Yankees Overcome Astros and Umpires

The Yankees began their 12-game gauntlet against likely AL playoff teams with a wild and crazy series victory over the Astros, overcoming a team that has long had its number, but also the umpires who seemed as if they had all placed bets on the Astros to win. Lets get to it. 

As if it wasn’t tough enough beating the loathsome Astros twice in three games which got this difficult 12-game stretch off to a nice start, the Yankees also had to overcome some of the most one-sided and incompetent umpiring we’ve seen since longtime horror show Angel Hernandez ended baseball’s misery and retired a few years ago.

If you thought Houston slugger Yordan Alvarez nearly single-handedly destroyed the Yankees pitching staff, let me introduce you to Brian Walsh, a recent minor-league call-up ump who should be sent back there immediately because this guy doesn’t have a clue what the hell he’s doing.

His performance in the middle game Wednesday night, which the Yankees lost 8-7 due in large part to how badly he screwed them, was an embarrassment to MLB. According to the Umpire Auditor account on X, Walsh missed 21 ball-strike calls and 15 of those went against the Yankees and that meant that, according to the computer program they use which measures “the impact of an umpire on a team’s or game’s expected runs” Walsh’s mistakes gave the Astros a projected advantage of 1.4 runs. The Yankees lost by one run so yeah, he was pretty influential.

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Oh, but Walsh wasn’t done. Thursday night he was at third base and he screwed the Yankees again. In the bottom of the sixth with the Yankees up 4-1, Jose Altuve hit a low liner to third which Ryan McMahon caught but then fumbled as he was making the transition to check the runner - of course that being Alvarez who the Yankees couldn’t get out.

Walsh ruled that McMahon trapped the ball, and because in MLB’s infinite wisdom that play is not reviewable, the Yankees had to swallow another mouthful of shit spooned in by this guy. Fly balls are reviewable, but infield pops and liners are not. Try to figure out that logic if you can because I can’t.

Aaron Boone, whose blood pressure was already soaring because of this guy, came out of the dugout and demanded an umpire conference because if someone else saw the play correctly, they could have overturned it. Naturally, none of the other three saw it so Altuve reached base and that eventually led to an Astros run. Thankfully, it didn’t matter in this game.

“You’ve heard me say this before,” Boone said. “As much as I get into these things with umpires, probably more than any other manager, it’s just because I know how much we preach to our guys about controlling the strike zone. It’s something I’m always going to passionately fight for and defend for in the moment.”

The ABS challenge system can’t come fast enough to MLB. It won’t eradicate all of these bad calls, but it will correct most of them and that will be good for the game because what we saw in this series was unacceptable.

On to the actual baseball, and it sure wasn’t pretty. The offense showed up, scoring 22 runs which the Yankees certainly needed. But they were their usual sloppy selves in the field with one error Wednesday and three more on Thursday, and more pressing is that the bullpen is an undeniable mess and I cannot see how this team can possibly win in October with this group.

With obvious help from Walsh, it was collectively horrible in the second game and that’s why the Yankees lost, and then it wasn’t much better in the finale as David Bednar tried his best to blow a five-run lead and make our heads explode before finally getting the third out.

“This (series) took some months and some years off me, for sure,” Boone said with a hard-earned smile. “But look, really, really gritty, good performance by the guys, especially as they started to come back off of how emotional (Wednesday) night was and everything and a tough loss.

“For the guys to come out and build a lead, have the Astros come back and then just keep pulling away and some big performances out of the pen to finish it off, just a really good win to finish off a good road trip here and a big road series win and now we got a quick turnaround and get ready for a big homestand.”

Sept. 2: Yankees 7, Astros 1

➤ This was certainly a nice start to the gauntlet as Max Fried, pitching with an upset stomach, delivered like an ace for a third consecutive outing and seems to have overcome the severe downturn he took for a couple months when he had a 6.80 ERA across his eight starts. I will say, he had the good fortune of not having to face Alvarez who was on the bench for this game which was much appreciated.

➤ Fried didn’t allow a hit until a fifth-inning single by Cam Smith and whenever the Astros stirred, he got out of it. They put two runners on base in the third, sixth and seventh innings, but the only run he allowed came in that sixth when Yainer Diaz drove one home with a grounder. Paul Blackburn then mopped up quite effectively with two scoreless innings which gave the bullpen two straight nights off, not that it mattered come Wednesday and Thursday.

➤ As usual, all of the Yankees offense came via the home run, with two of those responsible for six runs against the normally great Framber Valdez. Jazz Chisholm hit a two-run shot in he second following a Trent Grisham leadoff single, and then Grisham continued his magic carpet ride of a season with a grand slam in the sixth after a Paul Goldschmidt walk and singles by Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge. Chisholm then capped the scoring with a solo bomb in the eighth off Steven Okert.

➤ McMahon wasn’t in the original lineup, but he had to enter in the fourth because third baseman Jose Caballaro got ejected for arguing balls and strikes, a foreshadowing of the troubles to come in this series. Caballaro is a nice player to have, and for my money he should be the starting shortstop, but this dude has to calm down. That’s two ejections within a week. Not good.

➤ Weirdly, for all the trouble the Astros have given the Yankees in the postseason, this was New York’s eighth straight regular-season win in Houston.

What they said in Tuesday’s clubhouse

• Chisholm on starting this tough 12-game stretch well: “These are the (teams) we’re probably going to play in the playoffs and this is what we got to do. We got to go out there and dominate, early, often and consistently.”

• Fried: “It was just a really good team win. I was happy to be able to eat some innings and keep some runs off the board. We wanted to come in tonight and start the series off right.”

• Grisham: “I was just talking to myself on deck, knowing it was going to be a big situation. Really getting excited for that, getting really calm and really getting focused. Then just looking for a pitch I could handle.”

Sept. 3: Astros 8, Yankees 7

➤ OK, so right off the top, let’s acknowledge that Walsh, as I explained above, was awful. Embarrassingly awful. That said, for as egregious as this bum was, especially in the eighth inning when he squeezed Devin Williams as if he was trying to choke him out in an MMA fight, the Yankees bullpen can look itself straight in the mirror because it flat out sucked. Umps are gonna miss calls - it happens every night and you have to get past it. The Yankees didn’t and they turned in a horrendous performance.

➤ God, so much happened in this shit show. First, let’s start with this: The Yankees were in control of this game, up 4-1 heading to the bottom of the sixth thanks to a monster home run by Giancarlo Stanton, a two-run blast by Austin Wells, and a sac fly by McMahon after a Ben Rice single and Wells double.

➤ And then it all came apart, starting with Boone yanking Will Warren in the sixth after he gave up a leadoff homer to Jeremy Pena that cut the Yankees lead to 4-2. Boone said Warren was giving up too much hard contact and he was right, but the guy was at 67 pitches and he had a two-run lead. Let him go batter to batter at that point. Instead, because he had his entire bullpen available, Boone decided to ask for 12 outs. To the surprise of no one, they failed.

➤ Fernando Cruz stunk as he gave up a run in that sixth thanks to a double, wild pitch, and RBI groundout. Luke Weaver took the seventh and he allowed a walk and two singles, the last by Alvarez that tied the game. And then came the Williams show. Holy shit, we’ve all known for months that this guy cannot pitch in a high leverage spot and should never be asked to, yet Boone just keeps going to him. The guy will never learn. Right away, Carlos Correa led off with a double, and then yes, the ump really hurt Williams and it led to three walks, the last to No. 9 hitter Taylor Trammell with the bases loaded that put the Astros up 5-4.

➤ Boone finally woke up and came out to get Williams, then he and the pitcher got ejected for arguing with this dipshit Walsh who couldn’t wait to throw them out. “You stink. You fucking stink,” Boone screamed. For once, I agreed with him. It was just such a bad look for this ump who was a combative asshole all night.

➤ Then the next gas can, Camilo Doval, came in and right away he lit the rest of the inning on fire - RBI single followed by a walk that forced in a run and a wild pitch for another that made it 8-4. Three inherited baserunners and all three scored. Doval has been a complete bust, almost as bad as Williams. It was so ridiculous, you couldn’t believe what you were watching. As I said, the ump shared the blame, but this Yankees bullpen was disgraceful.

➤ And that mess of an inning sure haunted the Yankees because in the ninth, McMahon and Judge singled and Bellinger hit a three-run homer. But Walsh made sure there would be no miracle comeback because he rang up Chisholm on a 3-2 pitch that was clearly a ball to end the game, and that left Stanton in the on-deck circle. Just another horrific, gut punch loss for the Yankees who have certainly become proficient at producing those the last few months.

What they said in Wednesday’s clubhouse

• Williams after reviewing the tape: “I already looked at it. He definitely missed four, which is what I told him and he threw me out for it. When you’re making good pitches, which I was, not getting those calls really changes the course of an at-bat. It’s just ridiculous to have the inning that I had and then Jazz got the bat taken out of his hands on a pitch that was a lot further from the zone than pitches I was making.”

• Wells: “(Williams) had the right to be frustrated. I felt like there were definitely some calls that we would have loved to go our way. I think our guys made a lot of really good pitches tonight and didn’t get rewarded for it. That’s frustrating and feels like it’s been two nights in a row for us. The only thing we’re going to do is stick to the plan and keep going, and I think more times than not, we’ll come up on the other side. We go back and watch video, try to get better. I hope those guys (the umpires) are going to do the same.”

Sept. 4: Yankees 8, Astros 4

➤ This team is literally shaving years off my life, maybe yours, too. Not even a five-run lead in the bottom of the ninth felt safe, and that was before Bednar took the mound. Once he was out there and began sucking, allowing four of the seven men he faced to reach base, I was fully expecting yet another colossal, gut-wrenching defeat. After all, the Yankees have already lost 11 games where they led by at least two runs after the sixth inning.

➤ Luckily, after a run scored, Bednar left the bases loaded by striking out Correa and Christian Walker to end it. It can’t ever be easy with this team. A five-run lead and we’re sitting there on the edge of our seats ready to throw the remote through the TV.

➤ Carlos Rodon was great. He overcame a lot of bullshit with the lousy umpiring and shoddy defense behind him including two brutal dropped throws at first base by Rice who is proving to be an awful first baseman. Rodon gave the Yankees six gritty innings allowing one earned run on just three hits and two walks. Even though he needed to get five outs in the sixth which pushed his pitch count to 109, he did it and he left with a 4-2 lead. He now has an AL-high 16 wins which ties his career high set last season, and has won his last five outings during which he’s allowed just seven earned runs in 30.2 innings.

➤ Weaver pitched the seventh and sucked again. He gave up a home run to Jesus Sanchez, then a pair of two-out singles and it looked like we were running back the same game as Wednesday, but Cruz came in and got a huge strikeout of Altuve. Cruz then pitched a strong eighth, and it probably helped him that instead of a one-run lead, he had that five-run cushion. That’s because after a pair of walks to Stanton and Wells, McMahon delivered a clutch two-out RBI single, and Grisham followed with a mammoth three-run homer.

➤ Bednar could not have had an easier landing spot, but he ended up throwing 33 pitches which probably knocks him out of the first game Friday against Toronto. He gave up a single, a double and an Alvarez RBI single, his eighth hit in the last two games. From there he walked Altuve to load the bases before the two big strikeouts.

➤ Outside of Grisham’s big homer, McMahon had his first three-hit game as a Yankee and he drove in three runs, Bellinger had an RBI single, and Caballaro drew a bases-loaded walk when Astros reliever Enyel De los Santos committed a pitch clock violation in a 3-2 count. Crazy night, crazy series in so many ways.

➤ After fooling us into believing maybe he had turned a corner against the awful White Sox when he went 6-for-17, Anthony Volpe went 1-for-11 with five strikeouts including a couple in some really big spots. He’s hitting .208 with a pathetic .271 on-base.

➤ Another downer is that Chisholm suffered what the Yankees are calling contusions to both of his knees and had to come out of the game in the fourth. He said after the game he was fine. The last time he said that, he missed all of May with an injury, so we’ll see.

What they said in Thursday’s clubhouse

• McMahon on the non-catch: “More just pissed off at myself for not making sure to keep holding onto it. I got cute, I wanted to look at second and see if we could double him off. But right there, just got to make sure I squeeze it and hold on tight. I do think I caught it though.”

• Boone on Rodon: “I thought he threw great today. With all those righties, I thought he used his changeup so well, and he had a good fastball to go with it. I thought he was really good even deep into the outing. I thought he was almost getting sharper.”

Now the Blue Jays are at Yankee Stadium for the biggest series of the season, one that might very well determine New York’s chances of catching them and winning the AL East. The Yankees start it three games back so a sweep would create a tie while anything else would leave the Yankees trailing.

And isn’t it lovely that the Blue Jays had Thursday off and were in New York chilling while the Yankees had to play a night game on a getaway day so they probably didn’t get to bed until about 4 Friday morning. You just shake your head sometimes at MLB. This last game in Houston should have been a day game.

Here are some of the Blue Jays top players to watch:

➤ 1B Vladimir Guerrero: One of our favorite players to hate is hitting .293 with a .389 on-base and an .876 OPS with 22 homers and 77 RBI.

➤ SS Bo Bichette: One of our favorite players to hate leads MLB with 576 at bats, 177 hits and 42 doubles, and he leads the Jays with 91 RBI.

➤ DH George Springer: One of our favorite players to hate - are you sensing the trend about how I feel about this loathsome Blue Jays team - is having a resurgent age-35 season with a team-high 27 homers and .956 OPS, with a whole lot of that damage coming against the Yankees.

➤ C Alejandro Kirk: One of our favorite players to hate is hitting .299 with a .796 OPS and has played All-Star level defense.

➤ RP Jeff Hoffmann: Not hating this guy because even though he has 30 saves, his ERA is 4.85 and he’s been awful lately and we can only hope that continues.

The pitching matchups are scheduled to be:

• Friday, 7:05, YES: Cam Schlittler (2.61) vs. Kevin Gausman (3.75) who got roughed up by the Yankees on April 27 but then pitched great in his next two starts against them.

• Saturday, 1:05, YES: Luis Gil (3.68) vs. Max Scherzer (4.11) who has struggled in his last two starts giving up eight earned runs in 10 innings.

• Sunday, 1:35, YES: Max Fried (2.98) vs. Chris Bassitt who beat the Yankees in two starts back in July, striking out 17 men in a combined 12 innings.