A Bad Finale, but Yankees Keep Rolling With Series Win in San Diego

After two easy victories, the Yankees couldn’t finish off a sweep as they lost Sunday to the Padres. Still, there was more tremendous pitching from the three starters, Aaron Judge, Anthony Volpe and Juan Soto kept raking, and the Yankees are 37-18 and left San Diego two games ahead of the Orioles in the AL East. Let’s get to it.

One of the best things Aaron Boone has done during this tremendous start to 2024 is that he - or whoever is determining the lineup - is sticking with mostly the same group, and mostly in the same order, night after night.

Instead of the constant, almost daily changing that defined Boone’s first six seasons, giving guys rest when they didn’t need it or moving them up and down the order nonsensically, Boone has stuck to a consistent plan and the results have been a 37-17 record as we hit Memorial Day, the traditional first milepost of the MLB season.

For 43 games in a row, the top three hitters have not changed - Anthony Volpe, Juan Soto, Aaron Judge. For Soto and Judge, they have played all 55 games batting 2-3, while Volpe has played all 55, the last 43 in the leadoff spot once Gleyber Torres proved unable to hold that position.

After Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo were given turns in the cleanup spot, Alex Verdugo has now slotted in there 21 of the last 25 games, Stanton has been No. 5 for 27 games, and Rizzo has been No. 6 for 20 games. So far, the Volpe, Soto, Judge, Verdugo, Stanton, Rizzo order has been the case 18 times.

The key to this is Soto, a player who pretty much demands to play every day, and I think that has rubbed off on the other players who see that, and want to match it, Judge in particular. Also, Verdugo has been important because like Soto, he’s a lefty and that gives Boone the ability to alternate lefty-righty in those first six spots, and when Austin Wells catches, the lefty usually bats eighth behind righty Torres, so Boone can go all the way through the order alternating.

“I love it,” Boone said. “To have Juan come in here and slide into that two hole, get that left-right combination right there. Verdugo’s that change of pace before you get back to Giancarlo. I’m just excited that they’re all healthy and playing well.”

Now it must be said, the Yankees have also benefited from good health so far, which is another key reason why Boone has been able to trot out the same group most nights, a far cry from last season. In the forgettable 2023 season the Yankees tried 10 players at leadoff; because of Judge’s injury there were nine in his old No. 2 spot; there were 12 in the No. 3 spot; 11 at cleanup; 15 players at No. 5; and 16 at No. 6. In all, there were 153 different batting orders in 162 games.

Obviously that’s a ridiculous amount of tinkering, some of it necessary, some of it completely unnecessary.

May 24: Yankees 8, Padres 0

The Lead: An early West Coast night

I’m up early every day, usually by 6 a.m., partially because I can’t sleep in, but also because during the week I’m cranking out this newsletter for my local subscribers. So I appreciated the Yankees running out to a 6-0 lead by the third inning Friday night which allowed me to get to bed before 11 feeling confident the game was over, which it was.

I’m not sure you can draw up a better script than this one: Volpe leads off the first inning with a triple and gives the Yankees a quick lead. Then in the third, the law firm of Soto, Judge and Stanton all hit 400-foot-plus home runs off Padres starter Yu Darvish to make it 6-0. And then Carlos Rodon provides another outstanding start from the rotation, and the bullpen cleans up the final three innings to preserve the shutout victory.

“Things escalated quick,” Stanton said of the third inning when the home runs traveled a combined 1,249 feet. “That’s what we’re capable of.”

This gave the threesome 43 home runs, more than four teams had hit through Friday night.

“(Darvish) felt good, ball was coming out good, spin was good.” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “He just made some mistakes and didn’t get them back. This guy’s thrown the ball as good as anybody in the league the last month. That’s a tough lineup, clearly. They got some mistakes over the plate and put some swings on it. It was pretty simple.”

Game notes and observations:

➤ The main storyline for the weekend, of course, was Soto returning to San Diego for the first time since being traded to the Yankees. There were a smattering of boos which didn’t make sense because Padres management decided to trade him; it’s not like he bolted in free agency, or even demanded to be traded. Anyway, the boos were mostly drowned out by cheers because it seemed like the place was half-filled with Yankees fans. “Electric. Fun. Definite fun,” Soto said. “It was pretty cool seeing the guys coming through against a guy like that. It’s huge.”

➤ In the third, Wells started it with a single and after Jon Berti whiffed and Volpe sacrificed Wells to second, the fireworks began, and it all happened within nine pitches. Soto hit a two-run shot, Judge went back-to-back, and after Verdugo lined a single off the wall in left, Stanton hit a two-run bomb.

➤ Torres led off the fourth with a solo homer, after which it looked like Darvish laughed at himself because he couldn’t believe it. He came into the game with a 2.08 ERA having thrown 25 consecutive scoreless innings. The final run came in the ninth when Volpe walked, took third on a Soto double and scored on a wild pitch by ex-Yankee Jhony Brito, one of five players San Diego acquired for Soto.

➤ Rodon didn’t have great stuff, but he allowed only three hits with three walks and two strikeouts. The Padres swung and missed at only four of his 93 pitches, but he found a way to get outs. Most impressively he retired Luis Arraez all three times he faced him, part of a rare 0-for-4 for Arraez. Arraez came into the game on a 20-for-38 tear, but he struggled again with the Yankees. When he was still with the Marlins, he went 2-for-11 in the series against the Yankees April 8-10.

➤ Bye, Bye Birdie. Oops, not the 1960s Broadway musical, but the Yankees’ Berti and Burdi. Berti pulled a calf muscle in the ninth inning so he’ll be out for a while, but I guess it’s just in time for DJ LeMahieu’s expected arrival this week. And Burdi landed on the 15-day IL with hip inflammation, so forget about him for a while, too. The Yankees called up Yoendrys Gomez and in his second MLB appearance he struck out the side in the ninth.

May 25: Yankees 4, Padres 1

The Lead: The beat goes on, another series win

Twenty games over .500 before Memorial Day. That’s a pretty impressive way to start a season. Only the Phillies (38-16 thru Sunday) have a better record in MLB than the Yankees after yet another game where Judge destroyed baseballs and a Yankee starter dominated.

Judge homered for the fourth game in a row, a two-run shot in the first inning, then later doubled and scored, prompting Boone to say, “What Aaron’s doing is what the greats do from time to time.”

And Marcus Stroman made that support from Judge hold up as he threw six shutout innings, becoming the fourth straight starter to enjoy a scoreless outing. He gave up just three hits and a walk and had five strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 2.76.

“I feel like they’re feeding off each other, trying to one-up the next guy,” Judge said of the rotation which thru Saturday had a consecutive innings shutout streak of 23.1 innings. “As an offense, you see that and you feed off that, knowing, ‘Hey, if we can get a couple runs early and get our guy comfortable, he’s going to keep cruising. It’s been impressive to see what our starters are doing.”

Game notes and observations:

➤ This was the Yankees’ 13th straight start in which their pitcher has gone at least five innings and allowed two or fewer runs, one shy of the longest such streak in MLB since 1893. In that stretch covering 80.2 innings the rotation ERA is 0.78. Unbelievable, and I’ll repeat again, Gerrit Cole is still several weeks away from returning.

➤ San Diego finally scored its first run of the series in the bottom of the eighth when Fernando Tatis Jr. homered off Luke Weaver. Clay Holmes then pitched an easy ninth for his 15th save.

➤ For the fourth game in a row Volpe led off the first inning with a hit, this time a single, stretching his hitting streak to 18 games, so he was on base when Judge took Dylan Cease 429 feet to left-center for a quick 2-0 lead. This is the third time in his career Judge has homered in four straight games, the last in September 2022, the year he hit 62.

➤ Judge doubled down the line in left leading off the fourth and took third on Verdugo’s single. Here, two really good baseball things happened. Stanton pounded a ball two feet in front of home plate and it easily could have resulted in a double play, but Verdugo got a great read knowing the ball was fair and hustled to second, so catcher Luis Campusano could only throw out Stanton. Rizzo then fell behind 1-2 against Cease who was feeding him his tough slider. Rizzo moved up in the batters’ box on the 1-2 pitch to try to get the slider early, and that adjustment worked as he ripped a single to right to score Judge. Great baseball IQ from Rizzo there. Verdugo moved to third on that hit and later scored on a Torres sacrifice fly.

➤ Soto had a rough night with umpire Bill Miller and he went 0-for-4 with two whiffs. Soto is great, but I’ll say this: I think he takes too many pitches on which he could swing and do damage. In the third, he took two pitches for strikes, he disagreed with both calls, but the MLB app showed that both were strikes. He struck out in the fifth, taking the first strike which was dead center before swinging and missing at the third on another center-cut pitch. And then in the seventh, he argued another called strike which, as it turned out, was a strike. Sometimes it seems like Soto is up there just to show off how good his batting eye is and in this game, it wasn’t very good.

May 26: Padres 5, Yankees 2

The Lead: One bad inning decided it

The Yankees played 26 innings of mostly outstanding baseball at Petco Park, and then one shitty inning Sunday, and unfortunately that was enough to cost them a chance for the sweep and ended their four-game winning streak.

And make no mistake, it was shitty as there was one awful error, another that wasn’t technically ruled an error but should have been, two walks, a balk, mental mistakes, some luck on the Padres part, and when it was over San Diego had four runs, more than enough on a day when the Yankees offense was shut down.

It all started when Torres booted a routine grounder by Jake Cronenworth, just another lousy, lazy play. “I’m still mad,’’ Torres said after the game. “Stupid error. That play was one hundred percent catchable.’’ Yep, it was, and things unraveled from there. Clarke Schmidt walked the next man so Victor Gonzalez came in and well, he stunk as he allowed both of Schmidt’s inherited runners to score.

He walked a man to load the bases with no outs, got an out on a fielders’ choice that scored a run but because he was late getting over to cover first, a chance for a double play died. Then Rizzo mishandled a push bunt by Ha-Seong Kim. Field it cleanly and he probably had an out at home but he bobbled it and didn’t get one anywhere. That made made it 2-1, but if the Yankees’ fielding didn’t collapse, the Padres would not have scored any runs and the inning would have been over. After a flyout, Arraez ripped an RBI single and then Tatis lucked out with a swinging bunt single off Dennis Santana that produced the fourth run.

Game notes and observations:

➤ As I’ve been saying, while they’ve had success, I still don’t trust this bullpen. Gonzalez has been a mediocrity and the other Dodger who joined the team, Caleb Ferguson, has been a bust. He came on for the seventh and promptly gave up back-to-back doubles by Cronenworth and Manny Machado, a walk and then a flyout to deep center. Boone saw enough and brought in Michael Tonkin and he mopped up nicely the rest of the way.

➤ The bullpen has Tommy Kahnle is back, and it needs Ian Hamilton to return this week and be better than he’s been. It might be time to take a look at Cody Morris who has a 2.82 at Scranton in 13 appearances.

➤ Schmidt pitched fine, and he made it 14 straight starts from the rotation of at least five innings and two or fewer earned runs, tying that record from 1893. He gave up one earned run on three hits, three walks and had six strikeouts, but his pitch count got to 101.

➤ The Yankees runs came this way: In the sixth Volpe singled to extend his hitting streak to 19, stole second and scored on a double by Soto. And in the ninth, Verdugo hit a home run.

The Yankees will have Memorial Day off as they head up the West Coast to Anaheim for a three-game set against the horrible Angels who sit in last place at 20-33 in the AL West. They just got swept three straight at home by Cleveland.

Mike Trout is out, Anthony Rendon is, Shohei Ohtani bolted in free agency, and new manager Ron Washington is being driven nuts by his team’s inconsistency, especially at home where they’re 6-19. Outfielder Taylor Ward has been their best player, 11 homers, 32 RBI, .813 OPS, while Jo Adell has 10 homers, 23 RBI and a . .770 OPS. Second baseman Luis Rengifo is hitting a pesky .326, and catcher Logan O’Hoppe has 24 RBI and a .733 OPS.

The pitching matchups are as follows: Tuesday at 9:30 on YES it’s Nestor Cortes (3.29 ERA) against Griffin Canning (5.05); Wednesday at 9:38 on Amazon Prime it’s Luis Gil (2.11) against Tyler Anderson (2.52); and Thursday at 9:38 on YES it’s Carlos Rodon (2.95) against Patrick Sandoval (5.60).