Yankees Showed Some Grit in Split With Rays

The Yankees played the Rays tough and they showed some real fight in the final three games after a clunker on Thursday. If nothing else, they proved they can play with these guys even with a lineup that is still depleted. Now, the trick will be to keep playing like this because the schedule sure isn’t easing up over the next few weeks. Hope you’re enjoying Hardball Hyperbole each Wednesday, and please, if you know people who would like the newsletter, just send them this link: https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe

There hasn’t been a whole lot to be happy about with this Yankees team for most of the season. True, I’m a pessimist, but folks, let’s be real here; they’re jockeying with the Red Sox for last place in the AL East and are eight games behind the deplorable Rays in the middle of May. Yes, they’re playing a little better lately, but those are facts.

But this past week-plus, the Yankees deserve some props because they went toe-to-toe with what is undoubtedly the best team in MLB and won three of the seven games including a split of this four-game set at the stadium, with six of the games decided by a single run.

The last three games of this series had almost a playoff-like atmosphere. Of course, it helps playing in Yankee Stadium where, you know, people actually attend the games. There was great drama with some great hitting, pitching and fielding throughout. A fun series, no doubt.

Given how the Yankees were playing before these seven games with the team I hate more than any other, I would have taken a 3-4 record because I just didn’t see a way how they were going to compete with the Rays. Well, they did.

The offense has come around a bit thanks to the return of Aaron Judge and Harrison Bader, the continued hot start for Anthony Rizzo, and a few other guys who have at least begun to contribute here and there. And they did it against arguably the best pitching staff in the sport. In these four games, the Yankees scored 24 runs on 35 hits and 12 walks, and they hit nine home runs, three in each of the last three games.

Signs of progress, to be sure. Ultimately, it was the pitching that let them down because the Rays countered with 29 runs on 45 hits and 15 walks. Nestor Cortes and Clarke Schmidt each had lousy starts, Gerrit Cole wasn’t at his best, and the bullpen clearly had some issues.

And of course, lest we forget manager Aaron Boone’s never-ending problem with feeling the pulse of the game and making pitching moves that blow up in his face. Terrible decisions both Thursday and Sunday played huge roles in losing those two games.

Winning Sunday to take the series would have been great, but splitting against the Rays is nothing to sniff at.

➤ In the last newsletter, I wrote that Boone should consider dropping Anthony Volpe down in the order because he was really scuffling in the leadoff spot. After an 0-for-4 in the opener, which extended his slump to 8-for-53, Volpe was in the No. 7 spot Friday and stayed there the rest of the weekend. Thursday he went 2-for-3 with a solo homer and RBI single; Saturday, he struck out three times but then laid down a beautiful bunt for a single, stole two bases and scored on a wild pitch, a key part of the big comeback; and Sunday, he was 2-for-4 including a two-run homer that cut the Tampa Bay lead to 8-7 in the eighth.

➤ Saturday’s tremendous comeback victory was the Yankees first when trailing 6-0 or worse since April 21, 2012 against the Red Sox.

➤ Why is Albert Abreu on this team? Here’s his season to date: 20 innings pitched, 18 hits, 13 runs (11 earned)m 15 walks and 21 strikeouts. His ERA is 4.95. Plus, dating back to last year, he has allowed 11 of the 16 baserunners he inherited to score, three of those coming Sunday. Enough with this guy.

➤ If all goes well Tuesday with Luis Severino’s rehab start at Double-A Somerset, he could finally be activated and make his debut Sunday in Cincinnati. Of course, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Here are my observations on the four games against the Rays.

May 11: Rays 8, Yankees 2

➤ Once again, another stupid pitching decision went haywire for Boone. It has become increasingly annoying, and this is now twice this month where he ruined a perfectly good Domingo German start. The Rays were only up 1-0 thanks mostly to a Rizzo error, and German was at just 89 pitches with two outs and a man on first in the sixth. There was nothing wrong with him. Why did Boone need to take him out? “I thought Domingo was really good,” Boone said. “But I was just going to Ron there at that point for the bottom (of the lineup).” Again, why? Why was this necessary?

➤ Ron Marinaccio entered and gave up a single, hit a batter, and then served up a three-run double to Josh Lowe that made it 4-0 and essentially ended the game because the Yankees offense - now facing actual major league pitching after three games against the A’s - was helpless.

➤ Rays starter Drew Rasmussen dominated the Yankees lineup. They managed two harmless singles and he struck out seven in seven innings including Aaron Judge three times. The only two runs came with two outs in the ninth off Javy Guerra when Gleyber Torres hit a two-run single. However, after the game, it was announced that Rasmussen has an arm injury and he’s going to be out several months. Hey, sorry for the guy, but not sorry for the Rays. Rasmussen is a beast, so him going to the IL is not a bad thing for the Yankees.

➤ Ryan Weber, the latest reliever on the Scranton shuttle, was awful in his first Yankee appearance of the season. Not that it mattered, but he pitched the last two innings and gave up three runs on five hits.

BOX SCORE

May 12: Yankees 6, Rays 5

➤ Well, this was certainly some finish, huh? I have to give the Yankees credit here for getting up off the deck after what could have been a knockout punch in the eighth inning when Michael King served up a go-ahead three-run homer to Josh Lowe. More on Lowe in a second. In the bottom of the eighth, with the sellout crowd still stewing over the Lowe homer, Judge drew a tough one-out walk so with Rizzo due up, Rays manager Kevin Cash went to the guy he has been closing with, Jason Adam, who had a 1.17 ERA. First pitch, Rizzo drove it into the bleachers in right for a dramatic two-run homer which held up as the game winner. Yeah, count me as stunned on that one.

➤ For most of this game, it just felt like another Yankees loss. Gerrit Cole was not sharp as he needed 95 pitches to get through five innings, and he gave up a pair of solo homers. We all know Cole led MLB in home runs allowed last year (33), and after a great start this year - zero in his first 51 innings - he has now given up four to the Rays in his last two starts. Still, he gutted it out and kept the game close because it could have gotten out of hand early. And with Rizzo and Volpe hitting solo homers, it was tied 2-2 after six. Then all hell broke loose.

➤ Volpe came up with a clutch RBI single in the seventh, as did Oswaldo Cabrera, the fourth single of the inning. However, Cabrera made a terrible base-running blunder when he tried to take second and was gunned down. The Yankees would have had men on first and third, but instead, the inning was over.

➤ OK, a 4-2 lead, King and the best relievers were still in play, let’s lock this down, right? Nope. King, who’s been so good all year, got hammered. Two singles and the Lowe homer, goodbye lead. Man, that felt like a killer. King then gave up another single so Boone went to Clay Holmes, and he gave up a single so it was first and third with one out and it felt like the Rays were about to blow it open. But Holmes retired Wander Franco and Randy Arozarena - the Rays’ two best hitters - to keep it a one-run game and that proved massive when the Yankees answered in a big way in the eighth.

➤ In the ninth, lefty Wandy Peralta was the choice to close and after he whiffed the first two guys, he gave up a single. And now we get back to Josh Lowe. To this point, this lefty swinger had driven in eight runs in the first two games. What does Cash do? He goes to his stupid analytics binder - probably the same one Boone uses - and he decides to pinch hit for the hottest batter in the series so he can send up righty swinging Manuel Margot. I couldn’t believe it, and I was damn happy about it. Even though Margot is a tough out, what the hell? He’s been on the bench all night while Lowe is killing the Yankees and this was the move? Thankfully, Peralta got Margot on a tapper to the mound to end the game. Managers, they drive us crazy, don’t they?

BOX SCORE

May 13: Yankees 9, Rays 8

➤ We have a new leader in the clubhouse for best victory of the season. Wow, this was something. They fell behind 6-0 thanks to a Cortes meltdown, were ahead within two innings thereafter, and then held on despite more uncomfortable drama at the end. Last week, the Yankees went up 6-0 with Cole on the mound and lost, and this time the Rays best pitcher, Shane McClanahan, blew a 6-0 lead and lost. This is why baseball is the best sport.

➤ I’m a little worried about Cortes. Here’s the thing with Nasty Nestor. He’s great, we love him, great dude to root for, but my one fear has always been that once teams start seeing him more, they’re gonna catch on to his mystical powers. And because he’s not a hard thrower like Cole, if he’s not precise, he can get drilled. Two of his last three starts have been terrible, granted against really good hitting teams in the Rangers and Rays. For the season, his ERA is up to 5.53 because he has allowed 21 runs in his last 25 innings. “He’s got to get it right,” pitching coach Matt Blake said. “And I think he knows the expectations for him. The way he’s performed the last couple of years, he’s arguably been the most consistent starter in the majors. So nothing that has happened has changed our belief in that.”

➤ One thing McClanhan struggles with are walks, and that killed him in the fifth. He walked Jake Bauers and Kyle Higashioka hit a two-run homer. Then he walked Torres and Judge cranked a two-run homer and just like that it was 6-4 and his day was done. It was shocking. And almost as shocking was the five runs the Yankees scored in the sixth, all off normally great reliever Ryan Thompson. Volpe was the catalyst. He singled, stole second and third, and then came home on a Thompson wild pitch with two outs to make it 6-5. And from there the walls caved in as Torres walked, Judge hit his second two-run jack, the Yankees re-loaded the bases and with Guerra pitching, Cabrera ripped a two-run single that made it 9-6. Again, as I said, wow.

➤ Like Cortes, Marinaccio has gone through a little rough patch. He was lousy Thursday, and then in the seventh he faced three men, two got on, so Boone pulled him for Holmes - which I’m sure wasn’t the plan. Holmes did Marinaccio no favors as he allowed both men to score and you’re thinking here we go. But Holmes preserved the lead, put up a scoreless eighth, and turned it over to Peralta for the ninth and he needed 27 pitches to save it, finally winning a 10-pitch marathon against Brandon Lowe for the third out.

BOX SCORE

May 14: Rays 8, Yankees 7

➤ What a shame letting this game get away, but that’s what Boone did. How could he possibly think that bringing Abreu in with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth was the smart play? Seriously, how could that have even been in his train of thought? Schmidt was terrible once again and a lot of this loss falls to him. Still, when he got pulled, it was tied at 4-4 and while he left with the bases loaded, whoever comes in has to pick him up in that spot and get the last out. Why wasn’t Marinaccio brought in there? It could not have been a more high leverage situation which would rightly mean you use a high leverage reliever. This was the pivotal moment of the game and Boone somehow failed to recognize that.

➤ Marinaccio wasn’t great in this series, but he was clearly available because he pitched later, and I’d take him 100 times out of 100 instead of Abreu in that spot. But not this manager. And then, to make matters worse, why did Abreu and Jose Trevino decide to throw four straight changeups to Taylor Walls? Abreu throws 98-100, and isn’t the key to the change that you throw the gas, then come back with the offspeed to disrupt timing? Instead, he threw what amounted to four batting practice fastballs and the last one was right down the middle. Not surprisingly, Walls hit it into the bleachers for a grand slam which decided the game. The Yankees cannot win this manager. They’ll win plenty of regular season games, but they’re never going anywhere in the postseason with Boone.

➤ Another bad day for Schmidt because he just can’t get guys out. The Rays had six hits and three walks and seven of them scored in 4.2 innings. His ERA is now 6.30 and his WHIP (walks, hits per inning) is a grotesque 1.650. By the way, do you know who else has that exact WHIP? Abreu, 1.650.

➤ I don’t normally bitch about umpires, but the guy behind the plate really hurt the Yankees. He missed a strike three in the third inning that ultimately cost the Yankees a run given how the rest of the inning played out. And in that disastrous fifth, Schmidt’s last pitch should have been a called strike three, end of the inning. Instead, it was deemed ball four, and that’s when Abreu came in and served up the grand slam. Five runs that should have never scored thanks to two missed calls. Again, it works both ways with umps, but this ump was quite impactful.

➤ And what a way for the game to end. Judge put a charge into that shot to left-center which would have been a home run in 19 of the 30 MLB parks. The pitcher, Adam, couldn’t believe it didn’t go out. What a gut punch to see that ultimate hot dog, Jose Siri, catch that at the warning track.

BOX SCORE

 ➤ May 14, 1996: For whatever reason, despite all the ultra-talented Dwight Gooden’s problems, George Steinbrenner had a soft spot for the pitcher who looked like an automatic Hall of Famer during his first few years in the middle 80’s with the Mets.

Steinbrenner was always a sucker for a reclamation project – especially one with a big name who would engender big tabloid headlines – so he threw Gooden a lifeline in the spring of 1996 and offered him the chance to make the Yankees roster. Not only that, he predicted he’d have a great season for Joe Torre’s first Yankee team. “I’d say 15 to 20 victories,” Steinbrenner. “Fifteen easily on Doc Gooden. I love this kid.”

That was a bit aggressive, but Gooden ended up earning 11 victories, and one of those came on as magical a night at Yankee Stadium as there had been in many years as Gooden delivered an out-of-nowhere, rub-your-eyes no-hitter against the Seattle Mariners.

Gooden had been struggling and he was on the brink of being banished to the bullpen when the news broke that David Cone would undergo surgery to remove an aneurysm in his shoulder, so Gooden’s place in the rotation was spared. He won his first game on May 8, the same day Cone went on the disabled list, striking out eight Tigers in eight innings of a 10-3 victory. And then came the no-hitter.

With his 68-year-old father, Dan Gooden, in a Tampa hospital awaiting open-heart surgery the next day, Gooden threw 134 pitches in New York’s 2-0 victory. Not all of them were pinpoint as he walked six batters, but none of them were hit safely by a Seattle lineup that included Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriquez, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner and Paul Sorrento, a lineup that was leading the majors in home runs starting the night.

Of course, Steinbrenner being Steinbrenner, in the moments following the celebration of the achievement, the Boss phoned Gooden in the clubhouse to offer his congratulations, then said, “Nice job, kid. Now keep it up.”

Things sure don’t get easier for the 23-19 Yankees this week as they head to Toronto for a four-game series with the Jays, another team that boils my blood. And this apparently is the wrong time to be playing this band of showboaters north of the border since they just swept the Braves, the best team in the National League.

Friday, Chris Bassit threw a complete game two-hit shutout against an Atlanta offense that is every bit as dynamic as the Rays. Saturday the Jays won 5-2 and then Sunday, the Braves had a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the ninth and their closer , Raisel Iglesias, blew it and the Jays walked it off on Danny Jansen’s two-run single. Great.

The Jays are 24-16, six behind the Rays, and their offense really hasn’t even taken off yet. The usual suspects - Bo Bichette, Vlad Guerrero and Matt Chapman - are raking, but George Springer is still struggling to get going, Daulton Varsho hasn’t done much yet, and Jansen and Santiago Espinal are hitting .182 and .175 respectively.

They’ve pitched pretty well, though. Bassit gave up nine eared runs in his first start of the year and over his last seven his ERA is 1.97. Kevin Gausman remains one of the toughest pitchers in MLB, and even Yusei Kikuchi has pitched well. The one surprise is that Alek Manoah hasn’t been great, but he has a thing for the Yankees, so he’s always up for dominating them.

The pitching matchups aren’t all set yet: Monday, 7:07 on YES, Manoah (4.83 ERA) is going for the Jays. Tuesday, 7:07 on YES, it’s German (4.00) vs. Gausman (3.38). Wednesday is a 7:07 game on Amazon Prime, Cole (2.22) is pitching for the Yankees. And Thursday, 7:07 on YES, Cortes (5.53) goes for the Yankees.