Yankees Struggled at Times, But They Win Series Over Rotten Rockies

It was way harder than it should have been, and it was not a sweep like it should have been, but the Yankees did win another series - that’s four out of their last five - as they subdued the awful Rockies thanks mainly to the incredible Aaron Judge. And with Baltimore splitting a tough series against Houston, the Yankees finished the week with a 1.5-game lead in the AL East. Lets get to it.

Sunday afternoon, with the Yankees in a life and death struggle to win a series against the worst team in the National League, I was sitting with my father at my sister’s house thinking about the possibility of having to write about how the Yankees lost two of three games to the Rockies.

My first paragraph would have started something like this: How in the hell did that just happen? It was incredible to think that, but it felt like it was heading that way Sunday.

Across the first two games against a team with a 5.53 ERA, by far the worst in MLB, the Yankees produced a grand total of five runs on 10 hits as they squeaked out a 3-0 win Friday thanks to Carlos Rodon pitching so well, and then got embarrassed 9-2 on Saturday which conjured memories of their 12-2 shellacking at the hands of the egregiously horrible White Sox a couple weeks ago.

And then Sunday, they were in a life and death struggle, clinging to a 4-3 lead after they had failed to score with one out and the bases loaded in the fifth, when they finally woke up and realized, this is the Rockies, and why aren’t we bludgeoning this team to death?

Some poor kid named Jeff Criswell, who just made his MLB debut earlier in the week, replaced Colorado starter Austin Gomber in the bottom of the seventh and in the span of five pitches he gave up solo home runs to Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton and the usual big crowd in the Bronx could breathe a sigh of relief.

“A trifecta,” Aaron Boone said of the back-to-back-to-back bombs, and he was right. “Juan gets it rolling, Judge, he does what he does and G leaves no doubt.”

It was awfully impressive, and for good measure, Gleyber Torres tacked on a three-run shot in the eighth off someone named Lucas Gilbreath to finish off a 10-3 rout.

So by weekend’s conclusion, we sure got the full Yankees experience, didn’t we? From mediocre, to terrible, to downright scary and World Series worthy, all in the matter of three days. You never know which team is going to show up and this is why I continue to question whether they’ll get anywhere in October.

Struggling to win a series against the likes of the Rockies is not ideal, and while the argument is, ‘Hey, they got it done’, the flip side of that is, ‘Hey, are they going to be able to get it done when they’re playing the Guardians, the Astros, or the Orioles?’

We all know Boone isn’t worried about his team’s maddening inconsistency because we could be standing in front of a tidal wave with Boone and he’d proclaim all is well and we’re not going to get wet. I’d feel a whole lot better about this team’s chances if it stopped making everything so difficult.

Aug. 23: Yankees 3, Rockies 0

The Lead: Barely a sweat was broken

On the heels of their two wins against Cleveland, this was the third game in a row where the Yankees won in purely mundane fashion which is exactly the way I prefer they win games. I don’t need drama because my blood pressure is high enough as it is, and like the last two victories over the Guardians, this one was never really in doubt. Nice.

Rodon bounced back from his lousy outing against the Tigers and threw six shutout innings allowing just four hits and a walk. His only sweaty moment came in the third when he gave up a leadoff single to Nolan Jones, and after two strikeouts, a double to Ezequiel Tovar. He then whiffed Brendan Rodgers. And the in the fifth he wiggled out of a first-and-second situation by getting Rodgers to ground out.

It feels hard to believe, but this was the 20th time in 26 starts that Rodon has allowed three earned runs or fewer, four of which have been zero runs.

Game notes and observations:

➤ Against a team that entered the night allowing an MLB-worst 5.81 runs per game, the Yankees did pretty much nothing. They scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth and finished with just five hits and two walks against Kyle Freeland (5.70 ERA) and Jeff Criswell.

➤ Stanton homered for the second night in a row, and Judge homered for the fourth night in a row, continuing his utterly amazing season. The other run came in the fifth and was a gift. Anthony Volpe singled, Alex Verdugo walked, and then with two outs, Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon booted Torres’ grounder which should have ended the inning, and Volpe scored.

➤ It was a good night for the bullpen as Luke Weaver, Jake Cousins and Clay Holmes followed Rodon and all pitched a hitless, scoreless inning, though Weaver and Holmes did walk a batter.

➤ Jazz Chisholm was back in the lineup but he went 0-for-3. The good news is that his elbow looks fine and he was able to play the rest of the series.

Aug. 24: Rockies 9, Yankees 2

The Lead: Old-Timers Must Have Been Appalled

The Yankees celebrated their 76th Old-Timers’ Day, though it’s not like it used to be when the old guys played a couple innings before the regularly-scheduled Yankees game that day. Now they just come into town for the weekend, hang out, tell stories, laugh, drink and then go back to their lives.

This year there was a hook to Old-Timers Day because the Yankees honored the 15th anniversary of their 2009 World Series team, the last one to win a championship, a team you have become intimately close with through this newsletter in my weekly Last Championship series.

That 2009 team was outstanding, filled with stars, and clutch performers. I would love to know what they thought Saturday as they sat there in the Bronx and watched the god damn Rockies, one of the worst teams in MLB, embarrass the present day Yankees.

Once again, the Yankees pissed away a game against a team they had no business losing to and they lost a chance for a sweep.

Game notes and observations:

➤ Will Warren is allegedly one of the Yankees’ best pitching prospects. I’ll let you know when there’s evidence of this. He was brutal as he started in place of injured Luis Gil and gave the Yankees no chance to win. He lasted only three innings and was hammered for six runs (five earned) on seven hits and a walk.

➤ Warren has now made four starts for the Yankees and his ERA is 9.68. But really, what were we expecting? At Triple-A Scranton his ERA is 6.11 with an ungodly WHIP of 1.401, and if you go back to 2023, his ERA at Triple-A is 5.58, so this isn’t a one-season sample. He’s just not very good and the Yankees have to hope that Clarke Schmidt gets back pronto. Schmidt made his first rehab start Friday at Double-A Somerset and he gave up one run on a hit and a walk in 3.2 innings and said afterward that he felt great. Let’s hope he did.

➤ Look, Warren stunk, but so did the offense for the second game in a row against a team, as I said earlier, that has the worst ERA in MLB. In the third, Torres and Austin Wells walked and Chisholm drove in one with a double. And then in the fourth, Verdugo hit a solo homer, his first since July 6. And then the Yankees were blanked for the final five innings. Even Judge went hitless, ending his 11-game hitting streak.

➤ Rookie Bradley Blalock made his third career start for the Rockies and earned his first MLB win with 5.1 innings before three relievers you’ve also never heard of mowed down the Yankees. For the second straight game, they managed five measly hits against this shitty team.

Aug. 25: Yankees 10, Rockies 3

The Lead: Home Run Derby broke out

Seriously, what Judge is doing this season is otherworldly. “Honestly, I’m just running out of words,” Boone said. “We’re getting on the train (to Washington) and I’ve got to get the thesaurus out and get to work, because it is amazing.”

Judge crushed two more home runs and is up to 51 on the season as the superlatives keep rolling in. He is now one of only five players in MLB history to have at least three seasons of 50-plus homers, joining Babe Ruth, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa who did it four times, and Alex Rodriguez (three).

The first bomb came in the first inning, giving him 18 in the opening frame this year which ties him for the most in one season in MLB history with A-Rod who hit 18 in 2001 with the Rangers. And Judge is now the first player in history to have at least 50 homers, 120 RBI, and 100 walks before September.

“It’s unreal,” said Stanton. “He does something special every day. You almost take for granted how good he’s been, and what a staple he’s been for our offense and our team in general. He’s playing a video game. That’s what the best in the world does, make it look easy. We’re all feeding off that, and he amazes us every night. I’m glad he’s on our side.”

I’d share a few Judge quotes here, but God bless him, he’s the most boring interview anywhere. He just says nothing interesting, especially when he’s talking about himself. I’m also a little tired of hearing him say that he’s not locked in yet. Dude, you’re locked in. You’re having one of the greatest seasons in the 2st century, so don’t self-deprecate and think we should buy it.

Game notes and observations:

➤ Marcus Stroman had a blah day. He had to throw 31 pitches in the first inning thanks to a walk, a single, and pair of errors on Chisholm that produced a run. He looked like he was settling in with two good innings, but then he got burned by allowing two-out runs in both the fourth and fifth which cut the Yankees lead to 4-3.

➤ Boone pulled him at 97 pitches, and the bullpen came through with four shutout innings as it continued to show a little more promise this weekend. Tommy Kahnle, Cousins, Weaver and Tim Mayza allowed just one hit and two walks combined, so that was a good sign. Then again, I repeat, this was the Rockies.

➤ Judge got things started in the first with his two-run shot after Torres had walked, and then in the second, with two outs against Gomber, the Yankees strung together four straight singles by Alex Verdugo, DJ LeMahieu, Torres, and Soto for two more runs and a 4-1 lead.

➤ We expect the home runs from Judge, Soto and Stanton, but LeMahieu, Torres and Verdugo each had two hits and scored two runs in this game, and that needs to happen much more, especially if Boone continues to bang his head against the wall and play Verdugo and LeMahieu. What Boone needs to stop doing is pretending that Jose Trevino should be in a straight platoon with Wells. I don’t care if Wells struggles with lefty pitching; Trevino struggles against all pitch and Wells needs to be the No. 1 guy playing five times a week.

➤ Michael Tonkin got DFA’d before the game. Look, he was a nice story for a while and he pitched well, but that sort of ended a few weeks ago and he reverted back to being the journeyman that he is. For now, the Yankees brought up Phil Bickford to take his place.

On to Washington to start a three-game set Monday against another bottom feeder team in the NL. The Nationals (59-72) are a much better test than the Rockies, so given what we just watched, I’m not going to expect a sweep against the parent club of the Rochester Red Wings who have many players I’ve watched pretty closely on their way to the big leagues.

Shortstop CJ Abrams leads Washington with 18 homers, second baseman Luis Garcia Jr. leads with a .293 average, 63 RBI and .785 OPS, center fielder Jacob Young has 28 stolen bases, and now the top two prospects in the Nationals’ system are with the team. James Wood has been very good, hitting .284 with 30 RBI in just 48 games, and Dylan Crews, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 draft, just got called up and is set to make his MLB debut, possibly Monday.

The Nationals have been dog shit pretty much since Soto helped lead them to the 2019 World Series title, but they’ve got things headed in the right direction so this probably won’t be easy.

The pitching matchups are as follows: Monday at 6:45 on YES it’s Nestor Cortes (4.00 ERA) against Mitchell Parker (4.26); Tuesday at 6:45 on YES it’s Gerrit Cole (3.72) against Patrick Corbin (5.73); and Wednesday at 6:45 on Amazon Prime it’s Rodon (4.16) against Mackenzie Gore (4.51).