Yankees Bully The Weaklings

The Yankees did exactly what they needed to do over the past week and a half as they won seven of eight games against weak teams to turn their sagging season around and jump right back into a much better situation in the chase for a playoff berth. But now the rubber meets the road with the Red Sox coming to the Bronx for a huge four-game series. Lets get to it. 

When last week began, the Yankees were coming off a miserable Sunday afternoon loss to Houston at Yankee Stadium, during which they looked comatose. They had lost three consecutive series, had fallen to 62-56 which was the fewest games they had been above .500 since May 10, were six games behind the Blue Jays for the top spot in the AL East, and most damning was they sat third in the wildcard race, clinging to life just a half-game ahead of the Guardians.

On that day, Aug. 10, the Mariners owned the top wildcard spot and led the Yankees by 3.5 games, and the Red Sox were nestled in between, 2.5 ahead of the Yankees. Clearly, things were not looking good and again, a lot of our discontent was because the Yankees sleepwalked through that loss to the Astros, continuing a trend of uninspired baseball that had stretched for more than two months.

It felt like their season was on the brink and everyone knew what had to be done. The Yankees were entering a portion of their schedule where they were hosting the Twins for three, then traveling to St. Louis for three and Tampa Bay for two. All of those teams are essentially done for the season and, barring a miracle, won’t be playing in October.

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The Yankees needed to go a minimum of 6-2 in those eight games, and 7-1 or 8-0, while quite an ask, would have been more preferable.

Well, let’s give it up to the team that we’ve been bashing for so long because they succeeded in that mission and not only have flipped the wildcard standings but have even brought the AL East division race back into focus.

They pounded the Rays into submission the last two nights, hitting an astonishing 14 home runs in the two games to sweep the short series - an MLB record for one team in a two-game series - and they indeed finished 7-1 in this stretch, the only loss coming last Wednesday when they were shut down by Minnesota ace Joe Ryan.

Of course, they gave us all a group aneurysm Wednesday by nearly blowing the finale in Tampa thanks to yet another maddening bullpen implosion, but in the end they found a way to get it done because they turned their spring training home, Steinbrenner Field where the Rays are playing their home games this season, into a Little League park. And thanks to everyone around them hitting the skids lately, the 69-57 Yankees are suddenly a team that bears watching over the final five weeks of the season.

“We’ve never lost confidence,” Aaron Boone said. “They’ve never lost confidence, even through some really tough times and some dark days. It’s there to be had. We haven’t done anything yet. We’ve obviously put together a really good road trip off winning series. We got to keep going, though, and we understand the importance of all these games now to give us a chance to do something special.”

It really is crazy how things have changed. The Mariners lost their fifth in a row Wednesday; the Red Sox have lost three straight and seven of their last 10; and the Guardians have lost five of six. So the Yankees now lead the wildcard chase by 1.5 over Boston, two over Seattle, and the team on the outside looking in is now the red-hot Royals, but the Yankees lead them by 4.5 games. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays, who could not lose for a few weeks, have lost three of four and the Yankees are just four games out in the AL East, three in the loss column.

However, now things get real this weekend. The Red Sox have owned the Yankees this season, and while it was fun beating up on these last three patsies, the Yankees have to start proving they can play with the good teams. They’re a dreadful 4-12 against the Red Sox and Jays combined and that’s the main reason why they aren’t in first place in the division.

The time is upon them to change their fortunes against their oldest rival.

“We’ve been playing our game these past couple of series,” Aaron Judge said. “We’ll stay locked in on that, control what we can control, and take care of business.”

Aug. 19: Yankees 13, Rays 3

➤ Well, this was some kind of show, for those of you who saw it after a two-hour rain delay at the start. The Yankees hit nine home runs for the second time in a game this season which obviously ties the franchise record, and they also became the first team in MLB history to have two games in one season with at least nine homers.

➤ Three of those came back-to-back-to-back in the first inning. That’s the third time the Yankees have scored a hat trick of homers, joining the 1982 Brewers and the 2024 Dodgers as the only teams in history to do it at least three times in one season.

➤ And with Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Caballaro hitting two each, this was just the second time in franchise history the Yankees had three players with a multi-HR game in the same game. The first was May 30, 1961 at the Red Sox when Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Moose Skowron did it. Pretty amazing stuff.

➤ Carlos Rodon was the beneficiary of all this firepower as he earned his 13th victory. Six innings, two runs allowed on five hits and two walks. Solid. Mark Leiter, Yerry De los Santos and Tim Hill then mopped up the final nine outs with De los Santos allowing a run in the eighth during a sloppy inning.

➤ The carnage against Rays starter Shane Baz began when Judge, Bellinger and Stanton all hit solo homers in the first. Then Jazz Chisholm singled in the second and Caballaro - returning to play against his old team - hit a two-run shot. Chisholm homered in the third after the Rays had scored two runs, and in the fourth Stanton crushed a three-run bomb and Ben Rice went back-to-back with a solo shot that made it 10-2. Bellinger hit a two-run shot in the sixth and Caballaro finished it with a solo shot in the ninth.

➤ Bellinger had quietly been in a slump, 8-for-54 in August, but he went 4-for-5 with the two homers and two singles, and Stanton had four RBI and hiked his average to a remarkable - for him - .306. As for Caballaro, this guy can really play. Outside of David Bednar (despite that shit show he put on Wednesday night), and maybe Ryan McMahon who I like, Caballaro was Brian Cashman’s best acquisition at this deadline.

➤ The only downer was the news that Jonathan Loaisiga had a setback in his rehab and he may very well be done for the year. Then again, the way he has pitched this year, that might be a good thing.

What they said in Tuesday’s clubhouse

• Bellinger: “We have a really good offense. With the ebbs and flows of a 162-game season, it’s not always going to be pretty, but we all believe in each other. The talent’s there, and we’re doing a good job of putting it all together. It’s been fun to be a part of.”

• Boone: “We hit nine? Wow. To do it twice, that’s remarkable. And there were some that were seriously hit, too. Just a really impressive offensive showing against a team that obviously is not always easy to score runs against. A lot of good swings. Every game is big. … I don’t take it lightly when we’re able to really add on and have a game like this.”

Aug. 20: Yankees 6, Rays 4 (10)

➤ Tuesday was all about the hitting and most of Wednesday was all about the pitching, at least until the bullpen tried its very hardest to deliver yet another staggeringly horrible loss before Devin Williams, of all guys, saved the night by somehow surviving a 10th inning mess he created with an ultra dramatic escape.

➤ Rookie Cam Schlittler turned in a brilliant performance as he took a perfect game into the seventh inning before faltering when he allowed a single and two walks to load the bases with two outs before Luke Weaver came in and bailed him out. So his final line showed no runs in 6.2 innings, the one hit and two walks with eight strikeouts. He was dominant with an elite fastball, and his breaking stuff was as sharp as it has been since he debuted. Schlittler became the first Yankee rookie starting pitcher to be perfect through six innings since Fritz Peterson on July 4, 1966 against the White Sox.

➤ Unfortunately, Schlittler didn’t get the win because after Weaver struck out some nobody named Hunter Feduccia on three straight fastballs to escape the seventh, he served up a solo homer to some nobody named Bob Seymour, the first of his brief MLB career. Still, a 3-1 lead should have been safe with Bednar in for the save. Instead, Bednar woke up my neighborhood. Why? Because when he was one strike away from ending the game, he gave up a tying two-run double by Feduccia and the stream of creative uses of the word “fuck” that roared from my mouth could be heard up the street. That’s about as pissed as I’ve been all year.

➤ Thankfully, the home run derby continued in the 10th. Stanton, who has simply been incredible, much like he was last October, came through with a massive pinch hit two-run homer off Rays closer Pete Fairbanks, one of the biggest hits of the season. And then Austin Wells - who has flat out been one of the worst offensive players on the team all season - hit his second solo homer of the game which was completely shocking, and that was a huge run because Williams was Boone’s choice to pitch the 10th.

➤ On his second pitch, Williams gave up an RBI single to Seymour and within seven pitches there were men on second and third and no outs. At that point, I gave him roughly a zero percent chance of getting out of that, but incredibly, and I still can’t believe it happened, he struck out three of the Rays best hitters in order, Chandler Simpson, Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lowe. Shocking.

➤ Earlier, Trent Grisham opened the game with a leadoff homer off excellent Rays starter Drew Rasmussen and Wells got him in the fifth for a solo shot. Then in the eighth, Grisham made it 3-0 with a bomb off Griffin Jax and it sure felt like it was over. Sadly it took almost another hour of nail-biting play before it was over, but at least it ended well.

➤ Incredibly, this was the Yankees first victory in an extra-inning road game this season after they lost the first six.

What they said in Wednesday’s clubhouse

Boone on the win: “Incredible. We had hoped to do it about 45 minutes earlier, but finishing off a great road trip into an important homestand.”

Schlittler: “The goal isn’t to go out there and throw a perfect game. The goal is to go out there as a starter and go six, seven, try to get to eight innings and put the team in a spot to win. The mistakes I’ve made in the past (were) getting too comfortable with the offspeed early and not really making them hit the fastball first. So the goal is to make them hit my heater, and once they do that, move on to other things. But they didn’t really do that, so was just able to keep attacking with that.”

Stanton on his hot streak: “The idea and the mindset is usually there. It’s just a matter of clicking and doing the rest. There’s always adjustments you can do smarter and better as the years go. It’s just applying. It’s about executing your plan more often. It’s been a great road trip. We’ve been hitting the ball hard, hitting the ball in the air, getting a lot of homers. Timely hitting. We’re clicking on a lot of cylinders. So it’s good to take this into the weekend.”

How do you know it’s time for a Yankees-Red Sox series? When there are four games, and they’re on four different broadcast networks because everyone wants a piece of Yankees-Red Sox which was once the premier rivalry in the sport but over the last few years, hasn’t been.

Hey, maybe this is the year it gets revived but so far, it hasn’t been much of a rivalry at all because Boston has bitch-slapped New York in five of the first six games. Obviously, that has to start changing this weekend because wildcard positioning is on the line between these two teams and these are huge games.

Here are some of the top Red Sox to watch:

➤ RF Roman Anthony: The Red Sox big prospect is off to an impressive start hitting .283 with an .836 OPS in his first 58 MLB games.

➤ 3B Alex Bregman: The ex-Astro has been a stud with a .384 on-base and team-leading .917 OPS.

➤ SS Trevor Story: He has finally stayed healthy and he leads the Red Sox with 79 RBI while his 19 homers trail only Wilyer Abreu’s 22.

➤ LF Jarren Duran: He has a .336 on-base and leads the team with 129 hits, 71 runs, and 20 stolen bases.

➤ RP Aroldis Chapman: The ex-Yankee is having a magnificent season with a 1.15 ERA, 0.723 WHIP, 12.6 strikeouts per nine, and 22 saves.

The pitching matchups are scheduled to be:

• Thursday, 7:15, FOX: Luis Gil (5.14 ERA) vs. Lucas Giolito (3.63) who has 11 starts this season where he allowed one or zero earned runs.

• Friday, 7:05, Amazon Prime: Max Fried (3.26) vs. Brayan Bello (3.23) who back on June 15 threw seven scoreless innings against the Yankees with eight strikeouts.

• Saturday, 1:05, YES: Will Warren (4.25) vs. Garrett Crochet (2.43), the ace of the staff who leads the AL with 159.1 innings and 196 strikeouts and has a 1.073 WHIP with 11.1 strikeouts per nine.

• Sunday, 7:10, ESPN: Carlos Rodon (3.24) vs. TBD.