Yankees Completely Non-Competitive in Sweep by The Braves

If you weren’t convinced already, you must be now after that three-game no-show in Atlanta. It’s over for the last-place Yankees. They are now 60-61, under .500 through 121 games for the first time since they were 60-61 on Sept. 5, 1995, a season that started three weeks late because of the 1994 players’ strike.

Well, that went pretty much as I expected. The best team in baseball - and just to clarify, that is most certainly not the Yankees - had their way in a three-game sweep that was so non-competitive, it was actually kind of sad.

The Yankees are literally a team that is walking dead. They have now lost five straight, and in these three games in Atlanta, you could make the case that there are people six feet under who have a stronger pulse than the men of Aaron Boone.

Boone continues to think we’re idiots with his nonstop proclamations that his team is still fighting and competing every night. That is such a crock of bullshit at this point because this team is lifeless. If that’s what he considers fighting and competing, add his inability to read the room as another reason why he needs to be fired at season’s end.

The Yankees are an old, tired, past his prime heavyweight leaning against the ropes taking body shot after body shot and offering no response whatsoever, praying for the bell to ring to end the carnage. How else would you explain scoring three runs in this series, none in the last two games?

The Braves are a well-oiled machine, a destructive force that the Yankees were powerless to slow down, let alone stop and defeat. Remember when the Yankees used to be that team? They’d pull into another team’s town, impose their will, their aura, their mystique, and their might, and just kick ass and move on to the next town and do it all over again.

Not these Yankees. These Yankees served as the homecoming opponent for the Braves in this series. You know, the homecoming opponent is the team that Superstar State schedules when all the alumni are in town and they want to make sure they get an easy win so everyone can have a good time at the post-game party. I may have used that analogy in an earlier newsletter, but hey, it’s getting tough to describe the morbidity of this team in new and inventive ways. I only have so much creativity left in this old, foggy brain.

If you bothered to watch any of these debacles - and if you didn’t that’s why you subscribe because I’ll fill you in - I hope you all paid close attention to the kind of team the Braves are because they are the model franchise in 2023, the team everyone should aspire to be.

They have very good starting pitching (the Yankees didn’t even face their ace, Spencer Strider), a bullpen that isn’t overwhelming but more than reliable, and a long, deep, young, athletic and diverse lineup that just puts stress on the opposing pitcher all night long.

Nine Braves regulars have an OPS of .780 or better. Seriously, nine. The Yankees have one such player: Aaron Judge, and most of that was built before he got hurt because since he’s been back, he really hasn’t done much of anything besides a draw a bunch of harmless walks. For comparison, the 1998 Yankees, who won 114 regular-season games, had eight of their top 11 players with an OPS of .780 or better.

The Braves hit for average, they hit for power, they run the bases well, and they field their positions. It’s just a dream team that we should all be envious of because we know what it’s like to root for a team like that. Those days are long gone though as the Yankees’ World Series drought will reach 14 seasons while the Braves have a great chance to win their second in the last three years.

When the blood letting finally ended Wednesday night, the Yankees may very well have been mumbling that famous quote by Dennis Green, the late football coach, who roared after his Cardinals got steamrolled by the Bears one night, “They are who we thought they were!”

Who are the the Braves? They’re the Harlem Globetrotters and the Yankees are the patsy Washington Generals.

Here are my observations on the three games against the Braves.

Aug. 14: Braves 11, Yankees 3

➤ This looked like the varsity against the JV. The Yankees didn’t even belong on the same field as the Braves, which is just stunning to say. These are the New York friggin’ Yankees, and they just got outclassed in every way imaginable.

➤ Clarke Schmidt got bombarded as his issues putting hitters away which was so prevalent early in the season returned. He gave up a career-high eight runs on nine hits and two walks, with five of those men reaching base when they had two strikes on them. Schmidt hadn’t given up more than three earned runs in a start since May 14. That night he faced another great team, the Rays. He’s been one of the lone brights spots in this season, but this was a reminder that Schmidt really isn’t much more than a No. 4 or No. 5 starter on a good team. Right now, he’s No. 2 for the Yankees, who are not a good team and are decimated by injuries.

➤ Schmidt has pitched twice against the Rangers and four times against the Orioles, but he said the Braves were “far and above beyond those teams I think. I don’t know if it’s them being hot right now or just a combination of it all, but they have really good approaches and really good bat-to-ball skills. They don’t give in and they kind of feed off each other, too. Once the bottom of the order gets going, the top of it feeds off of it as well.”

➤ One of the best second baseman in MLB, Ozzie Albies, went on the injured list so the Braves plugged in trade acquisition Nicky Lopez and he went 3-for-4 with three RBI. He came over from the Royals; can you imagine how happy that dude is these days? Eddie Rosario went 3-for-5 with a homer and four RBI. These are two players you ordinarily wouldn’t even be concerned about given all the other Braves stars, yet they destroyed the Yankees.

➤ Braves starter Max Fried wasn’t even that sharp as he gave up eight hits and a walk in six innings, but of course the Yankees scored only two runs against him as they were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Isiah Kiner-Falefa continues to be one of the best hitters on the team lately as he had three hits to get his average up to .261, and Anthony Volpe had a double and triple.

BOX SCORE

Aug. 15: Braves 5, Yankees 0

➤ One hit. That’s what the Yankees managed in this game against Bryce Elder - who won’t ever be confused with former Braves greats Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, or current Braves great Spencer Strider. Elder gave up a single to DJ LeMahieu in the second inning, and that was it, and then two relievers finished it off. The Yankees also drew four walks, but they grounded into four double plays which eliminated any meager chance they had of scoring. The Yankees had more errors (2) than they did hits, so that’s never great. Just another blight on the iconic logo.

➤ Gleyber Torres grounded into two of the DPs and in his last six games he’d done that six times, the most in Yankees history in a six-game stretch. Nice. Since June 1, the Yankees have grounded into the most DPs of any team in baseball.

➤ Luis Severino wasn’t the problem in this game. Yes, five runs (three earned) in four innings sucks, but this was actually a step of progress for him, believe it or not. He threw the most God-awful slider you’ve ever seen, just a center cut meatball which Marcell Ozuna crushed for a three-run homer in the first. And he got dinged for a two-run shot by NL MVP frontrunner Acuna in the fourth. Otherwise, he wasn’t as horrible as he’s been. He had a good fastball, a decent breaking ball, but the two mistakes killed him. Again, it didn’t matter, not with the Yankees offense completely impotent.

➤ And once Sevy was done, Wandy Peralta, Jonathan Loaisiga, Tommy Kahnle and Clay Holmes combined for four scoreless, one-hit innings against the best offense in MLB. So that was impressive.

➤ “We’re scuffling our asses off and we need to do better,” Boone said. “We need to take some personal pride and it’s not fun getting knocked down and getting beat up, especially when you wear this uniform.” Oh, so finally Boone is starting to realize all of this?

BOX SCORE

Aug 16: Braves 2, Yankees 0

➤ Once again, a putrid, feeble, depressing night at the plate. No runs on four hits, so for the series, this was the Yankees final line: 27 innings, three runs on 16 hits and eight walks. Over the last two games, the Braves looked completely disinterested and yet they were never threatened at any point across the three nights.

➤ This was the first time the Yankees have scored zero runs and recorded fewer than five hits in consecutive games since Sept. 23-24, 2016, the last year they missed the postseason. This is the first time they’ve been under .500 at any point in a season since May 1, 2021.

➤ Randy Vasquez gave the Yankees 3.1 solid innings, but all it took was one mistake which Rosario hit for a two-run homer in the second inning. That’s all the Braves needed. Michael King handled 3.2 innings flawlessly, allowing just one hit and one walk, and Keynan Middleton pitched a 1-2-3 eighth. Once again, just an absolute waste of outstanding pitching because the offense is simply next-level disgusting.

➤ Remember when all anyone would talk about is how, when Judge got back in the lineup everything was going to change? The Yankees are now 6-13 since that happened and Judge has three homers and five RBI. He struck out three times in this game.

BOX SCORE

➤ Aug. 17, 1948: As more than 100,000 people paid their respects to Babe Ruth, whose body was laid out at Yankee Stadium, his old team did him proud as it beat the Senators 8-1 in Washington on the strength of a third-inning grand slam by Tommy Henrich.

And for Henrich, it was his fourth grand slam of the season which tied Ruth’s single-season MLB record which he actually set in 1919 during his last year with the Red Sox.

The Yankees pulled within five games of the AL-leading Indians and while many had given up on their chances of defending the pennant they won in 1947, Henrich was not one of those. “Who is so good in this league anyway?” he asked reporters. “With all our troubles, injuries and bad pitching we’re still only five games out with 47 to go. It won’t be easy, and I’m not kidding myself that it will, but we can do it. At least we think we can do it and we’re the ones that have the job to do. We feel we’ve done all our bad ball playing for the season and from here on things will be bright and cheery.”

Well, Henrich’s prediction did not come true. Despite a truly great season by Joe DiMaggio who hit .320 with 39 homers and 155 RBI, and Henrich’s .308 average with 25 home runs and 100 RBI, the Yankees fell short. When they beat the Red Sox on Sept. 24 it created a three-way tie between Boston, New York and Cleveland. However, the Yankees went 3-4 in the final week and finished 2.5 games behind the Indians and Red Sox,.

Cleveland then won a one-game playoff to clinch the pennant and went on to beat the Boston Braves in the World Series which remains their last championship. In New York, manager Bucky Harris was fired at season’s end, Casey Stengel became the new manager, and the Yankees went on to win five straight World Series titles.

After a day off to regroup following a truly awful, essentially season-ending 2-7 road trip, the Yankees get to host the Red Sox for three games. Suffice it to say, these games won’t have the same intensity of the ones you’ve been reading about every Wednesday in Hardball Hyperbole.

The Red Sox, who were supposed to finish last in the AL East, are now 3.5 games ahead of the Yankees in that race for the basement. They finish off a series against the Nationals Thursday sitting 63-57 and three games out of the third wild-card spot. The Yankees are 6.5 out.

The Red Sox have Trevor Story back after he missed the first four months of the season and he’s playing short now that they traded Kiki Hernandez. Rafael Devers, Yankee killer extraordinaire, has 26 homers and 79 RBI in what hasn’t even been a great season for him. Pesky Masataka Yoshida’s average has dipped to .298, while Triston Casas has 19 homers and has been one of the hottest hitters on the team for more than a month.

The pitching matchups aren’t quite complete but here’s the partial probables: Friday at 7:05 p.m. on Apple-TV the Yankees have to figure out who will face Brayan Bello (3.81 ERA). Saturday at 1:05 p.m. on YES, it’s Gerrit Cole (2.76) against Kutter Crawford (3.80). And Sunday at 1:35 (yes, can you believe we don’t have to deal with the Sunday night ESPN time slot!) it’s Clarke Schmidt (4.76) against a Boston TBD.