The best team is the Giants who are 21-22 when they don’t homer. It’s just further evidence that while we still love manufacturing runs, home runs matter the most and it’s kind of indisputable.

After a day off Monday, next up is a big three-game set at Yankee Stadium against the AL Central-leading Guardians who have been one of the most surprisingly good teams in MLB this season.

There was no indication when the year began that Cleveland was going to be sitting here in mid-August competing for the best record in all of MLB, and then they suffered some big injuries to their pitching staff and that idea seemed impossible. Yet they are 72-52, just a half-game behind the Yankees and Orioles for best record in the AL.

The Guardians have gotten outstanding offensive seasons from Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor and Steven Kwan, and they have MLB’s best bullpen by far with a 2.68 ERA led by crazy good closer Emmanuel Clase and his 0.64 ERA and AL-leading 37 saves.

Cleveland is the only team above .500 that the Yankees are playing in August. Maybe this is a good thing because so far against this weak schedule, the Yankees are just 8-7 against the Blue Jays, Angels, Rangers, White Sox and Tigers.

The pitching matchups are as follows: Tuesday at 7:05 on YES it’s Luis Gil (3.25 ERA) against Matthew Boyd (1.69); Wednesday at 7:05 on Amazon Prime it’s Nestor Cortes (4.20) against a TBD; and Thursday at 1:05 on YES it’s Gerrit Cole (4.15) against Gavin Williams (5.02).