Yankees Sink to a New Low in Ridiculous Series Loss to Marlins

The Yankees lost two of three to the Marlins. If only it were that simple. Buckle up folks, because this is going to be a venomous 3,000 or so words. For you new subscribers, welcome, but if you’re feint of heart, this is a tough Pinstripe People for you to debut with.

This is hard today, because I had to write this newsletter Sunday afternoon with smoke coming out of my ears and with hate in my heart. I have reached a boiling point now where I actually hate the 2023 iteration of the New York Yankees.

I have followed this team most of my life as I’m sure many of you have, and I can’t recall ever being more disgusted than I am right now. Sunday’s simply horrific loss to the god damn average as can be Miami Marlins broke me. Yes, I’ll admit to a little recency bias, but hey, I’m just shooting you straight here. Sunday was soul crushing.

In a season with so many sickening losses that I’ve lost track, I guess we should all be used to this. After all, every week they find a lower low to reach, but Sunday was different. Sunday’s loss was so egregious, so deplorable, so utterly mind-numbing that it feels like the season is officially hopeless.

We’ve probably all been clinging to the silly hope that the Yankees were going to wake up one day soon and get their shit figured out and get back into wild-card position, but it’s time to let go. They’ve five games back with 44 games to go; this team is six feet under and all that’s left now is to make the sign of the cross and start throwing dirt on the casket.

Look, have there been worst seasons? Of course. But I was in elementary and middle school in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the Yankees were going through one of the worst epochs in their illustrious history and honestly, I wasn’t really giving a shit. My own Little League and Babe Ruth batting average was more important to me.

In the early 1990s I was obviously paying much closer attention, but everyone knew those teams were going to be terrible and it wasn’t even worth getting worked up about. All you could do then was hope they could turn the corner by developing young stars from their farm system, and I’ll be damned, here came Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter to join forces with some smart free agent signings like Paul O’Neill, Wade Boggs, Jimmy Key, David Cone, and Tino Martinez and look what happened. The next dynasty.

And over the past 2 ½ decades - with the exception of a few down years when they missed the postseason in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2016 - the Yankees have been perennial playoff participants and, in most seasons, World Series contenders. It’s been a lot of fun to be a fan of a franchise like that. We’ve been spoiled, but the fun is over. The Yankees are in undeniable decline and there’s no stopping it, not in the near future.

When my guy, actor Nick Turturro, as passionate as any Yankees fan in the world, let rip on Twitter Sunday, I responded to his tweet:

This is a broken organization from the top down. From the entitled billionaire son of George Steinbrenner asking fans six weeks ago why they were so upset with his team, a team that has now gone 20-25 since that tone deaf comment; to the general manager and his scouting and analytics departments which have failed so miserably in the last several years to find high-quality prospects in the draft and, even more importantly, in the Latin American countries, and then develop them into contributing core players with the exception of a few bullpen arms; to the idiot manager who had himself another stellar day on Sunday; to the players themselves who are either old, broken, not very good, or all of the above.

It’s a mess, and as I said in my tweet above, unless Hal Steinbrenner is willing to eat tens of millions of dollars in bloated contracts and move some of these now useless players off the roster - like he finally did with Aaron Hicks - and start anew with fresh eyes and mindsets for the needed rebuild, nothing is going to change in the Bronx.

They’re going to keep thinking that Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu, Anthony Rizzo, and Kyle Higashioka are suddenly going to improve despite all entering their mid-30s. They’re going to keep thinking retread players like Billy McKinney, Jake Bauers, Oswaldo Cabrera, Harrison Bader, and whoever else you want to add to the list are going to be the new core of the team. And they’re going to keep wasting hundreds of millions on free agents who are already past their prime, like Carlos Rodon and, as we’re going to find out in a few short years - and don’t shoot the messenger here - an aging Aaron Judge.

And while all that is going on, at least a dozen teams in MLB will remain ahead of the Yankees, many of them with fresh, energetic, exciting players leading the way. We’ll see one of those teams this week when the Yankees go to Atlanta where I fully expect them to get crushed three times.

I had to laugh when I saw this quote from Isiah Kiner-Falefa the other day. IKF is actually a player I think the Yankees should re-sign because he has been a solid utility player for them all year, the kind of guy every team needs. If you think I’m nuts, who do you think has the best batting average on the team with runners in scoring position? It ain’t Judge, it ain’t LeMahieu, it ain’t Gleyber Torres, and God knows it ain’t Stanton. It’s IKF at .321.

But he’s a free agent after the season and when he was asked what his future holds, he said, “I’m happy wherever as long as I get an opportunity to play and just be on a winning team. I think that’s the biggest thing, going through a (season with a Rangers) team that lost 100 games in 2021. I don’t really want to be a part of that. I want to be on a winning team.”

If that’s the case, he’s gone because this Yankee team, while it won’t lose 100 games next year - at least I don’t think it will - isn’t going to be a winning team unless a massive overhaul takes place.

Here are my observations on the three games against the Marlins.

Aug. 11: Yankees 9, Marlins 4

➤ I have to admit I was a bit confused watching this game because the team in the road grays had seven runs on 10 hits in the first four innings? What the hell team was that because it sure couldn’t have been the Yankees, right? Hey, they had a rare good night with the bats against a pretty good pitcher in Jesus Lazardo. They had 14 hits - three by Higashioka including a two-run single in the ninth - and they went 7-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

➤ Judge made a good point after the game when he said Anthony Volpe’s three-run homer in the second sort of relaxed everyone because for once they had a lead and it allowed the rest of the lineup to not press as much and just grind their at bats and the results were excellent. Judge hit a massive 464-foot solo homer in the third, and then in the fourth, I was rubbing my eyes to make sure I was seeing correctly as the Yankees strung together five singles to score three more runs which put it pretty much out of reach. Well, at least Friday it was out of reach.

➤ Ian Hamilton was used as the opener again, and this time Boone left him in for the second inning and though I agreed with that decision, it did backfire as Hamilton gave up two runs which cut the lead to 3-2. But that’s OK because with Randy Vasquez coming in, the fewer outs he needed to get, the better. He actually did fine, 3.2 innings allowing two runs on three hits and a walk.

➤ The only key moment in the game came in the sixth. The lead was 7-3 and Vasquez gave up a homer to Josh Bell and then a double to Bryan De La Cruz. Jonathan Loaisiga came in with two outs and got Jake Burger - who had already doubled twice - to ground out. Loaisiga, Tommy Kahnle and Clay Holmes combined to retire the last 10 Marlins in order to close it out.

➤ Of course, the night wasn’t perfect as Torres and Volpe each made ridiculous outs on the bases, the kind of stuff that is inexcusable and just can’t happen. Thankfully neither play mattered, but in a close game, they certainly could have. I don’t know why the Yankees continue to make so many terrible baserunning decisions, but it’s all part of why this season has been so maddening.

BOX SCORE

Aug. 12: Marlins 3, Yankees 1

➤ Sandy Alcantara was an absolute beast in 2022 and was an easy choice for the NL Cy Young award. But for some reason, 2023 had been a struggle, particularly in the first half. As late as June 21 his ERA was an eye-popping 5.08, nearly double his 2.28 last year. No one could really figure out what the problem was. Well, he has begun to turn things around, and facing the Yankees surely helped in that endeavor.

➤ What a mismatch. The greatest surprise of the day was that the Yankees scored a run off him, though it took the incompetence of umpire Angel Hernandez to get that done. McKinney saw seven pitches in his at bat, five of them were clear-cut strikes, yet he walked because Hernandez missed two. Then Hernandez called a questionable balk on Alcantara which moved McKinney to second, from where he scored when IKF was able to punch a single to right. That was it. Alcantara pitched a complete game five-hitter (all singles) with two walks and 10 strikeouts. The Yankees had no chance.

➤ Another day, another opener for the Yankees. This time it was Michael King and he had a brutal first inning which essentially decided the game. Jazz Chisholm singled and after Bell struck out, Luis Arraez - MLB’s leading hitter but a man who has almost zero power - crushed a 409-foot homer to right. I’m sorry, but that just can’t happen. Yes, Arraez will kill you like a thousand cuts, but he can’t be served up a pitch so meaty that he hits it like that. King gave up two more hits before he escaped without further damage.

➤ Jhony Brito was the bulk guy starting in the third and he was superb, five innings, three hits and just one run which came in the fourth when he hit Burger with a pitch, Jesus Sanchez singled and Joey Wendle singled for the run. It’s too bad his effort went to waste. Of course, Gerrit Cole was saying the next day, “Hold my beer.”

➤ With the Yankees rotation in tatters now that Cortes and Domingo German are done for the season and Rodon is back on the IL, they have to get creative and part of the plan is to stretch out King and have him either be a two- to three-inning opener, or even the bulk guy following a different opener.

BOX SCORE

Aug. 13: Marlins 8, Yankees 7

➤ I was on my deck, watching the game on my iPad, a perfectly serene Sunday afternoon in the little burb of Walworth, New York. And then the bottom of the ninth happened, and I’m pretty sure my profanity-laced tirade could be heard two neighborhoods away. My wife was so pissed at me, but she couldn’t even come close to being as mad at me as I was at the Yankees when this disastrous debacle ended.

➤ I tweeted “Unbelievable” but someone on Twitter corrected me and said, “Is it though?” And they were right. It’s no longer unbelievable when the Yankees lose like they did. It’s becoming almost expected these days. They have now been walked off 19 times since the start of 2022, by far the most in MLB. Think about this and tell me I’m wrong: The crosstown Mets lost a game 21-3 to the Braves on Saturday, and somehow, that wasn’t the worst loss by a New York baseball team this weekend.

➤ Cole wasn’t great, but he was good enough to hold the Marlins to two runs in his six innings and when he was done the Yankees were ahead 7-2. What should have been an easy win turned into the seventh loss this season where Cole has pitched at least six innings and allowed two runs or fewer. Can you even fathom that? And what made this even more galling is that in most of those other games, the Yankees lost because they couldn’t score more than two runs. In this game, they put up seven runs and still found a way to blow it.

➤ I can’t even get all that pissed at Holmes, though. He had an awful day, probably one of the worst of his career, but he’s been awesome almost all year. In his previous 35 appearances he’d given up only three runs, so how do we even explain the Marlins scoring five runs off him in one-third of an inning? And to add insult to injury, the inning began with Holmes facing the bottom of the order including two guys who weren’t even in Miami’s starting lineup.

➤ More insult to injury, Yuli Gurriel, who tortured the Yankees for years when he was with the Astros, started all the trouble with a leadoff double. Like we can actually hate that guy any more than we already do? Then Holmes struck out Jon Berti and you’re thinking, ‘OK, he’s back.’ But then a catcher batting .219, Nick Fortes, singled, and Chisholm walked to load the bases and that’s when I started thinking this was big trouble because the next four guys had hurt the Yankees all weekend.

➤ Bell was next and what happened sort of summarizes the entire Yankees season. He had one right back to Holmes who, had he fielded it cleanly, probably could have started a game-ending double play. Well, he didn’t field it cleanly. Even worse, when he finally corralled the ball, he threw wide to first and hit Bell. The ball caromed into foul territory and two runs scored to make it 7-5. Right there, the Yankees should have just walked off the field and saved us the rest of the aggravation because you knew this thing was over. But hey, that’s not allowed, so Holmes served one up on a silver platter for Arraez - a guy who wakes up in the morning hitting line drives - and he laced a two-run triple to tie it. Boone brought in Kahnle out of desperation and he promptly walked De La Cruz, and after he stole second, first base was now open. Here, Boone could have easily walked the red-hot Burger to set up a DP. Not Boone. So Kahnle threw another lousy changeup which is getting to be his thing lately, and Burger ripped it to left for the winning run. Kahnle has now entered four games this season with men on base, and seven of the eight inherited runners have scored. So his 2.05 ERA looks great, but that doesn’t include the seven runs he allowed to score.

➤ Lastly, to put a bow on this nightmare: Since the start of July, the Yankees have played 12 series. They have won exactly one, a sweep of the Royals who are one of the worst teams in MLB. They have split three and lost the other eight. That’s right, the Yankees are 1-8-3 in their last 12 series.

BOX SCORE

 ➤ Aug. 13, 2016: If ever there was a proverbial turn the page moment, this was it for the Yankees. One day after Alex Rodriguez played his last game and officially retired, the Yankees trotted out a lineup against the Rays at Yankee Stadium that included three players who would go on to become known as part of the Baby Bombers, the group we all thought would ignite the next Yankees dynasty.

Catcher Gary Sanchez had already been playing a couple weeks and soon would go on a tear where he would hit 20 home runs in the span of 47 games to close the season. And now, up from Triple-A came outfielder Aaron Judge and first baseman Tyler Austin as the next two pieces in a lineup that GM Brian Cashman was transforming after his decision to trade Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller a couple weeks earlier at the trade deadline.

By this point it was almost a certainty that the Yankees were going to miss the 2016 playoffs, but there was excitement in the air because the future seemed so bright, especially when Judge and Austin wowed the big Saturday afternoon crowd y becoming the first teammates in MLB history to hit back-to-back home runs in each of their first MLB at bats.

In the second inning against Tampa Bay’s Matt Andriese, Austin ripped one over the right-center wall, and four pitches later Judge crushed one to dead center to start the Yankees on their way to an 8-4 victory.

“I’m losing my mind on deck high-fiving, and then everyone’s looking at me like, ‘Hey man, you’ve got to go out there and hit,’” Judge told Bryan Hoch in his new book “62” which chronicles his record-breaking 2022 season. “Then getting a chance to hit another back-to-back home run with my friend Tyler Austin, it was a pretty special moment that I’ll never forget.”

And all of this happened in front of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams who were at Yankee Stadium for a 20th anniversary celebration of the 1996 World Series championship team. “You can’t draw it up any better when you call up two young players,” said manager Joe Girardi, who was also part of the 1996 team.

As we know, Sanchez and Austin eventually flamed out, but Judge turned out to be pretty good, right.

Here’s video of the two homers:

So, this should be fun as now the Yankees have to go to Atlanta to play three against the best team in MLB, and obviously they won’t have Cole to pitch in any of the games against MLB’s best offensive team. The Braves just took three of four from the Mets, outscoring them 40-10.

The Braves are a destructive force as they lead MLB in runs (684), OPS (.846), home runs (227), average (.274), on-base percentage (.344) and slugging (.502). That’s right, every major offensive category. They have first baseman Matt Olson who leads MLB in both homers (43) and RBI (107); outfielder Ronald Acuna leads MLB with a .421 OBP and has 26 homers, 71 RBI and 55 stolen bases; second baseman Ozzie Albies has 28 homers and 90 RBI; and third baseman Austin Riley has 28 homers and 75 RBI. In all, seven of their regular players have an OPS above .800. It’s frightening to think what they might do in this series.

The pitching matchups are: Monday at 7:20 p.m. on YES, Clarke Schmidt (4.23 ERA) against Max Fried (2.50); Tuesday at 7:20 on YES, it’s Luis Severino (8.06) against Bryce Elder (3.64); and Wednesday at 7:20 on Amazon Prime, it’s Randy Vasquez (1.89) vs. Charlie Morton (3.71).