Water-logged Yankees Drop Inexcusable Series to the Angels

The Yankees played terribly across two miserable weather nights at Yankee Stadium and the result was an inexcusable series loss to the Los Angeles Angels, one of the worst teams in MLB. This was such a disappointing result, and it shined the light on what the Yankees lack the most if they actually think they win anything in 2024. Lets get to it.

If anyone wonders why I remain pessimistic about the Yankees’ chances of doing anything special this season, and why I will not change my mind on that, I give you this loathsome series loss to the lousy Angels.

Just when you thought that maybe after more than six weeks of absolutely horrendous play they’ve turned the proverbial corner by winning seven of eight games heading into this series including a sweep of the Phillies, they put forth this pile of shit against the Angels, a team with a 51-64 record, third-worst in the American League. Just inexcusable on every level.

And the No. 1 problem with the Yankees, the problem that is most likely going to derail them in the postseason, reared its hideous head in the last two games against Los Angeles: The starting pitching stinks.

Rookie Will Warren can be excused. He has no business being on the team right now because he’s not ready as his 6.11 ERA at Triple-A Scranton would indicate. But he was called up because of the Tuesday rainout necessitating a Wednesday doubleheader, and the Yankees not wanting to use two of their regular starters on the same day.

After winning the first game despite a less-than-sterling performance by Luis Gil, Warren was awful and the Yankees got blown out 8-2. And then Thursday, Nestor Cortes was just as bad and the Yankees got blown out again, 9-4.

Since the start of June, the Yankees’ starting rotation has been one of the worst in MLB. Get a load of these ERA numbers since then: Marcus Stroman, 6.32, Carlos Rodón, 5.83, Cortes, 5.68, Gerrit Cole, 5.09, Gil, 4.31. Stroman has been so terrible that with the rainout and Warren starting that game, it allowed Boone to skip Stroman’s turn in the rotation ( he was supposed to pitch Wednesday) which should have been a good thing, but it ended up not mattering.

“We’ve definitely hit some rough patches along the way, but also we’re getting some guys in a good spot, too. We have everything we need,” the delusional Aaron Boone said.

Everything they need? Good spots? Is he seeing the same numbers I just gave you? Does he actually watch the games, or is he too busy blowing bubbles and arguing with umpires? Who in that group is in a good spot? God almighty, this guy drives me nuts almost every time he opens his mouth.

“I don’t feel like Nestor is that far off,” Boone continued while the reporters in the room, I would imagine, were rolling their eyes in disbelief. At least they should have been. “It just comes down to finishing off execution. Stro, we have to get rolling a little bit. We have the guys to go out there. It’s just getting a few guys going and getting to that next level of execution.”

OK, whatever you say dude.

Aug. 7 (Gm 1) : Yankees 5, Angels 2

The Lead: Luis Gil was sloppy but scoreless

I guess I’m being a little harsh because the bottom line is that Gil did not allow a run in his five innings, and this was the 14th time this season he has allowed one or zero runs in a start which is pretty great.

But this was one of those games where the box score didn’t tell the whole story. Gil had no command and he needed 107 pitches just to get through five because he walked five men and struggled to put guys away. The Angels had 24 foul balls (partly why he needed a whopping 55 pitches in the first two innings) and only 10 swings and misses which is unusual for him. That meant on a doubleheader day, the bullpen had to get 12 outs in the opener which was not ideal.

“It was big for him to finish the way he did when it wasn’t easy,” said Boone, who allowed Gil to pitch the fifth even though he was at 92 pitches. “Look up at the end and it was five shutout on a day it was a bit of a grind for him.”

Sadly, it was all downhill from there for the rotation.

Game notes and observations:

➤ The offense started well with two in the first, one in the second and two in the third and that was more than enough. Austin Wells continued his resurgence with an RBI single after Alex Verdugo left off with a double and Aaron Judge walked, and then after Jazz Chisholm began a miserable four-strikeout game, Anthony Volpe came through with a two-out RBI double.

➤ Oswaldo Cabrera started for Gleyber Torres at second and he hit a solo homer in the second, and in the fourth Ben Rice walked and scored from first on Verdugo’s second double, and Verdugo came home on Judge’s RBI single. The Yankees did not score again in the game.

➤ Once Gil went out, Enyel De Los Santos pitched an easy sixth, then walked the leadoff man in the seventh so Boone went to Jake Cousins, and he promptly served up a two-run homer to Zach Neto, a player who killed the Yankees all day and night. Cousins shut it down there, and Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes each pitched a perfect inning to close it out.

Aug. 7 (Gm 2): Angels 8, Yankees 2

The Lead: Will Warren got rocked

This was Warren’s second MLB start and first at Yankee Stadium, and it did not go well. Before the game, Boone addressed the Stroman situation this way: “I just felt like there’d be some benefit in Stro having a couple of bullpens to work through some things,” Boone said. “I’m not too concerned about (the velocity drop). I pay attention to it, but I felt like he’s in a pretty good place right now, as far as some of the things he’s been working through and some of the video he’s looked at. And physically he feels good.”

“It’s been pretty frustrating,” said Stroman. “But I’m also a realist. I put my season as a whole and I can see how good I’ve been in certain spurts. I know it hasn’t been 10 starts in a row. It’s been a few. I’m not too worried.”

Stroman and Boone aren’t worried; I tend to think they’re both a little delusional.

Unfortunately, Warren was even worse than Stroman has been lately as he could not reprise his performance from last week in Philadelphia when he pitched reasonably well against a much better Phillies lineup than this ragtag bunch from Los Angeles. This ragtag bunch from Los Angeles lit him up for six runs in the second inning as Neto hit a grand slam, and then with Warren being forced to eat innings, he gave up a two-run double to Neto in the fourth that made it 8-2.

Game notes and observations:

➤ As I said earlier, Warren has not been very good at Triple-A this season, though he was starting to pitch better in the last month. But now in two starts with the Yankees, across his 9.2 innings his ERA is 11.17.

➤ He cruised through a 1-2-3 first, but the second inning was ridiculous as he threw 41 pitches and allowed three singles, two walks, and Neto’s grand slam. The homer came on a 3-2 pitch right down the middle, a mistake that pretty much decided the game because there was no coming back from that. “Mistakes are magnified here,” Warren said. “So I got to find a way to get out (of jams), limit the damage, get these guys a chance to get some runs and get us back in it.”

➤ It wasn’t like Angels starter Carson Fulmer was great as the Yankees had traffic on the bases. They managed seven hits and a walk against him in four innings but scored only two runs, one on a DJ LeMahieu RBI single in the second, the other on a Torres sacrifice fly in the fourth. Overall the Yankees had nine hits and two walks but went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base.

➤ The only chance the Yankees had a chance to make it a game came in the sixth when Carlos Narvaez walked and Torres singled with two outs, but Juan Soto swung at Hunter Strickland’s first pitch and fouled out to third to kill the threat. Thereafter, the Yankees had one baserunner, Judge walking in the seventh, and he was erased on a double play.

➤ All that Jazz about Chisholm has certainly calmed down since his amazing debut. Since getting six hits in his first three games including four home runs, Chisholm has gone 4-for-23 with no RBI and nine strikeouts. In other words, he’s been what every other Yankee third baseman has been this season.

Aug. 8: Angels 9, Yankees 4

The Lead: Miserable game in miserable weather

The weather downstate continued to wreak havoc with baseball and it was borderline ridiculous that Thursday night’s game was even played. But because the teams don’t meet again, and there really wasn’t a suitable makeup date, MLB decreed the game must go on.

Thanks for that, but ya know what, it was the same for both teams which Boone acknowledged. “Tough conditions for both teams. Just not a great night for us.” No, it was not, and here was the primary difference: The Angels’ starter, Tyler Anderson, was really good; the Yankees’ starter, Cortes, stunk, which has become his modus operandi lately.

Cortes allowed six runs on nine hits and a walk and lost for the 10th time in 15 decisions. “I thought I made a lot of good pitches, they battled me all night,” Cortes said, sounding an awful lot like Boone. “To their credit, they fouled off a lot of good pitches that I threw tonight. I felt like today was a pretty good command day for me. There might have been one or two pitches where I wished to get back, but other than that, thought I made a lot of good pitches.”

The Boone Effect. Everything will be just fine. Yes, I’m over here shaking my head.

Game notes and observations:

➤ Anderson became the latest lefty to mesmerize the Yankees. Why this team struggles so much against lefties is a mystery, but Anderson - who was the Angels’ All-Star representative - allowed just one run on three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts.

➤ Chisholm provided the only run when it mattered, a second-inning solo homer that briefly tied it at 1-1. Cortes had given up a leadoff homer on his fourth pitch of the game to Nolan Schanuel, and in the third, Schanuel singled two pitches after Michael Stefanic led off with a double to make it 2-1.

➤ Then came a disastrous fifth. Cortes had a man on first with two outs, and it all fell apart. Neto doubled and Logan O’Hoppe walked to load the bases. Cortes then got ahead 0-2 on Kevin Pillar, threw a waste pitch that wasn’t far enough outside and Pillar lunged at it and somehow blooped it into right for a two-run single. Pillar. There’s another royal pain in the ass every time he plays against the Yankees. That was it for Cortes, De Los Santos came on and threw gas onto the fire walking Anthony Rendon, and then giving up a three-run double to Jo Adell on a liner to right that Soto dove for and missed. Mickey Moniak later had an RBI single to make it LA’s second six-run inning in two nights.

➤ Soto and Giancarlo Stanton had meaningless RBI singles in the eighth, and Cabrera hit his second homer in two nights in the ninth, a shot to left off a 102 mph fastball from Ben Joyce which was rather shocking, but also meaningless.

➤ In their last nine home series, the Yankees have won one, split one, and lost seven. Their season record in the Bronx is an unacceptable 30-26.

➤ As if it couldn’t have been a worse night, Volpe had to leave the game after fouling a ball off his left foot. Boone said the x-ray was negative, but now we’ll wait to see if he can play.

The Yankees will get their first look at the defending World Series champion Rangers this weekend, a team that looks nothing like the bunch that won that franchise’s first championship in 2023.

Injuries have decimated the Rangers all season and they come to the Bronx with a record of 54-61, though despite all the struggles, Bruce Bochy’s team is still in the playoff race because the AL West has been lame all year and Texas is just 5.5 games behind the first-place Astros. In the wild card, the Rangers are pretty much toast as they sit 9.5 games behind the Royals with four other teams wedged in between.

After a season in which so much went right for the Rangers, it has been the complete opposite in 2024. Last year the Rangers ranked third in MLB with a .789 OPS and 233 home runs; this year they’re 23rd in OPS at .686 and 18th in homers in with 125. Corey Seager is still a superstar who leads the team with 24 homers, 57 RBI and .855 OPS, but while Adolis Garcia has 18 homers and 54 RBI, but he’s hitting a puny .208 with a .655 OPS, way down from last year’s 39 homers, 107 RBI and .836 OPS.

The pitching matchups are as follows: Friday at 7:05 on YES it’s Carlos Rodon (4.37 ERA) against Cody Bradford (3.96); Saturday at 1:05 p.m. on YES it’s Gerrit Cole (5.09) against Nathan Eovaldi (3.62); and Sunday at 1:35 on YES it’s Stroman (4.10) against Andrew Heaney (3.98).