Yankees Crush Hapless Nationals

The Yankees destroyed the awful Nationals during a laughable three-game sweep, outscoring them 26-8. What does it prove? Well, they can handle the bad teams and hey, every victory counts in the chase for a postseason berth, so by that measure alone, it was a terrific three days.  Lets get to it.

As the Yankees proved across three consecutive blowouts, the Nationals are one of the most putrid teams in MLB.

Even for a struggling Yankees team that had just gotten embarrassed by its arch rival, losing three of four at home to the Red Sox, Washington was simply no match for New York. I know I bitch and moan about the Yankees, just like many of you, but to be a Nationals fan the last five years or so is a level of despair we’ll probably never know.

So I’m not going to sit here and shit on a three-game sweep and a four-game winning streak which has inched the Yankees forward in the postseason race. Toronto’s lead in the AL East has shrunk from 6.5 games just five days ago to 4.5, and the Yankees are now 4.5 games ahead of the Royals in the race of the third wildcard position.

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However, regardless of everything good that went right for the Yankees in this series against what amounts to a Triple-A team - hell, half of the guys Washington trotted out are players I’ve watched several times this season here in Rochester which is home to the Nationals’ Triple-A team - there is still one thing very wrong with the Yankees.

Anthony Volpe.

Well, two things, really, because Austin Wells is horrible, too. But today we’re going to focus on Volpe who is an unplayable player who still gets played because Aaron Boone is the manager.

Holy shit, it just keeps getting worse and worse for the overmatched 24-year-old shortstop who is now in the throes of a 1-for-37 death spiral which has dropped his batting average to .204, his on-base to .269, and his OPS to .662.

And yet, Boone refuses to grasp the gravity of this sinking situation.

“He’s very capable,” Boone said Tuesday night in his latest inexplicable defense of Volpe. “I think the biggest thing for him here in the first few seasons of his career is the ups and downs, the peaks and valleys offensively. So it’s just continuing to work really hard at being more consistent. I do feel like he’s hit into some tough luck this season, but it starts with the strike zone and making sure you’re swinging at quality pitches and when you do that you give yourself a chance to be successful.”

Volpe was benched for the last game of the Boston series and the first game against Washington, then started the last two and went 0-for-9. He endured the ultimate indignity Wednesday when he made two outs in one inning while his teammates were scoring nine runs in spite of him. This can’t continue, and the Yankees - or I should say Boone - have to stop making excuses for his horrid play.

This information nugget is all the proof you need to understand just how bad Volpe has been. Since the start of the 2023 season when Volpe made his debut, he is one of 89 players in MLB who have made at least 1,500 plate appearances and Volpe ranks dead last in average (.221), on-base (.284), and OPS (.663). We can do a lot of things with numbers, but there’s no escaping the numerical facts I just laid out there. Among the most-played players in the sport, he has literally been the worst hitter.

And what compounds the problem is that this year he has taken a steep decline in the field as his 17 errors are the second-most in MLB, though his struggles go way beyond mere errors. Per the FanGraphs metric Outs Above Average which measures a fielder's skill in terms of the number of outs they have saved or prevented compared to an average fielder at their position, Volpe sits at minus-7 which ranks 36th among 39 qualified shortstops. For comparison, Bobby Witt of the Royals lead at plus-21.

You can see the lack of confidence Volpe has out there, going to a knee on routine ground balls which is absurd, and aiming or guiding his throws rather than just unleashing them. We have reached the point where you hold your breath every time the ball is hit to him.

It has been sad to watch because I think we all want the kid to be good. He’s a former first-round pick, a homegrown player who came up with a lot of fanfare and promise, but the Yankees have to come to grips with the fact that the Volpe experiment has been a failure.

“We’re all humans,’’ said Aaron Judge, who homered Wednesday but hasn’t been very good lately, either. “It’s about how you use it. Are you gonna use it to crumble and in a negative way or just tell yourself you’ve got to play better? You have to use it as motivation. The biggest thing is to not make more of it than it is. You’ve still got a job to do on the field. The rest is really just noise and you can’t focus on the noise or you’ll get consumed by it.”

Which is why the Yankees need to bench Volpe once and for all. The noise has become a cacophony and he’s clearly affected by it. The fans at Yankee Stadium have taken to booing him after every failed at bat or errant play in the field and the pressure has become too much.

Now that the Yankees have Jose Caballaro on the roster, Boone has no excuse to play Volpe. Caballaro is a terrific ballplayer, exactly the kind of player the Yankees have long needed. He puts the bat on the ball, can hit situationally, he leads MLB in stolen bases, and he defends well at multiple positions including shortstop.

Since coming to the Yankees from the Rays at the trade deadline, Caballaro is slashing .281/.385/.500 for an OPS of .885. What are we doing here? How can Boone look at those numbers and tell us that Volpe deserves to play and Caballaro is a “great 10th man?”

Yes, he’s a great utility player to have, but right now he needs to be in the lineup every day and Volpe needs to be a pinch runner who you insert at shortstop late in games only if Caballaro needs to go out to right field to get Giancarlo Stanton off the field. That’s what has to happen.

Even better, send Volpe to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the final month of the Triple-A season so maybe he can find something both on offense and defense. Why the hell should he be immune to being sent down?

Instead, Boone keeps on fawning like we’re back in Little League, feeding us bullshit quotes such as this: “Wired right for it, handles it. Whether he’s going through a good stretch or a struggle, he’s always the same guy and such an important part of our team. So hopefully he’ll start to turn the corner a little bit here offensively and get hot again for us. It has been a rough run offensively for him.”

Hot again? When has he been hot? There have been occasional one- or two-week stretches here and there, but they are always followed by one- or two-month stretches where he’s abysmal. Enough already. Grab some pine and figure your shit out.

Aug. 25: Yankees 10, Nationals 5

➤ If the Yankees make the playoffs and have to play in the best-of-three wildcard series which seems likely, Cam Schlittler would have to be lined up in the rotation behind Max Fried and Carlos Rodon. The kid has been terrific, and what has been so good to see is that he’s starting to land his breaking stuff on top of that electric 100 mph fastball.

➤ Schlittler threw six scoreless innings with four hits and three walks and for the second start in a row he struck out eight. He had just one 1-2-3 inning, but he was never really in trouble except for the fourth inning. The Nationals had men on first and third after a pair of singles, but Schlittler got a pop out and then Ben Rice threw out Josh Bell stealing to end the inning, just a really dumb play by the Nationals. Bell also helped Schlitter in the sixth when he grounded into an inning-ending double play with men on first and second. Across Schlittler’s last three starts, it’s one earned in 17.2 innings with 22 whiffs.

➤ Rice’s homer in the third made it 2-0 and then in the fifth the Yankees scored five times as Caballaro and Trent Grisham singled, Judge had an RBI double, Cody Bellinger had a two-run single, and Jazz Chisholm hit a two-run homer, all of that off Nationals starter Brad Lord. Then in the eighth, Jasson Dominguez, who has been invisible for a while, hit a three-run homer, his first since July 23.

➤ It was 10-0 in the ninth, but after two nice innings, Yerry De los Santos lost it as he gave up three singles and two walks sandwiched around a double play. His last walk forced a run in, so Mark Leiter came in and served up a grand slam to Jacob Young, that kid’s first homer of the year.

What they said in Monday’s clubhouse

• Schlittler: “For me, it’s a great feeling. But as a rookie you can’t get too comfortable. The big thing is always being confident. I try to get to six, seven innings, and put the team in a spot to win. That’s been important to me the last two years. Just being able to see the results, and getting confidence from guys in this room as well - it makes it easier to go out there and just do my job.”

• Boone on Schlittler: “What struck me in spring, being around him the first time, I think there’s a quiet confidence to him. A real competitiveness to him. I feel coming up here, he’s been very unfazed by this last next step to the big leagues. He walks out there every game with lots of confidence that he has the ability to get you out and he’s shown that he can.”

Aug. 26: Yankees 5, Nationals 1

➤ That score line should read Giancarlo Stanton 5, Nationals 1. Stanton continued his incredible season with a three-run double on a 3-2 pitch off Nationals ace MacKenzie Gore in the third, and a 451-foot rocket of a two-run homer in the sixth. That was the Yankees offense as the rest of the team managed just four hits, though it did draw seven walks.

➤ In 30 games since the All-Star break, Stanton is hitting .362 with 13 home runs and 32 RBIs, posting an OPS of 1.248 in 105 plate appearances. Among all players with at least 100 post-break plate appearances, only Nick Kurtz of the A’s has a higher OPS (1.264).

➤ Luis Gil continued to struggle with his command. He lasted five innings and battled traffic all night because of five hits and four walks. But the Nationals helped him as Austin Wells picked off CJ Abrams at first in the first inning, and Bellinger threw out James Wood at home by a mile thanks to a terrible send by the third-base coach. Hey, what do you know, the Yankees’ third-base coach isn’t the only dunce.

➤ Fernando Cruz made his first appearance since June 27 and it was a little rough. He gave up a hard single, a bunt single and he hit a batter while striking out two. He left with the bases loaded and Tim Hill came in and as he usually does, he got the job done by inducing Wood to ground to third where Amed Rosario made a nice play and Paul Goldschmidt a nice scoop to end the threat.

➤ From there, Hill, Camilo Doval and David Bednar locked it down with Doval and Bednar going 1-2-3. That was the best inning Doval has thrown since he arrived, and just the second 1-2-3 in his 11 appearances.

➤ After a two-day “reset” as Boone called it, Volpe was back in the lineup. So much for the reset as he went 0-for-4.

What they said in Tuesday’s clubhouse

• Boone on Stanton: “This, I feel like - and it's saying a lot - is maybe as good as I've seen him, just consistency-wise. Consistency of at-bat after at-bat after at-bat. I feel like he is controlling the zone probably as well as I've ever seen him. I like when he walks up there, because I know he’s going to be prepared and I know he’s going to go execute his plan. It doesn’t obviously mean you get a result, but I know he’s going to be convicted; if they slip up, he’s going to get you.”

• Stanton on his streak, and also playing in RF: “It’s been fun being able to contribute on both sides. I’m just making sure I’m mentally prepared for all scenarios when the ball is hit towards me.”

• Gil: “With every outing, I’m feeling stronger and more confident out there. There’s work to be done, but I feel like I’m on the right track and (have) no doubt in my mind I’ll get back to that 100% level that I was before.”

Aug. 27: Yankees 11, Nationals 2

➤ This one got off to a great start as Grisham led off the game with a homer and then the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs, but it fell apart from there because in succession, Chisholm and Dominguez struck out and Volpe lined out. That’s the kind of stuff that will kill them in games against good teams, but it didn’t matter against Washington.

➤ That was quickly forgotten by the third inning when the Yankees erupted for nine runs to end all doubt about the game. It was a 41-minute, 77-pitch marathon for Nationals starter Cade Cavalli and reliever Shinnosuke Ogasawara during which 15 Yankees came to the plate and four of them homered. It truly illuminated how awful the 53-80 Nationals are.

➤ Rice singled, Judge hit a two-run homer, and Bellinger went back-to-back to make it 4-0. Chisholm singled, stole second and scored on a Dominguez double, and scuffling Ryan McMahon hit a three-run homer which mercifully ended the day for Cavalli. Oh, but that really didn’t matter. Ogasawara was thrown to the wolves and Rice greeted him with a solo homer and then two singles and two walks led to the final run. Thankfully for the Nationals, Volpe was in the lineup because he made two outs in the inning including whiffing to end it with the bases loaded. Volpe would fit right in with these Nationals.

➤ Max Fried went seven innings, his longest outing since June 25 against the Reds. He didn’t allow a hit through five innings, then gave up a run in the sixth when he yielded three straight single before he got a strikeout and double play to stop that rally. After he worked an easy seventh to finish off a 94-pitch outing where he allowed four hits and two walks, Paul Blackburn mopped up with two innings of one-run ball.

What they said in Wednesday’s clubhouse

• McMahon on finally doing something at the plate: “Oh, man, finally. I’ve sucked. I don’t think it’s a secret, so I’m just trying to get going.”

• Boone on the third inning: “It was outstanding. That was some bangin’ right there. To really right the ship and do it in kind of a profound way is nice. That was a good performance coming off a tough weekend.”

On to the South side of Chicago for four games against another one of the dregs of the earth in the world of MLB, the White Sox. One season removed from setting the modern day record for losses in a season with 121, the White Sox aren’t that much better in 2025 as they sit 48-85, the worst record in the American League. Like the Nationals, they are largely comprised of Triple-A level players with a few guys you’ve heard of sprinkled in, a few of which are former Yankees.

Here are some of the White Sox top players to watch:

➤ 2B Lenyn Sosa: He leads the Sox with 17 homers and 60 RBI.

➤ RF Mike Tauchman: The ex-Yankee has been batting leadoff and he’s done a nice job with a .370 on-base and team-best .792 OPS.

➤ LF Andrew Benintendi: Another former Yankee, who was originally a Yankee killer playing for the Red Sox, has not been good for Chicago. He has 15 homers but his on-base is .299.

➤ CF Luis Robert: Once considered one of the best prospects in MLB who hit 38 homers in 2023, he has fallen off the map since then and his OPS is just .661 this season.

➤ RP Mike Vasil: He has 38 appearances and has a 2.38 ERA which is the best in the Sox bullpen.

The pitching matchups are scheduled to be:

• Thursday, 7:40, YES: Will Warren (4.47 ) vs. Davis Martin (3.93) who has actually been OK despite a 1.264 WHIP.

• Friday, 7:40, YES: Carlos Rodon (3.24) vs. Yoendrys Gomez (4.73) who began the year with the Yankees and had a 2.70 ERA in six games, then went to the Dodgers and later to the Sox.

• Saturday, 7:10, YES: Cam Schlittler (2.76) vs. Shane Smith (3.87) who averages 8.3 strikeouts per nine with a 1.228 WHIP.

• Sunday, 2:10, YES: Luis Gil (3.75) vs. Martin Perez (2.02) who will make just his eighth start of the year after missing nearly four months, with his last outing seven shutout, one-hit innings against the Royals.