When It Rains, It Pours And Right Now, The Yankees Are Drowning

Well, my son Holden and I had quite the adventure at Citi Field Wednesday night. Watched five innings of miserable Yankees baseball, survived a monsoon that led to an 87-minute rain delay, then on the train ride back to his home in Poughkeepsie we were delayed about a half-hour due to a downed tree somewhere on the tracks. Other than that, great time. Again, sorry for the delay this morning, but I did warn you. Let’s get to it.

June 26: Mets 12, Yankees 2

My God the Yankees suck right now. They went over to Queens these last two nights and embarrassed themselves with two performances that were utterly disgraceful in every way, continuing a pattern that has existed for nearly the past two weeks.

And while we all knew there was no way they could possibly keep winning games at the rate they were, how in the living hell did they sink so quickly to this level of incompetence?

Well, I’ll give you three reasons: They can’t hit, they can’t pitch, and they can’t field. Does that cover it? Since they beat Boston on June 14, the Yankees have been outscored 88-41 while losing four consecutive series and eight of 10 games, and in doing so, have looked exactly like the second half 2022 Yankees, and the most of the season 2023 Yankees. And as you’ll recall, that’s not a good place to be.

In their last 10 games they have batted .206 as a team which is second-to-last among the 30 MLB teams; they have hit just 11 homers (five by Aaron Judge) which ties them with the mighty A’s and Tigers for 19th-most in that time span; and they have grounded into an MLB-high 14 double plays which gives them 80 for the season, 12 of those with the bases loaded which, as you might imagine, also leads MLB.

On the pitching side over those 10 games, the team ERA is 7.24, worst in MLB, and the staff is averaging 4.14 walks per nine innings which ranks 29th. In terms of batting average on balls in play - meaning you take out home runs and strikeouts - the pitchers are getting pounded for a .343 average, third-worst in MLB. The first time the Yankees allowed nine runs or more came on June 8 when they lost 11-3 to the Dodgers. Since then, it has happened five times, and it’s not just the leaky bullpen; now the starters stink, too.

And in the field in the last 10 games they’ve made 13 errors with Gleyber Torres - benched on Wednesday by Aaron Boone after his otherworldly bad game on Tuesday - raising his total to 12 for the year which leads all second baseman this season.

All of their problems came bursting to light against the Mets at Citi Field. Maybe the biblical storm that ripped through New York City Wednesday night - forcing my son Holden and I, plus the other 43,000 in the ballpark to flee for cover - was telling us something.

“It sucks. You don’t like getting your teeth kicked in,” Boone said. “It’s been a crappy two weeks for us, but it’s part of it. Adversity is going to hit you. We got hit with a little bit right now. We have all the right pieces in there. We’ve had a light shined on some things. We need to get better at things, and we need to get it going. But full confidence that we will. We’re just in a little bit of a rough patch right now.”

You’ve got to hand it to Boone. I wish I had one percent of his sunny disposition and optimism, but it’s not how I’m wired. I mean you know me by now. I’m the king of the pessimists, and I don’t give a shit what Boone is trying to sell right now. I was not fooled for one second by what happened in the first two months. I knew damn well that all that winning was somewhat of a mirage because the flaws on this team - the same ones they’ve had for several years - were still there bubbling under the surface.

Now they’ve all erupted like a volcano in these last couple weeks and the Yankees have returned to being the team I always thought they were. The one I said in spring training was way more likely to finish third or fourth in the AL East than first.

Can they reverse this downturn? Yeah, I guess. But can anyone honestly believe this will be the team that ends the World Series drought? I know that I don’t believe that. As was the case in Queens Wednesday, when it rains, it pours.

Here are my observations:

➤ The excitement about Luis Gil and the incredible start that he had this season is gone. Again, you knew this was coming. MLB’s pitcher of the month in May has been shelled in his last two outings by the Orioles and Mets. Wednesday, he gave up five runs on four hits and four walks, plus made an error on a pickoff.

➤ In his first 14 starts his ERA was 2.03, but two starts later it’s 3.15. Gil’s durability coming off Tommy John surgery was always the concern. From 2021-23 he threw a combined 140 or so innings in the majors and minors; now he’s already at 85.2 innings this year so you have to wonder how much he has left. “Of course, that’s the question,” Boone said. “We’ll see. He seems to be in a really good physical place.”

➤ Gil survived the first inning when he loaded the bases, then had an easy second, but in the third the Mets jumped him for three runs. Francisco Lindor doubled, Brandon Nimmo walked and JD Martinez singled to make it 1-0. After Pete Alonso grounded into a DP, you’re thinking OK, limit the damage. Instead, Francisco Alvarez hit a two-run homer. After an easy fourth, everything exploded in the fifth inning, including the skies.

➤ Before and after that incredible storm delayed the game for 87 minutes, the Yankees fell apart. Gil walked and was replaced by Caleb Ferguson who faced one batter before the rain, Alvarez, who doubled home a run. After the lake that formed in left field was drained away and play re-started, Yoendrys Gomez - who pitched so well last Friday against Atlanta to get the bullpen reset - got lit up as the Mets scored three more runs to make it 7-0. In the sixth, with Gomez still out there trying to preserve the bullpen, he served up a three-run to Tyrone Taylor to make it 10-2.

➤ Judge provided the only offense with a two-run homer in the top of the sixth, his 30th of the year. The Yankees finished the night with six hits, two of those by Alex Verdugo who came out of a 2-for-33 slump. Well, I’m not sure he’s out of it because the hits came long after the issue had been decided and the Mets were using mop up guys. In his first two at bats, Verdugo grounded into soul-crushing double plays. Jose Trevino also had one of those, and DJ LeMahieu should have had one but Mets third baseman Mark Vientos butchered his easy grounder. The Yankees also went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

➤ New guy JD Davis has fit right in. He struck out twice and grounded into a DP Tuesday and whiffed twice more Wednesday, though he also walked twice.

The Yankees will now move on to play four games up in Toronto against a team that has been one of the most disappointing in MLB all season. So you know what that means - the Yankees will show up and the Blue Jays will suddenly get their shit together because they never fail to give the Yankees fits. The Yankees lost only two series before losing their last four, and one of those was up in Toronto in early April.

The Jays just split a pair against the red-hot Red Sox before Wednesday’s game was suspended in the second inning by the same storm New York dealt with. Their victory Tuesday snapped a seven-game losing streak, a stretch that dropped the Blue Jays into last place in the AL East at 36-43 which now sits 14.5 game behind the Yankees.

The Blue Jays have hit just 69 home runs which ranks tied for 27th and their .679 OPS is 21st. However, Yankee killer and avowed Yankee hater Vlad Guerrero is starting to heat up as his OPS is up to .803 with 10 homers and 40 RBI, while the Jays just got shortstop Bo Bichette back from the injured list, so that’s bad timing for the Yankees, even though he has struggled at the plate all season.

The pitching matchups are as follows: Thursday at 7:07 on YES it’s Carlos Rodon (3.86 ERA) against Jose Berrios (3.43); Friday at 7:07 on YES it’s Marcus Stroman (3.15) against Yusei Kikuchi (4.00); Saturday at 3:07 on YES it’s Nestor Cortes (3.40) against Chris Bassitt (3.45); and Sunday at 1:37 on YES it’s Gerrit Cole (9.00) against Kevin Gausman (4.26).