Stop Me If You've Heard This: The Yankees Lost Another Series

It just goes from bad to worse for the Yankees as they dropped another series, this one to the always annoying Rays. The Yankees are now 56-39 and even though the Orioles have hit a rough patch and have been enable to pull away, there is no reason to believe the Yankees will ever catch them, especially if Baltimore takes care of business this weekend when the two teams meet before the All-Star break arrives. Lets get to it.

July 11: Rays 5, Yankees 4

Wow. Just wow. Eight consecutive series without winning a single one. Folks, that’s the kind of stuff the White Sox do. That’s what the Rockies do. The A’s. The Marlins.

Oh wait, no, that’s not what any of those teams who have the four worst records in MLB have done. The only team that currently has not won in eight straight series are the pinstripe posers. Congratulations to the Yankees for being the worst team in all of baseball for going on a month now.

This season has become a travesty and that point was driven home once again Thursday night as they dropped the rubber game to the ever-annoying Rays who, even in a down year for them, still find a way to get the best of the Yankees.

Thanks to yet another clunker on the road for Nestor Cortes, and a ridiculous inability to come through with a key hit against a Rays team that seemed like it was dying to let the Yankees win, our favorite team has lost 18 of their last 25 games. They haven’t won back-to-back games since June 11-12 in Kansas City, and there is nothing to indicate that this team, as presently constituted, is capable of turning this tsunami of suckage around.

“Just missing opportunities, that’s what it comes down to,” said Aaron Judge, who after his ascension to the top of the MVP race has been horrible for the past week. “There was a lot of fight out of the guys today, all the way to the end, having some tough at-bats. Just weren’t able to come up with the win.”

Sigh. Another meaningless quote from the captain who does Derek Jeter - perhaps the most boring Yankee quote ever - proud every day in the clubhouse feeding the media nothing of substance. At least catcher Jose Trevino offered something halfway decent when he said, “Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. If anything, people want to see this. We’re the Yankees. People don’t care. If we win, they’re, ‘Yeah, we should have won.’ If we lose, they like that.”

That’s true, there is no gray area with the Yankees - you either love them or you hate them. Sadly, they have made most of us who love them hate them with this stretch of unwatchable baseball. At least we’ll get a reprieve from this nonsense for a few days next week during the All-Star break.

Here are my observations:

➤ As has happened so often lately, the first inning essentially told you what kind of night this would be. Alex Verdugo singled and Juan Soto doubled to start the game against the Rays’ Shane Baz. OK, something cooking. Then Judge flied out to shallow right and Verdugo could not tag and score, and Ben Rice and Gleyber Torres struck out. Second and third with no outs, the Yankees didn’t score, a tale as old as time.

➤ On to the bottom of the first against Cortes. Yandy Diaz smoked one to center and Trent Grisham, normally a great fielder, got turned the wrong way and the ball landed at the base of the wall for a double. Then Randy Arozarena, who is having a terrible season but, exactly like Diaz is a card-carrying member of the Kill the Yankees club, crushed a two-run homer. Seven pitches into his outing Cortes was down 2-0.

➤ Austin Wells and Juan Soto each hit solo homers in the second and third respectively to tie it, but just when you felt like hey, maybe the Yankees would show some fortitude for once, Cortes got knocked around in the bottom of the third for three runs. Of course Diaz started it with a leadoff double and then Brandon Lowe had an RBI single, Amed Rosario an RBI double and Jose Siri a sacrifice fly. Cortes has made 10 starts at home and has pitched to a 1.81 ERA in 64.2 innings, while in 10 starts on the road covering 50.2 innings, he has a 6.60 ERA.

➤ Judge is now 4 for his last 31 with no extra-base hits or RBI in his last eight games. His lone contribution in this game came in a frustrating fifth when the Yankees had a chance to do damage. He walked against reliever Kevin Kelly to load the bases with one out, but all the Yankees got was one run on a sac fly by Rice as Torres lined out to right to end it.

➤ Michael Tonkin continued his shockingly great tenure as a Yankee. Cortes left with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth but Tonkin got the speedy Siri to ground into an inning-ending double play to keep the Yankees within striking distance. From there Tonkin, Jake Cousins (another nobody who has pitched well since joining the Yankees) and Caleb Ferguson combined to blank the Rays.

➤ The Yankees got screwed in the eighth by home plate umpire Edwin Moscoso. With men on first and second and one out (a Judge strikeout), Aaron Boone made one of his patented brain dead decisions. Despite Wells having two hits including his home run, Boone sent up Trevino as a pinch hitter because lefty Colin Poche had just come into the game. It’s just incredible to me how terrible his in-game decisions are. Anyway, Trevino saw six pitches, didn’t swing at any of them, and struck out. Now, in his defense the 3-0 pitch was high and should have been ball four, and the 3-2 pitch was low so twice in the at bat he should have been trotting to first. I’ll also say that the 3-1 pitch was right down the middle and he stared at that one, too. When it’s going bad, the bad just multiplies, but you can also say that these are the things bad teams do. Boone sending Trevino up in that spot was stupid, Trevino putting up a completely non-competitive at bat was inexcusable, and the Yankees got what they deserved.

➤ There was one last chance in the ninth when Rays closer Pete Fairbanks walked Oswaldo Cabrera and Soto. But in this huge spot, Judge fouled out behind first base, just a terrible job by the guy who no one could get out for two months. Rice came through with an RBI single to make it 5-4, but then Torres flied out to shallow center as shortstop Jose Caballero made a tremendous over the shoulder catch with his back to the infield to end the game.

As bad as the Yankees have been, the Orioles haven’t been very good, either, and they somehow just got swept at home by the anemic Cubs. That was about as stunning a series as we’ve seen all year in MLB as the Cubs dominated the AL East leaders 9-2, 4-0 and 8-0. And because the Orioles have now lost five of their last seven, they have failed to pull away from the Yankees as their lead remains two games.

Of course, that could change in a hurry this weekend if they sweep this one which is entirely possible against this iteration of the Yankees. The Cubs pulled off the first sweep of the Orioles at Camden Yards since the Rays did it Aug. 27-29, 2021, and after being shutout just twice in their first 91 games, they were blanked on back-to-back nights.

That was quite a feat by the Cubs against this Baltimore lineup led by All-Stars Gunnar Henderson (27 homers, 61 RBI, .965 OPS), Adley Rutschman (16-59-.794) and Anthony Santander (23-57-.794).

The pitching matchups are as follows: Friday at 7:05 on YES, it’s Gerrit Cole (6.75 ERA) against Cade Povich (6.51); Saturday at 4:05 on YES it’s Luis Gil (3.27) against Grayson Rodriguez (3.52); and Sunday at 11:35 a.m. on Roku it’s Carlos Rodón (4.63) against Dean Kremer (4.42 ERA). Note that Sunday game. It’s part of a national TV deal with the Roku streaming service and I really don’t know if it will be available to watch anywhere else which might be a good thing for all of us.