June is Thankfully Over as Yankees and Blue Jays Split Four Lopsided Games

This was some kind of weird series between the Yankees and Blue Jays, four games that were all blowouts with each team winning twice as a challenging June comes to an end. There was plenty to be irritated about in the two losses, and plenty to feel optimistic about in the two wins, but I guess that’s how it usually goes. Winning is good, losing is bad. 

Hey, I’m gonna try something new here by offering you a chance to ask me questions which I’ll answer in the newsletter, my version of a mailbag that you probably see from other writers covering various teams. All you have to do is email me your question pertaining to the Yankees or baseball in general at [email protected] with your full name, and I’ll answer as many as I can, probably once during a mid-week edition. If the idea flops and no one responds, I’ll nix it, but we’ll give it a try. Lets get to it.

The best part about Sunday afternoon’s 8-1 victory for the Yankees is that the month of June is now over. Good riddance.

After the Yankees stormed through May with a 21-7 record and then won their first five games in June, they were 4.5 games ahead of Baltimore and looking like one of the best teams in MLB as their 45-19 record would attest. But then it all blew up from there and the Yankees went 9-12 the rest of the way including 5-11 in the last 16.

We saw some horrific baseball in June and it’s rather remarkable that looking back on it, the Yankees actually managed to play above .500 at 14-12 for the month. I guess it only seemed like they were losing every night because they have not won any of their last five series.

Injuries came in waves as they lost Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton, Jon Berti, Clarke Schmidt, Ian Hamilton, Nick Burdi, and Cody Poteet; the pitching staff - both starters and relievers - was awful as it posted a 5.26 ERA for the month which ranked 28th, and a WHIP of 1.440 which was 27th; and while the offense didn’t dip to that level of incompetence, multiple players like Rizzo (before he got hurt), Alex Verdugo, Gleyber Torres, Anthony Volpe, DJ LeMahieu and Austin Wells were mired in slumps for uncomfortable stretches.

If not for Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, it’s scary to think how much worse the month could have been. Look at the June that Judge put up: A .409 average, a .514 on-base, an .864 slugging percentage, a 1.378 OPS, 11 homers and 37 RBI.

Despite all the problems, they remain tied for first in the division because Baltimore went 17-12 in June, pretty good but not great.

June 27: Blue Jays 9, Yankees 2

The Lead: Rodon gets beaten to a pulp

I was busy with something so I turned this game on at precisely 7:27 p.m. Thursday night. I’d say I was shocked to see that it was already 5-0 Blue Jays with no outs in the first inning, but I really wasn’t because at this point in the month, nothing shocked me.

Carlos Rodon is in crisis, there’s no other way to describe what has happened to him. His ERA was 2.93 over his first 14 starts, but there were underlying numbers that suggested - rightly as it turns out - that he was flirting with disaster. He was giving up a lot of hard contact and it just so happened that the ball was staying in the ballpark, and also finding gloves of his defenders. Well, his luck has run out.

Five batters into this debacle it was 5-0 and by the time the second inning was over it was 8-0 before the Blue Jays decided to call the dogs off and Rodon was at least able to survive three more innings so the bullpen wasn’t completely trashed in the first game of a four-game series.

Game notes and observations:

➤ Rodon’s night started this way: Single, hit by pitch, bloop double, silly infield roller off the first base bag for a single, three-run bomb by George Springer who came into the game as one of the worst hitters in MLB. Not kidding, one of the worst hitters in all of baseball this year. Then in the second inning, there was a hit by pitch, walk, three-run bomb by Springer who, again, has been abysmal all year.

➤ Rodon’s last three starts have been nothing less than tragic as he has been eviscerated for 21 runs (20 earned) on 28 hits across in just 13.2 innings and his ERA has soared to 4.42. This was the first time a Yankees pitcher has allowed at least eight runs and 10 hits in back-to-back games since some guy named Monk Dubiel, who was a World War II replacement player in 1944. It was the first time since Chien-Ming Wang in 2009 that any Yankee had allowed at least 20 earned runs in a three-game stretch.

➤ “I just wanted to get through five for the bullpen, and just prove something to myself,” Rodón said of his plea to stay in the game in the fifth when Aaron Boone came to get him. “That even though I get knocked down, I can get back up and just keep going.” If this had been a fight, it would have been stopped long before Boone threw in the white towel.

➤ A quick note on the offense: Horrendous. But what did anyone expect with a lineup that featured in the 4 thru 9 spots, the off-the-cliff slumping Verdugo, rookie Ben Rice who is still trying to find his way in the majors, the unplayable barely Triple-A worthy Jahmai Jones (because useless Torres was benched for a second game), Wells and his .205 average, Oswaldo Cabrera (because useless LeMahieu needed a rest from all his out-making), and Trent Grisham (hey, he was hitting .145 by night’s end because his two-run homer was all the Yankees scoring).

June 28: Yankees 16, Blue Jays 5

The Lead: A much-needed and therapeutic blowout

Marcus Stroman and the Yankees let out a lot of aggravation Friday night as they pummeled the Jays to end their four-game losing steak. It sure wasn’t looking good for a while because Toronto starter Yusei Kikuchi - like so many of the Jays who become super heroes when they play the Yankees - bottled them up for five innings.

But then Kukichi and the Toronto bullpen imploded and the Yankees scored 15 runs in the final four innings, and the whole awakening seemed to derive from what happened in the bottom of the fifth when Stroman gave up two runs to snap a 1-1 tie and lost his cool in the process.

Stroman was grinding through a tough game as the Jays had traffic in the first and third innings, and then in the fifth the basepaths looked like the Gardiner Expressway at rush hour as Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Bo Bichette singled and Stroman hit Spencer Horwitz with a pitch to load the bases with not outs. Vlad Guerrero Jr. then hit a grounder to short which, with that fat ass running, felt like a double play. Volpe fielded and fed Torres but in typical Torres fashion he kind of threw a lazy relay to first and Guerrero beat it out.

Stroman was visibly pissed and seemed to scream “Throw the fucking ball, bro!” He was then pulled after walking Justin Turner, and Michael Tonkin came on and hit Springer with a pitch to force in a run.

In the dugout, after Stroman had marched up a down yelling into his glove, Judge had a conversation with him and likely laid it out that the Yankees - at least with Judge as captain - don’t show up teammates. And Judge is right, but I sure don’t blame Stroman for losing his mind with Torres because we all have this year, multiple times.

“This game can definitely have a lot of raw emotion come out,” said Stroman, who was the first guy out to congratulate Stroman when he homered in the sixth. “I’m very passionate. I care a lot about winning for this team and for the city. Sometimes, raw emotion comes out. I checked in with everybody I needed to check in with after the game. It’s all directed toward winning and being great out there, and sometimes it’s frustrating.”

Game notes and observations:

➤ After Stroman’s outburst, the Yankees woke up in a hurry. Jones and Volpe singled and Soto crushed a three-run homer to right to end Kukuchi’s night and give the Yankees their first lead since June 22 against Atlanta, a span of 41 innings. Nate Pearson relieved and Judge singled, JD Davis plated him with a double for his first hit as a Yankee, and Torres homered to make it 7-3.

➤ Because they are the Blue Jays, they were still lingering after IKF (off Michael Tonkin in the sixth) and Guerrero (off Luke Weaver in the seventh) hit solo homers to get within 7-5. Weaver then gave up a double to ancient Justin Turner so the tying run came to the plate, but he got two big outs to preserve the lead.

➤ The Yankees then regained control in the eighth as Verdugo finally did something with an RBI double (though Torres got thrown out at home thanks to a terrible send by third-base coach Luis Rojas) and LeMahieu produced his first extra-base hit of the year, an RBI double. And in the ninth the Yankees just piled on with seven runs on eight hits including a two-run single by the unstoppable Judge.

June 29: Blue Jays 9, Yankees 3

The Lead: Juan Soto out with hand injury

Friday night, Stroman said, “You can't hold this team down for long. I feel like it was something that was going to happen soon. We’ve just been in a little bit of a lull lately. It was good to see the boys swinging it again.”

Yeah, well that didn’t last long because Saturday afternoon the bats that delivered 18 hits the night before went silent, again. And even worse than that came the news that Soto suffered a hand injury sliding home Friday and he was scratched for this game.

I find it rather incredible that this guy almost never got hurt before he arrived in the Bronx. He played every game last year for the Padres and has played at least 150 in four seasons; the only two times he didn’t were the year he was called up from the minors in 2018, and the 2020 Covid year. But now he’s been hurt twice here and we just reached July.

Thankfully, Soto surprisingly returned to action for the finale Sunday, but a hand injury for a hitter is certainly something to watch because that can become problematic.

Game notes and observations:

➤ While Soto was watching from the bench, Guerrero eviscerated the Yankees by driving in six runs with a two-run homer off Nestor Cortes, a three-run double off Caleb Ferguson, and an RBI single off Clay Holmes. It’s just utterly ridiculous how this guy tortures the Yankees, even now with his dreads now sheered off. He has an OPS of .879 in 86 career games against the Yankees with 19 homers and 63 RBI.

➤ But from Guerrero we’ve just come to expect pure evil. We don’t expect it from IKF who continued his revenge-filled weekend against the Yankees with four hits, an RBI and three runs scored. It felt like IKF did more damage in this series (7-for-15 with seven runs scored) than he did in two years combined with the Yankees. By the end of the series he was hitting .292 with a .758 OPS though his 12-game hitting streak ended Sunday. I mean, what? Are you kidding me?

➤ After a quiet Friday, Springer got back to work in this one and had two more hits. He started the series hitting .196 and he ended it hitting .214 as he went 7-for-11 with eight RBI. Oh, and then there’s Alejandro Kirk, the bowling ball bodied-catcher who was having a horrible season just like Springer until the Yankees showed up. Two hits and two RBI for him in this game.

➤ Guerrero’s homer came in the first, meaning the Yankees had allowed the first run in 10 straight games, their longest such streak since 2016.

➤ It was 9-1 in the ninth inning, so that was the perfect time for Wells to hit a two-run homer. Great, thanks for showing up just in time. I’m sorry but Wells has been a massive disappointment at the plate in my eyes.

➤ Toronto starter Chris Bassitt got drilled by a 101 mph Judge line drive in the first inning, raising a big welt on his pitching arm. Yet even in obvious discomfort, he went six innings and gave up just an unearned run. That’s pretty pathetic that the Yankees could do nothing against him.

➤ The Yankees had not allowed more than eight runs in any of their first 65 games but have done so seven times in their last 20 games, including four of their last five.

June 30: Yankees 8, Blue Jays 1

The Lead: Soto makes a dramatic return

Twenty minutes before the start of the game, Soto was not on Boone’s lineup card, but after a strong batting practice he went into the manager’s office and asked if it was too late to get him into the game. Boone checked with the trainers, they gave the OK, and his return, plus a strong outing from Gerrit Cole, lifted the Yankees to a victory that earned a split of the series.

“We went through a lot of exercises and treatments before the game,” Soto said. “As I started hitting in the cage, it started getting better and better.”

In his first at bat, Soto laced a single to right off Kevin Gausman and Judge followed with his 31st home run and the Yankees were off and running. “You just forget about the hand and worry about the pitcher,” Soto said. “That’s what you’ve got to do. When you’re in there and your blood is going, everything is going, you just forget about everything. You just try to compete and try to win the game for your team.”

It was a big moment to see Soto get that hit and then Judge hitting his home run was huge because the Yankees struggled so much in the first inning last week. In four of the previous five games they had at least two men on base in the first inning and didn’t score any runs. That’s hard to do.

“It was a shot in the arm,” Boone said of Judge’s homer. “Especially 20 minutes before with putting Juan in the game and then he has a typical Juan at bat and smokes a ball in the hole there. And then Judgey hits a fly ball off the batter’s eye. So it was definitely a good shot of energy on getaway day to help get us going and salvage a series.”

Game notes and observations:

➤ The other big story was Cole looking like Cole in the five innings and 90 pitches he worked. He threw 25 four-seam fastballs at 96 mph or faster, so that was very good to see because he’d thrown only 18 at that speed in his first two outings. “I thought it was improved today,” Cole said. “It certainly isn’t where it needs to be, but it was definitely improved.”

➤ The only run he allowed came in the third when he walked Horwitz, hit Guerrero with a pitch, and Turner singled. Then he got Springer to ground into an inning-ending double play which was huge. From there he really looked good and set the Jays down in order in the fourth and fifth to finish with three hits and one walk allowed along with six strikeouts after he had no K’s against the Mets.

➤ After Judge’s homer the Yankee tacked on two in the second as Gausman walked three including one to Soto with the bases loaded, and two singles, one by LeMahieu which drove in a run. LeMahieu, showing signs of life, doubled home a run in the fifth and Grisham doubled in two for a 7-1 lead. And Rice’s RBI double in the sixth off Pearson ended the scoring, that being Rice’s first extra-base hit in the majors.

➤ One of the most encouraging things about this game was the bottom two-thirds of the order which had been so terrible lately. Verdugo, Torres, Rice, Wells, LeMahieu, and Grisham went a combined 9-for-27 with five RBI.

The Yankees have an off day Monday and then start a three-game series against the young and pesky Reds on Tuesday. Cincinnati stands 39-45 and in fourth place in the NL Central because they’ve endured a bunch of injuries and their young players have experienced some ups and downs.

They got off to a 14-10 start and then ran into a brick wall and lost 20 of 26 including an eight-game losing streak before they shockingly swept the Dodgers May 24-26. Then they started June with a seven-game winning streak, but since June 15 have gone 5-10. Also, they’re just 7-17 against teams with .500 or better records. All this to say, I have no idea which team is going to show up in the Bronx.

Shortstop Elly De La Cruz has been electric with 14 homers, 37 RBI and an MLB-leading 40 stolen bases, but he’s hitting a mundane .252 and has struck out a whopping 111 times in 359 plate appearances. Third baseman Jeimer Candelario has 14 homers, and outfielder Spencer Steer has 10 with a team-high 51 RBI but he’s hitting just .241.

The Reds rank 21st as a team in homers with just 79 and in OPS at .679, they’re 24th in average at .229, but they do score as they’re 15th in runs with 358. On the mound they’ve been better with a team ERA of 3.86 that ranks 11th while their batting average against of .235 is ninth-best.

The pitching matchups are as follows: Tuesday at 7:05 on YES it’s Luis Gil (3.15 ERA) against Graham Ashcraft (5.45); Wednesday at 7:05 on Amazon Prime it’s Carlos Rodon (4.42) against Andrew Abbott (3.41); and Thursday at 1:05 on YES it’s Marcus Stroman (3.29) against failed Yankee Frankie Montas (4.23).