Yankees Win Series But it Was Harder Than Expected

It’s funny, but when the Yankees play clearly inferior competition, I get more irritated than usual if things don’t go well because I expect them to eviscerate teams like the sad sack Rockies. They did so Saturday, but Friday and Sunday were way too difficult, and even losing one game to Colorado felt disgusting. They’re going to need to be better this week when they face both Los Angeles teams. Lets get to it.

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Well, the Yankees won their sixth consecutive series, but the fact that it was so difficult to put down a Colorado team that has now lost all 17 series it has played this season was a little disconcerting.

I guess you just chalk it up to baseball, right? There’s no other explanation for why the 32-20 Yankees struggled so mightily in the Friday loss and Sunday win against a team that is now 9-44 and on pace to lose more games than any team in modern MLB history.

Of course, the team that owns the record for futility with 121 losses is the 2024 White Sox, and as you’ll recall, the Yankees lost a game to them, too. Again, that’s baseball.

What was surprising about the weekend was that the Yankees didn’t take full advantage of an absolutely horrible Colorado pitching staff. Sure, that Saturday game was fun, but take a closer look at that one: The Yankees won it 13-1, but 10 runs came in the fifth inning and they scored in just two other innings in that game. Friday they had seven scoreless innings before they showed a little more consistency Sunday as they put up runs in four innings.

I know this probably all sounds a bit nitpicky, but given that the Rockies’ team ERA is an MLB-worst 5.73 and the rotation ERA is 6.81, I just expected a whole lot more from the Yankees’ high-scoring offense.

That said, things are good right now. The Yankees have won 13 of their last 17 games and they have created some distance in the AL East as they lead the suddenly hot Rays (who just swept the Blue Jays and have won five in a row) by 5.5 games, and they’re six up on the Red Sox and 6.5 ahead of the Blue Jays. That’s a nice neighborhood to be in as we hit Memorial Day which is always one of the first mile markers of a season.

Now, to continue the nit picking, the Yankees’ third-base situation remains a mess because with Oswaldo Cabrera out of the mix, they’ve been rolling out the combination of Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas, and that’s just not cutting it at the plate.

Through 52 games, the Yankees’ third basemen rank 28th in MLB in combined batting average at .209, they’re 25th in on-base percentage at .288, and their OPS of .601 sits 24th.

Peraza’s double on Saturday kick-started the big 10-run fifth inning, but it continues to become more and more apparent that he just can’t hit at the major league level. Since he took over for Cabrera as the primary starter, he’s 2-for-23 with two RBI. In total he has played 32 games and in 79 plate appearances he’s slashing .167/.241/.319 for an OPS of .560. Not that we should be surprised because for his career, which consists of 106 games and 338 plate appearances, he’s slashing .204/.284/.316 for an OPS of .600.

There is no doubt that Peraza’s glove is excellent and he made a number of nice plays in this series, but he’s essentially an automatic out and while it’s not a huge problem right now because the offense, in general, has been very good, how long can the Yankees keep going with him? He’s out of minor league options so unless they’re willing to DFA him and risk that someone will pick him up as a free agent, they’re kind of stuck with him.

Vivas was advertised as a player who made consistent contact in the minors, but we haven’t seen that yet as he’s been a free swinger since his recall a couple weeks ago and he’s striking out 26.2% of his plate appearances while slashing .167/.250/.278 for a .528 OPS.

My guess is that the Yankees have to keep riding with these two until Jazz Chisholm returns perhaps sometime this month and then Aaron Boone can either move DJ LeMahieu to third, or leave him at second and move Chisholm over to third. Whatever the decision, I just know that Peraza can’t be a regular on this team, and it’s too early to know what Vivas is going to be, but perhaps the best place for him is back in Triple-A.

May 23: Rockies 3, Yankees 2

➤ As I said above, it’s baseball, and you can’t win ‘em all, but that didn’t make this loss any easier to stomach. In the year 2025, the Yankees are supposed to win ‘em all against the Rockies and somehow they found a way to lose the opener. It was mind-numbing to watch as the offense was comatose for nine innings against a team that is beyond terrible, especially on the mound.

➤ The Rockies sent Tanner Gordon out to start for just the 10th time in his brief MLB career. His only other start this season came on May 8 and he gave up seven runs, four earned, and his career ERA was over 8.00. So naturally, as we all expected, he went six innings and allowed just two runs on five hits and two walks. Even worse, the Rockies bullpen finished with three hitless, scoreless innings as the Yankees went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Their only runs came when Judge singled in the first and scored on Paul Goldschmidt’s triple, and then Judge’s solo homer in the fifth.

➤ Clarke Schmidt was not good as he lasted 4.2 inefficient innings and was tagged for three runs on six hits and two walks across 97 pitches. Same issues for him: He would get ahead of hitters, and then he nibbled and couldn’t put them away. Yes, he did have eight strikeouts, but the Rockies had 18 foul balls against him which drove his pitch count up and eventually out of the game.

➤ His exit led to Tim Hill’s appearance, which ultimately cost the Yankees the game. Hill has taken a step backward this year after his surprising career-best 2024. Schmidt gave up back-to-back two-out singles so the Rockies had men on first and third and Boone went to Hill to face lefty-swinging Ryan McMahon. Hill’s third pitch got crushed off the wall in center and he wound up with a game-winning two-run double. Neither of those runs were charged to Hill, but as I always say, the key stat for relievers is inherited runners scored, and both scored on Hill.

What they said in Friday’s clubhouse

• Boone: “They beat us tonight. Give them credit.”

• Schmidt: “We’re all competitors in here. Anytime you lose, we’re pissed off. We’re not trying to go out there and lose ballgames. It shows in here in the energy in here - obviously, everybody’s pissed off. But you play 162 games. You’re going to have games like this, nights like this where you don’t perform and you don’t get the job done.”

• Hill on losing to the Rockies: “Those guys are professionals, just the same. Just losing a game in general is never good, especially when you have such a big part in it.”

May 24: Yankees 13, Rockies 1

➤ Through four innings Saturday, I was starting to get the sinking feeling that this was going to be an embarrassing weekend for the Yankees. It was bad enough losing the first game, but then through four innings in this one they were tied 1-1 meaning that in the first 13 innings they had scored just three runs. Just when I started wondering how is this possible, the fifth inning started.

➤ They sent 14 men to the plate and 10 eventually scored, giving the Yankees their second 10-run inning of the season. Rockies starter Kyle Freeland had already dodged a few bullets as Trent Grisham and DJ LeMahieu each killed rallies in the first two innings by grounding into DPs. But then it all caught up to Freeland in the fifth. The first five men reached base with Oswald Peraza delivering a go-ahead RBI double, and then he scored when Freeland fielded a high-hopper by Grisham and threw it into right field for an error.

➤ From there, Anthony Volpe had an RBI single, Austin Wells’ second hit of the inning was a two-run double, and Grisham also had a two-run double. When the carnage was complete, the 10 runs came on seven hits, three walks, two sacrifice flies, an error and a wild pitch.

➤ The Yankees finished with a season-high 21 hits including three each by Cody Bellinger, Volpe, Goldschmidt, and LeMahieu and they scored at least 10 runs for the 10th time this season.

➤ It was too bad the Yankees had to waste Max Fried in a game like this. As usual, he was great as he went 7.1 innings and gave up a run on six hits and a walk with seven K’s. He also saved himself some grief by picking off two runners in the first three innings. His WHIP is 0.930 and his ERA is 1.29 which is the second-lowest in team history for anyone through his first 10 starts with the team. In 1984, Phil Niekro was at 1.20 in his first 10.

➤ Fried’s length gave almost the entire the bullpen off as low leverage Ian Hamilton covered the final four outs and hey, he didn’t give up a run.

What they said in Saturday’s clubhouse

• Judge: “We’ve been kind of waiting for that big inning since we’ve been here in these two games. We were all kind of pissed that we gave up the lead there in the inning prior, but the boys answered back. That was the main thing: tie game, we got our ace on the mound, let’s go to work and do our thing.”

• Boone: “Good players, good hitters. But today was a really good example of a really good snowball inning. … Coming off four, five days where we haven’t scored a bunch, to break out like that was nice.”

• Fried: “Having a 10-run inning behind you, it’s something that allows you to just get a little more aggressive in the zone and being able to get contact. Had some unbelievable plays behind me. I think it was a really great team win in general.”

May 25: Yankees 5, Rockies 4

➤ This one was a slog from start to finish, and it included a lengthy one hour, 36-minute rain delay in the middle, but at least it ended with a good result after some late-inning tension.

➤ The hero was JC Escarra who had the first three-hit game of his career and he drove in two runs, the second one coming in the eighth inning which in the end proved to be the difference. The Yankees were clinging to a 4-3 lead, Dominguez was on second after a single and a stolen base, and Escarra came through with a rifle shot single to right and it was that run that allowed the Yankees to survive Mickey Moniak’s homer in the ninth off Luke Weaver who just didn’t have it.

➤ The Yankees were lucky to hold on. Devin Williams allowed two baserunners before striking out Michael Toglia to end a sweaty eighth, and then it really got scary in the ninth. Moniak homered on Weaver’s second pitch and with one out, Adael Amador and Jordan Beck singled and I know I wasn’t the only one who was feeling that disaster was lurking. But Weaver buckled down and got a flyout and a weak tapper back to the mound to end it. Phew!

➤ Will Warren looked like early-season Will Warren in the first inning when the first three Rockies reached base and the first man scored on a wild pitch, the second scored on a groundout, and the third very nearly scored but Volpe made a great play to nail Toglia on a play that was originally a safe call but was overturned by replay, taking the run off the board.

➤ From there, Warren looked like recent vintage Warren. He went 1-2-3 in the second and third, and worked around a walk in the fourth, finishing with seven strikeouts. He couldn’t go any further because of the long delay, so the bullpen had to cover 15 outs. Jonathan Loaisiga had an easy fifth and retired the first two men in the sixth but then ran into trouble and allowed a run. Leiter worked 1.1 innings before Williams and Weaver finished it. The Rockies had traffic, but they went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

➤ The Yankees’ first four runs came on a Bellinger RBI grounder in the first after Goldschmidt and Judge had singled; Escarra’s RBI double in the second after Volpe had tripled; and in the fifth, right before the rain came, Judge doubled home a run and Dominguez had a sacrifice fly that made it 4-2.

What they said in Sunday’s clubhouse

• Escarra: “It’s surreal. Just from what I was doing. Sometimes I sit back and I think about it - where I’m at today, who I’m playing with, the name on my jersey. It’s incredible. Today was a dogfight. We came out hot yesterday, but the Rockies gave us some trouble that first game, and it’s a team we couldn’t take lightly. I was hyped up because I know every run matters. In the end, that’s the run that was the difference in the game.”

• Boone: “I love this outing for Will Warren. That’s adversity right out of the gate. … Just didn’t blink. Maybe six months ago, he doesn’t react quite as well, or with as much poise and confidence. He gets the groundout, a big strikeout of Doyle and all of a sudden, instead of a blowup inning, it’s manageable. I just thought he handled it really well. It was good to see.”

The Yankees head to Southern California for the final six games of their trip, with the first stop in Anaheim for three against the suddenly resurgent Angels. This was looking like another typical Angels season as Mike Trout got hurt, again, and on May 4 they were sitting at 13-20 and were seven games out in the AL West.

Since then, they’ve won 12 of 17 games including an eight-game win streak, but then lost Saturday and Sunday to the lowly Marlins and are now 25-27, four games behind the Mariners.

Here are some of the Angels top players to watch:

➤ C Logan O’Hoppe: He has become one of the best catchers in MLB and he also has 14 homers and 30 RBI with an .847 OPS.

➤ LF Taylor Ward: He leads the Angels with 15 homers and 36 RBI even though he’s hitting just .225.

➤ SS Zach Neto: A dangerous leadoff man with a .326 on-base, eight homers and a team-best .874 OPS.

➤ 1B Nolan Schanuel: A team-high 26 walks has helped produce a team-high .380 on-base.

➤ RP Kenley Jansen: Now 37, he’s nowhere near the same closer he’s been as his ERA is 4.96, though he does have 11 saves and hasn’t blown one yet.

The pitching matchups are scheduled to be:

• Monday, 9:38, YES: Ryan Yarbrough (3.38 ERA) vs. Jack Kochanowicz (5.03) who has made 10 starts and has an ugly WHIP of 1.584 and a poor 1.30 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

• Tuesday, 9:38, YES: Carlos Rodon (2.88) vs. Tyler Anderson (3.60), a lefty who has made three career starts against the Yankees and has a 2.25 ERA against them.

• Wednesday, 9:38, YES: Clarke Schmidt (4.58) vs. Yusei Kikuchi (3.17) who leads MLB with 11 starts but also leads with 30 walks, and his 1.492 WHIP sure isn’t great. However, he has always pitched well against the Yankees from his days with the Blue Jays.