Death, Taxes, and Giancarlo Stanton Injuries

I was willing to give Giancarlo Stanton the benefit of the doubt. I figured it would take three weeks before he got hurt and had to go on the injured list. Lesson learned.

Barely two weeks into the season, the man who is built like a Greek god but is as fragile as a bug on the wrong end of a fly swatter, is already out, probably for a month I’d guess. And knowing his history, probably more.

It’s laughable. Really, it’s so unbelievably laughable that this guy - every goddamn year - spends time on the injured list. Saturday, he hit a ball to left-center that he clearly thought was a home run because he was staring at it as he jog-walked toward first. When he realized it wasn’t out he had to change gears and hustle to second base, and that’s when he got hurt.

The simple act of running was too much for Stanton. And it wasn’t like he was running fast, it was more three-quarters speed because he was correct in surmising that he wasn’t going to need to slide to beat the throw. He came out of the game but I thought that was because Aaron Boone was merely pinch-running Aaron Hicks, knowing that Stanton probably wasn’t to bat again in a 6-1 game.

Silly me. Of course he was hurt. He underwent an MRI Sunday, and back on the injured list he went. As I said, laughable.

“There’s no good timing for it, obviously,” Boone said. “I know he’s really frustrated. Obviously he’s got an awesome build and physique. He works very hard to try to avoid these things. But unfortunately it is something that’s happened with him. I guess if we knew the answer, we’d (change it). So I don’t know.”

Stanton makes perpetually injured Byron Buxton of the Twins look as durable as Cal Ripken. As for Ripken, who will remain baseball’s all-time Iron Man for as long as baseball is played, he must laugh at some of the shit he sees in the major leagues these days. Guys sit out with paper cuts, or take a load management rest because God forbid they can play baseball three or four days in a row.

➤ Taking Stanton’s spot on the roster is shortstop Oswald Peraza who was called up from Scranton. That’s an interesting move, but this might be what they’re thinking: Maybe they’ll try Peraza at third base which would allow another injury-prone player, DJ LeMahieu, to spend more time as the DH.

➤ LeMahieu was able to return Saturday after missing three games with a quad problem, played third and immediately helped the offense all weekend. “We treated it pretty conservatively, and the trainers feel good about it,” Boone said. “DJ had a good (Friday) with how he was able to move around the field and do his ground balls, and hitting is not an issue. We feel like he’s ready to go.” Does anyone miss Josh Donaldson? I didn’t think so.

➤ Following his terrible outing on Thursday, reliever Colten Brewer was designated for assignment and Greg Weissert was called up from Scranton. “Weissert, we plan on him playing a big role for us this year,” Boone said. “He got into a little numbers game there at the end of camp with us claiming some guys, so it was a logical choice to go with him. It was tough to have to DFA Colten, who’s done a really nice job for us, but I’m excited to get Greg back into the mix.”

 ➤ Aaron Judge’s 45-game on-base streak ended on Thursday as he went 0-for-3. Look, that whole thing was a silly, media-driven thing that had no practicality. What Judge had was a legit 12-game streak to open this season, never mind last year. Last year shouldn’t count when it comes to streaks. Besides, he didn’t reach base in Game 3 of the ALCS against Houston.

➤ In case you missed this story, Judge won a judgment in a U.S. Patent case and this will be able to take ownership of the phrases “All rise” and “Here comes the Judge.” Apparently some guy from Long Island had tried to patent the phrases as a way to profit on any apparel sold with those words all the way back in Judge’s rookie season but was denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, as well as MLB and Judge. The issue was finally resolved the other day, and Judge was the winner.

Here are my observations on the four games against the Twins.

April 13: Twins 11, Yankees 2

➤ I’ll be brief here. What a complete disaster. The fact that Isiah Kiner-Falefa pitched better in the ninth inning than starter Jhony Brito and Brewer should tell you all you need to know about this fiasco. The Twins scored nine runs in the first inning as Brito was eviscerated. He gave up seven of the runs on six hits and a walk, the capper a two-run homer by pesky No. 9 hitter Michael A. Taylor.

➤ Brewer, who had a really nice outing the other day in Cleveland, proceeded to throw gas on the fire as he served up back-to-back homers to Edouard Julien and Carlos Correa, giving the Twins three homers in a row. He ended up allowing four runs before Ian Hamilton, Jimmy Cordero and IKF blanked the Twins the rest of the way. Imagine paying to attend this game, and it’s over before the home team even comes up to bat in the first inning. Glad it didn’t happen to me the day before. Hey, at least the misery lasted only two hours, 20 minutes.

➤ Anthony Rizzo had the most meaningless three-hit, two-homer game you could possibly imagine. The only other Yankee hit was a bloop single by Anthony Volpe in the sixth. Incredibly, the Yankees never had an at bat with a runner in scoring position.

BOX SCORE

April 14: Twins 4, Yankees 3

➤ My new nickname for Clay Holmes, which I debuted Friday night on Twitter, is Aroldis Holmes. Remember when we all thought our white-knuckling days in the late innings were over when Holmes was so-anti Chapman great in the first half of last season? Whereas Chapman would create trouble so often with his wildness, Holmes would just come in and go 1-2-3 like it was nothing. Not anymore. He’s been mostly unreliable since the 2022 All-Star break and he ruined a perfectly good seven-inning start by Nestor Cortes with a disastrous eighth inning.

➤ Yes, I said eighth inning. Boone’s idea was to use Holmes in the eighth because Buxton and Correa were due up. On the surface, it’s a good idea. Use your best to face their best in a key spot. I didn’t have an issue with it. The problem is, Holmes is just not that guy you can rely on to get it done. And he failed miserably. Taylor, who was a pain in the ass all weekend from the No. 9 spot, poked a single to right, Buxton won a good battle to draw a walk, and then that goddamn Correa - a Yankee killer if there ever was one - lashed a two-run double that put the Twins ahead 4-3. And what was really irritating is that Holmes pulled a Clarke Schmidt. He got ahead 1-2 on all three guys and couldn’t put any of them away and it killed him.

➤ Volpe hit his first career homer leading off the bottom of the first, so that was cool, and when Judge went back-to-back, the immediate thought was the Yankees were gonna get some sweet revenge from Thursday. Yeah, after that, Stanton’s homer in the sixth was all they could muster. Much like Thursday, outside of their homers, the Yankees did nothing on offense as they had just one at bat with a runner in scoring position.

➤ As usual, Cortes gave the Yankees a solid start, and going seven was key after the bullpen had to cover eight-plus innings Thursday. His only mistakes were a pair of gopher balls to Correa in the sixth and Kyle Garlick in the seventh, but he left the game with the lead and Holmes pissed it away.

➤ Where was Rizzo when the Yankees really needed him, as opposed to the night before? He struck out three times including in the eighth when he, Judge and Stanton all did nothing against reliever Jorge Lopez after the Yankees had just fallen behind.

➤ Hey, at least the Rays finally lost, though it was to the Blue Jays, and Toronto winning isn’t helpful to the Yankees.

BOX SCORE

April 15: Yankees 6, Twins 1

➤ Whether he was cheating or not, Domingo German pitched a great game, especially after his troubling last start when he walked five men and lasted only three innings. He set a new career-high with 11 strikeouts, retired the first 16 men he faced, and should have gone further than 6.1 innings and 78 pitches, but Boone can’t help himself when it comes to babying starters and relying on his bullpen, so he pulled him in the seventh.

➤ Michael King allowed two quick hits and a run which ruined German’s shutout, but then gathered himself and got a big double play to end the seventh and locked it down the rest of the way so it ended up being a nice two-pitcher, one-run, five-hit day.

➤ Back to German. He was checked after the third inning by umpire James Hoye who found too much rosin on his hand so he was told to wash it off. German came back out for the fourth and apparently he wasn’t wiped clean enough because the umpire was not happy and so began a lengthy discussion with German, Boone, and the Yankees ever-present Spanish translator. Ultimately, German was allowed to continue, so that brought Twins manager Rocco Baldelli out and he wound up getting ejected. He didn’t understand why, despite two warnings, German was allowed to continue. He had a point, but the thing is, rosin is not a banned substance. “He didn’t fully comply, I would say, with the warning from what I was told and was still allowed to keep pitching,” Baldelli said after the game. “That’s it. I just don’t agree with that in principle.”

➤ Despite the six runs, the Yankees offense wasn’t exactly humming. Unlike the first two games, they had chances in this one as there were 10 at bats with RISP, but they had only two hits in those situations and finished with six hits in all, though they did draw five walks. There were two homers, a two-run shot by Kyle Higashioka to open the scoring, and a solo blast by Rizzo. Volpe manufactured a run in the fifth that made it 4-0 as he walked, stole second, and scored on a LeMahieu single. And then in the seventh, LeMahieu was hit by a pitch, Judge walked, and Stanton drove them home with a double.

BOX SCORE

April 16: Yankees 2, Twins 0

➤ Incredible performance by Gerrit Cole, a complete game two-hit shutout with one walk and 10 strikeouts on 109 pitches. This is his 23rd career 10-whiff games which ties the team record now shared by Ron Guidry. His ERA is down to 0.95 and he has not given up a home run - which has always been his bugaboo - all season. “We had a good approach, good command,” said Cole. “You’re giving yourself a chance to have success when you’re executing so many pitches.”

➤ Cole had thrown one complete game as a Yankee - on July 10, 2021, a shutout of the Astros. That was the game where he argued with Boone on the mound to keep him in the game, and Boone did so. And that also happened to be the last Yankees complete game which is just unbelievable, but also a nod to the way the game is now played. Good for Boone to give him the chance because I kind of doubted that he would. “Even going into this year, I think he’s probably been on some level underrated, underappreciated,” Boone said. “He’s great. He’s a great pitcher that, I believe, is going to end up in Cooperstown one day. He’s so responsible and diligent, and cares about his profession, his team, his teammates. He’s all in.”

➤ Not to be overlooked, though, was another quiet day of offense. In the four games, the Yankees were just 3-for-18 with RISP including 1-for-7 in this one. The only scoring came on a clutch two-out LeMahieu RBI single in the third and then LeMahieu’s solo homer to right in the sixth. Yeah, it was good to have him back in the lineup.

BOX SCORE

➤ April 17, 1951: Two Yankee legends began their careers with the franchise on this day 72 years ago.

The first was Bob Sheppard who became the team’s public address announcer at Yankee Stadium, a job he would hold for 56 years through 2007 when he was 96 years old. In his distinctive voice, coupled with impeccable enunciation - the “Voice of God” as Reggie Jackson said - Sheppard introduced some of the greatest players in franchise history, a lineage that stretched from Joe DiMaggio to Derek Jeter.

In fact, four years after his 2010 death, Sheppard’s voice still echoed in Yankee Stadium because Jeter insisted that a recording of Sheppard announcing him for his at bats be played. That ended when Jeter retired in 2014.

One of the first names that passed from Sheppard’s vocal cords was that of Mickey Mantle who made his MLB debut on this day during a 5-0 victory over the Red Sox.

During the spring of 1951, Casey Stengel could not stop raving about the 19-year-old outfielder, all of which cranked up the pressure on the kid who was being groomed to replace DiMaggio in center field. “There's never been anything like this kid,” Stengel said of Mantle. “He has more speed than any slugger and more slug than any speedster - and nobody has ever had more of both ‘em together.”

Well, ol’ Casey was proven correct, though not right away. Mantle batted third and grounded out to second base in his first at-bat, then recorded his first hit in the sixth, a single that started a three-run rally. He scored his first run thanks to a Yogi Berra single.

However, Mantle struggled terribly his first three months and with just seven homers and a .260 average (which wasn’t all that bad), the Yankees sent him down to Triple-A to help build his confidence. He was called back up in late August and ultimately finished his rookie season with a slash line of .267/.349/.443 with 13 homers and 65 RBI. 

The Yankees are 10-6 and tied for second place in the AL East with Toronto, four games behind the Rays.

➤ Tampa Bay 14-2: At least their winning streak ended at 13. They dropped the first two games at Toronto before winning 8-1 Sunday to avoid the sweep. However, the Rays are starting to experience some injuries. Starting pitchers Jeffrey Springs and Zach Eflin, their big (at least for the cheap Rays) offseason season free agent signing, and reliever Ryan Thompson are all going on the IL. Unfortunately, they have so much pitching depth that they’ll probably be fine. After playing a real team in Toronto, their tour through the bottom feeders gets back underway with three in Cincinnati.

➤ Toronto 10-6: Like the Red Sox, you’ll never, ever catch me hoping for good things to happen to the Jays. But last weekend, I was rooting for them to sweep the Rays. They gave it a good try in winning the first two games 6-3 and 5-2 before their ace, Alek Manoah, who is really struggling this season, got lit up Sunday. His ERA is now 6.98. The Jays’ bats are heating up as they rank third in MLB with a .277 team average, but they’ve hit only 16 homers in the first 16 games. They head to Houston for a tough three-game set with the defending champs.

➤ Baltimore 9-7: The Orioles took two of three from the White Sox, and the only loss came Saturday when they grabbed a 6-5 lead in the top of the 1oth only to lose when Logan Gillaspie gave up two runs in the bottom half. Sunday, top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriquez once again struggled, but Cedric Mullins had three hits and drove in four runs in an 8-4 victory. Jorge Mateo is now hitting .372 and he and Mullins are tied for the MLB lead in steals with eight, while Adley Rutschman is hitting .344 and has 13 RBI. Next up is a two-game set with the woeful Nationals starting Tuesday in Washington.

➤ Boston 8-8: The Red Sox took three straight from the Angels at Fenway winning 5-3, 9-7 and 2-1, and they’ll go for the rare four-game sweep Monday morning in the annual Patriots’ Day game. What a schizo team they are. They’re hitting just .238 as a team which ranks 20th, yet they’re tied for third in runs with 87. Their team ERA of 5.08 ranks 24th, yet somehow they are playing .500 ball. When they finish with the Angels they host the Twins for three.

The Yankees have Monday off and then Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout and the massively unpredictable Angels (7-8) come to the Bronx for a three-game set that opens Tuesday. Ohtani and his 0.47 ERA will be pitching Monday so the Yankees will only have to deal with his bat. On the flip side, the Angels won’t have to face Cole.

Losing three straight to the Red Sox was certainly something over the weekend. Sunday the Angels wasted a strong outing from starter Reid Detmers, another guy the Yankees are fortunate to miss, partly because Trout and Ohtani went a combined 0-for-8. On Saturday, those two were 5-for-8 and ex-Yankee Gio Urshela hit a first-inning grand slam yet they still found a way to lose. Being an Angels fan must be pretty tough.

The scheduled pitching matchups look like this: Tuesday, 7:05 p.m on YES, it’s Schmidt against Jose Suarez (10.80 ERA); Wednesday it’s an Amazon Prime game at 7:05, Jhony Brito vs. Griffin Canning (3.60); and Thursday, 4:05 on YES it’s Cortes against Patrick Sandoval (1.23).