Managerial Folly Didn't Help Yankees in Second Loss to Mariners

Ugly, ugly, ugly, and all I needed was the 10-minute condensed game replay on my MLB app to confirm that description of the Yankees’ second straight loss to the Mariners. I’m so glad I didn’t waste three hours of my Tuesday night on this, but I still have lots to say. And in Pinstripe Past, we’re going back to 2001 and the day many would say Mike Mussina officially became a Yankee. Having just signed with the team as a free agent, Mussina outdueled Pedro Martinez in an epic early-season showdown at Yankee Stadium.

May 21: Mariners 6, Yankees 3

I needed a night off after that travesty Monday night, so I watched the new documentary on Peacock about the disaster that was the 1990 Yankees. Now that was one horrible team and wow, the drama on the field and off that year was really something. If you have Peacock, I recommend the three-episode series.

The Yankees’ problems of the last two nights certainly pale in comparison to 1990, but after watching the condensed game, clearly I made the right choice to blow this one off. This has been a bad two nights, folks, and for the first time since April 29-30 they have lost two in a row.

I knew the Mariners were going to be trouble with their pitching staff, but I did not expect their lame offense to score four runs in the ninth to win Monday’s game, and then hit four home runs Tuesday night.

Oh, and then there was the Aaron Boone show. I haven’t had much negative to say about Boone this season, but Tuesday night, he was back to being, well, Aaron Boone.

Just after Gleyber Torres gave the Yankees a chance with his three-run homer in the seventh to cut the deficit to 4-3, Boone was caught off guard and then did not call a quick audible to rectify the situation.

Ian Hamilton went on the IL Monday, and with Tommy Kahnle due to be activated in time for Wednesday’s game, the Yankees needed a bullpen arm for two days and 5-foot-6 lefty Clayton Andrews was called up from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, even though his ERA was 6.60. Cody Morris has a 1.31 ERA in 17 games for Scranton, and Alex Mauricio has a 1.29 ERA in 12 games, so why not either of those guys instead of Andrews, who clearly has struggled in Triple-A? I have no idea.

Anyway, down 4-0 in the seventh, Boone basically punted when he made the decision to get Andrews warmed up, rather than veteran lefty Caleb Ferguson, his mindset being that the game was probably out of reach, so don’t waste Ferguson.

However, Torres’ two-out homer got the Yankees back into the game. Rather than make an immediate call to have Ferguson get ready, Boone rolled the dice with Andrews, and he got burned. Andrews’ first pitch in the eighth was sent over the wall in right by Luke Raley for a home run.

“I liked the lane for him, simple as that, and obviously he gets ambushed there right away,” Boone said. He liked the lane? It was the same lane for Ferguson, so that was bullshit.

“The consideration is going to Fergy there, which is a fair question. In hindsight, that’s probably what I should have done,” Boone said.

That’s right, he should have, but the game moves fast and Boone wasn’t ready for the sudden shift created by Torres’ homer and because he didn’t react to the situation, Ferguson probably wasn’t going to have enough time to get warmed up, especially when Oswaldo Cabrera ended the inning three pitches later on a lineout.

Now look, it probably didn’t matter because the Yankees didn’t score again, but Raley’s home run just sucked the life out of the stadium, and probably the Yankee dugout.

Boone wasn’t done, though. In the bottom of the eighth, with Trent Grisham - quite literally the worst hitter in MLB with his .056 average - leading off, Boone stupidly didn’t pinch hit, even though he had Jon Berti available. Yeah, Grisham bats lefty against righty reliever Ryan Stanek, but did Boone really think Grisham had a better chance up there than Berti, even with his so-called platoon advantage? Naturally Grisham popped out.

Yes, I guess these are nitpicks because with the exception of one swing by Torres the Yankees did nothing on offense, but the manager can’t make dumb decisions like the two Boone made in this game.

Here are my observations:

➤ Seattle starter Bryan Woo has now faced the Yankees twice in his brief MLB career, and here’s how that has gone: 2-0, 0.00 ERA, 11.2 innings, 4 hits allowed, 12 strikeouts. It was laughable how easy he beat down the Yankee hitters and the only reason he came out after six innings and 77 pitches (58 of which were strikes) is because he’s only three starts into his season after starting it on the IL. He gave up just two hits, no walks, and had seven strikeouts and now in his three starts in 2024 his ERA is 0.57 and his WHIP is 0.510.

➤ Dylan Moore is a career .212 hitter, but don’t tell the Yankees. He hit a two-run homer in the third, an RBI single in the seventh, and a solo homer in the ninth off Nick Burdi. In addition to Raley’s homer off Andrews, Ty France smoked one off another reliever who has no business being in a close game, Dennis Santana, in the seventh.

➤ This Yankees bullpen has some real dead spots and they desperately need for Kahnle to return and pitch the way he has in the past. Of course, the big issue with him is can he stay healthy for, you know, maybe two weeks before his next injury pops up?

➤ Clarke Schmidt made the one bad pitch to Moore in the third and those were the only two runs he gave up, but his five innings were a grind. He was back to not being able to put away hitters as the Mariners drove his pitch count up to 100 and that started the bullpen merry-go-round. He gave up only four hits and two walks with six strikeouts, but he had way too many deep counts. Schmidt actually said that he thinks he might have been tipping his pitches. That would explain a few things because the Mariners were definitely on him.

➤ Anthony Volpe extended his hitting streak to 14 games and his on-base streak to 18 games with a single in the eighth, right after Grisham made the first out. But then Juan Soto didn’t come through, and Aaron Judge - who struck out as the potential tying run in the ninth inning Monday - flied out as the potential tying run to end the threat.

The Night Mike Mussina Earned His Pinstripes

NEW YORK (May 24, 2001) - When Mike Mussina decided to leave the Orioles and sign a big free agent contract with the Yankees prior to the 2001 season, he placed a life-sized target on his back.

After toiling for 10 years in Baltimore and making the postseason just twice, Mussina knew his chances of winning a World Series ring were slim if he stayed, especially with the dynastic Yankees constantly blocking the way in the AL East.

So he made the move to Gotham on a six-year, $88.5 million contract knowing he would be shouldering a big burden as the replacement for fan favorite David Cone, though he didn’t see it that way. “I’m not trying to prove something all over again,” Mussina. “To say, ‘Do it all over again in a new town’ isn’t the reason they brought me in here.”

Still, with expectations soaring, Mussina needed a game like this. He had gotten off to a middling start and was 4-4 with a 3.75 ERA, but on this electric Thursday afternoon in front of 55,592 at Yankee Stadium, Mussina officially became a true Yankee.

He engaged Boston’s Pedro Martinez in the best pitching duel of the young season and came out the winner as the Yankees squeezed out a 2-1 victory. Mussina pitched eight innings and gave up just one run on six hits with no walks and 12 strikeouts before yielding to Mariano Rivera in the ninth.

“No. 1 pitchers do that,” Joe Torre said. “They pick the team up when we need it. That was a spot where we needed him to do that and pitch like he did today.”

The Yankees had been sputtering over the previous week losing five of seven games including a three-game sweep at the hands of the A’s in Oakland. They returned home for a series against the first-place Red Sox that had been shortened one game by rain, and when it started a day later, the Yankees earned a 7-3 victory as Andy Pettitte beat Cone who had joined the Red Sox that year and was making just his second start for the arch rival.

As juicy as that pitching matchup was, Mussina vs. Pedro had the ballpark jumping from the first pitch.

Martinez was nearly as good, but he gave up that one extra run on six hits and three walks while also striking out 12.

“He was possessed,” Jorge Posada said of Mussina. “That’s how good he was today. He knew he was facing Pedro and that he needed to stay in the game.”

For as great as Martinez had been, particularly since coming to the Red Sox in 1998, this made it five straight starts against the Yankees where the Red Sox lost the game dating back to when he beat New York in Game 3 of the 1999 ALCS.

“We got guys that can pitch, too,” Derek Jeter said. “Everybody says Pedro this, Pedro that. But Mussina’s pitching on our team. When you have him there, you have a chance to win as well.”

Added Chuck Knoblauch: “He’s a dominating pitcher. I don’t think a lot of people view him that way. He can dominate a game as easily as Pedro Martinez can. He did today – against Pedro Martinez.”

Mussina retired the first eight men, striking out four, but then was touched for a double by Trot Nixon and an RBI single by Jose Offerman in the third. Martinez allowed three singles without incident in the first three innings, but he served up a solo homer to Bernie Williams leading off the fourth.

And then in the fifth, the only other run Mussina needed came when Scott Brosius led off with a single, Knoblauch drew a one-out walk, and then Paul O’Neill came through with an opposite field, seeing-eye two-out RBI single between third and short.

“I just laughed,” Martinez said. “I threw the pitch exactly where I wanted to. That’s exactly how I wanted Paul O’Neill to hit it. But not to that little hole. You have to give him credit for making contact with that pitch. He wasn’t getting a good cut at any of my pitches, but he made contact and made something happen.”

O’Neill didn’t disagree with any of that. “It just found hole,” he said. “It was not a great hit, believe me. I’d much rather drive a ball into the gap, but against Pedro you just try to put the ball in play in that situation.

As was his way, Mussina was mild-mannered and almost nonchalant afterward.

“It’s one ballgame,” he said. “Yeah, it was a big game for us because it was Pedro and it put us in first place. We got a lot of ballgames left. We’ll see him again. It looks like I’ll see him again. It was a really good game to win and a tough game to lose. I’ve pitched almost 300 games. I never say, ‘Man, we don’t have a chance.’”

⚾ May 22, 1999: Roger Clemens broke the AL record for consecutive victories, notching his 18th straight as the Yankees crushed the Indians 10-2. He moved past Cleveland's Johnny Allen (1936-37) and Baltimore's Dave McNally (1968-69), both of whom won 17 straight. His last loss had come on May 29, 1998 when he was with the Blue Jays. During this streak, he also had 10 no decisions. “To be undefeated for that long, it’s pretty special,” Clemens said. “You have to be good, you have to be lucky, you have to be consistent.” Clemens eventually stretched it out to 20 before the Mets beat him on June 6, leaving him four shy of the MLB record of 24 straight wins set by Carl Hubbell of the Giants (1936-37).

⚾ May 23, 1948: Joe DiMaggio had a day against the Indians, and it was even more impressive because he was facing one of his longtime rivals, Bob Feller. DiMaggio hit three home runs, rallying the Yankees from a 4-0 deficit to a 6-5 victory. He hit the first two off Feller, a two-run shot in fourth and a go-ahead three-run homer in the sixth. The last came off Bob Muncrief in the eighth and it proved to be big because the Indians scored a run in the ninth when star reliever Joe Page issued a bases-loaded walk before striking out Eddie Robinson to end the game.

⚾ May 23, 1922: Babe Ruth’s brief tenure as Yankee captain came to an end on this day. Manager Miller Huggins had named him before the season, but less than two months later, he was stripped after an outburst during an ugly 11-3 loss at the Polo Grounds to the St. Louis Browns. After arguing a call, Ruth threw dirt in the face of an umpire and also berated a fan before being ejected. He was fined $500 and suspended for a game. Huggins promoted Everett Scott to captain and he held the position for four seasons.