Yankees Salvage an Uninspiring Four-Game Split With The Rays

I’m not going to leap for joy over the fact that the Yankees managed to salvage a split of their four-game wraparound series with the Rays on Monday. It provided a nice bookend to the win Friday, but those two losses in the middle were about as miserable as could be. In the end, they won two and lost two against a mediocre opponent that never fails to give them problems, and does so in the most irritating, annoying way. At 60-42, the Yankees still have so many issues to solve, but they are somehow still within 1.5 games of the Orioles. Lets get to it.

What happened Monday afternoon in the finale of this wraparound series with the Rays is exactly what the Yankees are going to need to start doing much more often if they want to entertain thoughts of making noise down the stretch and into the postseason, assuming they get there.

The offense finally proved their delusional manager, Aaron Boone, correct, at least for one day because they actually did have very good at bats up and down the lineup, the result of which was nine runs on 15 hits and three walks in a 9-1 romp that gave them an uninspiring split.

They still stunk with runners in scoring position - they went 2-for-10 in this game and were an abysmal 6-for-38 in the series - but the difference Monday was five home runs because as much as we bemoan the lack of situational hitting and their maddening inability to manufacture runs, the reality is that hitting home runs is still the best way to score runs and win games. It just is.

Every bit as important, though, as the offensive breakthrough was the outing they got from Carlos Rodon. I talked to my father Monday morning and reminded him that the Yankees were playing in the afternoon. I also told him the game started at 1:05 so turn it on around 1:30 so he didn’t have to sit through Rodon’s first inning of giving up his usual four runs.

I followed my own advice, so imagine my surprise when I tuned in to see that Rodon needed only 15 pitches to go 1-2-3 in the first, then built on that and went on to put forth his best start since June 10, a shocking seven dominant innings allowing just one run on two hits, two walks and a season-high 10 strikeouts. I couldn’t believe what I was watching.

The Yankees obviously need their lineup to get past their awful and ongoing five-week funk during which they’ve gone 10-20, and you’ll have to excuse my pessimism regarding whether Monday was the start of that finally happening. I’m going to need a whole lot more than one nice game, especially during a week that includes two games against the Mets and then three huge games this weekend in Boston.

But they also need Rodon to pitch like this because the Yankees cannot win a playoff series if the only starters giving them a chance to compete are Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil, which has been the case lately.

“Not much we could do. He threw a heck of a ballgame,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “That's as good as we’ve seen him throw against us. When he’s right, we know how talented he is. And unfortunately, we saw it today.”

Rodon spent more than a month being one of the worst pitchers in all of MLB. The Yankees lost each of his last six starts during which he had a 9.67 ERA and allowed a .336 average against and a 1.066 OPS against, so let’s hope this is a step in the right direction. Again, I have my doubts as I’m sure many of you do, too, but we’ll see. He’ll be facing the Red Sox potent offense this weekend.

“It looked like it was profiling well, but he was getting it to spots he wanted to,” Boone said of Rodón’s fastball. “So really, it came down to just him having really good command. That allowed him to go through seven innings like he did with a good mix of pitches. To pitch as well as he did, that’s a big deal. Hopefully it’s something that gets him rolling again. As he’s gone through it here these last several weeks, there’s been a lot of what we saw today, just in and around some struggles.”

July 19: Yankees 6, Rays 1

The Lead: The Stars Were Out

Once in a while, having three of the best players in all of MLB really means something. Not always but that was certainly the case in the opener of the series Friday night.

Cole delivered a solid six innings against a division rival for the second start in a row, Juan Soto began quite a series for him individually by going 4-for-4 and scoring three runs, and Aaron Judge went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI.

This was a good start to the homestretch for the Yankees, and Boone acknowledged that. “We’re not totally at the sprint point of the season, but almost 100 games into this thing now,” Boone said. “We’ve gone through a tough stretch that we certainly acknowledge and know we need to play better. I feel like on that trip (3-3 against the Orioles and Rays before the All-Star break), it started, and hopefully we’ll turn the corner and get back rolling.”

Game notes and observations:

➤ Cole was terrific as he held the Rays to one run on six hits and a walk with seven strikeouts. The only damage came via a solo homer by Brandon Lowe in the sixth. “I had a little bit of everything working,” Cole said. “Once we got a lead, we started attacking the zone. It was pretty good. There were a few deep counts after the third; I’d like to get those outs a little bit more efficiently, but for the most part it was pretty good.”

➤ Speaking of pretty good, there was Soto. “Man, he’s worth the price of admission, to say the least,” said Cole. “What a magnificent hitter.” Soto singled in the first; singled in the third and scored; produced a Little League home run in the fourth when he doubled off the wall and scored thanks to two Rays errors; doubled with two outs and scored again in the sixth; and walked in the eighth.

➤ And yet despite the exploits of Cole and Soto, the biggest moment of the night came from Anthony Volpe which was, yes, quite shocking. The Yankees loaded the bases with no outs in the third against Zach Eflin, but only one run was home thanks to an Alex Verdugo groundout and a Gleyber Torres lineout. But Austin Wells kept the inning alive drawing one of his three walks in the game to reload the bases, and Volpe, on a 1-2 pitch, roped a double into the left field corner to clear the bases and make it 4-0. Three RBI on one swing after he’d managed just eight in his previous 39 games since June 1.

➤ The Yankees caught a break because Yandy Diaz, who tortures them on a regular basis, missed the game due to a personal matter. His absence continued for the entire series.

➤ The Yankees caught another break with Eflin pitching poorly. He had only nine walks all season before tying his career-high with four, three of those coming in the third and all three men scored.

July 20: Rays 9, Yankees 1

The Lead: Glad I Missed This Shit Show

Gotta love how the Yankees built on that Friday night victory, huh? Nestor Cortes, who had been so good at home this season, certainly wasn’t in this game, one that was awful on every level. Of course Cortes could have been great and it wouldn’t have mattered given how putrid the offense was.

Ben Rice led off the first with a double and moved to third on a Soto groundout. Judge and Wells then struck out, and the trend was set as the Yankees did not get another hit until the eighth inning. In his seven shutout innings, Rays starter Taj Bradley faced 23 men and he allowed one hit, two walks, and got 13 harmless ground outs. The Yankees were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. They could not have been more feeble. Well, at least until Saturday.

And still, after that performance, here’s what the manager said: “We got to make it happen right now with what we have and try and piece it together. The reality is, there are some good things happening with guys.”

Yeah, Judge and Soto. No one else. Literally no one else.

Game notes and observations:

➤ Cortes escaped a jam in the first, had an easy second, and then his day went in the toilet from there. The first two men reached in the third but he got what seemed like a big double play. However, bench player Curtis Mead doubled in a run. Then in the fourth, sheer absurdity as Cortes walked .154 hitter Taylor Walls and then gave up a three-run homer to .091 hitter Alex Jackson. At least the two guys who took him deep in the fifth, Randy Arozarena and Isaac Paredes, actually belong in the major leagues. The six earned runs allowed were a season-high for Cortes.

➤ Arozarena, who also sucks this season with a .212 average by the close of the day, homered later off Josh Maciejewski because the Yankees are pretty much the only team he has hit well against this season. He has 15 homers and five have come against New York.

➤ DJ LeMahieu had another useless day - 0-for-3 so he was down to .177 and finally on Sunday, Boone benched him. I was hoping that would be for an extended period, but he was back out there Monday, and more on that down below.

➤ The Yankees’ lone run came right when it mattered most - down 9-0 in the ninth as Soto tripled and scored on a grounder by the great Jahmai Jones.

July 21: Rays 6, Yankees 4

The Lead: I Wish I Missed This Shit Show

Yep, I spent a nice lazy Sunday on the deck overhauling my Spotify account and creating a bunch of updated playlists while watching the Yankees puke all over themselves. Again. What a disgrace from start to finish.

Richie Palacios hit a leadoff homer off Marcus Stroman to set the tone and the Rays hit three more on the day. And thus for the second day in a row the annoying, Rays - a team I hate more than any other in MLB - hit four homers. Believe it or not, they had hit four homers in a game just once in their first 97. You can’t make this shit up, folks. There’s no team they enjoy tormenting more than the Yankees.

Meanwhile, the Yankees offense was once again impotent, yet here’s what the nitwit manager said.

“Today was actually a ton of really good at bats offensively.” I mean, what? Good at bats? Judge and Soto were 5-for-9 with all four RBI. The rest of these stiffs were 4-for-25. As a team, they were 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position meaning at this point they were 4-for-28 in the first three games. Seriously, I think Boone has lost his mind.

“We’ve got to find a way,” Boone continued. “This game is hard for us right now. We know we’re better than this.”

I’m glad they know this because I can’t imagine anyone else does.

Game notes and observations:

➤ Stroman was OK, but he made killer mistakes. He got ahead of Palacios 1-2 and couldn’t put him away, serving up the homer on the seventh pitch. In the fourth he was ahead of Arozarena 1-2 and threw a nothing slider dead center and it got crushed to make it 2-0. The next batter, Josh Lowe, reached on yet another error by Torres. He then stole second and Stroman killed himself again with an 0-2 slider that Jose Caballero ripped for an RBI single. That just can’t happen, and yes, the third run should not have happened thanks to Torres, but those were all terrible pitches by Stroman.

➤ Shane Baz started for the Rays. He sucked, plain and simple, but it didn’t matter because he was facing the Yankees. He gave up four hits and five walks and retired only 10 batters, yet his ERA went down because the Yankees never scored. How many times in one newsletter can I say you can’t make this shit up, folks?

➤ First inning, Soto and Judge singled and Wells walked to load the bases. To the surprise of no one, Torres flied out on the first pitch and it wasn’t deep enough to score Soto. And then Verdugo - who has the lowest batting average and OPS in MLB since mid-June - lined out. Second inning, Volpe and Oswaldo Cabrera singled, they pulled off a double steal and Rice walked to load the bases with one out. And then Soto, ahead 3-0 in the count, grounded into a 3-6-1 double play. All together now: You can’t make this shit up, folks.

➤ Judge led off the third with a walk and never moved. Volpe and Grisham walked to start the fourth, but Cabrera had an ugly strikeout, and then after another successful double steal, Rice whiffed and Soto flied out. Eight men left on base in four innings.

➤ In the seventh, more brutal pitching. Jake Cousins replaced Tim Hill with two outs and no one on base, then promptly walked Ben Rortvedt and served up a two-run homer to Jose Siri, a .205 bum who then took about eight minutes to circle the bases. Have I told you how much I hate this team? All of these Rays do this shit when they pimp home runs, but Siri’s act has worn particularly thin and he has climbed into the inner circle of players I despise the most.

➤ That home run proved pretty big when the Yankees briefly came out of their coma in the bottom of the seventh as Judge crushed a three-run homer. Rather than a tie game, the Rays still led 5-3.

➤ Luke Weaver has been great all year, but even he gave up a home run in the ninth to Caballero, and that was big because in the bottom half, Rice walked and scored on Soto’s double, so the Yankees would have been just a single away from tying the game if not for the homer. Instead, they were still down 6-4 and stayed that way when Judge and Wells failed to come through, Wells staring at a center-cut slider to end the game with his bat on his shoulder.

July 22: Yankees 9, Rays 1

The Lead: Juan Soto Makes a Statement

It was probably a throwaway line, but I thought Soto said something very interesting after the game, yet another masterpiece for him, but a game where he actually had help for once.

“We need all those guys,” he said of his teammates not named Judge. “It’s going to take more than two guys to get to the World Series and win it.”

Soto became the first Yankee with at least 11 hits and seven for extra bases in a series since Joe DiMaggio in 1938. He went 11-for-18 with four doubles, a triple, two homers and five RBI and Judge, while not as prolific, went 6-for-15 with a homer and four RBI. In the first three games the rest of the Yankees were a combined 11-for-73 with one RBI before they went 10-for-27 with three homers and five RBI in this game.

Soto had been going through a little bit of a tough stretch average wise (his on-base remains great because he walks so much). In the 25 games since the Yankees beat the Red Sox on June 14 to the All-Star break, he hit .227 with six homers and 12 RBI.

So this was a big series for him and what I liked most about it was that he was up there to do damage rather than take walks. He walked just once in the four games and I’ve been wishing for that from him. Stop showing off your great eye and swing because when he swings, usually very good things happen, and this team needs all of the Soto swings it can get.

Game notes and observations:

➤ Rodon completed seven innings for just the third time in 34 career starts for the Yankees. The key was that he finally had command of the fastball, and that allowed him to use his slider as his out pitch as nine of his whiffs came on his breaking ball. “We’ve been down a lot in the last few weeks,” Rodón said. “We haven’t been playing that great, but today is a good day. We played well, and we’ve just got to work off that into tomorrow.”

➤ It helped that he was able to pitch with the lead, too. So often in his slump he got behind immediately and that put more pressure on a lineup that doesn’t need more pressure. In this one, he was solid for the first two innings and in the second inning, Wells and Volpe hit back-to-back homers for a 2-0 lead.

➤ I thought the big at bat came in the fourth and it was an unusual source: Cabrera. Judge and Wells singled, but then Volpe whiffed and Verdugo did what Verdugo does - he grounded out. However, that did move the runners up and Cabrera came through with a two-out single that went off the glove of second baseman Brandon Lowe who I thought should have made the play. That made it 4-0.

➤ After yet another home run by Siri in the fifth, and a 30-second trip around the bases complete with all his hot dog bullshit, the most stunning thing happened in the bottom half. LeMahieu homered to left. Volpe’s homer was his first since May 16, and capped a nice series as he went 6-for-14 with four RBI. LeMahieu’s homer was his first of the season. At that moment, up 5-1 thanks to the most unexpected homer, you knew the Yankees were in good shape. They piled on late as Soto crushed two homers which drove in the final four runs.

➤ It was also nice to see Wells do something as he had three hits. He caught three of the four games and that’s going to be the case for a while with Jose Trevino out, and if Boone is going to keep him in the cleanup spot, he needs to produce.

➤ The five home runs tied a season high and the 15 hits were their third-highest total.

➤ The only player who didn’t get a hit was Rice. Since his three-homer game July 6 against the Red Sox, Rice is now 4-for-44 with a .217 on base and 21 strikeouts. I’m starting to think he ain’t it, especially in the leadoff spot. He’s been a nice story and he’s had a few big moments, but right now he’s overmatched.

➤ As for Verdugo, he seems like a lost cause. Since his feel good game against the Red Sox in his return to Fenway on June 14, he has been the worst hitter in MLB. He’s batting .148 with an OPS of .418, both numbers the worst in MLB among 170 qualified hitters. It’s almost impossible to be that bad for so long as a regular player.

The second half of the Subway Series commences Tuesday and Wednesday, this time in the Bronx, and the Yankees will be looking to even the score after they got their asses handed to them last month in Queens.

The Mets changed their season with a 16-8 June including a two-game sweep of the Yankees, and while they only managed a four-game split in Miami in a series that also ended Monday, they’ve won nine of their last 13 and currently sit in the final wild-card spot in the NL. Not bad for a team that was 11 games under .500 on June 2 and given up for dead.

Francisco Lindor has been one of the keys to the turnaround. After a brutal first two and half months, his last 31 games have looked like this: .315/.411/.589, an OPS of 1.000, eight homers and 22 RBI. He now has 19 homers, tying him with Pete Alonso for the team lead. Brandon Nimmo has also been on a roll and he now has a team-high 63 RBI with 16 homers, while Mark Vientos leads the Mets’ regulars with a .292 average and an .887 OPS.

The pitching matchups look like this: Tuesday at 7:05 on YES it’s Luis Gil (3.17 ERA) against Jose Quintana (4.13); Wednesday at 7:05 on ESPN it’s Gerrit Cole (4.60) against Sean Manaea (3.46) who cruised against the Yankees in one of the games at Citi Field.