Seven Runs Constitutes an Offensive Explosion for the Yankees

At long last, the Yankees came to the ballpark Wednesday night ready to hit and because of that, they had a relatively easy night in defeating the A’s 7-3. And in Box Score Briefs, I have some thoughts on a few players who the Yankees thankfully didn’t sign in free agency in 2023 (Andrew Benintendi) and 2024 (Blake Snell and Cody Bellinger).

April 24: Yankees 7, A’s 3

Well, how about that. For once we weren’t chewing on our fingernails at the end as the Yankees put together their best start-to-finish performance since they swept a doubleheader in Cleveland on April 13.

They’re playing a team that is barely competitive and unlike the first two games of the series - one of which they lost, the other which they allowed the A’s to hang around all night - the Yankees put their collective foot on Oakland’s throat and kept it there throughout.

I was rubbing my eyes watching the Yankees score in five different innings - the first time they’ve done that all year - after they had scored in just four of their last 43 innings coming into the game. They had 11 hits in all and everyone in the lineup had at least one except Oswaldo Cabrera and Alex Verdugo, though he had two walks and a sacrifice fly.

This was also the first time that Juan Soto and Aaron Judge homered in the same game, so that was good to see. Aaron Boone said that made him feel, “Warm and fuzzy inside. Like some hot chocolate on a cold day. It was great. I don’t think it will be the last time those two will homer together.” And Anthony Rizzo homered for the second night in a row. Even Austin Wells had two hits which sent his batting average soaring up to .132.

As an aside, what was up with that bullshit postgame interview Judge gave to Chris Shearn? I don’t know what the hell his problem was, but his terse, clipped answers was just a piss poor look from the captain. I’ve also read that he hasn’t been as available in the clubhouse after games as he usually has been.

Maybe that’s something that only bothers me given my day job - which I’ll be back at today covering the Bills’ draft after our 19-day strike against evil, despicable Gannett ended - but players condescending to the media quite obviously pisses me off and Judge should know better, especially since that was a national Amazon Prime game.

Here are my observations:

➤ Judge finally showed a pulse at the plate as he ripped a two-run homer to get the party started in the first. He was also pretty fortunate because he actually struck out in that at bat, but A’s starter Joe Boyle was called for a balk on the strikeout pitch so Judge got a mulligan, and he made Boyle pay.

➤ It looked like more of the same old, same old in the second and third innings when the Yankees loaded the bases and failed to score as Soto flied out in the second and Cabrera popped to short in the third so it stayed 2-0. But in the fourth, Wells broke his 0-for-23 slump by bunting for a single and he came around to score when Anthony Volpe’s routine single to right was turned into a triple when Lawrence Butler dove and missed and the ball went to the wall. Soto brought home Volpe with a sac fly for a 4-0 lead.

➤ Rizzo homered leading off the fifth, his second in two nights after he hit only one in the first 22 games. Soto homered to dead center in the sixth, and in the seventh Giancarlo Stanton and Rizzo singled, Gleyber Torres - 6-for-his-last-49 coming into the at bat - beat out an infield hit to load the bases and Stanton amazingly was able to tag and score on Verdugo’s sac fly that made it 7-3.

➤ The pitching was great with the exception of the sixth inning. Clarke Schmidt was excellent for the first five innings as he blanked the A’s on two hits and two walks. But he just can’t handle a lineup the third time through and he gave up a three-run homer to Brent Rooker which made it a game at 5-3, so that was a lousy way to end his night.

➤ Luke Weaver took over and he was superb, though again, I shouldn’t use those superlatives when the opponent is the A’s. He retired all eight men he faced and struck out three, and then Ian Hamilton had an 11-pitch 1-2-3 ninth to close it out.

➤ The news on DJ LeMahieu was as expected. He’s shut down for at least a week, then it will be a week-to-week evaluation. He’s not coming back anytime soon.

⚾ The Yankees dodged a bullet by not signing Blake Snell. The Giants have watched him start three times and give up 15 earned runs in 11.2 innings for a hideous 11.57 ERA and now Snell had to go on the injured list Wednesday with a left adductor strain which means he’ll probably be out a month.

He sat out all of spring training because he and his greedy agent, Scott Boras, insisted he was a $200 million pitcher which was a laughable position to take. Teams essentially laughed at that request, and the best offer might have come from the Yankees which was around $150 million. I was glad he didn’t take it because even that was way too high.

The Giants finally signed him to a two-year, $62 million contract so yeah, quite a comedown, and now they’re finding out why everyone else passed. Since breaking in with the Rays in 2016 he’s had two great seasons and he won a Cy Young Award for both (2018 and then with the Padres in 2023). But every other season were injury-plagued and mediocre at best. We bitch about the Yankees’ starters providing no length, but outside of his two big years when he pitched 180 innings in each, he’s never reached 130 in the other six and probably won’t again this year.

⚾ Speaking of dodging bullets, how about Andrew Benintendi? Of the 185 hitters qualified for the MLB leaderboards, his .395 OPS is dead last, his .205 on-base percentage is second-to-last, he has two extra-base hits in 84 plate appearances and has scored just four runs. It’s jaw dropping how bad he’s been for the pathetic White Sox who lost 6-3 to the Twins Wednesday and are now 3-21 on the season.

Benintendi was second in the AL rookie of the year balloting in 2017, helped the Red Sox win the 2018 World Series, and was a continual thorn in the side of the Yankees through 2020. He has 40 career RBIs against the Yankees, his second-highest total against any team (53 against the Orioles) because he always seemed to come through in key spots for the Red Sox.

He fell out of favor in Boston, though, and was part of a massive three-team trade involving the Royals and Mets before 2021 that saw six players change addresses, and he was the biggest name. It looked good for Kansas City as he won a Gold Glove while whacking 17 homers in 2021, and in 2022 he was hitting .320 with a .387 on-base when the Yankees traded for him at the deadline because they desperately needed a left-hand bat and outfielder and he seemed like the perfect fit.

It has been all downhill ever since. Benintendi immediately fell into slump with the Yankees and just as he was coming out of it, he broke the hamate bone in his right hand in early September and missed the rest of the season. The Yankees considered re-signing him, but the White Sox way overpaid for him, five-years for $75 million which, if you can believe this, was the largest free agent contract in franchise history. Last year he was a mediocrity and now this year, he’s literally one of the worst hitters in baseball.

⚾ Another guy who is tough to trust, Cody Bellinger, has also landed on the injured list after he came out on the losing end of his collision with the brick wall at Wrigley Field while chasing a fly ball Tuesday and fractured two ribs. So he’ll be out a while, joining fellow outfielder Seiya Suzuki who’s also on the IL. The Cubs called up their No. 1 prospect, Pete Crow-Armstrong, to take Bellinger’s place.

Bellinger was another free agent that many people thought would be a good fit for the Yankees last winter, and just like Snell, I was glad the Yankees never bothered. Bellinger was on a superstar track his first three years with the Dodgers as he won rookie of the year in 2017 and NL MVP in 2019 when he hit 47 homers and led MLB with 351 total bases. But then, even though the Dodgers won the Covid World Series in 2020, Bellinger went into crash and burn mode and put forth three straight years of utter awfulness. He was so bad, the Dodgers just let him walk away after 2022.

He signed a one-year prove-it deal with the Cubs in 2023 and he had a very nice bounce back season, then went back into free agency in 2024 but just like Snell, his market was tepid at best and he wound up re-signing with the Cubs for three years and $80 million after he was seeking a $200 million contract.

His rollercoaster was back in motion and he was hitting .167 through 14 games with just two homers, but he was just starting to get going when he suffered this injury. In the last eight game he was hitting .333 with three homers including a three-run bomb Tuesday.

⚾ The Nationals are going nowhere again this season, but that hasn’t stopped shortstop C.J. Abrams from looking like a future star. Abrams was part of the package Washington received from the Padres when they traded Juan Soto in 2022. He was the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft and that trade might not have been consummated without his inclusion.

When it happened, Abrams reported to Rochester and I did a story on him for the paper which you can click here and read if you’re interested. https://shorturl.at/ewKL5.

It’s a good thing I got him quick because he was only with the Red Wings for eight games before he got called up by the Nationals and he’s been there ever since.

Last year he hit 18 homers, had 64 RBI and stole 47 bases while hitting .245, but his lack of walks and way too many strikeouts stunted his on-base at .300. This year, he’s not really walking much more, but he’s hitting even better at .305 which has his OBP at .367. He also has six homers and leads MLB with three triples. Here’s how good Abrams has been: His OPS of 1.013 is better than Soto’s .995.