Yankees' Offense Costs Them Series

After two miserable losses, I reached my limit in aggravation watching the Yankees so naturally, the game I skipped Wednesday was the one where they actually looked like a decent team. Still, losing twice to the Reds left a very, very sour taste in my mouth. Lets get to it. 

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Cards on the table here, I really don’t give a shit whether the Yankees win Wednesday night in Cincinnati and I have no intention of watching the finale against the Reds. I’ve had enough nights ruined by this team lately, so I’m sitting on my deck on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon and getting a head start on the newsletter because all I want to do is rant about Tuesday night’s game.

I’ll watch the condensed version of the finale and do the recap down below bright and early on Thursday morning, but even if they win 20-0, that’s not erasing the buffoonery we endured in the micro on Monday and Tuesday losing to this mediocre Reds team, and in the macro the last two weeks when they’ve essentially blown all of what was a comfortable lead in the AL East.

You know how you start watching a new TV series, and you get through a couple OK episodes and then you realize the show sucks and you ask yourself why you’re watching? My wife and I just went through this with the Apple show Severance. What a waste of time that was and yeah, that’s exactly what the first two games of this series were for me, and probably you as well, so I needed a night off.

Monday was a complete debacle on offense, and they followed it up with another disgraceful showing Tuesday and finished a combined 1-for-21 with runners in scoring position which was simply laughable. It’s amazing how this team struggles to manufacture runs, and it’s exactly why I’ll say it right now - they aren’t ending their World Series championship drought this year. No way.

Over the past 13 games through Tuesday, of which they won only four, the Yankees hit .162, had an on-base of .220 and an OPS of .409 with runners in scoring position, all of which rank dead last in MLB for that span.

We see the same bullshit over and over with this team. They hit a ton of homers, and those are certainly important, but you can’t live and die with the home run, especially in October. The first two games in Cincinnati were a perfect example as Yankees hit only two home runs and because they did virtually nothing else, they lost both.

And of course the other reason they won’t win a championship is Aaron Boone, but anyone who has been paying attention the last seven-plus years know this. Well, everyone except Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman who unfortunately are the only two who matter. His haphazard lineup and bullpen decisions, and the never-ending coddling of the players and turning a blind eye to the continued lack of fundamental and situational baseball just drives me insane.

Look, not everything that went wrong Tuesday was Boone’s fault, but there were several things that just made me want to throw the remote through my TV and since he’s the manager, I’m laying most of it on him. And yes, it’s the players who are ultimately responsible for their performance, but Boone does nothing to help them.

Here are six things from Tuesday that I thought he mis-managed:

➤ Pulling Carlos Rodon at 88 pitches. OK, Rodon said afterward he was “gassed” and couldn’t go on so that’s not on Boone. But Boone could have said, “Hey, big guy, we have a 3-0 lead, we’re short in the bullpen, can we go batter to batter in the seventh and see how it goes?” Again, coddling. I know it was hot, but Rodon is getting paid $27 million per year. Buck up, man. Road crews, construction workers, traffic cops, they’re all out there in 90-degree heat all damn day doing their thing for a whole lot less than $27 million.

➤ Staying with Jonathan Loaisiga too long. It was obvious he had nothing, so once he loaded the bases with one out, why wasn’t Fernando Cruz in the game right then, especially when it came out afterward that Loaisiga wasn’t feeling well? This ties in with pulling Rodon too soon, so Boone probably felt he needed Loaisiga to work through it and at least maintain part of the 3-0 lead. Well, that went to hell pretty quick.

➤ Using Devin Williams for just one inning. This was the most ridiculous decision of the night. He threw nine pitches in the ninth inning, but Boone refused to send him back out for the 10th because he said they’re not at a point where they’re willing to do that. Are you fucking kidding me? He admitted the bullpen was short, yet he couldn’t use Williams for an extra inning. That’s coddling at an absurd level.

“Look, he’s here as kind of a one-inning guy and that’s what he’s done the last couple years,” Boone said. “I think there’s going to be a time when there’s a four-out scenario, but I’m not prepared right now to send him out there for a two-inning outing.”

➤ More bullpen nonsense. Before Williams came in, Boone could have done things differently. Why not use Cruz in the eighth after he threw only 12 pitches? Or why not use Luke Weaver for two innings, something he’s accustomed to doing, and save Williams? Instead, he burned all those guys, so Mark Leiter, who threw 27 pitches Monday, was basically the sacrificial lamb. He got through the 10th which surprised me, but then Boone sent him out for the 11th because he apparently didn’t trust JT Brubaker.

➤ What about Brubaker? Yeah, he was the last man standing in the bullpen, but so what. He’s the long guy, the mop up man, so his job is to give you innings in a situation just like this. The game wasn’t going to go much further, so why ask Leiter to pitch the 11th when Brubaker was fresh and ready to go? It made zero sense and it essentially guaranteed the loss because there was no way Leiter was surviving the 11th.

➤ Jazz Chisholm being an idiot. Getting himself ejected was so selfish it was beyond belief, but how did Boone not reign him in? Maybe that was a hopeless ask because Chisholm is certainly an emotional player, but the manager had to make sure he was under control when he took the field. The umpire blew the call, no doubt it was ball three and it changed the at-bat. And I think the umpire knew it which is why he gave Chisholm some leeway to vent, but then it got to be out of control, so I don’t blame him for running him. That situation created a real lineup problem that forced catcher JC Escarra to play third base in the 11th inning.

There was just so much stupidity in the Tuesday game that, like I said, sent me into a dark place with this team.

Hey, morning update: They won Wednesday. Read all about it down below, but it changes nothing that I just wrote.

June 23: Reds 6, Yankees 1

➤ I didn’t have high hopes for this one with Allan Winans making his Yankees debut because of the Ryan Yarbrough injury. The first time through the order he was terrific as he faced the minimum nine batters and threw only 24 pitches. But once the Reds had seen him and his nothing fastball, forget it.

➤ Winans’ collapse started in the fourth as he hit a batter, gave up an RBI triple to Elly De La Cruz, a sac fly and then a home run to Gavin Lux on an 0-2 pitch that made it 3-1. He was gone by the fifth when he hit another batter and gave up a single. Ian Hamilton permitted one run to score on a De La Cruz single, but he did get out of a bases-loaded jam with a double play. The Reds tacked on two in the eighth when De La Cruz homered off Tim Hill, and Leiter came in and gave up two singles that produced the final run.

➤ Of course, none of that even mattered because after Judge homered in the first, the Yankees never scored again because of the aforementioned inability to his with runners in scoring position which included an 0-for-4 with a man on third and less than two outs. Three times they had two men on base and never scored. As I said earlier, like Severance, the Yankees are a really hard watch these days.

➤ Here’s a perfect example of why Boone is not good enough for this team. Down 4-1 in the eighth inning, Cody Bellinger hit a pop fly double and Judge walked, and after Giancarlo Stanton and Chisholm put up two putrid at bats and struck out, up came Anthony Volpe who has been horrible for a couple weeks. With a righty on the mound and Ben Rice sitting in the dugout available to pinch hit, Boone kept chewing his gum and Rice stayed there despite the fact that Great American Ball Park is statistically the most home-run-friendly stadium in MLB for left-handed hitters. Volpe grounded out, inning over.

➤ Through this game, Stanton was batting .304 but six of his seven hits were singles with one RBI and he has yet to score a run. That’s not really helping the offense.

What they said in Monday’s clubhouse

• Boone: “I thought tonight, our best at-bats were getting on base or putting the pressure on. They had us swinging and missing tonight when we had really good opportunities to score. That’s where we want to be a little better. We pressured (Reds starter Nick Lodolo), drove his pitch count up. He made some big pitches, and we didn’t come up with a big hit. It’s as simple as that.”

• Winans: “I felt like I did show some good stuff. I feel like there’s another gear I could hit probably. Couple missed-execution pitches, couple fastballs I’d like back. But for the most part, I tried to keep the team in the game as much as we can.”

June 24: Reds 5, Yankees 4 (11)

➤ The Yankees fell to 0-5 in road extra-innings game this year and they are now 13-27 since the free runner was introduced in 2020. Both records are the worst in MLB, and the primary reason is what I mentioned above. They don’t know how to manufacture runs. In extra innings, the most important at bat is the first one because that guy has to at least get the free runner over to third, but the Yankees fail almost all the time.

➤ In the 10th, Volpe started on second and Austin Wells popped up on the first pitch. Unbelievable. At this point, why not have Volpe steal third to make up for Wells’ shitty at bat? Had he done that, he probably would have scored when Dominguez lined to center. Instead, he never did reach third because Judge - failing once again in a big spot which has become a thing lately - popped out.

➤ In the 11th, they scored their first run of the year in a road extra-inning game. Bellinger did his job and got Judge to third, but then he scored on a wild pitch and Goldschmidt and LeMahieu made outs so that was all they got, and naturally that wasn’t enough. In the bottom half, with Leiter on fumes, the Reds used three singles, a walk and a wild pitch to end it, Lux walking it off with a single.

➤ Before his exit, Rodon was great with six scoreless innings allowing just four hits and one walk. I just hate that he couldn’t dig down and pitch in the seventh inning because the Yankees might very well have won this game because Boone probably could have avoided using Loaisiga. In that fateful seventh, Loaisiga gave up a three-run double to Christian Encarnacion-Strand that tied the game. Brutal, brutal, brutal.

➤ The night sure started in embarrassing fashion. Phenom Chase Burns made his MLB debut for the Reds and became the first man since at least 1961 to strike out the first five men he faced. And after a Chisholm single, he struck out Volpe so his first six outs were via the whiff. He added another in the third, but he did buckle a bit the second time through the order as Rice homered, and then after Judge and Chisholm singled, Volpe hit a liner that should have been a single but became a two-run triple when Friedl made a silly dive attempt and the ball got past him and went to the wall.

What they said in Tuesday’s clubhouse

• Judge: “We got to play better, that’s it. We’re not playing that great. But we got to learn from it. We got to move on. We got to turn the page. We got to get to the next one. We got a lot of winners in this clubhouse. Guys know how to move on from tough stretches and we’ve done that before. We’ve got to figure it out. It’s on us.”

• Boone on the extra inning problems: “I don’t think that’s emblematic of who we are as an offense. I feel quite certain we’re a really good offense. We haven’t gotten some hits. … We’re going to break through and get hot here eventually.”

• Rodon: “I was huffing and puffing a little bit. Usually I go back out there in those situations. I want the ball. But I could tell I was gassed. They had some good at-bats, some long at-bats. It was just one of those days where the energy was coming out of me quick.”

• Leiter: “I fought as hard as I could, unfortunately came up on the losing [side] and they beat me.”

June 25: Yankees 7, Reds 1

➤ Max Fried did what he has done all season - when the Yankees need a big outing, he gave it to them. Thanks to Boone blowing up the bullpen, it was imperative that Fried provide length and he did with seven innings allowing just one unearned run on four hits and walk. He was excellent, and the only run scored thanks to an awful throwing error by Chisholm who has not played well at third base since moving over there. Cruz and Brubaker then finished it off, Cruz striking out all three men he faced and Brubaker going 1-2-3 in the ninth. Gee, if only Boone had used him Tuesday, right?

➤ The Yankees jumped on Brady Singer in the second as Jasson Dominguez doubled and scored on a Trent Grisham single, and in the third Chisholm hit a two-run homer. In the fifth Volpe hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly and in the sixth against reliever Ian Gibaut, the Yankees made it 6-1 on Judge’s double and a groundout from Stanton. Wells finished it with an RBI single in the ninth.

➤Grisham had a four-hit game, and he’s been better than he’s ever been in his career at the plate this year, but that’s not saying much and two-plus months does not make a season. He had a nice night, but through Tuesday’s game he was batting .206 with just two homers in June. And before this game, he had been the leadoff hitters in 30 games and he was hitting .178 with a .302 on-base percentage. I’m sorry but he should be down the order, or better yet, he should be the fourth outfielder because the starting outfield should be Dominguez, Aaron Judge, and Cody Bellinger just about every night. Dominguez needs to play, and Bellinger is a better player than Grisham, plain and simple.

➤ Dominguez also had the first four-hit game of his career with two singles, two doubles, two stolen bases and two runs scored. This is what I mean - he’s the future, Grisham is not. Play Dominguez and use Grisham as the once-in-while starter.

➤ Outside of the bullpen, no one needs a day off more than Judge. He had an RBI double but also whiffed twice. In his last 15 games he’s hitting .204 and has struck out in 47% of his at bats.

➤ True, the Yankees had 13 hits, but once again they were horrendous with RISP, 4-for-22. Incredible that they had 22 at bats with a runner in scoring position, and even more incredible that only four guys had hits, meaning that for the series, they finished 5-for-43.

What they said in Wednesday’s clubhouse

• Fried: “I thought I was able to change speeds pretty well. Early on I was able to keep the pitch count down a little bit. Drew some deep counts in those middle innings and was really fighting myself a little bit, but credit to the defense and especially the offense of getting some runs on the board and getting some breathing room and being able to have a really good complete game today.”

• Chisholm on his homer: “After what happened [Tuesday] night, it felt great to get a hold of one. I think everybody’s going to sleep 14 hours. Especially after a late flight.”

An obviously difficult and taxing part of the schedule came to an end Wednesday in Cincinnati and Thursday is their first day off after playing 16 in a row. And yeah, they needed it. Hopefully, this is going to be a different team this weekend when the sad sack A’s come to the Bronx for three games.

The A’s are basically done for the season as they sit in last place in the AL West with a 33-49 record thanks to a stretch from May 6 to June 4 when they went 3-24, so yes, their problems are a little more vexing than the Yankees. They’ve played around .500 since, but they’re still 9.5 games out of a wildcard spot.

Here are some of the A’s top players to watch:

➤ SS Jacob Wilson: He’s been one of the best rookies in MLB this season as he has 104 hits and he’s hitting .347 with a .388 on-base.

➤ DH Brent Rooker: The A’s best power threat as he leads the team with 16 homers and has an .840 OPS.

➤ RF Lawrence Butler: A young and exciting player who has 32 RBI and a team-best 12 stolen bases.

➤ LF Tyler Soderstrom: He leads the team with 45 RBI and has a .781 OPS.

➤ RP Mason Miller: The closer who everyone thought was going to be a superstar last season has a 4.85 ERA, but that’s because of a couple blowups. He has 15 saves and 22 of his 29 appearances were zero earned runs.

With the day off, the pitching matchups are have not been announced as I go to press this morning.

The start times and broadcast info is Friday, 7:05, YES, then Saturday, 1:05, YES and Sunday, 1:35, YES: