1. I finished the most recent Thoughts with this:

The Yankees and Mariners always play weird, tight, low-scoring games, especially in Seattle, and I’m expecting the same over the next three days.

And that’s what we got on Monday night in the series opener as the Yankees lost a 2-1 game in walk-off fashion.

2. I also wrote this in the most recent Thoughts:

It’s hard to believe I could feel any better about the Yankees after their season-opening series than I do right now. Three games, three wins and one run allowed to begin the season is about as good as anyone could ask for.

What I should have written was “It’s hard to believe I could feel any better about the Yankees’ pitching” because that’s really what I feel. I feel good about the pitching, not the ‘Run It Back’ offense. Aside from one surprising inning on Opening Day when the Yankees ambushed Logan Webb with first-pitch swings, the ‘Run It Back’ offense has been doing ‘Run It Back’ offense things with seven runs over the last three games. (I’m sure they will have a one-game explosion soon to prop up their run differential.)

Giancarlo Stanton had a double and single, Aaron Judge and Jose Caballero each had a single and a walk and Ben Rice had a single and that was the entire Yankees’ offense. Trent Grisham went 0-for-4. Cody Bellinger went 0-for-4. Jazz Chisholm went 0-for-4. Austin Wells went 0-for-3 and Ryan McMahon went 0-for-2. The $22 million qualifying offer, the big free-agent signing, the man who says he can have a 50/50 season, the catcher who made the all-World Baseball Classic team and the guy who supposedly changed his swing have all somewhat struggled to open the season.

3. Again, it’s not “just” four games. This season is a continuation of last season because the roster and lineup are the same. So Wells and McMahon sucking doesn’t qualify for “give them time” because they sucked last year and were both below league average. I’m not worried about Wells and McMahon because I expect nothing from them offensively. I’m the least worried about Bellinger because he has the career track record of being very good (though there is precedent for him completely falling off like he did in 2021 and 2022). I’m very worried about Grisham and was all winter because the back of his baseball card is the ultimate ‘One of These Seasons Doesn’t Look Like Any Other’ and because if he does suck he will continue to bat leadoff and start for months before he’s removed from his spot atop the lineup or his starting outfield spot. I’m also worried about Chisholm because anyone who claims they want to have a 50/50 season when their name isn’t Shohei Ohtani or Ronald Acuna is going to do things at the plate they shouldn’t do to try to reach that goal. Chisholm already had a habit of swinging for the fences in counts and situations he shouldn’t and now with the 50/50 proclamation in his head, he will likely do it even more than he already does. Add in the pressure of being an impending free agent and supposedly wanting to get paid $35 million per year on an eight-plus-year deal, and well, yeah, there’s a lot to be worried about with Chisholm.

4. Aaron Boone went away from his lefty-righty alternation with his linuep and tried to stack lefties together against Luis Castillo, who always pitches well against the Yankees, especially since they chose to not trade for him in 2022 and instead traded for Frankie Montas. Boone’s construction didn’t work, Castillo was able to throw six scoreless innings and then when Seattle when to the bullpen, they had beautiful lefty lanes built for them to breeze through.

5. After having a rather easy series and needing to make pretty much zero difficult decisions in San Francisco, Boone was more involved in Monday’s one-run game, and Yankees fans were reminded why they fare so poorly in one-run games with Boone at the helm. Boone chose to let Paul Blackburn pitch a second inning on Monday and inevitably the Mariners walked off the Yankees in that second inning of work.

“I liked him through the bottom of the order there,” Boone said. “They found a couple of holes and beat us.”

Blackburn was allowed to face Brendan Donovan and Cal Raleigh in the ninth. Donovan was batting first in the lineup and Raleigh pinch hit in the 2-hole. Not exactly the bottom of the order, Boone. So if Boone liked Blackburn against 5-6-7 in the eighth and then 8-9 in the ninth, OK. But once the lineup turned over to actual hitters he should have removed him.

6. Or maybe he could have used Camilo Doval for more than two pitches? Boone claims he didn’t want Doval to sit after ending the seventh and then get back up to pitch in the eighth, but he is OK with him doing that exact thing later in the season … after Doval has thrown hundreds of pitches and didn’t just have five-plus months off.

“I’m sure eventually he’ll have plenty of two-ups,” Boone said. Eventually, just not on Monday, two days after Judge mentioned how important every game is after the 2025 season was ruined by the Yankees not valuing every game with equal importance.

7. Knowing Ryan Weathers is a hard-throwing lefty trying to make a strong first impression in his Yankees debut, it made sense he would open the game overthrowing and having trouble throwing strikes.

“I definitely want to be more efficient and be in the zone a little bit more,” Weathers said. “I don’t want to hang my hat on 4 1/3 innings. I want to get deeper into the ballgame, and a lot of that comes from managing the pitch count myself and not falling behind in counts.”

8. Weathers gave 4 1/3 innings after Will Warren gave the same on Saturday. For two guys pitching for rotation spots once Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole return, that little of length even with minimal damage isn’t going to cut it. Add in Luis Gil who will have a chip on his shoulder once he gets called up as the fifth starter, and Warren, Weathers and Gil will also be competing for one available rotation spot. (That is if everyone else stays healthy).

But for as erratic as Weathers was at times, he still only allowed one run over 4 1/3 innings. The offense provided one run on five hits, and they only scored the one run because the sacrifice fly opportunity that scored the run was created from a wild pitch.

9. There were two huge potentially big moments early in the game both involving Grisham and Caballero. The first came in the third inning when Caballero walked with one out following two successful ABS challenges. Grisham came up and didn’t give last season’s league leaders in steals a chance to go because he got a first-pitch, middle-middle fastball. But rather than hit it into the seats or in a gap, Grisham grounded out and erased Caballero on the bases. The next situation with these two came in the fifth. Caballero reached on an infield “single” with two outs in the inning and the Yankees still trailing 1-0. He could potentially steal and get driven in by Grisham or he could stay on first and see if Grisham could hit his first home run of 2026. Instead, Caballero got picked off of first with too much of a lead. Caballero on base with the lineup turning over is supposed to create offense, not destroy it.

10. Three of the six games the Yankees and Mariners played last year were one-run games and so was Monday’s. With Max Fried and Logan Gilbert going on Tuesday, it would be the least surprising result of all time if another one-run game took place. With the way the Yankees have looked offensively since Webb was removed on Opening Day, the confidence level is low that they will break out against a starter who averaged 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings in 25 starts last season in a place where they seem to struggle to score runs.

1. It’s hard to believe I could feel any better about the Yankees after their season-opening series than I do right now. Three games, three wins and one run allowed to begin the season is about as good as anyone could ask for. Yes, the opponent was the destined-to-be-.500 Giants, but beating up on mediocre and bad teams is how you win the division and avoid having it settled on a tiebreaker.

2. “One thing from the past couple of years we’ve struggled at was finishing series and sweeping series,” Aaron Judge said. “Pregame, we talked about it … That’s what’s going to make the difference between winning the division or ending up tied. Every game matters.”

Well, well, well. All it took was the Yankees losing the AL East on a head-to-head tiebreaker and then getting humiliated in the ALDS because of that tiebreaker for them to realize every game matters. I have always believed a game on March 28 is as important as September 28 and have always wanted the Yankees to operate with the same mindset and urgency and it seems like they may finally be doing that.

4. Ben Rice gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the third with a booming double to right field. The Giants got one run (their first of the season) back in the bottom of the third to make it 2-1, but Judge hit his second home run in as many games to increase the lead to 3-1 in the fifth and that’s how it would stay as the Yankees swept the Giants, outscoring them 13-1 in the series. It’s amazing the Dodgers get to play 52 games against the Giants, Rockies, Padres and Diamondbacks.

5. Max Fried, Cam Schlittler and Will Warren threw 16 innings of one-run ball in the series and the bullpen put up zeros in the other 11 innings. That will work. Please keep doing that.

“Our starting rotation came out there and attacked the zone,” Judge said, “and really just dictated the ballgames.”

6. The Giants had 12 baserunners to the Yankees’ nine, but four inning-ending double plays kept the Giants off the board except for their lone run.

“You can’t get enough of those,” Rice said. “I’m just happy to be on the end of each one of those and finish it off.”

7. What a day behind the plate for Chad Whitson who had seven ABS calls overturned against him. Yes, the ones that barely graze the zone are hard to fault an umpire for, but some of his calls were really bad, and the ones that went in the Yankees’ favor changed the game.

8. Warren was OK for 4 1/3 innings. He put seven runners on, but kept the damage to a minimum, allowing just one run. It was a respectable outing for his first of the year.

“My command was a little wonky today,” Warren said. “They did a good job fouling stuff off and making me work.”

9. Brent Headrick, Jake Bird, Tim Hill and David Bednar combined to throw 4 2/3 scoreless innings, and the bullpen has been unbelievable so far. The bullpen was easily the biggest question mark going into this season since we knew the rotation would be great (if healthy) and we knew what to expect from the same offense, but the bullpen is full of mysteries. (Again, the Giants aren’t very good, so everything needs to be taken with boxes worth of salt.)

10. “I love that we played well,” Aaron Boone said, “but it’s March.”

Yes, it is. But to me these games are just a continuation of last season because it’s the same roster. So while it may be March on the calendar, everything happening is an extension of last season, and so far the first games of 2026 are much better than the last games of 2025, even if the opponent was the Giants for the first three games.

10. The next opponent won’t be as easy: the Mariners. (The Yankees went 5-1 against the Mariners in 2025). Many have the Mariners finally getting to the franchise’s first World Series in 2026. I don’t see it, but what I do see is a very strong rotation that is likely second in the AL to the Yankees this year. Ryan Weathers will get the ball for his Yankees debut in the series opener against Luis Castillo, who has always been a problem for the Yankees. The Yankees and Mariners always play weird, tight, low-scoring games, especially in Seattle, and I’m expecting the same over the next three days.

1. The last time we saw Cam Schlittler in a real, meaningful game he was proving to be the only Yankees starter capable of success against the Blue Jays in the ALDS (6.1 IP, 2 ER). That Game 4 start came after he saved the Yankees’ season with his historical start against the Red Sox (8 IP, 0 ER, 12 K) in win-or-go-home, Game 3 in the Wild Card Series. On Friday in San Francisco, he picked up right where he left off in October, dominating the Giants with 5 1/3 scoreless, one-hit innings, needing only 63 pitches to get 16 outs.

“I was trying to be as efficient as possible, seeing how far I could get,” Schlittler said. “[The pitch count] was out of my control … but I’ll just keep building from this week to next week.”

2. The Yankees were supposedly keeping Schlittler to a 70-pitch limit in his first start of the season after his setback in spring training. He had no problem giving them decent length with that number, hitting 100.1 mph in the game and blowing fastballs by Giants hitters.

3. “He located all three fastballs, threw a bunch of curveballs and just pounded the zone,” Cody Bellinger said. “He’s been really fun to watch.”

“Really fun” is an understatement. Schlittler has been exceptional in 17 career starts (including the postseason.) What if he continues to be this good? The Yankees already have two proven No. 1s in Fried and Gerrit Cole, and while I don’t like Carlos Rodon, he would be a No. 1 for a lot of teams. It’s possible Schlittler is another No. 1, and there has been nothing to suggest he isn’t so far. Everyone please pray daily for the health of the rotation because there isn’t another like it in the league.

4. The relief combination of Fernando Cruz, Tim Hill, Camilo Doval and David Bednar added 3 2/3 hitless innings and the Yankees shut out the Giants for a second straight game with a 3-0 win.

“The pen was outstanding,” Aaron Boone said. “Each guy, I thought, did a really nice job. It was a really good win.”

5. Doval has looked very good in the first two games, both at his former park. He pitched a perfect ninth on Wednesday and then struck out the side in a perfect eighth on Friday. Doval never looked good as a Yankee until the end of the season and because of his early struggles with them after the trade I never had any trust or confidence in him. But for at least these first two games he has looked like the once-dominant Giants closer and the pitcher the Yankees thought they were getting when they traded for him.

6. Through five innings, Robbie Ray was as good as Schlittler, which wasn’t a surprise since he has had good success in his career against the Yankees. Through five innings, the Yankees had three singles and no runs. Paul Goldschmidt opened the sixth with a double down the right-field line and Aaron Judge followed with a 405-foot, two-run home to left field to the give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. After Cody Bellinger grounded out, Jose Butto relieved Ray and promptly gave up a 414-foot home run to Giancarlo Stanton to make it 3-0, and that’s how it would stay. (Something I forgot to mention in the Thoughts following Opening Day was how surprising it was to see Stanton score from second on a ball hit to left field in that game. It was shocking.)

7. Goldschmidt had the double, Judge a two-run home run, Bellinger a single and walk, Stanton a solo home run, Jazz Chisholm a single and Jose Caballero a pair of singles. Amed Rosario didn’t reach base in his season debut and neither did Randal Grichuk in his Yankees debut. The Yankees went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left eight on.

8. Thankfully, what has gone on with the Giants through two games hasn’t gone on with the Yankees. The Giants have no runs and four hits across 18 innings in the series. It’s one thing to get shut out and be lifeless at the plate in back-to-back games in the middle of the season, but to start the season? I may need to check out some Giants blogs to see how the first two games are being handled by that fan base. I know how it would be handled by me and other Yankees fans if it were going on here.

9. It feels great to be 2-0 to start the season, especially with the two starts the Yankees got from their rotation and the two very different types of wins in these games. It doesn’t matter that it’s against the Giants because the the AL East as a whole is 5-1 and every win matters like always. Look no further than last season when the Yankees pissed away so many games, lost the record tiebreaker to the Blue Jays and then had to go on the road to start the ALDS and their season ended. A game on March 25 or March 27 is just as important as a game on September 25 or September 27 and last season was the most useful example of that.

10. On Saturday, it will be Will Warren against Tyler Mahle. Mahle has only started one game in his career against the Yankees and that came in 2023, so it’s irrelevant to this lineup. One interesting piece of lineup information is that Goldschmidt has a double, three home runs and a .379/.441/.793 slash line against Mahle in 34 career plate appearances. Would the Yankees let Goldschmidt start against a righty? I would with those kind of numbers as he has faced Mahle 18 times more than any other Yankee and hits like he’s facing a position player against him. If Goldschmidt doesn’t start against Mahle, it will tell us that he won’t start against any righties this season. Warren started against the Giants last April and was pretty good: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 1 HR. Only five Giants (Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, Jung Hoo Lee, Matt Chapman and Heliot Ramos) have faced Warren before and they are a combined 1-for-9 with two walks against him, and they have never seen the supposedly new-and-improved Warren, who now pitches from the other side of the mound.

1. Playing their fourth elimination game in eight days, the Yankees produced two hits through the first six innings of their 5-2 loss in Game 4 of the ALDS. It was the kind of weak offensive performance the Yankees have provided so many times over the year in the postseason and the kind of offensive performance Yankees fans have come to expect from the Yankees in the postseason.

2. The Yankees scored one run in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series and one run in Game 1 of the ALDS. They were being no-hit and shut out into the sixth inning of Game 2 of the ALDS until the Blue Jays removed their starter after just 78 pitches because they were sitting on a 12-0 lead. The Yankees’ bats came to life late in Game 2 of the ALDS, but once the Blue Jays decided enough was enough and brought in their high-quality relievers, the Yankees’ stat-padding fun ended.

3. Thanks to two defensive miscues and Aaron Judge hitting a three-run home run against a pitch that physics says shouldn’t be able to be hit for a home run, the Yankees were able to win Game 3 and save their season. But the offense that eked out a three-game series win against the vastly inferior Red Sox and got stifled in Toronto showed up for Game 4 and the season ended.

4. Cam Schlittler was much better against the Blue Jays his third time facing them this season and deserved a much better line than two earned runs over 6 1/3 innings, but his defense failed him, specifically Jazz Chisholm who committed a game-changing error at second base that led to the Blue Jays’ third and fourth runs and put the game out of reach.

5. John Schneider went to eight relievers across the nine innings in Game 4 in a full-blown bullpen game, and aside from a short porch home run by Ryan McMahon off Mason Fluharty and an RBI single from Judge off of Jeff Hoffman, an overworked and fatigued bullpen shut down the Yankees with ease.

6. In what should be his final game as a Yankee, Trent Grisham made everyone realize it wouldn’t have mattered if he played over Alex Verdugo last postseason. Grisham went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts in Game 4. He finished the postseason 4-for-29 with 10 strikeouts. He didn’t drive in a single run in the seven games.

After saving the season with his three-run home run in Game 3, Judge went 2-for-4 with a walk in Game 4. Judge finally showed up for a postseason and no one else did. I don’t feel sorry for Judge’s postseason going to waste given his postseasons performances before this year. This was an enormous missed opportunity for him to finally win it all and he will be 34 a month into next season. He will have to do the same thing next October and maybe a single everyday-playing teammate will join him.

Cody Bellinger entered this postseason with a .661 OPS for his postseason career after six trips to the playoffs with the Dodgers. Bellinger stayed true to who he has been in October as he posted a .651 OPS this October, failed in every big moment and the only ball he hit out was in the meaningless late innings of Game 2. No one should be surprised Bellinger was awesome in the regular season and bad in the postseason, considering he put up nearly an identical OPS this October as he had in 69 previous postseason games. He has been a bad performer in now 76 playoff games.

I can’t say anything critical of Giancarlo Stanton for hitting .192/.267/.269 without a home run this postseason. In all of his postseasons with the Yankees, Stanton has always been the one bat you can count on with a career postseason OPS of .926, 52 points higher than his career regular-season OPS. He gets a pass for this October for what he did last year and previous years.

Chisholm’s glove cost the Yankees a realistic chance of coming back to win Game 4, but it was his bat that cost them the entire postseason. It will be hard to find a player who talks more and backs it up less than Chisholm who went out of his way to tell every microphone put in front of his face this season that the Yankees would win the division and go to the World Series. They failed to win the division and they were eliminated two rounds before the World Series. Chisholm pouted about being benched in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series and then was in the starting lineup the rest of October and hit .182/.280/.318, after he hit .182/.250/.309 last October. The lone run Chisholm drove in this October came on his solo home run in Game 3. In Game 4, Chisholm hit into a double play after Stanton led off the fourth with a walk and grounded out with two on to end the sixth.

Paul Goldschmidt gets a pass as he went 4-for-9 with a walk in limited playing time.

Ben Rice doesn’t get a pass. If opposing pitchers don’t throw Rice a fastball, all of his astonishing Statcast metrics become worthless. Rice didn’t stand a chance against the splitters of Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage in Games 1 and 2 and went hitless in Game 3 before being benched in Game 4. The only hits Rice provided in the series came in the meaningless innings of Game 3 when every Yankee improved their series slash lines from atrocious to abysmal.

Austin Wells continues to not be any good. After striking out in 22 of 55 plate appearances and hitting .120/.200/.460 in the postseason last year, Wells hit .227/.261/.227 in the postseason this year. Five hits, none for extra bases.

Remember with a few weeks left in the season when Aaron Boone told everyone the starting shortstop competition would be a daily thing? I do. Remember when Jose Caballero hit .306/.405/.500 during the competition, as he started at shortstop during the Yankees’ 12-game gauntlet against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox? I do. Remember when Boone strategically let Volpe only play against the Twins, Orioles and White Sox over the last couple weeks of the season to boost his performance, and he posted an OPS of .601 more than 300 points lower than Caballero’s .905? I do. And remember despite all of that, Boone still made Volpe the starting shortstop for every game of the postseason? I do.

Volpe represents everything wrong with the Yankees from what he stands for organizationally to his actual play. They passed on the deepest shortstop free-agent class in the history of the game during the primes of most of their roster because of him. He has been immune to a demotion or even a benching (it’s only ever a day or two off). He is shielded from the media and protected to no end by the manager and front office in a way no other Yankees prospect or Yankee period has ever been. Volpe didn’t get removed for a pinch hitter in the ninth inning of Game 4 because Boone thought it would give the Yankees a better chance to stage a four-run comeback. Boone hit for Volpe because he didn’t want him to be exposed to a ruthless, angry crowd if he were to strike out for a fourth time after the crowd booed him in a way typically reserved for opposing players like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Jose Altuve after Volpe’s third strikeout of the game.

Volpe may be a major-league baseball player, but he doesn’t possess the ability or talent needed to be one. Any bit of success he achieves is a product of him playing every day no matter what. If you were to take a Double-A player and give them the endless leash and everyday playing time Volpe receives, they too would have flashes of success. But like Volpe, they too would look overmatched the majority of the time. Volpe went 1-for-15 in the series with 11 strikeouts. The Blue Jays as a team struck out 13 times in Games 1, 2 and Game 4 combined. Before Volpe’s third strikeout in Game 4, John Smoltz mentioned how Volpe was swinging three weighted bats in the on-deck circle and he had never seen something like that. FOX then showed Volpe’s bizarre preparation and he went on to strike out on four pitches.

Volpe has been the worst everyday offensive player in the majors since his debut, and yet, there’s a better chance the Yankees stop wearing pinstripes at home in 2026 than there is that Volpe isn’t the starting shortstop on Opening Day 2026.

McMahon gets a pass. The Yankees knew they were trading for a below-league-average hitter in McMahon, but arguably the best defensive third baseman and he fit that billing during the regular season. In the postseason he had impressive at-bats, only struck out twice in 15 plate appearances and provided an .833 OPS.

Schlittler’s Game 3 performance against the Red Sox in the Wild Card Series and Judge’s home run in Game 3 of the ALDS were the two highlights of the very short postseason, but right up there with them was Jasson Dominguez’s pinch-hit, leadoff double in the ninth inning of Game 4, which served as a nice ‘Fuck You’ to Boone and the front office for not using him until there were three outs left in the season. The Yankees did everything they could to screw up Dominguez’s development and future this season by moving him to a position he never played, then pulling him early for defensive purposes for the first part of the season, then not allowing him to play against left-handed pitches and finally benching him outright as he started just four games in September. I hope the Yankees trade him in the offseason and he goes somewhere else and becomes the star we were told he would be with the Yankees. If he’s not, the Yankees will screw with his development again next season.

7. The bullpen did its job in the postseason, and again in Game 4, but the starting pitching outside of Schlittler was a disaster in the ALDS. After Max Fried shut down an anemic Red Sox lineup in the Wild Card Series, he was blasted by the Blue Jays in Toronto. He came to the Yankees with a 5.10 career postseason ERA and pitched to a 6.75 ERA this postseason.

When Carlos Rodon went down in spring training in 2023 and said if it were the playoffs he would pitch and not go on the injured list, I laughed. If you need seven shutout innings against the Angels in July, Rodon is your guy. If you need to win a start against a team with a winning record or a postseason game, he’s the last guy you want. Rodon pitched to a 5.60 ERA in the postseason last year, pitching well in just one game (Game 1 of the ALCS) and pitched to a 9.72 ERA this postseason. He now has a 7.53 ERA in his postseason career.

Luis Gil was only able to last 2 2/3 innings in his only postseason start after lasting only four innings in both of his postseason starts a year ago. Last offseason, Gil was coming off the only healthy season of his career and had won Rookie of the Year. His value was never higher and the Yankees decided to not move him. He made only seven starts this season due to injury, walked batters at a higher rate than last season when he led the league in walks and stopped striking anyone out. His value has crumbled and he will turn 28 during next season.

8. So who was good in the Yankees’ brief postseason appearance? Aaron Judge, Cam Schlittler, Jasson Dominguez, Ryan McMahon, Paul Goldschmidt, Amed Rosario and the relievers not named Luke Weaver or Paul Blackburn. When the good from your offense is one everyday player, three platoon players and one player who was buried on the bench, it’s a problem. When the good from your rotation is a single starter, it’s a problem. When a bullpen that’s performing well only pitched with the lead in one of four games in the ALDS, it’s a problem. When you put it all together, you get a team whose postseason lasted seven games with four of them being elimination games.

9. The Boone Yankees were unable to do what his two predecessors were able to in erasing an 0-2 ALDS deficit and Boone’s unbreakable Yankees record of most seasons allowed to manage the team without a championship has added another year to it. Instead of the Yankees playing on Friday in Toronto, they now won’t play until March 25 in San Francisco.

10. The Yankees spent the majority of the season showing they weren’t good enough to compete with the league’s best, but they did just enough to fool everyone for as long as they could. It’s no longer “right in of front of them” because there’s nothing left in front of them. The “tomorrow” the manager and his players always refer to after each loss isn’t coming. The 2025 Yankees’ season ended the same way every Yankees season has for the last 16 years, including every season under Boone: eliminated.

1. I thought it was gone, but I wasn’t sure. It was high enough and far enough, but would it stay fair? From my vantage point, I had a clear view down the third-base line and the ball was starting hook. If it stayed fair it would be the biggest postseason moment of Aaron Judge’s postseason career. If it went foul, it would be just another what-could-have-been moment in Judge’s postseason career.

“When the ball is in the air, it’s kind of silent,” Judge said. “You’ve got a lot of unknown.”

The ball clanged off the left-field foul pole, as high up the pole as any ball has ever been hit to left field at this version of Yankee Stadium. Three-run home run. Tie game.

“But then right when it hits the pole, I’m looking straight at my teammates,” Judge said, “all the guys that have been battling with me all year long, battling for this moment.”

2. The moment was Judge’s. It was the kind of moment Yankees fans have waited for him to have, praying he would have it each time he has stepped to the plate in this postseason and past postseasons in big spots. The kind of moment I thought he would have this postseason when I wrote this last week:

I truly think Judge will have his signature postseason if the Yankees’ season continues past Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. In past postseasons, Judge has looked lost from his first at-bat. He has only hit singles in this series, but he got one each off of Crochet, Chapman and Bello — three household names. He’s been on base four times in eight plate appearances and has only struck out twice against top-tier arms. If the monster hit doesn’t come for Judge in Game 3 and the Yankees are able to advance, the Blue Jays are in for a world of shit in the ALDS. For someone who has been as critical of Judge in the playoffs as anyone in the world, I really believe this postseason could be his 2009 Alex Rodriguez postseason.

3. The absurdity of the pitch — a 99.7-mph fastball more than a foot inside — being hit for a long home run is still hard to process. Louis Varland had just thrown a 100-mph fastball past Judge with ease on the pitch prior and was also ahead 0-2 in the count. But like Derek Jeter said after the game, Judge is the only person in the world capable of hitting that pitch for a home run.

“He made a really good pitch look really bad,” Varland said.

4. Judge had the opportunity to change Game 1 and he struck out. In Game 2, the Yankees never had a chance because of how bad Max Fried was. In Game 3, Judge saved the Yankees’ season and possibly changed the series, considering it’s hard to believe the Blue Jays can be feeling too good about themselves right now without a traditional starter for Game 4 and having blown a five-run lead in an elimination game.

The home run capped a five-run come back for the Yankees, who trailed 6-1 in the third after Carlos Rodon provided his latest big-game, letdown effort. Rodon recorded one more out in the game (7) than earned runs allowed (6) as the Blue Jays put eight baserunners on against him in 2 1/3 innings. Rodon has now made six postseason starts for the Yankees and one has been good (Game 1 of the 2024 ALCS). Tuesday night was more of the same from Rodon in October against a good team: awful.

5. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. opened the game with a two-run home run in the first for his third of the series. The Yankees answered in the bottom of the first with a run on an RBI single from Giancarlo Stanton after a Blue Jays error extended the inning. The Blue Jays put up a four-run third, and trailing 6-1, I started to think about how many innings I would give the Yankees offense to put a dent into the deficit before leaving Yankee Stadium for the last time in 2025.

The Yankees scored twice in the bottom of the third to make it 6-3 and Judge’s heroics came in the fourth to tie the game. The Yankees added two more in the fifth and one in the sixth to go to an eventual 9-6 win.

6. Judge deserves all of the credit and recognition for Game 3 for saving the Yankees’ season, but the bullpen deserves the same. Fernando Cruz, Camilo Doval, Tim Hill, Devin Williams and David Bednar combined for 6 2/3 scoreless innings of relief after Rodon pooped his pants in another postseason game. Outside of Luke Weaver and Will Warren (who isn’t a reliever), the bullpen has been exceptional in the postseason. Now that the Yankees have figured out Weaver is unusable, the level of trust in what was supposed to be the Yankees’ downfall has completely changed.

7. Aaron Boone had to press a lot of right buttons to navigate the game following Rodon’s failed start, and the only wrong button he pressed all night was letting Rodon stay in with runners on second and third and Anthony Santander up in the third. Rodon had nothing, and sure enough, Santander plated both runs with a line-drive single. Once Boone got Rodon out of the game, he made a career-high five correct bullpen decisions. His move to pinch hit Amed Rosario for Ryan McMahon as early as he did in the third inning was also the right call even though it didn’t work out. The Yankees had the tying run at the plate at the time and trailing by three in an elimination game, it wasn’t certain they would get the tying run to the plate again. Outside of letting Rodon pitch as long as he did, Boone managed with the urgency one needs to manage with the season (and possibly his job) on the line and he was successful. The Boone Yankees are now 9-6 in elimination games and the Yankees as a whole kept their never-been-swept-in-the-ALDS streak alive.

8. The Yankees will face elimination against on Wednesday for the fourth time in eight days. It will be Cam Schlittler against a Blue Jays bullpen game, a day after the Blue Jays used all but two relievers to get through Game 4. The Yankees have a massive advantage on the mound, though it does come with its worries.

I don’t expect Schlittler to have anywhere need the kind of outing he had in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series because outings like that happen close to never in the postseason and also because the Red Sox suck and the Blue Jays don’t. Schlittler faced the Blue Jays in his second career start back on July 22 in Toronto and allowed two earned runs over five innings with a whole lot of traffic (10 baserunners). The next time he faced the Blue Jays on September 5 at Yankee Stadium, he got lit up. He didn’t make it through the second inning and allowed four earned runs and eight baserunners in 1 2/3 innings. In Schlittler’s 15-start career, the Blue Jays have given him the most trouble.

The Blue Jays handle high velocity and they don’t strike out and Schlittler throws high velocity and tries to get strikeouts. It’s not a good matchup for him, but a bullpen game against the Yankees isn’t a good matchup for the Blue Jays. The Yankees need Schlittler to go out there and have a normal start in terms of innings, as in five-plus innings. They can’t have what Max Fried gave them in Game 1 or what Rodon gave them in Game 2, which was 5 1/3 innings and 13 earned runs from their two highly-paid lefties. Schlittler needs to go out and return the rotation and starting pitching in the postseason to normalcy have three straight bad starts from Luis Gil, Fried and Rodon.

9. I have to think John Schneider will use a lefty to serve as either the opener or bulk reliever in Game 4. He wants to make Boone have to make decisions on playing his lefty bats and when to go to his bench. The Blue Jays bullpen had to get 16 outs in Game 3 and the Yankees have now seen and gotten to their two biggest non-closer arms in Mason Fluharty and Louis Varland. The Blue Jays went into this season with their bullpen as their weakest facet and now its fatigued and has been exposed. The only Blue Jays relievers to not pitch in Game 3 were Seranthony Dominguez and Jeff Hoffman and I wouldn’t be worried about the Yankees facing either.

If the offense shows up on Wednesday like it did on Tuesday then Schlittler won’t need to come close to the version of himself he was against the Red Sox. Judge finally broke through. Maybe Chisholm finally broke through with his go-ahead home run. Now it’s time for Stanton, Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham to do the same.

10. “Tonight was special, but there’s still more work to be done,” Judge said. “Hopefully we have some more cool moments like this the rest of the postseason.”

How long the rest of the postseason lasts for the Yankees will be determined on Wednesday. I expected the Yankees to win Game 3, and I expect them to win Game 4. I expect the Yankees’ season to survive a fourth elimination game and I expect there to be a Game 5 on Friday.

1. After a 68-hour break from being on the brink of elimination, on Sunday afternoon, the Yankees returned to where they spent last Wednesday and Thursday: a loss away from their season ending.

So much for winning this series in four games with a starting pitching edge in Games 2 through 5. The only way for the Yankees to survive the ALDS and the Blue Jays and advance to the ALCS for the third time in four years is to win three straight games against a team they are 5-10 against this season.

2. Game 2 was over quickly. The Blue Jays led 2-0 in the second, 5-0 in the third and 11-0 in the fourth. The final six innings of the game were a formality and the seven runs the Yankees scored in the sixth and seventh innings were as meaningful as Luke Weaver finishing the season with six straight scoreless appearances against the Twins, Orioles and White Sox. The Yankees scored seven runs against the back end of the Blue Jays bullpen. It doesn’t mean the Yankees finally woke up in the series. It doesn’t set them up to explode in Game 3. It means nothing and won’t serve as some kind of momentous connection to Game 3 on Tuesday. Momentum is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher and the Yankees don’t hit postseason starting pitching unless the opposition’s defense helps them out.

3. Trey Yesavage did to the Yankees what Cam Schlittler did to the Red Sox. In fact, Yesavage’s start was more impressive than Schlittler’s. Schlittler faced an anemic, banged-up, two-hitter lineup, while Yesavage faced the Yankees at full strength. Schlittler had 12 strikeouts over eight innings. Yesavage had 11 strikeouts in 5 1/3 no-hit innings. The Blue Jays pulled him in the sixth because the game was out of hand and there was nothing to gain by having him continue to waste pitches in a blowout or he likely would have struck out 15-plus.

It was Yesavage’s fourth major-league start and in his other three starts (two against the Rays and one against the Royals) he had traffic against him throughout each of them. But not against the Yankees on a postseason stage. Not against a group of left-handers who swung at his splitter like they were blindfolded, the same way they swung and missed at Kevin Gausman’s splitter the day before. It was a putrid performance from the offense.

4. Max Fried matched the offense’s putridness. The starting pitcher with the 5.10 career postseason ERA the Yankees gave $218 million to pooped his pants on the Rogers Centre mound, allowing seven earned runs and 10 baserunners in three innings. He couldn’t retire Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Ernie Clement or even the only left-handed bat in the lineup in Daulton Varsho. When Fried was mercifully pulled from the game after the third inning, Will Warren did his best Fried impression by allowing six earned runs of his own over 4 2/3 innings, including four home runs.

5. The Blue Jays went into this series without Bo Bichette, Chris Bassitt and Jose Berrios and hold a 2-0 lead and have outscored the Yankees 23-8 and 11-1 while both teams were still managing, playing and operating as they would in a normal game setting. All of the Yankees’ offensive stats over the final 3 2/3 innings of Game 2 can be disregarded.

The trio of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton failed to do anything meaningful again. Well, unless, you consider Judge misplaying a double into a triple in the second inning or the three of them padding their stats in the late innings when the game was already over to be meaningful. While Guerrero Jr. and company were teeing off on Fried and Warren, the Yankees’ Big 3 continued to swing and miss and hit singles.

The Red Sox’ few great players lived up to expectations in the three-game series (Garrett Crochet, Trevor Story, Alex Bregman and Aroldis Chapman) and through two games the Blue Jays’ best players have done the same. Through five postseason games, the only Yankees to live up to expectation were Fried in his start against the Red Sox (which has since been negated by his start in the ALDS) and Cam Schlittler. No Yankees bat has been consistent and I don’t want to hear that Judge is hitting .444 with a 1.024. Could there be a more empty .444 batting average and 1.024 OPS in the postseason?

6. The narrative the Yankees are running out of time to win with Judge is now circulating as the Yankees are a loss away from watching their season end and it’s sickening. The Yankees haven’t won in the postseason in Judge’s career because of Judge! He has driven in two runs in the playoffs: the first was an incorrectly-scored base hit and RBI that Jarren Duran dropped and the second was a single on Sunday with the Yankees trailing by 11 runs in the seventh inning. How about Judge does what Story did in the Wild Card Series, or what Guerrero Jr. has done in the ALDS? How about he does something, anything at the plate to drive in a run that doesn’t fall out of a fielder’s glove or isn’t when the score is a double-digit difference.

7. The Aaron Boone era has been a collection of postseason disasters.

2018: Lose both home games in the ALDS, including the most lopsided home postseason loss in franchise history in Game 4.

2019: Lose four of the last five games in the ALCS and get walked off on by Jose Altuve.

2020: The Deivi Garcia/J.A. Happ debacle.

2021: Embarrassed at Fenway Park in the wild-card game.

2022: Swept by the Astros after Boone uses video of the 2024 ALCS as a motivation tactic.

2023: Missed postseason.

2024: Nestor Cortes vs. Freddie Freeman and the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series.

2025: 23 runs allowed in first two games of the ALDS.

Every postseason elimination has come with humiliation for the Boone Yankees and while the results of the first two games of this series aren’t on him at all, they still happened during his tenure. His Yankees lost 10-1 after he called out Buck Martinez for calling out his Yankees when he didn’t need to. His Yankees allowed 13 runs and were no-hit until the Blue Jays had enough bullying the Yankees after he said he expects his team to show up and play well in Game 2. How about he keeps his mouth shut before Game 3, but that wouldn’t be very Boone Yankees-like if he did.

8. The Boone Yankees have set preposterous franchise records, ranging from the most lopsided home postseason loss in franchise history (Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS) to allowing double-digit runs in back-to-back postseason games for the first time in franchise history. After seven failed attempts to win a championship as Yankees manager, Boone is now a loss away from an eighth. With each passing year, Boone’s record for most seasons managing the Yankees before winning a championship grows closer to Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak in terms of how likely it is to ever be broken.

9. The Yankees will return home for Tuesday’s Game 3 and will play for their season for the third time in their last five games. The Yankees at home against the Blue Jays are a much different team than the Yankees in Toronto against the Blue Jays. The Yankees won four of six at home against the Blue Jays this season, while they have lost eight of nine in Toronto. I expect the Yankees to send this series back to Toronto solely because they are home and have the starting pitching advantage in Games 3 and 4.

10. If the Yankees’ season ends in this series, you will hear about how great a year they had winning 94 games and tied for the best record in baseball. You won’t hear about how they went 9-17 against the Red Sox and Blue Jays and blew an eight-game lead over the Blue Jays and how if they had won the division, then Games 1 and 2 of this series would have been at Yankee Stadium. You will hear from Boone about how sweet it will be once they finally win it all and you will hear Brian Cashman refer to the postseason as a crapshoot, a phrase the organization didn’t use when they used to win. It wasn’t until the Yankees stopped winning that the playoffs became the result of randomness with no skill or ability needed to succeed. It’s hard to believe anyone could believe postseason success is tied to chance or luck when the reason the Yankees are eliminated every year is the same. I guess the organization has just been unlucky for the last 15 years (going on 16) and in 23 of the last 24 years (going on 25) and the Boone Yankees have just been unlucky the entire time.

Maybe the Boone Yankees will get lucky and erase an 0-2 ALDS deficit like the Joe Torre and Joe Girardi Yankees did. Maybe their highest-paid players will act and play like it for the remainder of this series. If not, the Yankees can run it back next year with the same manager and roster and issues and see if the same manager and roster and issues can finally get lucky and win it all.

1. Bases loaded, no outs and Aaron Judge at the plate. It’s a dream scenario for Yankees fans at any time other than October. Trailing the Blue Jays 2-0 in the sixth inning of Game 1 of the ALDS with Anthony Volpe on third, Austin Wells on second and Trent Grisham on first and no outs, Judge struck out on a splitter from Kevin Gausman and that was the game.

“I wouldn’t say I was overanxious,” Judge said despite him swinging at a 3-2 splitter well off the plate suggesting otherwise. “But in the end, I didn’t get the job done. That’s what it comes down to, just not doing your job.”

Judge has rarely ever done his job in the postseason, as shown by his career postseason OPS being 252 points lower than his career regular-season OPS. He may be the most dominant right-handed regular-season bat in the history of the game, but when the calendar turns to October, his abilities annually disappear.

2. This is what I wrote about Judge after Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series.

I truly think Judge will have his signature postseason if the Yankees’ season continues past Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. In past postseasons, Judge has looked lost from his first at-bat. He has only hit singles in this series, but he got one each off of Crochet, Chapman and Bello — three household names. He’s been on base four times in eight plate appearances and has only struck out twice against top-tier arms. If the monster hit doesn’t come for Judge in Game 3 and the Yankees are able to advance, the Blue Jays are in for a world of shit in the ALDS. For someone who has been as critical of Judge in the playoffs as anyone in the world, I really believe this postseason could be his 2009 Alex Rodriguez postseason.

It turns out it’s the Yankees who are in a world of shit because of Judge’s bat in the ALDS, not the Blue Jays. Judge went on to hit a meaningless double in his next at-bat with no one on and the game already out of hand. It was his first extra-base hit of the postseason and his one RBI remains the ball that was incorrectly scored a hit off of Jarren Duran’s glove in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series.

Judge’s swing decision on the splitter from Gausman on Saturday was disturbing. The pitch was never a strike. Not when it left Gausman’s hand, not when it traveled toward the plate and not when it reached the plate (since it never really reached the plate and finished in the other batter’s box). If Judge takes the pitch, it’s a 2-1 game with the bases still loaded and no outs and Bellinger up. If Judge drive any of the pitches in the zone in the at-bat, the Yankees likely take the lead in that spot and may have already accomplished getting a split of the first two games in Toronto. Instead, they need to now do in Game 2 what the Blue Jays did in Game 1 and win a game they are expected to win.

3. Judge isn’t alone in the offensive blame for Game 1. The entire offense failed, and their game plan to swing early against Gausman worked brilliantly in the Blue Jays’ favor, producing first-pitch outs on weak ground balls and lazy fly balls.

This is what I wrote about the Yankees’ offense after Game 2 of the Wild Card Series:

The one thing that gives me optimism in the offense is that Judge, Bellinger and Stanton haven’t done anything yet. … The longer the Yankees go in the postseason without those three hitting the ball in the gap or over the fence, the more optimistic I become about the Yankees’ chances this October.

This still holds true. Stanton had the double off the wall in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series that he admired and was nearly thrown out at second on. Bellinger had the bloop double in that game that should have been caught. Judge had a double in Game 1 of the ALDS, and in typical Judge fashion, it came when the game was over. And that’s all they have done with the bat. The trio has done close to nothing through four postseason games, and yet, the Yankees have already won a round and are in a great position with how the starting pitching lines up for the remainder of this series to win this round. But at some point, these three, or even one of these three is going to need to start hitting like they are capable of. Every other team’s stars and middle-of-the-order bats are hitting like they are expected to in the postseason, but not the Yankees.

4. The Yankees have scored 10 runs in four postseason games. Here is how they have scored those runs:

Run 1: Solo home run
Runs 2-3: Two-run home run
Run 4: Dropped fly ball
Run 5: Runner scores from first on a single inside the right-field line
Run 6: Ground ball through the left side
Run 7: Ground ball through the right side
Runs 8-9: Ground ball off the first baseman’s glove
Run 10: Bases loaded walk

The “best offense in baseball” isn’t hitting the ball over the wall and isn’t drawing walks. Instead, they are doing what they do every October, but this time Stanton isn’t carrying everyone else like he normally does, and Juan Soto isn’t there to make up for Judge.

5. Lose 2-1, 5-1, 6-1, 10-1, who gives a shit? A loss in the playoffs is a loss, and the Yankees were actually better off losing 10-1 than 2-1 in Game 1 of the ALDS because they didn’t have to unnecessarily burn Devin Williams or David Bednar in a loss, like they did in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series.

I’m actually OK with the loss because it was the only game in the series the Blue Jays had to have. They had six days off, had their No. 1 starter going on extra rest and were home. The Yankees used their No. 4 (or even No 5. starter) had played three games in the previous four days — two of which were elimination games — and had to travel from New York to Toronto after finishing an elimination game just 41 hours prior. If the Blue Jays were to lose Game 1 given everything set up in their favor I would be writing about the potential for a Yankees sweep in these Thoughts.

6. I don’t think the Yankees will lose another game in this series. The Blue Jays lack a left-handed starter and in the next two games will throw Trey Yesavage and Shane Bieber and have no true starter to use in Game 4 with Jose Berrios and Chris Bassitt both injured. Yesavage has started three games in his career — totaling his entire major-league workload — and those starts came against the Rays twice and the Royals. Bieber made seven starts this season after missing most of this year and nearly all of last year following surgery (and the Yankees have prior postseason success against him). Even if this series goes five games, the Yankees would have Fried in that winner-take-all game against Gausman, which is a much different scenario than having Luis Gil.

7. Gil allowed two solo home runs and four hits total in his 2 2/3 innings of work on Saturday and Aaron Boone was right to take him out when he did. Gil, Tim Hill and Camil Doval combined to throw what was essentially a six-inning, two-run start and most games that would be good enough to win. But not when the offense doesn’t show up and not when Luke Weaver is the first guy out of the bullpen in a one-run game.

In using Weaver in the seventh inning of a 2-1 game, Boone was able to find out if he can use Weaver moving forward in a game the Yankees were already losing, and he quickly found out he can’t. Weaver faced three batters and didn’t retire any of them, just like he did in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series. He went from the fourth-most trusted reliever in the bullpen to likely needing to be left off of the ALCS roster, if the Yankees reach the next round. Weaver said, “I don’t really feel like myself” after the game and you simply can’t let a guy pitch again in the postseason who says that.

8. Boone going to Weaver in that spot wasn’t his only blunder of the night. With the Yankees trailing 2-1 in the top of the seventh, Ryan McMahon singled to put the tying run on base. McMahon remained on first base for the first three pitches of Volpe’s at-bat before being removed for a pinch runner in Jose Caballero. Why did Boone wait to use Caballero as a pinch runner? “I changed my mind,” Boone said. So Boone wasted three pitches Caballero might have had a chance to steal on and then Caballero never even attempted to steal as Volpe struck out. Caballero did run on an 0-1 pitch to Austin Wells, but Wells grounded out to first to end the inning. So Boone wasted his most valuable pinch runner for a spot in which he didn’t get a chance to steal. For anyone who wants to praise Boone for letting Cam Schlittler go eight innings in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series, just know the real Boone still exists and is still in there.

9. Just like in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, I expect Max Fried to pitch well. If he doesn’t then nothing else matters and the Yankees are the frauds I have thought the Blue Jays to be all season. This type of game is why the Yankees signed Fried and this very game is the kind the Yankees could always count on Andy Pettitte to win. Joe Torre always thought Game 2 of a series was the most important because you either have a chance to go up 2-0 or tie the series at 1. If the Yankees tie the series at 1 going back to New York for Games 3 and 4, they will have turned the best-of-5 into a best-of-3 and possess the home-field advantage they pissed away when they failed to win the division

10. The offense and mainly Judge, Stanton and Bellinger will likely determine the outcome in Game 2. If it’s a fifth straight postseason game with the trio doing nothing then the Yankees will likely be right back on the brink of elimination after a 68-hour break from the brink. It the trio or any one of them decides to show on Sunday then the Yankees will head home in control of the series.

I thought the Yankees would win this series in four before it started and the lopsided loss in Game 1 doesn’t change my mind. If the Yankees are to stay on track to win this series in four games, the offense will have to do something it hasn’t done this postseason: get production from its highest-paid bats.

1. It started with a late-game, two-out walk. That’s how the Red Sox’ began their improbable comeback in the 2004 ALCS to defeat the Yankees, becoming the first team in history to erase a 3-0 series deficit. And it was a late-game, two-out walk in this series that led to the winning run in Game 2 as the Yankees staved off elimination on back-to-back nights to become the first team in the Wild Card Series era to survive the round after losing the first game of the series.

The fact it was a Massachusetts native, Northeastern alumnus and former Red Sox fan who ended the Red Sox’ season made it that much sweeter. After being eliminated by the Red Sox in 2004, 2018 and 2021, the Yankees have once again flipped the rivalry back in their favor. After losing nine of their last 10 games postseason games to the Red Sox following the disappointing Game 1 loss, the Yankees have now won their last two postseason games against the Red Sox.

2. Cam Schlittler. He is the reason the Yankees’ season is alive and the reason they are going to be playing on Saturday (where they always should have been playing if they didn’t blow an eight-game division lead to the Blue Jays). What a performance for the rookie making his 15th major league start: 8 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 12 K. He dominated the Red Sox from the first batter of the game until the final out of the eighth inning. Schlittler destroyed the region he is from and the fanbase he was once part of with the most brilliant performance anyone could ask for. No one is talking about what Garrett Crochet did in Game 1 anymore. No one cares what Crochet did in Game 1 anymore. Schlittler is the story of this series. On a night in which Bucky Dent threw out the ceremonial first pitch and Aaron Boone was in the Yankees dugout, Schlittler became the latest Yankee to have his middle name changed to the F-word by Red Sox fans.

3. While the Game 1 loss sucked, it ended up being a very important loss. The way Game 1 played out and the moves that backfired on Boone led to him completely changing his managerial style in Games 2 and 3. The reason Boone left Carlos Rodon in so long in Game 2 was because of the backlash he received for pulling Max Fried when he did in Game 1, while Alex Cora let Crochet pitch into the eighth inning. The reason Ben Rice and Jazz Chisholm got to start against a lefty in Game 3 is because of the heat Boone took for benching two of his best players for platoon reasons in Game 1. The reason Schlittler got to go back out for the eighth in Game 3 was because of what Boone watched Cora let Crochet do in Game 1. You can count on one hand the times Boone has managed to the game unfolding in front of him rather than from some predetermined script in his career and you’ll likely have a couple of fingers left over. Thursday was one of those times as Schlittler kept appearing on the mound at the start of each late inning. I would have sent him back out for the ninth because he was throwing strikes and hadn’t lost any velocity. His delivery is so effortless that it looks like a 57-mph lob from a position player in a lopsided game is going to leave his hand and instead it’s 102 four-seam fastballs, 100-mph two-season fastballs and 99-mph cutters. Schlittler lost nothing over eight innings.

4. The Red Sox’ infield defense is why they struggled at times this season and that infield defense reared its head at the most opportune time for the Yankees. The Red Sox’ fourth-inning defensive meltdown was beautiful. Watching it as a Yankees fan is what I imagine Dodgers fans experienced watching the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series last year.

The beloved center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela decided to not chase down Cody Bellinger’s leadoff bloop in the fourth in a straight line and his diving attempt to make up for his odd route was unsuccessful leading to a leadoff “double.” Giancarlo Stanton followed with a walk before Rice had an ugly strikeout. Amed Rosario’s sole purpose on the Yankees is to hit left-handed pitching and he failed in Game 1 going 0-for-3 against Crochet and made an out against Connelly Early in his first at-bat in Game 3. But Rosario came through this time, pulling an outside 1-0 changeup through the hole on the left side to score Bellinger and gives the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Chisholm hit a line-drive single to right to load the bases with one out and Anthony Volpe pushed a ground ball through the right side to make it 2-0. Austin Wells then provided the biggest at-bat of the game. With the bases still loaded and one out, Wells fell behind 0-2 only to grind out a nine-pitch at-bat and then hit a 100.3-mph ball to first. Wells’ ball could have been an inning-ending double play, but it instead turned into two runs off the glove of mid-August waiver claim Nathaniel Lowe. 4-0 Yankees.

5. The Yankees didn’t score again in the inning. They didn’t score again in the game. They didn’t need to because Schlittler kept throwing fastballs past the Red Sox’ bats. Schlittler threw 90 percent fastballs in the game and never once tried to fool the Red Sox with his secondary pitches. It was the ultimate “Here it is, hit it” game and the Red Sox couldn’t. They had one baserunner reach as far as second base the entire game.

The win saved the Yankees’ season and possibly saved Boone’s job. But if he were to manage with more feel for each live game and less “Luke Weaver is coming into the game in this predetermined spot no matter what” then no one would have a problem with his decision making. If Boone plays his ‘A’ lineup each game in the postseason and isn’t quick to go to his shaky bullpen the Yankees will be just fine. They will be more than fine.

6. As I wrote before the postseason, the Red Sox in a best-of-3 series was the worst possible draw for the Yankees. I would have felt comfortable and confident playing the Red Sox in a best-of-5 or best-of-7 and I would have felt the same playing any other AL team in any series length. The Yankees survived their worst possible matchup and now the path back to the World Series is right there for them. I expect them to reach the World Series.

7. Because I expect them to reach the World Series, that means I expect them to eliminate the Blue Jays in the ALDS, and I do. The Blue Jays aren’t better than the Yankees. It doesn’t matter that they finished with the same 94-68 record. It doesn’t matter that the Blue Jays won the season series 8-5. When the Yankees were swept in four games in Toronto from June 30-July 3, the combination of DJ LeMahieu and Oswald Peraza was the Yankees’ starting second baseman; Chisholm was playing third base; Geoff Hartlieb, JT Brubaker, Clayton Beeter and Ian Hamilton came out of the bullpen. The Yankees are a much different team today than they were midseason when they blew their big division lead. And so are the Blue Jays. Bo Bichette and Chris Bassitt are hurt and Jose Berrios’ season fell apart. While the Yankees’ bullpen is a collection of highly-talented, yet highly-untrustworthy arms, it looks like the late-’90s Yankees bullpen compared to the Blue Jays’. The Yankees are a better, deeper team than the Blue Jays, and in one of the rare occurrences, the Yankees have the managerial advantage. John Schneider makes Boone seem like Joe Torre or Bruce Bochy.

8. The Blue Jays don’t have a single lefty in their rotation, which means the Yankees can deploy their ‘A’ lineup every game and not have to worry about matchup bullshit. Boone can write out Grisham, Judge, Bellinger, Rice, Stanton, Chisholm, Wells, Volpe, McMahon each game and not have to worry about it. The Yankees are set up to go Luis Gil in Game 1, Fried in Game 2, Rodon in Game 3, Schlittler in Game 4 and they can go back to Fried on normal rest for Game 5. The Yankees have the rotation advantage. They have the lineup advantage. They have the bullpen advantage. They have the managerial advantage. If they don’t run the bases like drunks like John Sterling famously said during the World Series last year and don’t beat themselves on defense, they will beat the Blue Jays and advance to the ALCS. I expect the Yankees to advance to the ALCS. It will be a massive failure if they don’t win this series.

9. It’s been 22 years since I had this feeling of the Yankees being responsible for the end of the Red Sox’ season and I forgot how good it feels. Seeing the lost looks on the faces of the Red Sox watching the Yankees celebrate on the Yankee Stadium field last night was the kind of warm feeling only this matchup can provide. It brought me back to watching Pedro Martinez with his hooded sweatshirt pulled over his head depressingly watching the Yankees’ Game 7 celebration in the 2003 ALCS. I missed this glorious feeling.

10. I’m going to spend Friday enjoying the win over the Red Sox, watching Schlittler’s 12 strikeouts on a loop and consuming as many Game 3 postgame reactions from Red Sox fans who watched their season end at the hands of one of their own as possible. I will start to worry about the Blue Jays and ALDS on Saturday. Today is a day for celebration. Tomorrow afternoon in Toronto, it’s back to work.

1. I thought it was gone. I think most people did. When the ball left Ceddanne Rafaela’s bat on an 0-2 pitch from David Bednar in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the Wild Card Series, it looked like the game would improbably be tied at 4. But Aaron Judge raced back to the warning track, paused and waited for the ball in what turned out to be nothing more than a game-ending out. Ballgame over, Yankees win, season saved … for a day.

The Yankees were successful in staving off elimination for the first time this postseason not necessarily because of what they did, but because of what the Red Sox didn’t do. Brayan Bello failed to to erase a sluggish finish to the season by continuing to be bad; Jarren Duran slid for a ball off the bat of Judge that he didn’t need to slide for to give the Yankees a temporary lead; Rafaela popped up a bunt to the mound with runners on first and second and no outs in the seventh and Nate Eaton didn’t race home to give the Rd Sox the lead when Jazz Chisholm tried to make a hero play on an infield single. The Yankees tried to give the Red Sox the game. They did everything they could to do so and were fortunate to win and keep their season alive.

2. There’s nothing Carlos Rodon hates more than an early lead and after Ben Rice hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the first, Rodon gave up a single to Duran to lead off the third and then walked Rafaela. Rafaela had the fifth-worst walk rate in the league this season and yet it was his 11-pitch walk against Luke Weaver that changed Game 1 and it was his walk against Rodon in the third inning that eventually led to two runs to tie the game.

When the Yankees took the lead in the fifth on the ball Duran unnecessarily slid for, Rodon gave it right back on the third pitch of the next inning, a 2-0, middle-middle fastball that Trevor Story crushed over the left-field wall. I figured Aaron Boone would take Rodon out then, but Boone let Rodon face Alex Bregman and Rodon walked him on four pitches. OK, now Boone would take him out, right? Nope. Boone went to the mound and left the mound without Rodon. Rodon rewarded him by getting out of the inning.

3. Boone is a reactionary manager. He took so much heat and will continue to do so if the Yankees don’t win this series for removing Max Fried in Game 1 that he wasn’t going to remove Rodon in Game 2. This is what he does. He tries to make up for a mistake by doing the inverse even if the inverse isn’t the right decision. That’s why Boone let Rodon go back out for the seventh. And Rodon walked Eaton on four pitches and still got to stay in the game. He then fell behind Duran 3-0 before drilling him. Had the ball not hit hit Duran, it would have been ball 4 to the backstop and Eaton would have been on third with no outs.

Finally, Boone took the ball from Rodon in favor of Fernando Cruz. After fouling the first pitch off on a bunt attempt, Rafaela tried to bunt again and popped it up right back to Cruz. Thank you for the free out, Cora! Nick Sogard followed with a flyout to left. Game 1 pinch-hit hero Masataka Yoshida then came up and hit a 3-2 pitch up the middle that Chisholm laid out for and gloved. There was no way Chisholm was going to get Yoshida at first to end the inning, but in typical Yankees’ middle-infield fashion, he tried. Chisholm threw a hopper to Ben Rice that Rice couldn’t handle, but thankfully Eaton stayed at third. If Eaton had run home as soon as Chisholm throws the ball to first, he scores. Even if Rice fields it cleanly, he scores. But Eaton did the Yankees a favor by staying put and Cruz got Story to fly out to the deepest part of the park with the bases loaded to end the seventh. After getting the last out of the inning, Cruz went wild, and did every process of transforming into the Hulk except for turning green. To Red Sox fans and anyone watching who doesn’t watch the Yankees throughout the season, they were likely astonished at his reaction, but he has acted like that all season. He’s a 35-year-old reliever who didn’t make the majors until he was 32 and finally became an elite arm this year. He can do whatever he wants.

After Cruz got out of the seventh, the Yankees stranded a one-out double from Trent Grisham. Devin Williams worked around a leadoff single by Bregman in the top of the eighth and the Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the eighth. Chisholm worked a two-out, seven-pitch walk off of former Yankees prospect Garrett Whitlock and came around to score on an Austin Wells single just inside the right-field line. If Wells had hit that same ball at any time in the at-bat other than on a 3-2 pitch, Chisholm doesn’t score on the play. Thankfully, he did.

The Yankees loaded the bases against Whitlock before he was removed for rookie lefty Payton Tolle. With Grisham up, I would have removed Grisham and pinch hit with Jose Caballero. Scoring again was much more important than having Grisham in center field in the ninth when you could move Bellinger over to center and have Caballero play left. Grisham can’t hit lefties and he didn’t again, grounding out against Tolle. Cora knew Boone would value having Grisham in center in the ninth rather than scoring again and knew he wouldn’t have to worry about Boone using a righty bat once Tolle came into the game.

After falling behind Wilyer Abreu 2-0 and then going to 3-2 to begin the ninth, Bednar blew away Abreu with a 97-mph fastball. Bednar then went full again against Duran before striking him out looking with a 98-mph fastball on the inside corner. Bednar got ahead of Rafaela 0-2 and then Rafaela put a drive into the ball I thought was gone (and I think most people did) before Judge put it away to end the game.

4. For once, an ex-Yankee-tuned-Red Sox helped the Yankees to a postseason win. In 2018, the ex-Yankee trio of Nathan Eovaldi, Steve Pearce and Eduardo Nunez helped end the Yankees’ season and lead the Red Sox to a championship. Eovaldi was an awful Yankee, capable of throwing triple digits and incapable of striking anyone out. Nunez was supposed to the heir at short to Derek Jeter and the Yankees wouldn’t part with Nunez for Cliff Lee in 2010 because of that only to eventually release Nunez in 2014 to keep Yangervis Solarte out of spring training. Pearce had 30 plate appearances for the 2012 Yankees and hit .160/.300/.280. Eovaldi pitched the Red Sox to an ALDS Game 3 win over the Yankees in 2018 and became a World Series hero against the Dodgers. Nunez made an unbelievable play to save Game 4 in the ninth inning in the ALDS (a play he never would have made as a Yankee) and hit a huge home run in the World Series. Pearce was named World Series MVP.

But finally, on Wednesday, Whitlock — a pitcher the Yankees didn’t protect in the 2020 Rule 5 draft so they could protect Nick Nelson and Brooks Kriske — came through for the Yankees by walking Chisholm with two outs in the eighth. Through Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS, the Yankees had been 11-4 against the Red Sox in postseason history. But from Game 4 of the 2024 ALCS through Tuesday’s Game 1, the Red Sox had gone 9-1 against the Yankees. Maybe that walk will be the turning point in righting the postseason rivalry in favor of the Yankees. It was a walk — Kevin Millar against Mariano Rivera — that started that 9-1 run, so maybe it’s a walk that starts a Yankees-favored future.

5. No one knows what to expect in Game 3. I think everyone knew Fried and Garrett Crochet would provide ace-like performances in Game 1 and they did. I think Yankees fans knew Rodon wouldn’t put the team on his back and pitch them to a season-saving win in Game 1 and he didn’t, and I think Red Sox feared Bello’s bad September would carry over into October and it did. In Game 3, you’re getting a 24-year-old rookie starter for the Yankees with 14 career starts going against a 23-year-old rookie starter for the Red Sox with four career starts. They could both poop their pants in the first inning and this could become a bullpen game, or they could both show the impressive dominance they possess and why they are in the spot they are to start a win-or-go-home playoff game at this stage of their career.

Schlittler will be the first right-handed starter the Red Sox have faced in the series, so that means a lineup we haven’t seen yet from the Red Sox. With Early being a lefty, it makes things interesting for the Yankees and Boone will do with his lineup.

6. As I wrote earlier, Boone is reactionary. He had to deal with a shitstorm for pulling Fried on Tuesday, so he let Rodon go too long on Wednesday and it nearly ended their season. He had to steal with the shitstorm of not playing Rice and Chisholm on Tuesday, so I guarantee you both will be in the lineup on Thursday. I would put out the ‘A’ lineup with the only change being Amed Rosario for Ryan MacMahon. I would use righty-lefty alternation throughout to avoid giving Cora perfect lanes for his relievers if Early doesn’t go long.

Trent Grisham, CF
Aaron Judge, RF
Cody Bellinger, LF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Ben Rice, 1B
Amed Rosario, 3B
Jazz Chishom, 2B
Anthony Volpe, SS
Austin Wells, C

The only back-to-back lefties in that lineup are Wells to Grisham, but there’s a chance Early never gets to that part of the order. Either he’s dominant and gets to stay in or he starts off like Bello and Cora removes him immediately. Cora only let Bello throw 28 pitches and if he had thrown more, the Yankees may have exploded and put the game away early. Cora will have an even quicker hook in Game 3 than he did in Game 2 (and 28 pitches is as quick as it gets) because the season is on the line and it wasn’t for the Red Sox yesterday and he still removed Bello in the second. Boone will have to have an equally quick hook with Schlittler if things aren’t going well.

Boone’s plan for every game is laid out in his brain well before the game, and if he has to deviate from the plan, he doesn’t know what to do. We saw it in Game 1. His plan was to get exactly what he got from Fried and then go Weaver to Williams to Bednar to end the game. Once Weaver fucked it up, Boone wasn’t sure what to do, so he stayed with the plan even with the Yankees trailing.

If the Yankees had taken the lead in Game 2 earlier than the bottom of the eighth, it’s likely Boone would have screwed it up . But because they scored so late in the game and there was just one inning of outs to get, he was able to go to Bednar and not have to think. For the Yankees to win, they need Boone to not have to think because is he has to, he will make the wrong decision nearly every time. Boone would lose the lottery if you gave him the winning numbers.

7. Because Boone used his best relievers in Game 162 on Sunday (when he didn’t need to since the Blue Jays were routing the Rays by the time the Yankees’ late innings began), Cruz, Williams and Bednar have now all pitched three times in the last four days. Here are their pitch counts each day. Weaver threw on Sunday and Tuesday, but not Wednesday. I don’t think there’s any Yankees fan who wants to see Weaver in Game 3, but it’s high likely he will be in there unless Schlittler goes out gives six or seven innings.

Even if Schlittler does go out and give six innings, there will still be nine outs to get. In theory you could go Cruz, Williams Bednar and I think thats what the Boone would do, but the Red Sox have now seen these three multiple times in a short span. They have seen everything they have to offer.

Cruz has faced Story twice, Bregman twice, Rafaela twice, Sogard twice and Yoshida twice. I would be hesitant to let Cruz face any of them a third time.

Williams has faced Narvaez twice, Abreu, Duran, Rafaela, Bregman and Nathaniel Lowe.

Bednar has faced Sogard, Yoshida, Story, Bregman, Lowe, Abreu, Duran and Rafaela. He has faced nearly the entire Red Sox’ lineup once.

Cruz’s splitter, Williams changeup and Bednar’s curveball/fastball mix will undoubtedly have less effect in Game 3 than they did in Game 1 or Game 2. That’s what happens with relievers in short series. They get fatigued and hitters know their release points and pitches. Go look at the quotes from Yankees relievers following the 2019 ALCS when they couldn’t get any length out of their starters and the Astros started to hit Chad Green, Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino and Aroldis Chapman as the series went on. They all mentioned being fatigued in that series loss.

Weaver is going to pitch in Game 3. Tim Hill or Mark Leiter Jr. could appear Everything is on the table, including getting outs from Camilo Doval. The easiest path to a win and advancing is for Schlittler to go out and throw the ball like he did in his last two starts of the season, both against the Orioles. (12.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 15 K, 1 HR). The difference is the Orioles had nothing to play for in those games and are home for a reason, while the Red Sox have everything to play for on Thursday to avoid going home.

I don’t like the Yankees having to face a lefty, especially one that has 29 strikeouts to just four walks and no home runs allowed in his first 19 1/3 career innings, considering the Yankees offense lives off of walks and home runs. Yes, three of Early’s four starts came against the A’s (twice) and Rays, but he pitched well against the Tigers on Saturday (5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7K) when the Tigers still hadn’t clinched a postseason berth.

8. The one thing that gives me optimism in the offense is that Judge, Bellinger and Stanton haven’t done anything yet. Sure, Judge has four singles and Bellinger has a pair of singles as well, but the trio has combined for zero extra-base hits. Stanton doesn’t even have a hit yet. The longer the Yankees go in the postseason without those three hitting the ball in the gap or over the fence, the more optimistic I become about the Yankees’ chances this October. Especially, Bellinger and Stanton. Those two have come up in enormous spots in the first two games of this series and have failed each time. Bellinger and Stanton in the first inning in Game 1. Stanton in the ninth inning in Game 1. Bellinger in the third inning in Game 2. Stanton in the sixth inning in Game 2. Bellinger in the seventh inning in Game 2. The biggest moments in both games have found the duo and each time they haven’t done anything. I really believe that will change in Game 3. If it does, the Yankees will be guaranteed to play on Saturday in Toronto. If it doesn’t, someone else will have to do it.

9. I truly think Judge will have his signature postseason if the Yankees’ season continues past Game 3. In past postseasons, Judge has looked lost from his first at-bat. He has only hit singles in this series, but he got one each off of Crochet, Chapman and Bello — three household names. He’s been on base four times in eight plate appearances and has only struck out twice against top-tier arms. If the monster hit doesn’t come for Judge in Game 3 and the Yankees are able to advance, the Blue Jays are in for a world of shit in the ALDS. For someone who has been as critical of Judge in the playoffs as anyone in the world, I really believe this postseason could be his 2009 Alex Rodriguez postseason.

10. This series is playing out exactly as I expected and it’s why I would have had enormous confidence playing the Red Sox in any other format other than a best-of-3. They have arguably the best starting pitcher and closer in the game, but nothing else. Their second-best starter lasted 28 pitches, their third-best starter is out with an elbow injury. They are turning to a kid with four career starts to save their season and their lineup is full of names and players who could be sitting next to you right now and you would have no idea who they are. They are built for a three-game series and nothing else, and if the Yankees fail to advance against an inferior and banged-up roster with all games in the series in their own building, it will be more humiliating than any postseason loss under Boone, including the 2018 ALDS embarrassment, the 2022 ALCS sweep or the 2024 World Series disaster.

The Yankees have to save their season and end the Red Sox’ in Game 3. They have to.

Every fear of the Yankees having to play in the best-of-3, Wild Card Series against the Red Sox came to fruition in their Game 1 loss on Tuesday night. The worst-case scenario for the Yankees this postseason was not winning the division and drawing the Red Sox and the result for the series opener was predictable. The way the game played out was predictable. Every weakness the Yankees possess made an appearance in Game 1 and now they will play for their season in Game 2.

Let’s go through what I wrote about Game 1 leading up to it (italicized) and what transpired in Game 1.

If the Yankees had to play the Red Sox in a best-of-5, my confidence would be much greater than it is now. If they had to play them in a best-of-7, my confidence would be through the roof. But in a three-game series? I don’t know if there is any measurable confidence in this situation. That’s not because the Yankees are an inferior team. Quite the opposite. When they’re not beating themselves, the Yankees are a much better team than the Red Sox, especially with Rafael Devers in San Francisco and Roman Anthony on the injured list. The difference is the Red Sox have Garrett Crochet and the Yankees don’t.

I was right to have little confidence in the Yankees winning Game 1, but as I sat in my seat at Yankee Stadium prior to first pitch, I let myself think they could win, and when the Yankees led off the game with two hits against Crochet and Anthony Volpe hit a solo home run off him in the second, the thought grew. Maybe Crochet wouldn’t be his regular-season self in his first postseason start. Maybe he would endure the kind of postseason struggles other dominant lefties had to start their postseason careers like his counterpart on Tuesday in Fried.

Unfortunately, Crochet didn’t become pre-Yankees Fried or Clayton Kershaw. The Yankees couldn’t get to Crochet with two on and no outs and the heart of their order due up in the first and the Volpe home run wasn’t a sign of things to come, it was a wake-up call for Crochet. After the Volpe home run, the Yankees didn’t have a baserunner until Volpe singled in the eighth.

There are two ways to beat Crochet: multi-run home runs or working the count. The first is extremely hard to count on, but Crochet can be prone to the long ball. Run into a three-run home and you can win Game 1. Try to string together walks and singles and you will be playing for your season on Wednesday. Because planning for or counting on home runs isn’t wise, the Yankees’ best course of action is to tire Crochet, get his pitch count up and hope he’s out after six innings. Crochet had a 3.55 ERA in September, which was his highest ERA for a month this season and after leading the league in innings and strikeouts, there has to be some level of fatigue involved.

The Yankees couldn’t get baserunners against Crochet after the first inning and a solo home run was never going to be enough to win the game. Working the count didn’t go well either because you have to be able to make contact and foul off pitches to do that and the Yankees racked up 11 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings against Crochet. Crochet retired 17 straight Yankees from the Volpe home run in the second until the Volpe single in the eighth. His pitches by inning: 13, 16, 20, 14, 18, 13, 6, 17. The sixth and seventh innings were the missed opportunities to get to Crochet or get him out of the game, and six Yankees were retired on 19 pitches. Crochet was every bit as good as I feared he could be. The Yankees went 0-5 in games started by Crochet in 2025.

I expect Fried to pitch well because he has to pitch well. If he doesn’t then nothing else matters. The career 5.10 postseason ERA version of Fried can’t show up. He needs to go out and set the tone and have a clean first inning and give the top of the order a chance to put the pressure on the Red Sox. This type of game is why the Yankees signed Fried and because of that he should be expected to go out there and either best or match Crochet.

Fried did his job. He got through the first inning unscathed and gave the Yankees a chance to take an early lead just like I asked, but Cody Bellinger struck out and Giancarlo Stanton hit into an inning-ending double play.

The decision to pull Fried was obviously the wrong one, not just in hindsight, but in real time as well. Fried looked like he may be tiring at the end of the sixth, but he got an inning-ending double play, returned to the mound in the seventh and got the first out there as well. Ceddane Rafaela and Nick Sogard were due up. Rafaela owns a career .685 OPS. Nick Sogard has a career .656 OPS. The fact Sogard was starting in a postseason game was preposterous. The fact that Boone was scared to let his high-priced ace face him was even more so.

Boone couldn’t wait to get his hands on the game. He couldn’t wait to hop out of the dugout and do his strut to the mound and call on his shitty bullpen, and the first shitty reliever he called on was Luke Weaver. Weaver got ahead of Rafaela 0-2 and then nine pitches later walked him. He couldn’t retire Sogard and pinch hitter Masataka Yoshida drove in two runs on the first pitch he saw. Weaver faced three batters, retired none, erased the Yankees’ lead and put them in a one-run deficit in a matter of minutes after Fried had worked so hard over 6 1/3 innings to keep the Red Sox off the board.

The Yankees lineup producing in the postseason is what keeps me up at night. No matter what happens during the regular season, the entirety of the Yankees’ season each year hinges on whether or not the bats will be there in October.

Aaron Judge continued his postseason run of being a singles hitter; Paul Goldschmidt proved he has no power left in his bat to hit for extra bases (one extra-base hit since August 26); Cody Bellinger continued his career of being a bad postseason hitter (.817 career regular-season OPS and .658 career postseason OPS); Amed Rosario’s sole purpose for being on the team is to hit left-handed pitching and he went 0-for-3 with three groundouts to the left side; Trent Grisham may as well have batted without a bat, going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts; Austin Wells went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and Jose Caballero went 0-for-3 with one strikeout. Chisholm was the only bench player to get an at-bat and he hit a lazy fly ball against Chapman that Goldschmidt couldn’t score on because Boone forgot to pinch run Jasson Dominguez for Goldschmidt.

Stanton had a bad game. He had the most important at-bat of the game and struck out. Stanton strikes out a lot. He always has. But he has been the one Yankee to consistently show up in every postseason in this era, so I can’t be upset he didn’t come through in Game 1.

Then there’s the managerial mismatch between Boone and Alex Cora. Boone is 1-4 in the postseason against Cora and after being worried about Crochet pitching against the 2025 Yankees like 2009 Cliff Lee and the Yankees’ offense performing their annual postseason disappearing act, I’m most worried about Boone and what he’s capable of in the postseason.

Make that 1-5. Crochet pitched just like Lee, the offense didn’t show up and Boone did what he has done for eight years and seven postseasons: failed to put his players in the best possible position to succeed.

From the minute Boone filled out the lineup card until the very last out of the game, he blew every decision he had to make. Starting Grisham was foolish. Leaving Rice on the bench was idiotic. Pulling Fried against the bottom of the order was moronic. Inserting Jazz Chisholm into the game for defense instead of potential pinch-hit opportunity was shortsighted. Never letting Rice take a swing in the game was insane.

Every move Boone made, Cora was sitting there waiting to counter it. Boone pulled Fried, so Cora went to his bench against Weaver and Fernando Cruz. Boone didn’t start Rice, so Cora made sure he never got into the game by only using lefties. Boone put Chisholm into the game, so Cora made sure Chisholm didn’t get an at-bat against a righty. Cora knew if he tried to bridge Crochet to Aroldis Chapman with Garrett Whitlock that Rice would immediately hit, so he never allowed it. He was going to use Crochet for as long as he could and then go to Chapman and let those two decide the game. He wasn’t going to let Rice or Chisholm or any Yankees lefty bat decide the game against a righty.

I don’t know how many championships the Yankees would have since 2018 if Boone hade been the Red Sox’ manager and Cora the Yankees’ but I know it’s more than zero. Boone’s in-game management is always poor whether it’s late April or early August, and in the postseason when every decision is heightened, everyone can see just how bad he is at his job.

I like to say the Yankees need to outhit their own manager to win games to prevent him from having an impact on close games. That’s not possible in the playoffs where games are low scoring and close. Every decision Boone makes from the moment he starts to fill out his lineup card until the final out of each postseason game is crucial, and he has been incapable of handling the pressure that comes with making many consecutive correct decisions, which is what it takes to win in October.

The Yankees can’t slug their way to wins in the postseason because there are no bad teams or bad pitchers in the postseason. And because they can’t slug their way to wins, they can’t outhit their manager or their bullpen. And because they can’t outhit their manager or their bullpen, managerial decisions and relief appearances become that much more important, and the Yankees failed to provide offense, make correct personnel decisions or get outs once Fried left the game.

For six months and 162 games the Yankees told us all that they are a team that beats up on bad teams, can’t beat good teams or hit great starting pitching, can’t properly strategize and can’t get outs from the bullpen and Yankees fans somehow thought the 48 hours from the end of the regular season to the start of the postseason would change their identity. Fans bought into their 11-2 finish to the regular season despite the Twins, Orioles and White Sox not being part of the postseason. Maybe now after 163 games everyone will believe the Yankees when they show they are nothing more than bullies who beat up on bad pitching on bad teams and nothing more.

It took one postseason game for the Yankees to be put on the brink of elimination. Maybe this season will serve as a lesson to the organization that all 162 games matter, as had they won one more game from March through September they would be waiting to find out who their opponent is on Saturday instead of potentially being three days into their offseason on Saturday.

Following the game, Boone was reminded that the team that has lost Game 1 in the Wild Card Series has never won the series. He got a big smirk on his face and with a sarcastic tone responded, “We’re going to show up tomorrow and I expect us to do pretty well,” as if this team or any team under him has ever proven to do anything other than lie down in a postseason series against a non-AL Central team.

Carlos Rodon gets the ball in Game 2 and will pitch to save the season. If he can’t save it, at least Max Fried will be well rested for Opening Day.

1. Here are facts that should be used to build the Yankees’ Game 1 lineup against Garrett Crochet:

• Paul Goldschmidt hasn’t hit lefties (or anyone) in months. He has one extra-base hit (a double) since August 26.
• Amed Rosario is 3-for-6 with a home run against Crochet, which is as good as it gets against the lefty. Rosario should get the most possible plate appearances until Crochet is removed and then he can be removed as well.
• Ryan McMahon hit .184/.271/.263 against lefties this season. All lefties. Not just Crochet. So if he put up a .534 OPS against lefties with bad lefties included, he can’t play against Crochet. It doesn’t matter how good his glove is or that Max Fried is on the mound. He’s unplayable against lefties.
• Ben Rice is 1-for-8 against Crochet with a double, which may not seem very good, but of the seven outs Rice has made against Crochet, none have been strikeouts. As a lefty, being able to put the ball in play every time against Crochet is impressive. He should be playing.
• Austin Wells homered and doubled off Crochet back in June at Yankee Stadium, so there’s the possibility of success for him against the dominant lefty. Because of the Red Sox’ potential running game, Wells has to play for defensive purposes.
• Jose Caballero had an .813 OPS against lefties this season. He has to play.
• Jazz Chisholm is a putrid matchup against Crochet, even before you factor in the hit by pitch Chisholm suffered on Saturday that kept him out of the lineup on Sunday.

2. Because of all these facts, this is the lineup I proposed for the Yankees for Game 1, knowing full well the actual lineup won’t come close to it:

Amed Rosario, LF
Aaron Judge, RF
Cody Bellinger, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Anthony Volpe, SS
Jose Caballero, 3B
Ben Rice, 1B
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Austin Wells, C

This lineup may seem insane because I’m stacking three lefties in a row at the bottom of the order against Crochet, which sets up a magnificent lane for him to get outs, but the disparity in numbers for righties against him and lefties is so great that you need all righties at the top to get them the most plate appearances possible. (Righties have a .654 OPS against him and lefties have a .455 OPS against him.) Get the righties as many plate appearances against him as you can, and then remove them as you see fit. Trent Grisham for Rosario when a righty comes in. McMahon for Caballero or Volpe when a righty comes in. Goldschmidt for Rice for defense when Rice is guaranteed to not bat again.

3. Following the Yankees’ workout at the Yankee Stadium yesterday, it looks like Goldschmidt will be in the lineup, and that means he will likely bat leadoff. This is a problem because Goldschmidt hasn’t hit Crochet (2-for-15) and hasn’t hit anyone — lefties or righties — for months. The narrative he hits lefties well hasn’t been true for a while, and any positive stats he has against lefties are propped up by his early-season performance. Goldschmidt has been on a personal free fall since the beginning of May, and he’s not someone you want to be giving the most plate appearances in a game to at the top of the lineup.

4. The Red Sox’ lineup is full of guys who have never done this before. Here is the Red Sox’ postseason experience for position players:

Alex Bregman: 99 games and 434 plate appearances from 2017 through 2024
Nathaniel Lowe: 18 games and 75 plate appearances in 2020 and 2023
Trevor Story: Five games and 22 plate appearance in 2017 and 2018
Abraham Toro: One game and one plate appearance in 2020
Rob Refsnyder: One game and three plate appearances in 2015

So there’s Bregman, who has been a postseason staple since 2017, Lowe, who had one run two years ago, Story, who hasn’t been in the playoffs in seven years, Toro, who played in one game in front of an empty stadium, and Refsnyder, who last appeared in the playoffs as the starting second baseman for the Yankees in the 2015 wild-card game. Not one position player on the Red Sox played in the 2021 postseason for the Red Sox, which was the last time they played in the postseason.

5. Crochet has never pitched in the playoffs and neither has Game 2 starter Brayan Bello. Aroldis Chapman’s postseason career is defined by losing Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS and Game 5 of the 2020 ALDS for the Yankees.

The Red Sox are a roster of inexperienced postseason players and pitchers. The biggest games most of the roster has ever been involved in were the games this past week when they were trying to clinch a wild-card berth. That’s not to say they won’t play well in the postseason, it’s just that no one knows if they will or not because they have never done it before.

6. Then again, no one really knows if the Yankees will play well in it either. The only bat that can be trusted to show up is Giancarlo Stanton since he always shows up. He can’t be the only one to show up though because Juan Soto isn’t here to carry the club with him. Aaron Judge has to show up.

I keep hearing about how eventually Judge will have the kind of postseason run Alex Rodriguez had after years of struggling to duplicate his regular-season performance in the postseason. If not now, when?

7. The reason Judge is a 33-year-old future Hall of Famer and arguably the greatest right-handed hitter of all time without a championship to his name is because of himself. We know the Yankees go as Judge goes and when Judge doesn’t go, the Yankees don’t go. Look no further than this season:

From Opening Day through June 12, Judge hit .392/.488/.776 from and the Yankees went 42-25 and were atop the American League.

From June 13 through August 23, Judge hit .236/.378/.533 and the Yankees went 23-29 and for a moment fell out of a postseason spot.

From August 24 through the end of the season, Judge hit .349/.513/.743 and the Yankees went 25-8 and finished tied for the best record in the AL with the best run differential in the AL.

The fact that Judge could have a .911 OPS from June 13 through August 23 and the Yankees go 23-29 and fall down the standings is because the Yankees can’t afford for Judge to be just a superstar, he has to be an all-time great. That’s how this roster and lineup are constructed and have been for nearly his entire career. So again, if Judge hits, the Yankees win. If he doesn’t they lose. (Last season was the exception and not the rule because Soto was here to make up for Judge’s postseason shortcomings alongside Stanton.)

8. Judge is going to be put to the postseason test immediately in Game 1. Here are his plate appearances in order against Crochet this season:

Strikeout
Strikeout
Strikeout
Strikeout
Strikeout
Strikeout
Home run
Strikeout
Strikeout
Flyout
Strikeout
Strikeout
Home run

9. I haven’t written much yesterday or today about Fried because I expect him to pitch well because he has to pitch well. If he doesn’t then nothing else matters. If Fried goes out and has a 24-pitch first inning and the Red Sox have a two-run lead before the Yankees bat in the game then just pack up the bats and balls and try again on Wednesday in Game 2. The career 5.10 postseason ERA version of Fried can’t show up. He needs to go out and set the tone and have a clean first inning and give the top of the order a chance to put the pressure on the Red Sox. This type of game is why the Yankees signed Fried and because of that he should be expected to go out there and either best or match Crochet.

10. I’m nervous. How can you not be if you’re a Yankees fan? When I sit down in my seat at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night I will feel the type of feel only postseason baseball can bring out in baseball fans. I expect the Yankees to win this series because I don’t want to envision this series ending any other way. At the end of today, the Yankees will either be playing for their season tomorrow or playing tomorrow to play on Saturday. It better be the latter because I can’t handle the former.

1. The Yankees are the best team in the American League, but they didn’t play like the best team in the AL from mid-June to mid-August and it cost them the division. During those two months, they lost series to the Angels, Reds, Mets, Marlins, Rangers and Astros and went 1-6 against the Red Sox and 1-6 against the Blue Jays. They kept DJ LeMahieu on the roster and played him at second base over Jazz Chisholm, let Devin Williams blow games at a 2024 Clay Holmes-like pace and allowed Anthony Volpe to play every day as arguably the worst everyday hitter in the league for a third straight year. That’s why the Yankees lost the division, not because of anything that happened on Sunday.

The Yankees have no one to blame other than themselves for having to play a best-of-3 against their worst possible matchup this week. Not the Rays, who sat their three best hitters in Game 162 on Sunday with the Yankees needing them to win to win the division. Not the Tigers, who sat their best players as well with the Yankees needing them to win to avoid the Red Sox. The Yankees did this to themselves when they started the season 2-8 against the Red Sox and when they got swept in a four-game series in Toronto during the first week of July.

Even though the Blue Jays kept the Yankees in the division race until the last game of the season, and even though the Tigers had a chance to win the second wild card over the Red Sox, in the end, it’s Yankees-Red Sox, the scenario we all figured it would be for the last nearly three months. The worst-case scenario.

2. If the Yankees had to play the Red Sox in a best-of-5, my confidence would be much greater than it is now. If they had to play them in a best-of-7, my confidence would be through the roof. But in a three-game series? I don’t know if there is any measurable confidence in this situation.

That’s not because the Yankees are an inferior team. Quite the opposite. When they’re not beating themselves, the Yankees are a much better team than the Red Sox, especially with Rafael Devers in San Francisco and Roman Anthony on the injured list. The difference is the Red Sox have Garrett Crochet and the Yankees don’t.

3. Crochet made four starts this season against the Yankees and the Red Sox won all of them. In 27 1/3 innings against the Yankees, Crochet allowed just four walks to 39 strikeouts. The Yankees hit .200/.231/.370 against him for a .601 OPS. J.C. Escarra had a .629 OPS this season, so Crochet turned the Yankees collectively into a worse hitter than Escarra.

If Crochet goes out and dominates the Yankees like he just did the Blue Jays in his final start of the season with eight scoreless innings, the Yankees will face elimination in Game 2 with Carlos Rodon pitching for their season. Rodon may have had a great year, leading the league in hits per nine innings with a measly 6.1, but I have seen enough Rodon over three years to know I don’t want him on the mound with the season on the line.

4. Enter, Max Fried. Fried was signed to win the exact game he will start on Tuesday, and he has to be as good as Crochet on Tuesday for as long as Crochet. Rob Refsnyder and Connor Wong can’t be hitting doubles down the left-field line against Fried. He has to be at his absolute best to avoid needing to trust the emotionally-unstable-on-the-mound Rodon to save the season on Wednesday.

5. Two weeks ago, the Yankees lost to Crochet at Fenway Park, and in that game, Aaron Boone had Austin Slater bat leadoff. Slater repaid him by going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Slater is 3-for-25 with a .240 OPS as a Yankee. He’s not a major-league player, let alone someone who should be on the postseason roster or playing in a postseason game. In Crochet’s other starts, Jasson Dominguez, DJ LeMahieu, Oswald Peraza and Pablo Reyes started games. The former doesn’t get to play anymore and the latter three aren’t even on the team. But it’s not like the Yankees’ regulars hit Crochet. No one hits Crochet.

After looking at every Yankees individual plate appearances against Crochet this season, this is the lineup I believe would give them the best chance to win on Tuesday:

Amed Rosario, LF
Aaron Judge, RF
Cody Bellinger, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Anthony Volpe, SS
Jose Caballero, 3B
Ben Rice, 1B
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Austin Wells, C

This lineup may seem insane because I’m stacking three lefties in a row at the bottom of the order against Crochet, which sets up a magnificent lane for him to get outs, but the disparity in numbers for righties against him and lefties is so great that you need all righties at the top to get them the most at-bats possible. (Righties have a .654 OPS against him and lefties have a .455 OPS against him.) Get the righties as many at-bats against him as you can, and then remove them as you see fit. Trent Grisham for Rosario when a righty comes in. Ryan McMahon for Caballero or Volpe when a righty comes in. Paul Goldschmidt for Rice for defense when Rice is guaranteed to not have another at-bat.

I’m willing to bat three lefties in order against Crochet because Rice has never struck out in eight at-bats against him and has a double. Seven groundouts in eight at-bats with a double and no strikeouts is impressive against Crochet. Maybe Chisholm can work a walk and use his legs or go the other way for a single and not think he’s going to plant one in the second deck off Crochet? And Wells has a home run and double off Crochet, so the ability to get to him is there.

I realize the Yankees would never use this lineup. It makes too much sense for an organization and front office that started Kevin Brown in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS and used Deivi Garcia as an opener and J.A. Happ as a bulk reliever n Game 2 of the 2022 ALDS. Instead, Boone will bat Goldschmidt at the top of the order (despite the narrative Goldschmidt hits lefties well being untrue for months now) and use lefty-right alternation throughout the bottom half and Crochet will carve them up just like he did twice in June, once in August and once in September.

6. There are two ways to beat Crochet: multi-run home runs or working the count. The first is extremely hard to count on, but Crochet can be prone to the long ball. Run into a three-run home and you can win Game 1. Try to string together walks and singles and you will be playing for your season on Wednesday. Because planning for or counting on home runs isn’t wise, the Yankees’ best course of action is to tire Crochet, get his pitch count up and hope he’s out after six innings. Crochet had a 3.55 ERA in September, which was his highest ERA for a month this season and after leading the league in innings and strikeouts, there has to be some level of fatigue involved. Here are Crochet’s innings by season:

2021: 54.1
2022: 0
2023: 12.2
2024: 146.0
2025: 205.1

That’s quite the year-over-year jump since he missed all of 2022 due to injury. This is the farthest into a season Crochet has ever pitched and this will be the biggest game he has ever pitched. He wouldn’t be the first all-world starter to poop his pants in his first taste of the postseason.

7. Fried knows a lot about pooping his pants in the postseason with a 5.10 ERA in 67 postseason innings. His postseason history was my single-biggest when the Yankees signed him. I hope he’s past it. He knows what to expect on Tuesday, having pitched (and pitched well) in a World Series clincher. The moment won’t be too big for him, and if he’s locating, he should have no problem going through the weak Red Sox lineup.

8. The Yankees lineup producing in the postseason is what keeps me up at night. No matter what happens during the regular season, the entirety of the Yankees’ season each year hinges on whether or not the bats will be there in October.

The dynastic Yankees of the late-‘90s and 2000s won in the postseason because their stars remained stars in October. When the 163rd game came, there was no drop-off in production despite only facing the top teams and elite pitching each game. Look at these regular season vs. postseason career numbers.

Derek Jeter regular season: .310/.377/.440
Derek Jeter postseason: .308/.374/.465

Bernie Williams regular season: .297/.381/.477
Bernie Williams postseason: .275/.371/.480

Paul O’Neill regular season: .288/.363/.470
Paul O’Neill postseason: .284/.363/.465

That hasn’t happened with this Yankees core. When October comes, these Yankees have always disappeared, and Aaron Judge has been as big of a problem as anyone.

Aaron Judge regular season: .288/.406/.604
Aaron Judge postseason: .205/.318/.450

Judge has the home run record. He has the captaincy. He has the long-term contract and life-changing, generational wealth. The only thing missing is a championship. Unfortunately, he’s not the only Yankee whose postseason OPS is nowhere near their regular-season OPS, and not in a good way as the only two Yankees who have a higher postseason OPS than regular-season OPS are Stanton and Volpe. They are the two hitters on the Yankees I trust most going into the postseason because Stanton always shows up and Volpe will do enough to make everyone think 2026 will be his year and then he will go on to post a .680 OPS while playing every day next season.

9. Then there’s the managerial mismatch between Boone and Alex Cora. Boone is 1-4 in the postseason against Cora and after being worried about Crochet pitching against the 2025 Yankees like 2009 Cliff Lee and the Yankees’ offense performing their annual postseason disappearing act, I’m most worried about Boone and what he’s capable of in the postseason.

Boone has been exceptionally bad in the bad postseason. In his first postseason in 2018, in the pivotal Game 3 at home, his starting pitcher didn’t know the start time of the game. In that same game, he let that starting pitcher go back out for a third inning despite giving up piss missiles all over the place in the first two innings. By the time he decided to make a pitching change, the Yankees were down 3-0 and the bases were loaded with no outs. Despite having a stable of strikeout arms in his bullpen, he went to a starter with mediocre strikeout ability and it ended in the Yankees suffering their most lopsided home postseason loss in franchise history.

The following night, facing elimination, he let CC Sabathia face the entire Red Sox lineup a second time because he liked the matchup of Sabathia against Jackie Bradley Jr., who was batting ninth. The Yankees were eliminated.

The next October, he used Happ in relief in extra innings in Game 2 of the ALCS. Carlos Correa walked off the Yankees and the Yankees went 1-4 over the final five games of the series.

In 2020, there was the Garcia-Happ debacle in the ALDS.

In 2021, he led the odds-on favorite in the AL to a third-place finish in the division and a fifth-place finish in the AL. Their postseason lasted nine innings (and really just a half-inning of those nine thanks to Gerrit Cole).

In 2022, he changed his starting shortstop daily, somehow made Clarke Schmidt the first guy out of the bullpen in Game 1 of the ALCS, kept batting Josh Donaldson fifth and eventually used video from the 2004 Yankees’ ALCS collapse to motivate his own Yankees team.

Last year, his decision to have Nestor Cortes face Freddie Freeman will be part of postseason promos and lore for as long as baseball is played.

The Boone Yankees are 22-23 in the postseason. His Yankees have never won a series against a non-AL Central team. A lot of it is because of the offense’s annual disappearing act, but Boone hasn’t done anything to elevate the chances of his previous six postseason teams. If anything, he has hindered their chances of winning.

I like to say the Yankees need to outhit their own manager to win games to prevent him from having an impact on close games. That’s not possible in the playoffs where games are low scoring and close. Every decision Boone makes from the moment he starts to fill out his lineup card until the final out of each postseason game is crucial, and he has been incapable of handling the pressure that comes with making many consecutive correct decisions, which is what it takes to win in October.

I want nothing more than for the Yankees to win and for Boone to win. I don’t want to sit through another end-of-the-season press conference with him telling everyone how close the team is and how sweet it’s going to be once they do win it all. “The top of the mountain” as he likes to say. Just win for the first time in his eight-year tenure and the first time in 15 years for the franchise, so I can stop dreaming about the day he’s no longer employed by the team.

10. The only way for Boone and every Yankee other than Bellinger and Fried to do what they have never done is to now do what they couldn’t do over the last six months: beat the Red Sox and Blue Jays. The reason the Yankees are playing their first postseason game on Tuesday instead of Saturday is because they couldn’t beat the Red Sox and Blue Jays. They’re only guaranteed Tuesday and Wednesday as of now. To get to Saturday they’ll have to make the best of the worst-case scenario they created for themselves.

1. Sometimes I think about what kind of record the Yankees would have annually if they were a part of the AL Central. It seems unfair the Central gets an automatic postseason bid. It seems ridiculous the Tigers and Guardians both only have 86 wins at the moment when they play 39 games against the Royals, Twins and White Sox.

2. The White Sox played like the 101-loss team they are this week in the Bronx and the Yankees finished the regular season 6-1 against them. Add in the 6-0 record against the Royals and 4-2 against the Twins and the Yankees went 16-3 against the Central’s three-worst teams.

3. The Yankees’ postseason situation is no more clear today than it was before the White Sox series. If anything, it’s more confusing. The Yankees could finish as the first wild card or they could finish with the best record in the AL. They could host the Red Sox on Tuesday in a best-of-3 or the Guardians or the Tigers or the Astros. They could not play at all on Tuesday and host the winner of the AL Central-third wild-card team next Saturday in Game 1 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium. The possibilities are seemingly endless for when the Yankees will play next week and who they will play against. I have given up trying to figure out who to root for this weekend other than to root for the Yankees and against the Blue Jays and Red Sox. But maybe not too hard against the Red Sox, since you want them to not be the Yankees’ wild-card opponent, but you also want to make sure they end up in whichever side of the bracket the Yankees aren’t in.

4. I still don’t feel good about rooting for the Red Sox from Tuesday through Thursday against the Blue Jays, and if the Yankees are unable to pull off the division comeback and end up playing the Red Sox in the wild-card series next week I will feel worse about it. As I have written of late, the Red Sox in a three-game series are the only team I fear in the AL playoffs. The Yankees against any other team in a best-of-3, best-of-5 or best-of-7 would have me confident in the Yankees advancing in every scenario.

The dream scenario for the next week is the following:

The Yankees win the division and finish with the best record in the AL … and … the Blue Jays and Red Sox play in the ALDS and go the full three games with the Blue Jays winning the series … and … the Guardians and Tigers play in the ALDS and go the full three gams with the Guardians winning the series.

5. Those results would set up the two ALDS to be the Yankees against the Guardians and the Mariners against the Blue Jays. The Yankees would draw the best possible opponent in the entire AL field in the ALDS and then either play a Mariners team they went 5-1 against this season (and swept at a point in the season when they couldn’t beat anyone) or a Blue Jays team that has lost seven of nine to give the Yankees division life, is without Bo Bichette, has a weak rotation and a bad bullpen and employs one of the few managers who makes me appreciate Aaron Boone.

6. As of this moment the Yankees are the best team in the AL. They are the healthiest of the field with the deepest rotation and best overall roster. That doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t lose or that they won’t be eliminated in two games if they end up in the wild-card series. Anything can happen in a short series and when you have the baserunning and defensive history of these Yankees coupled with their bullpen trust issues and a manager who has shown no signs of progress in eight years, it’s easy to see how their season could be over a week from now. But it’s just as easy to see them returning to the World Series for the second straight year.

7. The only playoff scenario that worries me is the Yankees facing the Red Sox in the wild-card series. That’s it. Give me the Red Sox in the ALDS or ALCS and I will feel completely confident. If the Yankees aren’t eliminated in the wild-card series by the Red Sox then I don’t think they have a chance at elimination until the World Series.

8. If the Yankees play and lose to the Red Sox in the wild-card series it will hurt as bad as any postseason elimination in my lifetime because it will come at the hands of the Red Sox and because of how weak the AL field is. Having to think about what could have been all offseason had the Yankees managed or played with even a hint of urgency from mid June to mid August will be depressing. If the Yankees lose the division it will be hard not to think about every runner left on third with one out, every leadoff double stranded, every Devin Williams meltdown, every nonsensical Boone decision or the 17 games that were started by Marcus Stroman, Carlos Carrasco, Ian Hamilton and Allan Winans. If the Yankees don’t end up as the 2025 AL East champions it will be because they blew it, not because the Blue Jays won it.

9. Even with the same 90-68 record as the Blue Jays, it’s unlikely the Yankees win the division this weekend. They still need to win one more game than the Blue Jays do and facing the Orioles’ best three starters in Trevor Rogers, Tomoyuki Sugano and Kyle Bradish won’t be easy considering Rogers and Bradish thoroughly dominated the Yankees last weekend. With Max Fried and Carlos Rodon done for the regular season, the Yankees will have to win the division against two of the best starters in the league with their 3-4-5 starters. Yankees fans need to hope the Orioles offense spends the last weekend of the season in Manhattan as one would spend a weekend in Manhattan before embarking on a four-plus month vacation. The offseason awaits the Orioles on Sunday around 6 p.m. and they should get the party started by taking advantage of the city’s favorable 4 a.m. bar closures.

10. Give me Yankees wins and Blue Jays losses on Friday and Saturday and the Mariners having one less win than the Yankees at the end of play on Saturday. That would give the Yankees the East and the best record in the AL and it would make Game 163 on Sunday meaningless. Give me one meaningless day from this stressful season before the real season begins. Is that too much to ask?

1. For 8 2/3 innings on Tuesday it looked like the Yankees would blow their biggest divisional opportunity of September against the worst team in the American League. They stranded two runners in the first, scored once but left the bases loaded in the second, stranded one in the third, another in the fourth, ran into an out on the bases in the fifth and the sixth, hit into an inning-ending double play in the seventh and left two more on in the eighth.

2. Trailing 2-1 in the ninth, the unlikely rally bats of Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells led off the inning with back-to-back singles to turn the lineup over with the tying run on second and the winning run on first with no outs. Volpe and Wells combined to see 10 pitches in their ninth-inning at-bats, but Trent Grisham swung at the first pitch he saw and hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Fortunately, the White Sox are the worst team in the AL for a reason and they couldn’t get the last out of the inning as Aaron Judge walked and Cody Bellinger walked with ball 4 to Bellinger coming on a wild pitch to score Volpe to tie game. Jose Caballero followed by grinding out a nine-pitch at-bat, which ended the game with a single to center to score Judge and give the Yankees a 3-2 win.

3. The win clinched a postseason berth for the Yankees and clinched my preseason wager of over 88.5 wins for the Yankees. When the Yankees improved to 42-25 on June 12, the rest of the season seemed like a formality in achieving more than 88.5 wins since they would need to go just 47-48 the rest of the way. But after falling apart from that day through mid-August, it took until Game 157 for them to win their 89th game.

4. The Yankees are headed back to the postseason, but how they are headed there is still unknown.

I laid out a path to winning the division in these Thoughts at the end of August, and for a while, it seemed like it may work out. But after the Yankees took two of three from the Blue Jays in early September, the Blue Jays took of three from the Astros and swept the Orioles. The math was ruined at the point and it would take a full-fledged Blue Jays collapse for the Yankees to have a chance. Well, that full-fledged collapse is on with the Blue Jays having lost five of six and set to face Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello the next two nights. The Yankees’ division odds went from 9.1 percent before the weekend to 25.7 percent after Tuesday’s win.

5. The Yankees are one game back of the Blue Jays in the loss column, but two games overall because of the head-to-head tiebreaker. So for the Yankees to overtake the Blue Jays (after blowing an eight-game lead to the Blue Jays during the summer), here is the updated table on what needs to happen:

6. The Blue Jays are a mess. Their bullpen is in shambles, Bo Bichette is still out injured, they demoted Jose Berrios to a relief role and he didn’t take it well then Chris Bassitt was placed on the injured list and now Berrios will likely need to return to the rotation. They have played well above what their run differential suggests their record should be all season and now the jig seems to be up. If the season were a couple of games longer than 162, I would say there’s no doubt the Yankees win the division. Unfortunately, it’s not, and unfortunately, the Yankees annually treat the regular season like it will go on forever with a general lack of urgency throughout it. It’s never until the Yankees need to tell everyone “It’s right in front of them” that they begin to show a sense of urgency.

7. The only people rooting against the Yankees more than Blue Jays fans and Red Sox fans are the Steinbrenners. The Steinbrenners’ dream is for the Yankees to host the wild-card series and have that series go the distance and then have every round after it go the distance en route to a championship. If the Yankees receive the first-round bye, the Yankees lose two to three home game gates and everything that goes with them.

8. If the Yankees have to play in the wild-card series and survive it, I think they will reach the World Series. The AL is so bad. The only team I’m remotely worried about them playing is the Red Sox, simply because of Crochet and Bello’s success against them this season. If the Yankees are to play in the wild-card round then it will likely be against the Red Sox, and if they are to survive the wild-card round then that means the Red Sox are eliminated. The Mariners? The Yankees went 5-1 against them this season and swept them at a time when they couldn’t win a series against any team. The Tigers? No, I’m not scared of a team that bats Gleyber Torres second and has now blown the biggest division lead in baseball history. The Guardians? They are a dream scenario. A one-hitter team with no rotation and a bullpen that isn’t what it was at this time last year. The Blue Jays? Again, if the season were a few days longer, the Blue Jays would undoubtedly lose the division. They will enter the postseason with the worst bullpen of the entire field, and that will likely lead to their demise. The Astros? I’m only scared of the Astros because of what they have done to the Yankees in the past. But the Astros are no longer the Astros as we knew them from 2017-2023 and without Yordan Alvarez, they’re not to be feared.

9. Certainly, there’s always a “Be careful what you wish for” part of planning for the postseason. Any team can beat any team, especially in a best-of-3. The Yankees lost three-game series this season to the Diamondbacks, Giants, Orioles, Angels, Reds, Marlins and Rangers — seven teams that are currently outside of the postseason picture. The Yankees are the healthiest team in the AL with the best and deepest roster in the AL, though that doesn’t mean anything. The Yankees are their own worst enemy and needing to beat their own sloppiness and their own manager has been too much to overcome in their previous six postseason trips during the Boone era.

10. It’s Max Fried against a bullpen game for the White Sox. It’s about as lopsided a matchup as you could have in Major League Baseball, but there’s a reason John Sterling warned about predicting this game throughout his career. Tonight, I’m not only a Yankees fan, but also a huge Red Sox fan. Tonight, I’m a Garrett Crochet fan, knowing very well if the Yankees fail to win the division, it will be Crochet who the Yankees will likely face six days from now in the Bronx in the first game of the postseason. If the Yankees do their job and Crochet does his on Wednesday, the Yankees will be one win closer to avoiding him in a best-of-3.

1. A couple of easy wins, a tough loss and a good comeback win made up the weekend against the Orioles. It was the kind of weekend I expected. Nothing to get overly excited or upset about. The rest of the league provided those emotions.

The Blue Jays lost two of three to the Royals to fall to two games ahead of the Yankees in the loss column (and three overall because of the tiebreaker). The Red Sox lost two of three to the Rays to fall to three back of the Yankees in the loss column (and two overall because of the tiebreaker). The Mariners swept the Astros to all but wrap up the West and the Guardians won another series to pull within one game of the Tigers before their three-game series this week. The AL playoff standings are chaotic and the Yankees are outside observers since they conducted all of their chaos in the summer when they blew an eight-game lead to the Blue Jays.

2. I knew Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish would be an issue for the Yankees offense this weekend and they were, combining for this line: 12 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 14 K. That duo is a problem and I’m glad the Yankees are only scheduled to face one of them this coming week in Bradish.

3. That’s the kind of starting pitching the Yankees are going to see beginning next week and their performance against those two was worrisome. If the Yankees draw the Red Sox, they have to deal with Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello. If they get the Tigers, there’s Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize and Jack Flaherty (who sucks against every team other than the Yankees). They could get the deep rotation of the Mariners, Blue Jays or Astros. The only team any Yankees fan could feel confident about seeing next week is the Guardians, and that’s becoming a real possibility and the possibility every Yankees fan should root for.

4. The Yankees haven’t won a postseason series against a non-AL Central team since the 2012 ALDS against the Orioles. The Aaron Boone Yankees are 15-4 against the AL Central in postseason games and 7-19 against all other divisions. I’m the biggest Guardians fan in the world right now, rooting for them every night to somehow surpass the Red Sox and end up in the second wild-card spot and play the Yankees. They have no ace, their bullpen isn’t what it was last year and their lineup is one superstar and mediocrity. They are the easiest path for the Yankees to advance to the ALDS.

5. Michael Kay kept saying over the weekend how unfortunate the Yankees’ loss on Friday was because the Blue Jays lost that day and had the Yankees won they would be one-game back in the loss column. You can’t expect to four-game sweep any team, even a team that has nothing to play for like the Orioles. How about you don’t blow an eight-game lead over the Blue Jays? How about you don’t go 5-8 against the Blue Jays or 4-9 against the Red Sox or get swept by the Marlins in August or lose a game in Colorado in May or let Carlos Carrasco start six games? The Yankees aren’t two games back in the loss column and three games back overall from the Blue Jays because they lost to the best statistical starting pitcher in the league on Saturday. They’re where they are because they went 18-29 from June 13 to August 5. They have their annual summer swoon, their inability to win divisional games and their inability to treat all games throughout the season the same as to why they are in the position they are in.

6. Here is the updated table of what needs to happen for the Yankees to win the division:

While the Yankees play the White Sox, the Blue Jays will play the Red Sox. If the Yankees can stack wins against the worst team in the AL they will be guaranteed to either make up ground on the Blue Jays or create ground on the Red Sox every night from Tuesday through Thursday. The Yankees’ division odds went from 9.1 percent before the weekend to 14.3 percent after the weekend.

7. If Sunday’s game took place in early June, July or early August, the Yankees lose. There’s no doubt in my mind they lose. They either never score and get shut out or they lose in extra innings. I think it was fitting that the 2025 Yankees’ final regular-season road game was an extra-inning win, considering how bad they have been on the road in extra innings this season and how bad they have been on the road in extra innings since the automatic runner was implemented with the worst record in the majors.

8. My favorite Yankees lineup is when Ben Rice bats fourth or fifth, not second. Aaron Judge should always bat second. (I would bat him first, but we all know that was only a 2022 late-summer desperation tactic and the Yankees won’t revisit it.) Rice should never force Judge down the lineup and should never bat ahead of Cody Bellinger and not guarantee Bellinger a first-inning plate appearance.

This is the best Yankees lineup at the moment against a right-handed starter:

Trent Grisham, CF
Aaron Judge, RF
Cody Bellinger, LF
Ben Rice, 1B
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Ryan McMahon, 3B
Jose Caballero, SS
Austin Wells, C

This is the best Yankees lineup at the moment against a left-handed starter:

Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Aaron Judge, RF
Cody Bellinger, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Amed Rosario, LF
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Jose Caballero, 3B
Anthony Volpe, SS
Ben Rice, C

9. Jose Caballero started the last two games of the Tigers series, the entire Red Sox series, two of three in the Twins series and two of four in the Orioles series. In those 10 starts, he hit .333/.412/.567 with a .978 OPS, five extra-base hits, five stolen bases and four walks. If the competition to see who will be the starting shortstop in the postseason is really a competition then the competition is over. But we all know it’s not really a competition and the slightest bit of success from Volpe over last week and this coming week will be enough for the Yankees to disregard three years of poor performance. And that’s exactly what’s happening. With each Volpe single or longer-than-three-pitch-at-bat, the Yankees are getting what they want which is a reason to start Volpe in the playoffs. I’m prepared for it. I know how these things go and how they have gone in the Boone era, and I’m prepared for Volpe to be playing and striking out and throwing balls away starting next Tuesday.

10. The Yankees are either going to be the first wild card and have home-field advantage for the best-of-3 or they are going to be the No. 1 overall seed in the AL and have home-field advantage in the ALDS and ALCS (if they get that far). Either way the Yankees are home this entire week and will stay home next week as well. If they survive the wild-card series, their next road game won’t be until Saturday, Oct. 4 (12 days from now), and if they win the division, their next road game won’t be until Tuesday, Oct. 7 (15 days from now). The Yankees are set up logistically, health-wise and rotation-wise right now for whichever round they open in. Now it’s just a matter of picking up a few wins this week, staying healthy and getting everyone whatever work they need to prepare for next Tuesday … or Saturday.

1. The version of Max Fried that pitched to a 1.92 ERA in his first 17 starts as a Yankee through June 25 has returned. The version of Fried that pitched to a 6.80 ERA over eight starts from July 1 through August 16 is gone. (At least I hope he is.) Fried dominated the Orioles on Thursday night with seven scoreless, three-hit innings and a career-high 13 strikeouts to improve to 5-0 with a 1.60 ERA since August 22.

“I’m feeling really good physically,” Fried said. “I feel like I did toward the beginning of the year.”

2. My biggest fear when the Yankees signed Fried was how he would pitch in important games, especially in the postseason given his spotty playoff history in 12 starts and 20 games. But over the last month Fried pitched well in Houston, against the Blue Jays and grinded through a solid start without his best stuff at Fenway Park. He’s looking like the best version of himself at the best possible time with one remaining start in the regular season before he takes the ball for Game 1 of the postseason.

“That’s when you want to really hit your stride, going into the last week or so,” Fried said. “We want to go out there and finish strong and go into the playoffs strong.”

3. The Yankees took an early lead on a two-run double in the first inning from Amed Rosario, who has solidified himself as a lineup must whenever a lefty is starting. That’s all the Yankees would need with how good Fried was, but they added a run in the fifth and four more in the seventh.

Paul Goldschmidt went 2-for-5 leading off, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger each had a pair of walks, Austin Wells had a couple of hits, Jose Caballero reached base three times and Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Volpe and Jazz Chisholm all had doubles. Aaron Boone opted to play Trent Grisham (0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts) over Austin Slater. If Slater isn’t going to start every game against a lefty then I don’t know what his purpose is.

4. It was a nice, easy win, which was a welcome sight. It’s been a long time since the Yankees have had a laugher. In the 18 games since August 29, only their August 29 win over the White Sox and September 11 win over the Tigers were games won comfortably. Every other game has been a nail-biter, won late or lost. That’s a long time to play nearly only stressful baseball.

5. If the Yankees play in the wild-card series, Fried will have five days of rest before Game 1. If the Yankees miraculously win the division, he will have nine days of rest before Game 1. Either way, the Yankees’ rotation lines up beautifully for whichever round they open in.

6. On Thursday, the Guardians and Mariners won and the Blue Jays and Red Sox lost. The Yankees are now three games back in the loss column from the Blue Jays for the division (and four games overall because of the tiebreaker) with nine games to play. Here is the updated table of what needs to happen for the Yankees to win the division:

7. Again, I’m certainly still scoreboard watching the Blue Jays and praying for their demise and a lengthy losing streak to end the season, but I’m realistic in knowing it’s going to take an all-time collapse for it to happen. The Yankees are going to need a lot of help from the Royals, Red Sox and Rays to make the dream come true. The Yankees’ division odds are 9.1 precent on FanGraphs and their postseason odds are at 99.9 percent.

8. As for the wild card, the Yankees now have a two-game lead in the loss column over the AL West and a three-game lead in the loss column over the Red Sox (though it’s really two because of the tiebreaker). The Guardians are now just a game behind the Red Sox. The Rays are going to play a major role in deciding who the Yankees play as they have series left with the Red Sox and Blue Jays.

9. Will Warren gets the ball on Friday for the first time since his disastrous first inning on Sunday at Fenway Park. Warren’s latest first-inning meltdown now has him at a 6.39 ERA with an .839 OPS against in 31 first innings this season. With Trevor Rogers going for the Orioles, Warren can’t get lit up again like that. Rogers has a 1.43 ERA and a 0.894 WHIP in 16 starts this season. He has only allowed more than two runs in a start once this year and that was in his second start of the season. The Orioles are 12-4 this season when Rogers starts and 6-1 over the last six weeks. He doesn’t walk anyone (24 in 100 2/3 innings), doesn’t allow hits (66), doesn’t allow home runs (3) and he’s a lefty. If you were going to build a starting pitcher with the purpose of beating this Yankees team, you would build Rogers.

10. Because Rogers is a lefty, you’re likely going to see the same lineup from Thursday on Friday. Maybe Boone sits Grisham for Slater and Ben Rice plays instead of Wells, but other than that I don’t think anything changes. (It’s possible Ryan McMahon could start as he’s 2-for-4 against Rogers.) The Yankees will need to find a way to get a couple of runs off Rogers or wear him down enough to get the bullpen for three or four innings. Most importantly, Warren needs to be good.

1. A night after the Yankees came a run away from blowing a nine-run lead on Tuesday, it looked like they may blow a five-run lead on Wednesday.

After taking a 7-2 lead into the bottom of the fifth, Luis Gil imploded like Cam Schlittler the previous night and a 7-2 game became a 7-5 game with the tying runs on base. For the second night in a row, Aaron Boone summoned Fernando Cruz much earlier than he’s used to to relieve his starter and put an end to the Twins’ rally. And for the second straight night, Cruz ended the inning.

2. Unlike on Tuesday, the Yankees were able to tack on in the eighth and ninth. (Then again, you shouldn’t need to tack on when you have a 10-1 lead like they did on Tuesday.) Cruz pitched a scoreless sixth, Devin Williams did the same in the sixth, Luke Weaver matched it in the eighth and even Camilo Doval was able to put up a zero in the ninth. Not only did Doval pitch a scoreless inning, but it was the best he has looked as a Yankee, retiring the side on 10 pitches (eight strikes) with two strikeouts.

3. Doval got Byron Buxton looking at a 101-mph cutter on the outside corner for a three-pitch strikeout for the first out, got Austin Martin to pop up a 99-mph cutter on an 0-2 pitch for the second out and then got Trevor Larnach to swing through a 1-1 slider and then a 1-2 slider to end the game. If Doval pitched like that with any consistency he would be one of the best relievers in baseball, if not the best. That outing is why the Yankees traded for him and why he’s still on the roster despite doing everything he can to pitch himself off of it: because that version of him exists. I don’t know how the Yankees plan on getting that version out of him consistently, but it’s mind blowing that the guy on the mound on Wednesday is the same guy who was atrocious in nearly all of his 18 prior appearances as a Yankee.

4. Trent Grisham homered twice, Cody Bellinger homered, Aaron Judge had three hits (and a walk), Paul Goldschmidt had two hits, Ben Rice and Jasson Dominguez had doubles, Ryan McMahon had an RBI single and Jose Caballero had a walk, run and stolen base. The only Yankee not contribute offensively was Jazz Chisholm with an 0-for-5 night at the plate, though he did have a great game defensively. (Chisholm should sit on Thursday with a lefty starting.)

“A lot of really big contributions,” Boone said. “Just really good offense.”

5. The Yankees won, the Blue Jays lost, the Red Sox lost, the Mariners lost and the Astros won. The Guardians also won. The Guardians’ six-game winning streak now has them two games back in the loss column of the Astros, Mariners and Red Sox.

6. The Yankees are four games back of the Blue Jays in the loss column, but five games overall because of the head-to-head tiebreaker. The division is over. For those of you who believe nothing is truly over until it’s over, here is what needs to happen for the Yankees to win the division:

I would say the worst the Blue Jays could go is 4-6, which means the Yankees can only lose one more game. Unless the Blue Jays completely unravel over the next 10 games (which is something they haven’t done all season), there’s no chance the Yankees can overtake them.

7. Certainly I’m still scoreboard watching the Blue Jays praying for their demise and a lengthy losing streak to end the season, but I’m realistic in knowing it’s going to take an all-time collapse for it to happen. If I had to rank who I would want the Yankees to play in a best-of-3 as of now I would go Guardians, Mariners, Astros, Red Sox.

8. The Red Sox aren’t the best team of the four, but the threat of Garrett Crochet in a short series and his dominance of the Yankees combined with the Yankees potentially being eliminated by the Red Sox for the fourth time in the postseason is too much for me. The Astros may be a better option than the Mariners because of the Mariners’ rotation and the absence of Yordan Alvarez, but 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022 have left me forever scared of the Astros. The Guardians would be a dream scenario. The Yankees eliminated them in five games last year when the Guardians were a much better version of themselves, especially in the bullpen. I will always pick an AL Central postseason opponent for the Yankees when given a chance, considering they’re 15-4 against the AL Central dating back to 2018, having never lost a series to that division. The Aaron Boone Yankees have never won a postseason series against a team from outside the AL Central, and the Yankees haven’t won a postseason series against a team from outside the AL Central since the 2012 ALDS.

9. With two crappy starts his last three times on the mound, Schlittler has been giving the postseason Game 3 assignment to Gil. But with Gil’s control issues coupled with an awful outing on Wednesday, I’m not sure who the current frontrunner is to be the Game 3 starter. I trust Schlittler more to throw strikes, but I trust Gil more to escape jams unscathed. They are each scheduled to make two more starts and I guess how they perform in those starts will determine who gets the ball after Max Fried and Carlos Rodon in the playoffs.

“They’re each going to have a few more [starts] here, so hopefully they put us in a tough situation based on them performing well,” Boone said.

10. Fried gets the ball on Thursday in Baltimore as the Yankees go from playing a night game in one city to playing the next night in another city yet again. The left-handed Cade Povich goes for the Orioles, so this is what we should see:

Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Aaron Judge, RF/DH
Cody Bellinger, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH/RF
Amed Rosario, 3B
Austin Slater, LF
Anthony Volpe, SS
Jose Caballero, 2B
Ben Rice, C

(Please don’t let Slater lead off.)

It’s unlikely that’s what we’ll actually see, but at this point I don’t care as long as I see a win.

1. When the Yankees took a 10-1 lead over the Twins in the fourth inning on Tuesday night, I didn’t think I would be doing a Joba Chamberlain 360-fist pump around my living room after the final out of the game. The Yankees nearly blew a nine-run lead over the final five innings against the ninth-best offense in the American League, but managed to hold on for a 10-9 win.

2. The Yankees scored two runs in the first, four in the second, three in the third and one in the fourth. That should have been enough for the bats to go quiet for the rest of the game (which they did), but it wasn’t thanks to the pitching (and managing to some extent).

Cam Schlittler retired the first two batters he faced on two pitches. Then he allowed back-to-back, six-pitch walks and a five-pitch RBI single. He ended up needing 24 pitches to get the final out of the first.

Schlittler rebounded from that first-inning RBI single to retire 10 straight from the last out of the first through the first out of the fifth. Working with a nine-run cushion with one out in the fifth and no one on, the rest of the game seemed like a formality until Schlittler unraveled. After recording that first out in the fifth, the Twins went single, home run, walk, strikeout, walk, wild pitch and walk off him before he was removed for Fernando Cruz. It took five of six batters to reach against the clearly fatigued Schlittler for Boone to decide to make a change. Cruz ended the inning on four pitches.

3. Leading 10-4 going into the bottom of the sixth, Aaron Boone decided not to send Cruz back out for the seventh. Maybe he didn’t want him having an up-and-down. Maybe he wanted to save him in case he was needed on Wednesday. Maybe he thought the game was over with a six-run lead in the sixth. Whatever the reason was, it nearly came back to haunt the Yankees.

With Cruz out of the game, Boone gave the ball to Ryan Yarbrough. He likely wanted Yarbrough to eat the remaining four innings. Yarbrough wasn’t able to eat anything. He got one out while giving up four runs.

4. In came Mark Leiter Jr. and it was Leiter Jr. of all pitchers who restored order to the game for the Yankees by putting up a zero over 1 2/3 innings across the sixth and seventh.

“That’s one of the stories of the game for me, a huge four outs there from Mark to settle things,” Boone said. “Him getting four outs was massive and that allowed Devin and Bednar to take it from there.”

Devin Williams followed Leiter Jr. with a scoreless eighth, and clinging to a one-run lead, David Bednar allowed a one-out, solo home run in the ninth before retiring the next two batters to end a game that should have never been as close as it was.

5. Here are my current Bullpen Trust Rankings:

David Bednar

That’s it. Just Bednar. But if you want the entire bullpen ranked by level of trust, here it is:

David Bednar
Fernando Cruz
Tim Hill
Luke Weaver
Devin Williams
Ryan Yarbrough
Mark Leiter Jr.
Camilo Doval

Even with as many home runs as Cruz has given up of late, he has to be second. Hill never gets to pitch, but with a lefty up to end an inning, I trust him explicitly. If he has to pitch to a righty he plummets on this list. Weaver has been so bad of late outside of Saturday at Fenway Park that I nearly put him below Williams. Doval is the worst reliever on the team and should no longer be on the team.

(I didn’t include Paul Blackburn since he’s clearly only on the roster to get the team through Game 162. Blackburn and I have the same odds of being on the postseason roster.)

7. “A little exhale after that one,” Boone said.

It would have been a disastrous loss for the Yankees with the Red Sox losing to the A’s and an opportunity to create separation in the wild-card standings available. The win combined with a Red Sox loss, Mariners win and Astros win currently has the Yankees playing the Astros in the Bronx for the wild-card series. With the Yordan Alvarez ankle injury, playing the Astros is preferable to the Red Sox because the Astros don’t have Garrett Crochet.

8. “I feel like we have one of the best bullpens in the league,” Leiter Jr. said.

Clearly a graduate of the Aaron Boone School of Media, Leiter Jr. couldn’t be more wrong. The Yankees have the worst bullpen in the majors since the trade deadline with the highest ERA. The only truly trustworthy arm is Bednar.

9. Anthony Volpe returned to the lineup and went 2-for-4, which was enough for Jack Curry to call for him to start again tomorrow on the postgame show. Not you too, Jack! Twins starter Zebby Matthews sucks and doesn’t belong in the majors. Evaluating Volpe on hitting a guy that the entire Yankees lineup beat the crap out of isn’t impressive. Matthews put 13 runners on in three innings.

We have three years of performance to know Volpe shouldn’t be playing over Jose Caballero and if the Yankees are going to make the shortstop decision based on performance against a Triple-A pitcher (which is how we ended up in this situation with Volpe hitting Triple-A pitching in 2023 spring training) then they are even more lost than I originally thought. The starting shortstop shouldn’t be a daily decision. Start Caballero every day and play Volpe once the postseason position is set.

9. The Yankees will see an old AL East familiar face in Taj Bradley on Wednesday. The Yankees got to him for six runs back on April 17 at Yankee Stadium before beating them on May 4. He’s not going to allow the type of hit parade Matthews did, so the Yankees are going to need Luis Gil to have some semblance of control. It’s hard to envision Gil continuing to succeed while walking the park and with Schlittler struggling mightily in two of his last three starts, Gil is likely the Yankees’ Game 3 starter in the postseason. It would be nice if Gil could start to build some trust in throwing strikes.

10. The Twins are bad. Really bad. They have the second-worst record in the AL. Losing a series to them at this point of the season with what’s at stake for home-field advantage in a best-of-3 would be unacceptable.

1. On Saturday, Jazz Chisholm called the Yankees “the best team in the league.” Well, that’s not all Chisholm said. He also added, “Any team that thinks they’re better than us, they should know that when we step on the field, we’re coming with relentlessness. We’re coming to step on necks. We’re not here to play around.”

Ah yes, the relentless Yankees, who went to Minnesota and got two-hit, while striking out 14 times in a 7-0 loss on Monday. “The best team in the league” with the third-best record in the American League and the seventh-best record in the majors. (Chisholm is 0-for-8 with three strikeouts since his outrageous comments on Saturday. He also couldn’t complete a double play that led to the Twins’ first run on Monday.)

2. While the Yankees were getting blown out by the 18-games-under-.500 Twins, the Blue Jays staged yet another late-game comeback against the Rays and won in extra innings. If you didn’t think the division was over after Sunday with the Yankees falling to four games back in the loss column (and five overall), well, it’s definitely over now at five games back (and six overall) with 12 games to play.

3. Since Chisholm gave his latest take on the 2025 Yankees, the team is 0-2 after losing on Monday. Not only did the Yankees lose, they were dominated. Simeon Woods Richardson provided his longest start since June 21 and recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts. He entered the game with a 4.85 ERA.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” Ryan McMahon said. “I think a lot of guys think that we should have been a lot better tonight, but you got to tip your cap sometimes.”

Yes, sometimes you have to tip your cap, like when you’re facing Garrett Crochet like the Yankees did and lost to on Sunday. But Woods Richardson? In a playoff race? There’s no time or excuse to be tipping your cap to fringe major leaguers in Game 150 of the season.

4. It was the first time in franchise history the Yankees’ offense had a two-game span in the regular season with at least 30 strikeouts and fewer than 10 hits (stat from Katie Sharp). “Best team in the league,” indeed!

Here is how the Yankees’ 14 strikeouts on Monday were dispersed: Giancarlo Stanton 4, Cody Bellinger 2, Jazz Chisholm 2, Ryan McMahon 2, Trent Grisham 1, Paul Goldschmidt 1, Austin Wells 1 and Ben Rice 1.

The Yankees were two-hit by the Twins. Two hits against Woods Richardson and no hits against the very hittable bullpen trio of Kody Funderburk, Travis Adams and Pierson Ohl. The Yankees have now lost their last two games to the Twins.

5. Carlos Rodon was fine (6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR), but Luke Weaver wasn’t. Weaver was blasted for five earned runs on three hits and two walks, while only recording one out. All three hits were doubles. In September, Weaver has allowed earned runs in four of six games, pitching to this line: 3.2 IP, 12 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 2 HR, 24.52 ERA, 4.087. WHIP. It’s possible that between Weaver’s last month and Fernando Cruz’s latest issue with home runs that Devin Williams is somehow the team’s best non-David Bednar reliever. The postseason should be fun.

“That was trash,” Weaver said of his performance. (I’m sure Aaron Boone thought his stuff looked good.) “Felt like I was fighting myself the whole time.”

6. Trent Grisham went 1-for-the Blue Jays series, 1-for-the Tigers series and 0-for-the Red Sox series. Not great. Maybe Grisham will show up for this series, considering he’s being given the most plate appearance opportunities of anyone on the team by batting leadoff every game.

7. After going 0-for-7 with six strikeouts against the Red Sox, Austin Wells was right back in the lineup going 0-for-3 with another strikeout on Monday. His OPS is back under .700 at .699.

8. I need this lineup against righties until the Yankees’ postseason spot has been finalized:

Trent Grisham, CF
Aaron Judge, RF/DH
Cody Bellinger, LF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH/RF
Ben Rice, 1B
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Jose Caballero, SS
Ryan McMahon, 3B
Auston Wells, C

And this lineup against lefties:

Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Aaron Judge, RF/DH
Cody Bellinger, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH/RF
Amed Rosario, 3B
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Jose Caballero, SS
Austin Slater, LF
Ben Rice, C

9. The three-game lead the Yankees took in the loss column over the Red Sox on Saturday for the first wild-card spot is now back down to one. In two days the Yankees have erased everything they earned on Friday and Saturday. The Yankees can’t tie the Red Sox with the same record because the Red Sox own the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Here is the Yankees’ remaining schedule: Twins (2), Orioles (4), White Sox (3), Orioles (3)

Here is the Red Sox’ remaining schedule: A’s (3), Rays (3), Blue Jays (3), Tigers (3)

(Maybe none of this end up mattering and the Yankees host the Astros or Mariners in the wild-card series or go to Houston or Seattle for the wild-card series.)

10. The Yankees better have gotten their effortless, no-show performance for the series out of their system on Monday because they need to win on Tuesday and Wednesday with the Red Sox hosting the A’s. The Yankees have the starting pitching advantage in both games. They have the offensive advantage and bullpen advantage. The Yankees are a far superior team to the Twins and they better act like it and play like it the next two nights or they will be setting themselves up to go on the road for the wild-card series.

1. The Yankees did enough on their end over the weekend at Fenway Park by winning two of three, but the Blue Jays swept the Orioles to end the division race. The Yankees are four games back in the loss column and five overall because of the head-to-head tiebreaker, and with 13 games to play, the AL East is no longer a possible postseason path for the team Jazz Chisholm called “the best team in the league” after Saturday’s win.

2. The Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1 on Friday and 5-3 on Saturday with their old “Score early and then hang on for dear life” formula. It was enough to create three games of separation in the loss column for the first wild card, but that lead was cut to two after Will Warren pooped his pants with yet another first-inning meltdown and the Yankees lost 6-4 on Sunday.

3. We all know Chisholm talks too much and rarely ever backs it up, so it came as no surprise that he decided to give his latest “the Yankees are the best” rant a night before Warren would oppose Garrett Crochet.

On June 25, after salvaging the third game of a series Cincinnati, Chisholm said, “I feel like we got a great team and I feel like we’re going to make the World Series again.” At the time the Yankees had lost nine of 12 and after that win they would lose 22 of their next 39.

Three weeks ago after beating up on the AL-worst White Sox, Chisholm said, “We want to win the division. Right now, it’s just like, we’re going to go out there and win that and then we’re going to go and win the World Series.”

Then on Saturday, he said, “We’re the best team in the league. Any team that thinks they’re better than us, they should know that when we step on the field, we’re coming with relentlessness. We’re coming to step on necks. We’re not here to play around.”

So in the three instances in which Chisholm ran his mouth this year, the Yankees went on to lose 22 of 39, lost a fourth game to Crochet this season and are now out of the division race. And who could forget when Chisholm called the Royals’ ALDS Game 2 win “lucky” in the postseason, while Chisholm went 2-for-15 in the ALDS, 3-for-19 in the ALCS and 5-for-21 in the World Series.

4. As long as the Yankees’ postseason position is unknown, if Anthony Volpe starts another game this season at shortstop over Jose Caballero, I will actively root against the Yankees. After going 3-for-6 with a walk and two stolen bases in the second and third games of the Tigers series, Caballero had two doubles, a home run and another stolen base against the Red Sox. Caballero is a tough at-bat at the plate, a menace on the bases and surehanded in the field. He does everything better than Volpe and if Volpe plays again in a meaningful game or in the postseason, I will have to go against the Yankees.

5. Austin Wells better never commit catcher’s interference or allow a passed ball or a stolen base because he needs to be the best defensive catcher in the game to justify his bat. Wells went 0-for-7 with a walk and six strikeouts against the Red Sox and is down to .210/.267/.437 on the season. We know he can’t hit postseason pitching since we watched him go down swinging on elevated fastballs in each round last year, so if he’s going to play (and he is) then he better be amazing behind the plate.

6. I criticize Aaron Judge for his performance in big games, and rightfully so, but he was awesome over the weekend: 5-for-10 with two home runs and four walks. Hopefully this is Judge returning to his pre-mid-June-Royals-series self since that version of Judge hit. 394/.490/.779 in 66 games before Aaron Boone gave him his only non-injured list day off of the season. Since Boone’s lineup decision, Judge has hit .258/.412/.575 in 74 games. The .987 OPS Judge has in the lsat 74 games of his “slump” would be the third-best OPS in the majors this season. But when you build an offense reliant on your star needing to be an all-time, historic great and not just Hall-of-Fame great like Brian Cashman has then the Yankees can’t afford to have Judge being anything less than one of the best right-handed hitters in history.

7. I don’t know if Luis Gil’s six no-hit innings on Friday were the most painful six no-hit innings of all time, but they have to be up there. Gil had runners on all game because of his lack of control with four walks and added in a balk and two wild pitches and somehow came away from the game unscathed: 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 4 K. Gil’s ERA is down to 2.83 in eight starts this season despite having put 58 runners on in 41 1/3 innings.

8. The Yankees will likely have to overpay for Cody Bellinger to re-sign him and the end of whatever deal he gets will likely be ugly like all free-agent contracts end up being, but the Yankees have no choice but to sign Bellinger. His RBI double off of Aroldis Chapman in the ninth inning on Saturday was one of the biggest hits of the season and it seems like Bellinger always comes through when needed, whether it’s at the plate or in the field. His ability to hit left-handed pitching like he’s Hideki Matusi and his versatility to play over the outfield and at first base makes him so valuable to the Yankees. Here’s to Bellinger being a Yankee for the rest of his career.

9. The 12-game gauntlet against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox is over and the Yankees finished 7-5. I wrote two weeks ago they needed to do no worse than 6-6 and they played one game better. It was the first time this season the team exceeded expectations. Unfortunately because the Blue Jays seemingly come back in the late innings every day the division race is over, so now the Yankees need to ensure they have home-field advantage in the best-of-3 wild-card series.

Sunday’s game was a glimpse into what could happen in said best-of-3. Face and lose to Crochet in Game 1 and you’re facing elimination immediately in Game 2. The Yankees didn’t miss Crochet in any of their four series this season against the Red Sox and went 0-4 in games he started. His 2025 line against them: 27.1 IP, 20 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 4 BB, 39 K, 5 HR, 3.29 ERA, 0.878 WHIP. The home run ball was their saving grace against him like it has been in nearly all of their wins this season, and it still wasn’t enough to win any of the games he started. Add in that they went 1-2 in games started by Brayan Bello and you’re looking at a 1-6 record in games against the starting pitchers the Red Sox will use in Games 1 and 2 of the wild-card series.

10. The Yankees need to use the glorious schedule they have over the last 13 games to stack wins and make sure they are playing at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 30. They already pissed away a once-eight-game lead over the Blue Jays to lose the division. They can’t lose the first wild-card spot too.

1. No one beats up on bad pitching like the Bronx Bullies and when A.J. Hinch decided to use Sawyer Gipson-Long as his bulk reliever in a bullpen game on Thursday, the actual game became a formality as the Yankees blew out the Tigers 9-3 after getting blown out themselves on Tuesday and Wednesday.

2. Aaron Judge went 3-for-4 with two home runs, Giancarlo Stanton homered, Ben Rice had two doubles, Jazz Chisholm, Paul Goldschmidt and Jose Caballero each had a pair of hits and Austin Slater and Cody Bellinger each added a hit as well. Nine runs on 14 hits and five walks with seven of the runs coming in 2 1/3 innings against Gipson-Long.

3. Once Gipson-Long was removed the game, the Yankees didn’t score again. That’s unsurprising because after Gipson-Long was removed, Hinch went to his actual major-league-quality relievers as they all needed work because they weren’t needed in the first two games of the series. So nine runs against a bad, left-handed opener and an even worse bulk reliever, and then no runs over 5 2/3 innings against actual major-league-relievers.

4. Cam Schlittler bounced back from his career-worst start last Friday against the Blue Jays by holding the Tigers to one run over six innings with seven strikeouts. Max Fried and Carlos Rodon will undoubtedly be the Game 1 and 2 starters for the Yankees in the playoffs, but I would have to think Schlittler would be in line for Game 3. I get that Luis Gil has more experience, but Schlittler has been better than him this season and until Gil gets his walk issue under control, he can’t be used in a postseason setting unless a fourth starter is needed, and even then, it’s uncertain if he would be the fourth option.

5. I don’t know what to make of the Anthony Volpe labrum and cortisone shot news. I think it’s convenient for all of this to leak and then be announced by the Yankees after the leak considering it’s obvious Volpe is no longer the starting shortstop for the 2025 Yankees. It’s possible the injury has led to a third straight bad season to open Volpe’s career, but he was exactly as bad in 2023 and 2024 as he has been in 2025, so it’s hard to pin his awful 2025 on just this. It’s not like he was an All-Star the last two years and drastically regressed and therefore a labrum tear that grew worse could be the reason why. He’s always been bad, but now the Yankees have a real excuse for why he’s bad. Expect the Yankees to tell you about the labrum and cortisone shot with every opportunity they get to speak about Volpe from now through end of this season and throughout the offseason and in spring training and through next season. Caballero will be the starting shortstop for as long as this season goes, and then come 2026, It will be right back to Volpe with no competition or accountability needed.

6. I thought the Yankees needed to go 6-6 in these 12 games against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox and so far they are 5-4 with three to go. The three to go will be the hardest of the 12 given the setting, the opposing starting pitchers (at least on Saturday and Sunday) and what’s at stake.

7. This weekend will be the fourth and final time the Yankees and Red Sox play this season. Here is how the two teams spent the day before the start of each series against each other this season.

Thursday, June 5 (day before three-game series at Yankee Stadium)
Yankees play night game in New York
Red Sox have day off after finishing home series on Wednesday

Thursday, June 12 (day before three-game series at Fenway Park)
Yankees play night game in Kansas City
Red Sox have day off after finishing home series on Wednesday

Wednesday, August 20 (day before four-game series at Yankees Stadium)
Yankees play night game in Tampa
Red Sox have day off after finishing home series on Tuesday

Thursday, Sept. 11 (day before three-game series at Fenway Park)
Yankees play night game in New York
Red Sox have day off after finishing West Coast trip on Wednesday

So for all four Yankees-Red Sox series this season, the Yankees played a game the day before playing the Red Sox, and not just a game but a night game in all four instances, while the Red Sox had the day completely off all four times.

That’s not an excuse for why the Yankees are 2-8 against the Red Sox this season, it’s just an observation. The Red Sox have been able to rest and reset their bullpen for crucial games against the team they are fighting for postseason position against, while the Yankees have had roughly 20 hours between the end of their most recent game and the first game of each series against the Red Sox.

8. My path to winning the division from August 30 is still on track and this weekend presents the last difficult challenge for the Yankees to pulling it off: three games against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Not just three games to keep them in the division race, but three games to potentially decide where the best-of-3 wild-card series will be played if the Yankees don’t pull off the division win. And two of the three games will be started by Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello and the Red Sox are 5-0 in games started by that duo against the Yankees this season.

9. When I first put together a path to the division for the Yankees two weeks ago, I said they needed to go at least 6-6 against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox, and so far they are 5-4. But I also said the Blue Jays had to go 4-5 against the Reds, Astros and Orioles, and so far they have gone 4-2. It’s highly unlikely the Orioles sweep the Blue Jays this weekend, so if the Blue Jays go 2-1 against them, the Yankees need to go no worse than 2-1 against the Red Sox. The Yankees can’t lose a game in the standings this weekend. They either need to stay where they or pick up ground. If the Yankees manage to come out of this weekend two games back in the loss column (which would really be three games back because of the tiebreaker) then I believe they will win the division. If they come out of the weekend still three back in the loss column, it will be very hard for them to win the division and if they come out four or more games back then the division is over.

10. It’s never been more “right in of them” for the Yankees this season than it is now. They could do to the Red Sox what the Red Sox have done to them all season and put themselves in a commanding lead for the first wild card while also putting immense pressure on the Blue Jays for the division, or they could play the way they have all year against the Red Sox and piss away the first wild card and eliminate themselves from the division. This weekend is the most important of the season and by the end of it we will likely know which round of the playoffs the Yankees will open in.

1. Remember when the Yankees won back-to-back series against the Astros and Blue Jays and had everyone thinking they were finally capable of beating good teams and no longer reliant on beating the crap out of bad teams? That was fun for the day it lasted.

The good mood the Yankees had all fans in on Monday’s day off has been erased. The Tigers showed up in the Bronx, overcame a two-run deficit on Tuesday en route to a 12-2 win and then humiliated the Yankees for a second straight night on Wednesday with an 11-1 win. The Yankees are 1-4 against the Tigers this season, having been outscored 37-9, and Tarik Skubal only started one of those five games. They are 11-23 against the Tigers, Blue Jays, Red Sox and Astros.

2. Three solo home runs in 18 innings. That’s what the Yankees offense has provided against the Tigers this week. But as Buck Martinez said when he shit on the Yankees during the Blue Jays’ game on Tuesday, the only way the Yankees win is if they hit home runs. It’s hard to win when you rely solely on home runs and solo home runs aren’t going to cut it on their own, certainly not just three of them over two full games.

It’s also hard to win when your bullpen is a complete joke. The Yankees have one trustworthy reliever in David Bednar, and that’s it. Luke Weaver has turned back into pre-2024 Luke Weaver and Fernando Cruz is either lights out or a mess with no middle ground. Bednar stands alone and he only pitches in save situations.

Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr. combined to allow nine earned runs without recording an out in the seventh inning on Tuesday after Will Warren blew a 2-0 lead by allowing a game-tying two-run home run to Parker Meadows and his .568 OPS.

When asked about the seventh-inning bullpen implosion, Aaron Boone answered, “It happens.” No, Boone, it doesn’t. In fact, it was the first time in franchise history two relievers allowed four-plus earned runs without recording an out in the game.

To make matters worse, the Blue Jays came back to walk off the Astros and drop the Yankees to three games back in the loss column and four games overall again.

3. Tuesday’s loss was depressing. Wednesday’s loss was demoralizing. The offense took the night off against Jack Flaherty and his 4.85 ERA, gave lazy and effortless at-bat after at-bat and struck out 13 times in the game with the one run coming on an eighth-inning solo home run from Austin Wells.

4. Carlos Rodon couldn’t get through the bottom of the order in the fifth, loaded the bases for Gleyber Torres and had to throw Torres a strike when the count ran full and Torres lined a two-run single to center. Of course it was going to be Torres at some point during this series since that’s the way the Law of Ex-Yankees works. 2024 Yankee Jahmai Jones had a hit in the game as well and I’m expecting Tommy Kahnle to close out a win for the Tigers on Thursday to complete the trifecta.

5. The Yankees were still in the game down 2-0 in the fifth and sixth and down 3-0 in the seventh. Well, they were “still in the game” but every Yankees fan who watches this team every day knows they weren’t really in the game and weren’t going to come back and win. That’s not who they are. The Yankees’ only path to winning is to jump out to an early lead and then spend the rest of the game hanging on for dear life to that lead. They did it on Sunday and Saturday and Thursday and Wednesday.

6. The Tigers blew the doors off the bullpen with nine runs in the final three innings, including five in the eighth. They scored a run off Leiter Jr., three off Camilo Doval, two off Tim Hill and three off Weaver. The only Yankees reliever to not allow a run was outfielder Austin Slater who got two outs without allowing a run in the ninth. I don’t know if it’s worse that Slater was the Yankees’ best reliever or that Slater was used to pitch in Game 145 of the season with a playoff berth on the line because the Yankees were getting blown out so badly.

7. After going 3-for-the Astros series and 2-for-the Blue Jays series, Aaron Judge is 1-for-the Tigers series. Judge is 6-for-26 in September against the three teams with five singles and a solo home run. When Tuesday’s game was tied at 2 in the sixth, Judge struck out. After Trent Grisham led off Wednesday’s game with a single, Judge struck out. With the game tied at 0 in the third inning on Wednesday and runners on first and second with one out, Judge hit into a double play. With the Yankees trailing by two in the sixth on Wednesday and the tying run on base, Judge hit into another double play. Every game is a big game for the Yankees and Judge has a .740 OPS in September. I wish I were surprised, but I’m used to this level of performance from Judge in big games.

8. Someone else is going to have to step up and carry the offense, whether that’s Giancarlo Stanton getting hot again or Cody Bellinger. It would be nice if the offense as a whole could collectively produce, but we all know that’s only going to happen against last-place teams. So for now I will just hope the Yankees can keep games close enough for Grisham to hit a game-tying, go-ahead or walk-off home run since that seems to be the offensive strategy.

9. The Blue Jays and Red Sox both lost on Wednesday, so the Yankees missed a huge opportunity to make up ground on the Blue Jays and create more separation from the Red Sox. Lance Berkman used to go to the plate with the mindset he was going to make an out, so that when he didn’t he was pleasantly surprised, and that’s how I’m treating the playoff standings. I’m mentally preparing for the Yankees finishing as the second wild card and going on the road to Fenway Park for a best-of-3 in what will end with a humiliating series loss to Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello. That way if the Yankees somehow win the division despite being four back with 19 games to play or finish with the top wild-card spot or don’t play Boston in a best-of-3 I’m pleasantly surprised.

10. I think we all know how this season is going to end. I have desperately tried to talk myself into it not ending in a similar fashion to the last 15 seasons, but the last two nights were the latest reminder of who these Yankees are in the biggest of games against the best of opponents and how their big-name and highest-paid players perform in the biggest of games against the best of opponents. I would like to think they still have an opportunity to change my mind over the next two-and-a-half weeks, but they have been showing us and telling us who they are for 143 games and 88 percent of the season. Thinking or believing they are going to completely change their identity from here on out beginning on Thursday night is the kind of delusional, fairytale mindset Boone lives by. I wish for once Boone would be right and everything would be right in front of them, but nearly every day and every game the Yankees remind you why it’s not.

1. I was disgusted when I left the Stadium on Friday night following a putrid 7-1 loss. Cam Schlittler couldn’t put anyone away as he needed 66 pitches to get five outs and the offense provided one hit (a Giancarlo Stanton solo home run) through the first six innings.

Prior to the series-opening game, I wrote: That’s not to say Schlittler may not overthrow on Friday night. It’s going to be a loud crowd at the Stadium for the series opener with nice weather expected, the Blue Jays in town and the division on the line. If Schlittler stays composed and throws strikes, he will be just fine and the Yankees will be just fine.

Schlittler wasn’t fine. He laid his first egg and turned in his worst outing in 10 career starts, allowing more than three earned runs for the first time as well. He put eight runners on in 1 2/3 innings and the Blue Jays fouled off pitch after pitch after pitch, tiring Schlittler out until they got something to barrel. It was startling to see him struggle given how good he’s been. Maybe it was the Blue Jays seeing him for a second time this season or maybe it was what I feared in him pitching in the most important game of his career to date. Whatever it was, it was a disaster and the Yankees fell to four back in the loss column in the division.

2. Things went much better on Saturday as the Yankees won 3-1 with a nearly-two-hour rain delay mixed in.

Luis Gil continued his 2025 escape act as he walked four in six innings but managed to hold the Blue Jays to just one run thanks to Cody Bellinger throwing out Bo Bichette at home to end the sixth right before the tarp came out.

The Yankees took an early lead in that one thanks to a second-inning walk, error, single and sacrifice fly sequence and added a third run after the rain delay on another sacrifice fly. Both sac flies came off the bat of Austin Wells, who leads the majors with 11.

Luke Weaver, Fernando Cruz and David Bednar combined to throw three scoreless innings and pull the Yankees once again within three of the Blue Jays in the loss column.

3. On Sunday, the game started out beautifully with Max Fried retiring George Springer, David Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on eight pitches followed by a Ben Rice three-run home run off of Max Scherzer in the bottom of the first (which was apparently the product of Scherzer tipping his pitches). Maybe the Yankees would win a laugher against a good opponent, blow out the Blue Jays and let Paul Blackburn eat up innings at the end of the game so the bullpen could get an extra day of rest with Monday’s scheduled day off? Maybe not.

The Blue Jays immediately fought back. Alejandro Kirk walked to lead off the second and Ernie Clement doubled. With runners on second and third and one out, Fried got old friend Isiah Kiner-Falefa to hit a ground ball to short. It was hit far enough in the hole that it would score one run, but Anthony Volpe couldn’t even knock it down or get his glove on it to prevent a second run from scoring.

Leading 3-2 in the third, Fried gave up a leadoff double to Springer and then Schneider reached on a throwing error from Volpe as the “fucking elite” shortstop continues to dazzle in the field. Guerrero doubled in Springer to tie the game at 3. Cody Bellinger drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the third to give the Yankees a 4-3 and the score stayed that way for the rest of the game to get the Yankees within two games in the loss column in the division.

4. Aaron Judge was back in right field on Sunday and back to lobbing in throws to the outfield. It’s obvious Judge is doing barely a step above Smalls running back the ball to the infield in The Sandlot as Aaron Boone gets testy with the media and tries to tell everyone what they are seeing isn’t what they are seeing. It’s the same approach he has used in handling discussing his shortstop the last three years.

I have spent a lot of words in these Thoughts on Volpe, especially this year, and I’m running out of ways to portray just how bad he is for those who can’t comprehend how bad he is. He does nothing well. I think that’s the best way to summarize him as a player: He does nothing well. He can’t hit for average and he doesn’t hit for power (at least not regularly). He’s been caught stealing in 48 percent of his 23 attempts and is a poor situational hitter. He has a weak arm and atrocious fielding technique. He lets every ball play him, fails to charge routine grounders, plays balls on his back hand when he doesn’t need to and seemingly wants to put himself in position to be off-balance when he throws to first base.

Volpe went 1-for-37 with 14 strikeouts leading into the White Sox series then went 6-for-14 against the worst team in the American League and is 2-for-21 with 12 strikeouts since. Remove his weekend against the league’s worst and he’s 3-for-58 with 26 strikeouts dating back to August 15. He went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, an error and couldn’t knock down the Kiner-Falefa ball on Sunday.

Volpe’s slash line for the season is an improbable .207/.269/.396 in 556 plate appearances. Improbable because no one with those kind of numbers gets to have 556 plate appearances on a team that claims it’s goal is to win the World Series. It would be one thing if he had the type of defense at shortstop that Ryan McMahon does at third base because then you could at least try to argue his importance in the everyday lineup, but instead, I look away when any ball is hit to short and pray it results in an out.

Volpe is a problem. A big problem. An enormous problem. Because the Yankees continue to tell us he’s something he’s not, even after 460 regular-season games and 1,846 plate appearances. There isn’t a single stat — traditional or modern — that suggests he’s even remotely close to being a valuable part of the team even if Boone says there’s no planet in which Volpe isn’t an elite player already and believes he’s a superstar in the making.

5. Watching Jose Caballero play shortstop in person on Friday night was refreshing. Routine plays are made like they’re routine plays and throws from short reach first in the air and on target. I don’t care if Caballero has no power and limited ability at the plate. He puts together tough at-bats and when he does reach he’s a menace on the bases. He can impact the game so much more than Volpe can on both sides of the ball.

Here are the offensive stats for both since Caballero became a Yankee:

There isn’t a person in the world not named Aaron Boone or Brian Cashman who could look at those numbers and think Volpe should be playing every day and that’s without factoring in the disparity in their defense.

Unfortunately, Volpe is going to keep playing every day and the Yankees will continue to tell us everything we have been watching from him over the last three full seasons is an illusion and that he’s “fucking elite” and we’re all “losing our minds” when it comes to evaluating him.

6. A similar story has unfolded with Devin Williams with Boone acting as though everything we have seen from Williams isn’t real. It was outrageous Williams pitched against the top of the Blue Jays lineup in the eighth inning of a one-run game on Sunday. I don’t give a fuck how many pitches Weaver or Cruz or Bednar had thrown of late. It was the biggest moment in the biggest game of the season to date and a situation Williams has proven he can’t handle since the very first game of the season. And yet, Boone still used him. It doesn’t matter that Williams got out of the inning without allowing either of his two baserunners to score. It was ridiculous he was allowed to impact that game given the stakes, with the stakes being the division race being over if the Yankees had lost. (Also, has the opposition not watched enough video of Williams to understand if you never swing against him, you will never make an out? He has no fastball command and his changeup is never in the zone. If hitters weren’t so selfish and greedy in thinking they can get an extra-base hit off of Williams, he would walk every batter he faces.)

7. The Yankees are doing their best to shed the Bronx Bullies moniker. After beating the crap out of last-place teams in August, the Yankees have opened September with back-to-back series wins over the Astros and Blue Jays. The idea the Yankees can’t beat the top teams in the league is slowly starting to fade after back-to-back series wins over the Astros and Blue Jays, though there is still a long way to go with six games this week against the Tigers and Red Sox.

8. Winning the division is still unlikely. The Yankees are two games back in the loss column, but they are really three games back overall because of the head-to-head tiebreaker after losing eight of 13 to the Blue Jays this season.

Here is what needs to happen for the Yankees to win the division:

I stopped at 8-11 because it’s hard to expect the Blue Jays to play worse than that when it’s hard to expect them playing under .500 at all. The Blue Jays’ remaining schedule is much more difficult than the Yankees, but I think the worst any Yankees fan can wish for from the Blue Jays is 10-9, which means the Yankees will have to go 13-6, which is very doable if the Blue Jays cooperate.

9. Here is what I wrote about the Yankees winning the division on August 30:

Let’s make it as hard as possible for the Yankees to win the division. Let’s say they are three games back of the Blue Jays after Sunday, Aug. 31.

The Yankees were three games back after Sunday, Aug. 31.

The Yankees will have to go at least .500 in the 12 games against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox to have a chance. So let’s say they go 6-6, which is the floor of what they can do. Two of those six wins have to come against the Blue Jays …

The Yankees are 4-2 in the 12 games against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox. They won two against the Blue Jays.

Let’s say the Yankees drop one of their two games this weekend (against the White Sox) and so do the Blue Jays (against the Brewers). The Yankees would be 76-61 at the end of play on Sunday and the Blue Jays 79-58.

This is what happened and the Yankees were 76-61 and the Blue Jays were 79-58 at the end of play on Sunday, Aug. 31.

The Yankees then go 6-6 against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox and are now 82-67. The Blue Jays have lost two of three to the Yankees during that time, so they are 80-60. In their other nine games, the Blue Jays have gone 4-5 against the Reds, Astros and Orioles and are now 84-65.

Again, the Yankees won two of three from the Blue Jays and are 4-2 in the 12 games, needing to go just 2-4 to meet 6-6. The Blue Jays went 2-1 against the Reds, so in order to get to 4-5, they will need to go 2-4 against the Astros and Orioles. Not likely, so the Yankees will need to do better than 2-4 against the Tigers and Red Sox. Go 3-3 and the Blue Jays can then also go 3-3. Again, very doable.

The Yankees need to get through this week still two games back in the loss column to have a chance. If they are two games back in the loss column or better at the end of play on Sunday then I do think they will win the division given the opponents in their 13 remaining games and the Blue Jays’ opponents in their 13 remaining games.

10. The Yankees did their job over the weekend by winning the series against the Blue Jays, and they are right on track with what I laid out 10 days ago in terms of what they need to do and what the Blue Jays need to do for the Yankees to win the division. The difference between winning the division and not is getting a bye straight to the ALDS or having to play a best-of-3 with Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello (whom the Yankees are 0-5 against this year) pitching Games 1 and 2. The day off on Monday is much needed given the use of the only three trustworthy relievers of late. It’s also needed to give me (and likely all Yankees fans) a rest from the emotional, mental and physical stress and anguish the 2025 Yankees have caused over the last five-plus months.

1. I didn’t feel good at the end of the seventh inning on Thursday night. The Yankees had built a 4-1 lead against the Astros through five-and-a-half innings but gave a run back in the sixth thanks to some of the worst collective umpiring you’ll ever see and then gave up another run in the seventh. The 4-1 lead had become a 4-3 lead and I felt like I was watching the previous night’s game unfold again. On Wednesday, the Yankees watched a 4-1 lead turn into an 8-4 deficit when the combination of their manager and bullpen couldn’t keep the Astros off the board in the fifth, sixth, seven or eighth innings and a nearly identical occurrence was brewing on Thursday.

The Yankees weren’t able to add on to their lead or protect it on Wednesday. On Thursday, they were able to do both.

Ryan McMahon delivered an RBI single that increased the lead from 4-3 to 5-3 in the eighth and Trent Grisham delivered the game-opening blow with a three-run home run to extend the lead to 8-3.

A five-run lead with six outs to go and Fernando Cruz and David Bednar available should be more than enough to coast to the postgame handshake line. But it nearly wasn’t as Bednar went out of his way to give the Astros a chance to shock the Yankees and hand them their latest worst loss of the season. Bednar had pitched just once in a nine-day period (throwing 22 pitches against the White Sox back on August 30) and looked like more like Camilo Doval than himself. He allowed a single, double, lineout, single and walk before finally striking out Carlos Correa (Correa helped him out by swinging at ball 4 on a 3-2 pitch) and Christian Walker to end the game. Had Correa walked, Walker would have come to the plate as the tying run, a scenario which seemed unimaginable with a five-run lead and three outs from a win with a more-than-rested Bednar on the mound.

The Yankees did their job in Houston, winning two of three and keep their place in the standings the same on Thursday with the Blue Jays and Red Sox both idle. They are now 2-1 in this 12-game stretch in which they need to go at least 6-6.

2. Carlos Rodon was very good (6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HR) in the biggest game of the season to date. There were times when it seemed like the game would get away from him (and in the past it definitely would have), but Rodon successfully navigated his way through each jam. If only that version of Rodon would come to pitch in every big game.

3. Cruz’s strikeout of Jose Altuve with two outs and two on in the seventh on a 3-2 pitch was one of the biggest moments of the season. Altuve went into that at-bat hitless in the series and if there was ever a time for him to be due and get yet another last laugh at the Yankees it was there. I kept envisioning him hitting a three-run home run over the left-field wall all the way until he waved through Cruz’s high-and-away splitter. Cruz, Luke Weaver and Bednar are the only relievers I trust in the Yankees’ bullpen and my trust in Weaver is fading.

4. With every Grisham home run — and there have now been 30 of them this season — I can’t help but think about what could have been if he had played over Alex Verdugo last season, especially in the playoffs and World Series. Every Grisham home run seems to come in an enormous moment. He’s either homering to lead off a game, tie a game or give the Yankees a late or extended lead. It’s unlikely the Yankees sign Grisham with Cody Bellinger also a free agent and Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones waiting to inexpensively fill everyday roster spots, but if the Yankees decided to sign Grisham, he has earned it. Whether it’s with the Yankees or not, the Grishams and many generations of them will be taken care of because of this season.

5. What a game for McMahon. He gave the Yankees an early 1-0 lead with an RBI single, homered to give them the lead back at 2-1 and drove in an important run in the eighth to extend the lead from 4-3 to 5-3. He was also the focal point in the bizarre situation that unfolded at third base when he clearly caught a batted ball in the air and then dropped the transfer to throw but was deemed to not have caught the ball all by the entire umpire crew. I don’t think we’ll be seeing anyone from that crew in October.

6. Aaron Judge did what he does against the Astros in the three games, which isn’t much. Three singles, three walks and no extra-base hits for Judge in the series. In the six games against the Astros this season he went 5-for-21 with four walks and all five hits were singles. That’s exactly who Judge has always been against the Astros. Judge also went 2-for-14 with two walks and six strikeouts against the Red Sox in August and 1-for-10 (though the one was a home run) with one walk and four strikeouts against the Blue Jays at the end of July. There’s a reason the Yankees have such an abysmal combined record against the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Tigers and Astros this season and it’s because Judge hasn’t been at his best against those teams. Those are the teams the Yankees will play in the postseason, so if this is Judge foreshadowing what’s to come next month then I’m ready for it since I’m used to it from him.

7. If you remove Anthony Volpe’s 6-for-14 against the White Sox — the worst team in the American League — last weekend, the run he’s on is preposterous. He was 1-for-38 before the 6-for-14 and is 1-for-11 since. If there were consequences for underachieving within the Yankees organization and if either Brian Cashman or Aaron Boone had to fear for their jobs then Volpe wouldn’t be playing every day with a .208/.271/.397 slash line, an 83+ OPS and shaky defense. Unfortunately, the White Sox series is enough to carry him through the rest of the season and into next season as an everyday regular for the Yankees. The Yankees have had three years to do something to improve his play and development and they have scoffed (laughed, really) at every chance and every criticism. Jose Caballero’s sound play and peskiness isn’t enough to get playing time except for occasionally against lefties and as an injury or defensive replacement. George Lombard Jr. remains Yankees fans’ only hope to unseating Volpe as the Yankees’ starting shortstop.

8. It will be interesting to see what lineup Boone comes up with against Kevin Gausman on Friday. I would have to think Jazz Chisholm (0-for-10 against Gausman) will be held out after leaving Thursday’s game early (but not before he unnecessarily wasted an at-bat and an important out). McMahon is 5-for-14 with a home run and 1.186 OPS against Gausman, Jose Caballero is 5-for-7 with a 1.714 OPS and Amed Rosario is 4-for-14 with two home runs and a 1.047 OPS. Those three have to play. Giancarlo Stanton is 8-for-27 with three home runs and a 1.034 OPS against Gausman and Paul Goldschmidt is 10-for-19 with a home run and 1.362. Cody Bellinger is only 2-for-19 and Trent Grisham is 5-for-21 against him, but you can’t not play those two. None of Volpe, Dominguez, Austin Wells or Ben Rice have even respectable numbers against him. Here is what I would do:

1. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
2. Aaron Judge, DH
3. Cody Bellinger, LF
4. Giancarlo Stanton, RF
5. Ryan McMahon, 3B
6. Amed Rosario, 2B/SS
7. Trent Grisham, CF
8. Jose Caballero, 2B/SS
9. Austin Wells, C

Play Caballero or Rosario at short and the other at second. Keep Rice on the bench to hit for someone later. That lineup keeps the overall balance for once Gausman is out of the game, while making sure those with impressive career numbers against him get to face him at least two times. Will Boone do any of that? No. Don’t be surprised to see Volpe in there and one of Caballero or Rosario on the bench.

9. It’s possible the lineup and offense won’t need to do much with Cam Schlittler on the mound. In nine starts, Schlittler has allowed three runs or fewer every time. He hasn’t allowed multiple runs in a start since August 8 and has allowed just one run total over this last three starts. The Blue Jays have seen him once in his second start back on July 22 and he pitched well in that game (5 IP, 2 ER) despite it being his second start and going 13 days between starts. Schlittler is much more comfortable now having been in the majors for two months and has looked better each time out, which seems odds to say for someone with 54 strikeouts in 48 1/3 innings and a 2.61 ERA.

That’s not to say Schlittler may not overthrow on Friday night. It’s going to be a loud crowd at the Stadium for the series opener with nice weather expected, the Blue Jays in town and the division on the line. If Schlittler stays composed and throws strikes, he will be just fine and the Yankees will be just fine.

9. I don’t expect any easy, blowout, or lopsided wins this weekend because how can you ever expect those, especially in what will be postseason-like games in September. Close games means Boone is heavily involved. Schlittler has only given the Yankees more than six innings in one start, so six innings is about all you can ask from him. That means the Yankees need to plan to get at least nine outs from the bullpen (and possibly more). At this point in the season the bullpen budget and the “can’t pitch three days in a row” bullshit needs to be thrown out the window. If Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is up in a big spot on Friday, it can’t be Camilo Doval or Devin Williams facing him just because others pitched on Wednesday and Thursday. If the Yankees manage like that this weekend then the division is already over before any of the game are played. These are the most important games of the season, and with the two teams meeting, the Red Sox will gain or lose ground on one of the two every day this weekend. I don’t care what Cruz or Weaver had to do the last two days in Houston. If the situation calls for it, they need to be used.

10. I don’t trust Boone to manage like that because I wouldn’t trust Boone to tell me what day of the week it is. We have eight years of games proving when given the opportunity to manage with urgency he won’t . Whether it’s Opening Day, a game in the middle of July or an elimination game in the World Series, Boone will always make the unfavorable decision that doesn’t put his team in the best possible position to succeed. It’s who he is and there’s no changing that. The only way the Yankees overcome their own manager is to outhit him (which is going to be hard against the Blue Jays or in the postseason) or for the relievers he calls on to get outs (which is going to be even harder since the bullpen is full of bums). Schlittler could be awesome on Friday, the offense could do enough against Gausman and the Yankees could still lose because of Boone and his bullpen management, just like they did on Wednesday in Houston.

The Yankees have to win at least two of three this weekend to have a chance at the division and likely need to win all three. If they win two, they will still be three games back because of the head-to-head tiebreaker, and even if they sweep, they will be in second place because of the tiebreaker. By late Sunday afternoon Yankees fans will know if the AL East and a bye to the ALDS are a real possibility again or if Yankees fans should start planning for the team’s first appearance in the best-of-3, wild-card series.

1. With a 4-1 lead over the Astros and 12 outs to go on Wednesday night, the Yankees were on their way to a second straight win over the Astros. If they could add to their lead or hold on to it, they would win back-to-back games against one of the other Top 5 teams in the American League for the first time since they swept a doubleheader from the Blue Jays on April 27.

The Yankees never added to their lead and couldn’t hold it either.

2. Will Warren went back out to the mound for the bottom of the sixth inning and with a three-run lead he threw a first-pitch, get-me-over breaking ball and Jeremy Pena destroyed it over the left-field wall to make it a 4-2 game. Aaron Boone immediately removed Warren from the game following the home run in favor of Fernando Cruz. If Warren’s leash was a single pitch, what was he doing on the mound to begin the sixth inning? If Boone was willing to remove Warren from the game after 67 pitches and get 12 outs from the bullpen, why not just go right to the bullpen to start the sixth rather than give the top of the Astros’ order a third look at Warren? Stealing outs, that’s why. No matter the situation or the importance of the game, Boone will always try to steal an out or two or an inning from his starter. Yordan Alvarez greeted Cruz with a double and after a wild pitch and a groundout, the Yankees’ lead was down to 4-3.

3. The Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the seventh and the Astros tied the game when Luke Weaver couldn’t navigate the bottom of the order, needing 22 pitches to get through the seventh, while giving up the game-tying run.

The Yankees went down 1-2-3 again in the eighth and the Astros once again went to work, lighting up Devin Williams for four earned runs as the righty was only able to get one out. Camilo Doval relieved Williams and did his best Brooks Kriske impression, allowing two runs to score on a single, another run to score on a balk and another run to score on a wild pitch. When the eighth was over, the Yankees trailed 8-4, having allowed one run in the fifth, two in the sixth, one in the seventh and four in the eighth. It was a magnificent implosion by the entire bullpen as Cruz, Weaver, Williams and Doval combined to allowed 10 baserunners and six earned runs in four innings.

The Yankees did their best to come back in the ninth with a three-run outburst against Bryan Abreu (who they always hit), but came up a run short in an 8-7 loss. Instead of starting off this 12-game stretch against the Astros, Blue Jays Tigers and Red Sox at 2-0, they’re now 1-1. They need to go at worst 5-5 over the remaining 10 games against the four teams to have a chance at the division and to put themselves in a position to host a best-of-3 wild-card series.

It was an enormous missed opportunity for the Yankees as the Red Sox lost and a win would have moved them to two games up in the loss column on the first wild-card spot. Instead, they remain one game up there and are now again three games back in the loss column in the division (though it’s really a four-game deficit with the Blue Jays having clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker).

4. Yes, home-plate umpire Brian Walsh was atrocious, and yes, he made egregious calls, most of which screwed the Yankees, but that can’t be an excuse for the loss. Walsh didn’t force Williams to throw an 0-2 fastball to Carlos Correa, which resulted in a leadoff double in the eighth inning with the scored tied at 4. He didn’t force Williams to throw a 3-1 changeup clearly out of the zone to 9-hitter Taylor Trammell with the bases loaded and the score tied at 4 in that same inning.

I’m not upset with Williams. He sucks. He didn’t ask to be traded to the Yankees. He didn’t ask to be the closer at the start of the season. He didn’t ask to remain the closer when he started blowing games. He didn’t ask to return to being the closer when Weaver got hurt. He didn’t name himself the closer even after the team traded for David Bednar. He isn’t the one who continues to put him in high-leverage situations he’s set up to fail in. What is he supposed to do? Not play Major League Baseball and not make millions of dollars to do so?

Boone’s loyalty over the years to players he shouldn’t be loyal to is extremely odd. It doesn’t matter what his relationship is with Williams, he has no reason to use him or believe in him the way he does and whenever this season winds up ending, Williams will no longer be a Yankee. Boone owes him nothing, and yet, he treats him like he owes him everything.

“When you’re making good pitches, which I was, not getting those calls really changes the course of an at-bat,” a delusional Williams said. Does he think Walsh is responsible for the Correa double and all three walks?

“I said, ‘I had four that you missed,’ and he threw me out for it,” Williams said. “Never been ejected in my career.”

Both Boone and Williams were ejected for arguing balls and strikes. Boone has openly said he is not for an automated strike zone and believes the game should still be called by the home-plate umpire. So why then does he complain about balls and strikes more than anyone in the game? Because it’s all he has. Boone doesn’t know how to motivate his players or what to do to get the best out of them. The only move he has or thinks he he has is to argue balls and strikes and get tossed when his team is playing poorly or losing. If the entire game became automated calls, Boone would lose his only motivational tactic, which does nothing to motivate.

5. Many times last year I said Clay Holmes would be allowed to ruin the season in the postseason and he was and nearly did when he allowed a walk-off home run in Game 3 of the ALCS and almost blew a four-run lead in Game 4. The same goes for Williams. He will ruin the season if he’s allowed to in the playoffs, and from everything I have seen this season and how Boone has used and treated him, Boone will undoubtedly put Williams in a position to ruin the season.

6. The loss on Wednesday was a one-run game. The Yankees lost a one-run game to the White Sox on Sunday. They came an inch away from losing what would have been a one-run game if that ball in Chicago landed fair instead of foul on Saturday. They lost a one-run game to the Red Sox two weeks ago. There’s a reason the Yankees lose so many close games and it’s because of Boone. The closer the game, the more important he becomes as the bullpen, pinch-hit and baserunning decision maker. His bullpen management was every bit as bad as the bullpen pitched on Wednesday. Not only that, but with the game tied at 4 in the eighth and a guaranteed at-bat against a lefty available, Boone let Ben Rice hit instead of using Paul Goldschmidt. Rice weakly grounded out to first. What’s the point of having such platoon depth on the roster if the manager is incapable of utilizing it?

7. “The Astros are one team Aaron Judge does not excel against,” Michael Kay said during Wednesday’s game. No shit, Michael. That’s why the Yankees were eliminated by the Astros in 2017, 2019 and 2022. Judge went 6-for-24 with 11 strikeouts in 2017, 6-for-25 with 10 strikeouts in 2019 and 1-for-16 with four strikeouts in 2022. For all of the regular-season success the Yankees have had against the Astros, including the lengthy winning streak in Houston which ended on Wednesday, the Yankees went 4-12 against them in those three ALCS. Judge went 1-for-5 on Wednesday, while the Astros’ star slugger in Alvarez went 4-for-5 as his bat single-handedly ignited the Astros come back, tied the game and took the lead.

8. It was another stellar night for Anthony Volpe. Through the first two games of the series, Volpe botched a routine double play and is 0-for-7 with four strikeouts. His 6-for-14 series against the White Sox was enough for him to never be benched again this season even though it succeeded a 1-for-38 and preceded the now 0-for-7. I’m glad Volpe will continue to play every day because of what he did one weekend in Chicago against the worst team in the AL and the second-worst team in the majors.

9. The series and regular-season finale between the Yankees and Astros will feature Carlos Rodon against Christian Javier. No pitcher has owned the Yankees in recent years like Javier and even though he has only made 11 starts over the last two seasons due to injury, I can’t say I feel even a hint of confidence with him going on Thursday. Add in Rodon and the Crawford Boxes in left field and the near-zero confidence decreases even more.

10. Thursday’s game is immensely important. The Yankees have a game in hand on the blue Jays and two games in hand on the Red Sox. Those games in hand need to be wins. A loss puts the Yankees four back in the loss column on the Blue Jays and five overall because of the tiebreaker and essentially ends all division hope without a Yankees sweep of the Blue Jays this weekend. A loss would tie the Yankees again with the Red Sox in the loss column for the top wild-card spot and because the Red Sox hold the tiebreaker the Yankees would be back in a position to go on the road for the first best-of-3. A win on Thursday keeps them right where they are, in comeback distance of the Blue Jays with the three-game series this weekend in the Bronx and ahead of the Red Sox in the wild-card standings. Thursday is the newest most important game of the season for the Yankees.

It was an enjoyable week of Yankees baseball as the Bronx Bullies beat the crap out of the Nationals for three days and then the White Sox for two days before winning an extra-inning game against the White Sox on Saturday and losing a one-run game to the White Sox on Sunday. Despite the frustrating loss in the series finale, the Yankees went 6-1 against two last-place teams and outscored them 53-19, which is what good teams — contending teams — are supposed to do.

The Yankees began August with five straight losses, six in the first seven games and seven in the first nine. After starting the month 2-7, they then won seven of eight and lost three straight before going 7-1. They finished the month 16-12 with 14 wins over the final 19 games of the month.

It’s great the Yankees stacked wins in the second half of the month and now only trail the Blue Jays by two games in the loss column and lead the Red Sox by one game in the loss column. But don’t forget what put them in this situation in which they had to run off 14 wins in 19 games to get to this point: playing the worst baseball in the majors for one-third of the season.

In August, the Yankees went 13-5 against teams currently boasting a losing record and 3-7 against teams currently posting a winning record. The problem is the Twins, Cardinals, Nationals and White Sox won’t be playing in the postseason. The bigger problem (for now) is the Yankees won’t see any of those teams or any team like them over the next 12 games.

The next 12 games will determine if the Yankees make a miraculous comeback to overtake the Blue Jays and win the AL East after once leading the Blue Jays by eight games, if they will end up in the top wild-card spot and host a best-of-3 series or if they will go on the road in that best-of-3. And standing in their way are the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox — four teams the Yankees are 7-19 against this season.

Over the the next three days the Yankees will play in Houston where Framber Valdez, Jason Alexander and Christian Javier await. The Yankees got to Valdez in the Bronx last month, but he’s never someone you want to see them face, Alexander one-hit the Yankees over six shutout innings in that same series and Javier has owned them in a way no one else in the majors has over the last four years.

The thing is the Astros aren’t that good. They are actually a half-game worse than the Yankees if you can believe that. Since the teams met three weeks ago, the Astros have lost a home series to the Orioles, were swept by the Tigers and over their last eight games against the Orioles, Rockies and Angels, they went 4-4. The Astros can be beat, it’s just a matter of if the Yankees can beat them.

Tuesday is as big of a regular-season games as you can have, considering where the Yankees are in both the division and wild-card standings and because they have played so poorly against the league’s best this season. The Yankees’ bullying ways of destroying bad teams won’t be able to get them through this stretch. They will have to play their best to survive these 12 games. They will need the offense to get leadoff doubles in and to score runners from third with less than two outs. They will need the rotation to give them length and for the bullpen to be sound. They will need their manager to make countless correct decisions because he won’t be able to go on cruise control following a nine-run outburst in an early inning. They will need to play clean baseball in the field and be flawless on the basepaths. They will need to do things they struggle to do daily and things they fail at frequently and they will need to do them over and over from Tuesday through two Sundays from now if they want to create the most favorable postseason for themselves.

1. After putting up a 10-spot on Thursday, the Yankees did the same on Friday, blowing out the last-place White Sox 10-2. It was the third straight game the Yankees scored double-digit runs, the fourth time in five games they have done so and the sixth time in less two weeks. If only under-.500 teams were part of the postseason the Yankees would be all set.

2. Yes, these wins against bad teams are needed and every one of the 162 games in a season are valuable, but again, the stench left from the Red Sox series and from series against teams currently holding a playoff spot as a whole throughout the season lingers like a skunk waiting for you when you open your garage door. It’s going to take a lot more than tomato baths to remove the smell of this Yankees team, and there’s nothing they can do this weekend to do so. It’s going to take winning games and series over the next two weeks against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox to change my perception of a team that pads its stats, run differential and win total against the league’s worst and is humiliated by the league’s best. I’m going to need see the offense show up against pitchers the Yankees didn’t put on waivers earlier this season. I’m going to need to see Jazz Chisholm get a runner in from third with one out against a reliever who will be pitching in October, not flipping his bat during a blowout of a bad team.

3. Again, these games against the lowly White Sox are important, just as the ones against the Nationals, Rays, Cardinals and Twins earlier this month were. But after the Yankees beat the crap out of those teams, they erased everything they accomplished by losing two games in the standings in a single weekend to the Red Sox. That can’t happen again. If the Yankees want to win the division like Chisholm talked about on Thursday, or even win home-field advantage for the wild-card series, they can’t poop their pants next week when they play the best competition in the American League.

5. While the Yankees were lighting up their former teammate in Yoendrys Gomez, the Red Sox lost a home game to the Pirates and the Blue Jays did the same to the Brewers. The Yankees are now one game up in the loss column on the Red Sox for the first wild-card berth and three games back of the Blue Jays in the AL East.

6. As I wrote yesterday, in terms of winning the division, the math is very bad for the Yankees. Possible? Yes. Likely? No. At least from a statistical perspective. But that perspective is based on the teams’ winning percentage to date and their run differential. If you look at the remaining schedules, I do think it’s doable.

If the Yankees are able to pull off a four-game sweep of the White Sox, there’s a very real possibility they could be one game back of the Blue Jays at the end of play on Sunday. (The Brewers have a starting pitching advantage over the Blue Jays on both Saturday and Sunday.) If the Yankees are one game back as of Sunday with 25 games to play, yes I do think they will win the division. Even if they are still three games back as of Sunday, I think they could win the division. I know that sounds crazy, and yes, it is, but hear me out.

Disclaimer: Winning the division isn’t possible if the Yankees’ 12 games over the next two weeks against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox play out like the 26 games against those opponents have so far this season: the Yankees are 7-19 against those teams.

7. For this exercise, let’s make it as hard as possible for the Yankees to win the division. Let’s say they are three games back of the Blue Jays after Sunday. The Yankees will have to go at least .500 in the 12 games against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox to have a chance. So let’s say they go 6-6, which is the floor of what they can do. Two of those six wins have to come against the Blue Jays and two more have to come against the Red Sox. That means 4-2 against the Blue Jays and Red Sox and 2-4 against the Astros and Tigers.

Let’s say the Yankees drop one of their two games this weekend and so do the Blue Jays. The Yankees would be 76-61 at the end of play on Sunday and the Blue Jays 79-58.

The Yankees then go 6-6 against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox and are now 82-67. The Blue Jays have lost two of three to the Yankees during that time, so they are 80-60. In their other nine games, the Blue Jays have gone 4-5 against the Reds, Astros and Orioles and are now 84-65. There are now 13 games left and the Yankees are two games back in the loss column (82-67 to 84-65), but they are really three games back from taking over the division because the Blue Jays already clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The Yankees’ 13 remaining games are against the Twins (3), Orioles (4), White Sox (3) and Orioles (3).

The Blue Jays’ 13 remaining games are against the Rays (4), Royals (3), Red Sox (3) and Rays (3).

That Yankees series against the White Sox is crucial because with the Blue Jays and Red Sox playing each other at the same time, every win means the Yankees gain ground on one of the two and every loss means they lose a game on one of the two. The Blue Jays’ seven remaining games against the Rays are also crucial because they have struggled against the Rays this season, going 1-5.

If the Yankees go 9-4 in those 13 games (one loss in each series) and the Blue Jays go 6-7 in their 13 games, the Yankees win the division. If the Yankees go 8-5, then the Blue Jays need to go 5-8. Unlikely. If the Yankees go 7-6, the Blue Jays need to go 4-9. Very unlikely. I think 9-4 is the floor of what needs to happen, and that may not be good enough.

8. That is a not-so-far-fetched path to winning the division. It could be made a lot easier if the Yankees would just rip off 10 straight wins (like the Blue Jays and Red Sox have both done this season) and the Blue Jays and Red Sox both fall apart. That would be much easier with no math and scoreboard watching involved. Just a good, old-fashioned, double-digit win streak coupled with simultaneous collapses from the Blue Jays and Red Sox. But that’s an abundance of wishful thinking, considering a great deal of wishful thinking is already needed for the Yankees to play well against the league’s best and continue to beat up on the league’s worst. (All of this would be meaningless if the Yankees could have just not blown their eight-game lead over the Blue Jays.)

9. As of now, here is how the pitching matchups line up for the next two weeks:

Saturday: Cam Schlittler vs. Shane Smith
Sunday: Luis Gil vs. Martin Perez
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Max Fried vs. Jason Alexander
Wednesday: Will Warren vs. Christian Javier
Thursday: Carlos Rodon vs. Spencer Arrighetti
Friday: Cam Schlittler vs. Kevin Gausman
Saturday: Luis Gil vs. Max Scherzer
Sunday: Max Fried vs. Chris Bassitt
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Will Warren vs. Casey Mize
Wednesday: Carlos Rodon vs. Chris Paddack
Thursday: Cam Schlittler vs. Jack Flaherty
Friday: Luis Gil vs. Lucas Giolito
Saturday: Max Fried vs. Brayan Bello
Sunday: Will Warren vs. Garrett Crochet

Based on this, the Yankees do miss Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Shane Bieber and Tarik Skubal, but having to face Bello and Crochet is as bad as it gets, considering what those two have done to the Yankees this year (the Yankees are 0-5 in games started by those two). It could haven’t been Giolito, Dustin May and rookie Payton Tolle?! Pitchers get hurt and teams adjust their rotations around scheduled days off for important series, so this could all change, but as of now, it’s a better schedule of opposing starters than I figured it would play out to be.

10. Before I get too far ahead of myself and start planning for the strong finish, division title and best-of-3 bye, the Yankees can’t go out and lose on Saturday and Sunday with the Blue Jays winning both days to fall five games back. If that happens, the division is over. And because a Yankees extended winning streak into next week isn’t likely given the opponents and it’s less likely the Blue Jays implode, the deficit can’t go higher than three again. The Yankees have to maintain the deficit or gain on the Blue Jays from here on and out (and oh yeah, also have the Red Sox cooperate and not sneak in win the division themselves).

1. Another game against a last-place team and another bullying performance from the Yankees offense as they pummeled the White Sox 10-4 on Thursday.

Cody Bellinger gave the Yankees an early 2-0 lead in the first inning with a two-run home run on an 0-2 count and a Jazz Chisholm solo home run and a Ben Rice RBI single in the second had the Yankees ahead 4-0. But in the bottom of the second, Miguel Vargas hit a game-tying grand slam off Will Warren after an egregious Anthony Volpe fielding error extended the inning.

2. The game remained tied until the fifth when the Yankees scored twice to take 6-4 lead and they added three more in the eighth and one in the ninth. Trent Grisham homered again, Rice had a pair of hits, Bellinger had three hits and even Volpe had two hits to break up a 1-for-38 run in the second half of the month. Do I think this is the start of something for Volpe and he’s now going to go on a run to get his numbers back to respectability (if it’s even possible for him to get back to respectability with 28 games left)? No, I do not. I think it was the result of someone getting to play every day having a random day with a pair of hits and nothing more than that. I expect him to continue to struggle at the plate because that’s what he has done for three full years and expect him to screw up routine plays in the field because that’s what he does now.

3. None of the four White Sox runs were earned, so Warren’s ERA was unscathed by the second-inning grand slam as he went five innings. Fernando Cruz, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams combined to throw three perfect innings, striking out six of the nine hitters they faced and Mark Leiter Jr. managed to put up a scoreless ninth.

4. It was a rather easy win outside of the second-inning scare as a result of the Volpe error and grand slam that followed. It was the fifth time in the last 13 games the Yankees scored double-digit runs, though those games came against the Cardinals, Rays, Nationals and White Sox. The Yankees are now 12-4 in their last 16 games even if it doesn’t feel like it after the demoralizing series against the Red Sox.

5. “There’s real length to the order, and there’s places that can hurt you up and down the order,” Aaron Boone said.

Maybe you want to let Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello know where those places are? Again, how about winning a series against a good team, an actual contender before talking about how good you?

6. “We want to win the division,” Chisholm said. “Right now, it’s just like, we’re going to go out there and win that and then we’re going to go and win the World Series.”

It’s comments like those that make it hard to like Chisholm. Chisholm said something similar back on June 25 when the Yankees salvaged the third game of a series in Cincinnati, saying, “I feel like we got a great team and I feel like we’re going to make the World Series again.” At the time the Yankees had lost nine of 12 and after that win they would lose 22 of their next 39.

7. Yes, the Yankees have currently won 12 of 16, but 11 of those 12 wins have come against the Twins, Cardinals, Rays, Nationals and White Sox. In the other four games, they went 1-3 against the Red Sox. I don’t know why Chisholm feels the need to run his mouth when the Yankees have been humiliated by the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Tigers, Astros, Phillies and Dodgers this season and blew an enormous division lead to the Blue Jays and an even bigger wild-card lead to the Red Sox. Maybe wait until you actually win the World Series before talking about it? Maybe wait until you improve upon your 10-for-55 performance from last postseason before you act like you were on the Dodgers last year and not the Yankees?

8. Let’s look at Chisholm’s lofty goal of winning the division and see if it’s possible.

The Yankees are four games back of the Blue Jays with 28 games remaining. If the Blue Jays were to go 14-14, the Yankees would have to go 19-9 to win the division since they can’t have the same record because the Blue Jays hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Blue Jays do have series left against the Brewers, Reds, Astros and Red Sox aside from their series against the Yankees, but it’s hard to believe they would play .500 baseball with 13 games left against the Orioles, Rays and Royals. Let’s say the Blue Jays go 16-12. The Yankees would then have to go 21-7. The math just isn’t there because for the Yankees to win 21 of 28, they would have to play exceptionally well against the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Astros and Tigers, which they haven’t done all year.

9. Maybe eight years of Boone telling everyone the Yankees’ best baseball is still in front of them will cash in. Maybe they will go on an unforeseen run and win 21 of 28 or something crazy and the Blue Jays will stumble and the Yankees can win the division and get a bye into the ALDS. It’s extremely unlikely, but I guess there is a small chance it could happen. It would have happened if the Yankees could have protected their eight-game lead over the Blue Jays earlier this summer.

10. Friday is another opportunity for another win against the White Sox with Carlos Rodon going against former Yankee Yoendrys Gomez. The Yankees’ goal right now should be to get out of the second wild-card spot and into the first to make sure they aren’t on the road for the entirety of a best-of-3. Once that is accomplished then they can worry about the Blue Jays and the division. The Blue Jays are hosting the Brewers this weekend with the Red Sox hosting the Pirates. Get ready for a month of scoreboard watching.

1. Three games against the last-place Nationals and three easy wins for the third-place Bronx Bullies in what was the most predictable series ever. After losing three of four at home to the Red Sox to fall to 5-15 against the Red Sox and Blue Jays this season and 7-19 against the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Tigers and Astros, the Yankees demolished the Nationals for three straight days, outscoring them 26-8.

That’s what these Yankees do: they beat up on the league’s worst and lose to the league’s best. It’s what they have done all season and it’s what has them currently in third place in the AL East and in the second wild-card spot, meaning all road games in the best-of-3 wild-card series at the moment.

2. It’s great the Yankees swept the Nationals. They have to sweep the league’s worst because of their inability to win series against the league’s best. But I evaluate the Yankees with the idea of winning the World Series in mind, so everything I write, analyze or criticize is under that premise. It’s hard to get excited about beating the crap out of the Twins, Cardinals, Rays and Nationals when the team gets humiliated by the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Astros, Tigers, Dodgers and Phillies since those are the teams that the Yankees will potentially play in October.

3. Despite the series sweep of the Nationals, the Yankees were unable to pick up a game on the Red Sox because they were busy sweeping the lowly Orioles and only picked up one game on the Blue Jays, who won their series against the Twins. The Yankees remain behind the Red Sox in the wild-card race because of the head-to-head tiebreaker, which the Red Sox clinched at Yankee Stadium last weekend, and 4 1/2 games behind the Blue Jays for the division with 29 games to play (though it’s really 5 1/2 games since the Blue Jays clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Yankees as well).

4. Before Tuesday’s game I wrote:

Luis Gil needs to be as good (5 IP, 1 ER) as he was on Thursday because we all know first-half MacKenzie Gore — All-Star Gore — is going to be who the Yankees face or make him out to be.

And that’s exactly what happened. Gil gave the Yankees the same five-innings-and-one-earned-run performance as he did in his previous start and the best version of Gore showed up or at least the Yankees made Gore the best version of himself … except for Giancarlo Stanton. Stanton tagged Gore for a bases-clearing, three-run double in the third to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead and then hit a two-run home run off of Orlando Ribalta in the sixth to give them a 5-1 lead, which was the final score. Stanton 5, Nationals 1.

5. “It’s been fun being able to contribute on both sides,” Stanton said. “I’m just making sure I’m mentally prepared for all scenarios when the ball is hit towards me.”

Stanton went 2-for-3 with a double, home run and five RBIs and the rest of the Yankees went 4-for-27 with six strikeouts. Aaron Judge (who continues to play every day over Stanton) had another hitless game and the Development-Failing Duo of Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells went 0-for-7 with a walk (Wells) and three strikeouts.

6. The game was Volpe’s big return to the starting lineup after being held out of it on both Sunday and Monday. Volpe went 0-for-4 with a strikeout in what was another abysmal performance and things would only get worse for him on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Trent Grisham hit a leadoff home run to give the Yankees an early lead and then in the third, the offense exploded for nine runs in typical bully fashion en route to an 11-2 win. Here is how Wednesday’s third inning unfolded:

Ben Rice: single
Aaron Judge: home run
Cody Bellinger: home run
Jazz Chisholm: walk
Jasson Dominguez: double
Anthony Volpe: lineout
Austin Wells: catcher’s interference
Ryan McMahon: home run
Trent Grisham: strikeout
Rice: home run
Judge: single
Bellinger: walk
Chisholm: walk
Dominguez: single
Volpe: strikeout

The Yankees scored nine runs on three singles, two doubles, three home runs and three walks in the inning. Volpe made two of the three outs in the inning in what would be an 0-for-5 day with two strikeouts to drop him to 1-for-37 with 14 strikeouts since the first game of the St. Louis series on August 15. That represents a .027 on-base percentage, which is the lowest OBP by any non-pitcher Yankee in any 11-game span in the 103-year history of the franchise (stat from Katie Sharp). The “fucking elite” Volpe (which is what Aaron Boone referred to him as to Meredith Marakovits earlier this season) is hitting .204/.269/.393 on the season. He has the second-worst batting average in the majors (Oneil Cruz has the worst at .203), the worst on-base percentage at .269 and the 11th-worst OPS. It’s not a major-league bat, it’s an unplayable bat, and yet, he will continue to play every single day.

7. “You go through it as hitters, man. It’s hard,” Boone said when asked about Volpe. “What I’m excited about is he continues to play really good defense.”

Volpe has been going through “it” for three years since his first game in the league. And yes, hitting is hard, which is why you don’t pass on the deepest shortstop free-agent class in history full of proven players for an unknown with the team in a supposed championship window like the Yankees did with Volpe between the 2022 and 2023 seasons. As for being excited about him because he’s not booting ground balls and throwing the ball all over the field, all I will say is shortstop defense grows on trees. You can find yourself an all-glove, no-bat shortstop anywhere, and if that’s what the Yankees are accepting of Volpe being then it’s an organizational failure that it has gotten to this point.

8. Every Yankees starter reached base except for Volpe, as the offense did its usual stat padding against the 53-80 Nationals. Rice, Judge and Bellinger went 8-for-13 with three home runs, Chisholm walked three times, Dominguez had two hits, Grisham homered and even McMahon and Wells homered.

9. Max Fried had his second Fried-like start (7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K) as he was staked to a 10-0 lead before he took the mound in the fourth inning. After having just one quality start between June 25 and August 22, Fried has looked like his old self the last two times out, even if one of those two times was against the Nationals with a double-digit lead. Fried’s next three starts will be against the Astros, Blue Jays and Red Sox, so we’ll see if he is really fixed and back to being the first-half Fried (who was a Cy Young favorite and in line to start the All-Star Game before falling apart) or if these last two outings were just a tease.

10. The next four days is another series against a last-place team in the White Sox. The White Sox aren’t as bad as they were last year and when you look at how they have been playing of late, this isn’t the type of cake walk that many feel it is. The Yankees will have to play well to beat the White Sox and keep pace with the Red Sox, who host the Pirates. Based on what we have seen of late from the Bronx Bullies, expect one last impressive beatdown of a bad team before 12 straight games against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox begins next week.

1. Vacation is over and so is the vacation from the Thoughts. A vacation that started out with five straight Yankees wins over teams counting down the days until the end of the season fell apart over the weekend against a team the Yankees can’t seem to solve. Even though the Yankees won the last two days, what transpired from Thursday through Saturday negated the run before the Red Sox series and its stench has lingered into the Nationals series.

The Yankees are bullies. They beat the crap out of the league’s worst teams and the moment a team equal to or better than them comes around they run away and hide. Of course they had a 10-run lead over the Nationals until the ninth inning on Monday, the same way they hit nine home runs in a game against the Rays last week and hung 24 runs on the Cardinals the weekend before. That’s who the Yankees are. They are also the team that lost three of four at home to the Red Sox, lost eight straight to the Red Sox prior to Sunday’s win and are 2-8 against the Red Sox on the season. The Yankees are the team that is 6-19 against the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Tigers and Astros.

2. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if the Yankees win five or more games this week against the last-place Nationals and last-place White Sox. I’m expecting the Yankees to do exactly that. That’s what bullies do. I’m also expecting them to then get put in their place like bullies do when they go to Houston next week and follow that up with series against the Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox.

3. At this point, the Yankees are going to the playoffs. They lead the Royals by five games in the loss column, the Guardians by six and the Rangers by seven. Those teams aren’t capable of erasing those deficits with a month to play, and the Yankees have 19 games remaining against the Nationals, White Sox, Twins and Orioles to bully their way into the playoffs.

4. It took nearly three full seasons, but Anthony Volpe was finally “benched” earlier this week. It wasn’t a traditional benching since he entered Sunday’s game as a defensive replacement (which is beyond absurd) and was already told he will be back in the lineup on Tuesday. It was a fake benching to give Volpe time to rest as he’s mired in yet another ridiculous slump that has left fans booing him at the plate and in the field. Volpe has one multi-hit game in August and that came on August 1. Since then he’s 8-for-66 and hitting .121/.171/.242. Yes, he has a .414 OPS for nearly a month.

“It’s just been a scuffle offensively here over the past week, 10 days,” Aaron Boone said of Volpe’s performance.

Ah, yes, it’s only been a week to 10 days of no offensive production for Volpe. That must be why he’s at the bottom of every offensive statistic for everyday players in the league since the start of 2023. No other player gets to play every day with numbers like his over the last three years.

Volpe is a .222/.284/.380 hitter in 1,799 career plate appearances with an 84 OPS+. This is who he is. A fake, not-even-two-full-games benching isn’t going to change him from being the worst everyday hitter in baseball to the player the Yankees told us he would be when they passed over the deepest free-agent shortstop class in history for him. He will be back in the lineup now every game and continue to do nothing nearly every game.

5. Volpe has the second-worst batting average (.208) in the majors and is just one point off the lead. Ryan McMahon is third at .216. That’s quite the left side of the infield Brian Cashman has built. At least McMahon makes every single play and then some at third. Recently, Nathaniel Lowe was between the two with the third-worst average in the majors, but after a big weekend against the Yankees, Lowe is now only the fifth-worst hitter in the league. You have to love that a player the Rangers paid to go away and the Red Sox picked up off the scrap heap only so they could stop playing Abraham Toro at first base was responsible for two of the Red Sox’ wins over the weekend.

6. Monday’s win was enjoyable because it was a relaxing blowout win. Cam Schlittler was awesome, the Yankees hit a bunch of home runs and Volpe and Austin Wells didn’t play. What more could you ask for?

Schlittler is my favorite Yankees pitcher because he isn’t out there trying to fool anyone. Everyone knows his fastball is coming and no one is hitting it. In eight starts he has allowed three runs or fewer each time out and he has allowed one run over his last starts 22 1/3 innings with 25 strikeouts.

“It’s just important for me to do my job,” Schlittler said. “I try to get six, seven innings and put the team in a spot to win.”

Boone called Schlittler “a future staple of our rotation.” Umm, he’s in the rotation in the present and hopefully it’s not “your” rotation for much longer (though we all know it will be.)

If the playoffs started next week, he would be my Game 1 starter because even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he can still get outs. Unfortunately, the Yankees don’t make on-field decisions based on performance. Money owed, name and reputation will always supersede actual results. 

7. Max Fried finally looked like himself on Friday and Carlos Rodon finally beat a good team on Sunday. But one start from each doesn’t make me feel better about either. I’m going to need to see it every fifth day for the rest of the season to believe they can win in October, considering the postseason histories for both aren’t exactly glowing.

8. It was just last week Boone was using Yerry De los Santos in the sixth inning of a tie game at home the Yankees would lose because he couldn’t retire a hitter, and then on Monday, Boone used him in a 10-run game and De los Santos couldn’t close that out. I laughed at the people who were upset I complained about De los Santos being used in the spot he was in the series finale against the Twins and I’m laughing at them again. De los Santos is fine as a last or second-to-last relief option. He should have been nowhere near that game last week and his season ERA (which the Boone Fan Club cited as a reason for him being in the Twins series finale) has more than doubled since he ruined the Twins series finale.

9. The best hitter on the Yankees doesn’t get to play every day in Giancarlo Stanton. He’s hitting .306/.383/.638 and is the best he’s been as a Yankee and since his 2017 NL MVP season. And yet, he didn’t play on Monday, didn’t start on Friday or Wednesday and got one at-bat in St. Louis. Stanton not being the designated hitter so Judge can is so perfectly the Boone Yankees. Judge is hitting .210/.380/.403 since coming off the injured list on August 5. In that same time, Stanton is hitting .441/.525/1.029.

Stanton has been hitting and hitting no matter who the opponent is, while Judge went 2-for-14 against the Red Sox and 2-for-9 against the Astros — the only two teams with winning records the Yankees have faced in August. One extra-base hit (a double) for Judge in this seven games. It’s a precursor of what to expect in the playoffs, which is what has always happened in this era in the playoffs: Stanton shows up and Judge doesn’t. When we look back on this era of the Yankees, one that is unlikely to include a championship, we’ll know it wasn’t because of Stanton.

10. MacKenzie Gore gets the ball on Tuesday and while he has been bad in July and August, any starting pitcher with a hint of ability is capable of stopping this Yankees’ offense, especially a left-hander with the ability of Gore who is one of the game’s best when he’s on. Here is what I think Boone will do on Tuesday:

Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Aaron Judge, DH
Cody Bellinger, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, RF
Ben Rice, C
Amed Rosario, LF
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Anthony Volpe, SS
Jose Caballero, 3B

It’s another big game for the Yankees as they are tied in the loss column with the Red Sox and need to finish one game ahead of them because of the head-t0-head tiebreaker to avoid playing a best-of-3 on the road in the playoffs. Luis Gil needs to be as good (5 IP, 1 ER) as he was on Thursday because we all know first-half Gore — All-Star Gore — is going to be who the Yankees face or make him out to be.

1. It’s no coincidence the Yankees’ starter pitched into the seventh inning and the offense scored six-plus runs in the first two games of the Twins series and the Yankees won both. Aaron Boone looks like a genius when he doesn’t have to think. Pitch well, hit well and play clean baseball and Boone doesn’t get to be a part of the equation. It’s the best kind of baseball there is.

That’s what I wrote after Tuesday’s blowout. Take Boone out of the game and the odds of the Yankees winning increase dramatically. Allow Boone to interject himself into the outcome with in-game decision making and you get the kind of result the Yankees suffered on Wednesday with a 4-1 loss. A complete missed opportunity to make up ground on everyone in the standings as the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Mariners and Guardians all lost.

2. Instead of pulling one game closer to the Blue Jays, Red Sox and Mariners and one game further away from the Guardians, the Yankees ran in place in what was a wasted game against an inferior opponent.

Prior to Wednesday’s game I wrote:

The Yankees will go for the sweep on Wednesday night, and in order to pull it off, they will need to beat the Twins’ best starter in Joe Ryan. The active Yankees have only faced him a couple of times in their careers and their numbers against him are weak. Cam Schlittler will need to match Ryan for as long as he can because after scoring 15 runs over the last two nights, Wednesday has a Yankees offensive no-show written all over it.

The Yankees had opportunities to get to and beat Ryan, Schlittler did his job matching Ryan for the five innings he was in the game and the offense no-showed, scoring just one run on five hits in the game.

The Yankees stranded Trent Grisham on second with no outs in the first when Aaron Judge couldn’t get him over for someone to get him in. (Judge was hitting .394/.490/.779 before Boone kept him out of the starting lineup for the only time all year on June 12 in Kansas City and he’s hitting .235/.373/.536 since.) Ben Rice led off the second with a single and was also stranded. Cody Bellinger took Ryan deep for a solo home run in the third, but Schlittler gave it right back in the fourth. The game remained tied at 1 until the sixth when Boone got his hands on it.

3. The Yankees couldn’t have asked for a better pitching situation heading into Wednesday’s series finale: They had won the first game of the series by four runs and the second game by eight runs to allow their bullpen and elite relievers to rest, and with a scheduled day off on Thursday they could unload their top arms on Wednesday and still have them all for Friday in St. Louis. So knowing all of that, why was Yerry De los Santos the first guy out of the bullpen in a 1-1 game on a night when all of the Yankees’ playoff competition had already lost?

“[Schlittler] set us up,” Boone said, “especially going into an off day with a rested-up pen and felt like we could get there.”

So Boone knew of the advantageous spot the Yankees were in after Monday and Tuesday and after Schlittler pitched five innings of one-run ball on Wednesday and he still made the choice to go to De los Santos.

4. De los Santos is a nice, back-end-of-the-bullpen arm, which is how he has been treated all year. In April, May and June he only pitched in blowout wins or losses. He was sent down in mid-June and when he returned in late July, he continued to be the last or one of the last options out of the bullpen. He was sent down again after all the moves were made at the trade deadline since there was no longer room for him with all of the new relief acquisitions. So De los Santos wasn’t good enough to be a Yankee on August 1, but now two weeks later, he’s good enough to pitch in the sixth inning of a 1-1 game with playoff position jockeying on the line. Not only that, but he was called on to face the 2-3-4 hitters in the Twins lineup.

5. Mark Leiter Jr. to Camilo Doval to Luke Weaver to David Bednar was how the plan should have unfolded. I would have even used Weaver in the sixth there with the scored tied and the 2-3-4 hitters due up. Not Boone. Boone went with De los Santos and it went about as well as expected. He faced three hitters, they all reached and they all scored and when the book was closed on him the Yankees trailed 4-1. Only after De los Santos didn’t retire any of three batters he faced and gave up a two-run double did Boone go to Leiter Jr. So Boone was willing to go to Leiter Jr. in the sixth inning, he just thought he would try to steal an inning with De los Santos before going to his best relievers. Not only did Boone turn to Leiter Jr. with the Yankees trailing by two rather than tied, but then in the eighth he went to Doval with the Yankees trailing by three. So he would rather have Leiter Jr. and Doval pitch with the Yankees trailing than in a tie game.

6. The Twins didn’t score for the rest of the game after getting to De los Santos because the Twins suck. If they were ever going to score it was going to be with their 2-3-4 hitters up. The Yankees didn’t score for the rest of the game either because that’s what they do against the league’s best pitchers like Ryan. And once Ryan was out of the game and the Twins turned to Kody Funderburk and his 5.73 ERA and Justin Topa, the Yankees had already given up as they had just one baserunner against those two in 2 1/3 innings of relief.

7. Boone had to manage one game in the series and he couldn’t even do that. It’s games like that for why he should have lost his job long ago. Not because he has never seen one of his players perform poorly in eight years, not because he exaggerates his evaluations and straight up lies about injuries. It’s because he has spent his entire life around baseball, and not just baseball but Major League Baseball, and still manages as if he were introduced to the game a week ago.

8. It’s hard enough for the Yankees to overcome their top-heavy offense, their shaky rotation, their inconsistent bullpen, their running the bases like drunks as John Sterling said during last year’s World Series and their defensive miscues, but to have to overcome their own manager in any close game too? It’s too much. It’s why no matter how well the team plays or how clean of a game they provide, it’s exceedingly hard for them to win big, close games. (Look no further than Games 1 and 5 of the World Series, the two biggest games of Boone’s managerial career.)

9. So instead of arriving in St. Louis feeling good after a series sweep and tied with the Red Sox in the loss column and two games behind the Mariners in the loss column and a game up on the Guardians in the loss column, the Yankees are in the same spot as they were before Wednesday’s game with one more game erased from the schedule: the third wild-card spot. And they are only in that spot because the Guardians have two games in hand. The Yankees and Guardians are tied in the loss column and if the Guardians win those two games in hand, the Guardians become the third wild-card team since they have a better record against their own division than the Yankees.

10. A missed opportunity in a season full of them. In an era full of them. The Yankees have lost that same game countless times under Boone in which he can’t properly utilize his bullpen because he’s always trying to steal an out or an inning to save an arm for a situation and a game that may never come. Keep managing for tomorrow and there won’t be a tomorrow after Game 162 for the Yankees this season.

1. The Yankees’ odds of winning seemed bleak early on Tuesday as Carlos Rodon allowed a leadoff single to open the game and was at 30 pitches with the bases loaded and no outs in the first inning. Rodon’s Yankees career has been three seasons of letting the team and its fans down, but this time he settled in, allowed one run in the inning and didn’t allow another hit for the rest of his night. The Yankees as a whole didn’t allow a hit for the rest of the night. The Twins went 1-for-28 with two walks and eight strikeouts against Rodon, Tim Hill and Yerry De los Santos.

“We were set up for disaster there, but we got through it,” Rodon said. After the first inning, I attacked the strike zone and made them put the ball in play, and the defense played great.”

2. The Yankees scored nine runs in the game and it could have been a lot more. They racked up 11 hits (five for extra bases) and 11 walks. There was traffic on the bases all game as the Twins failed to have a single 1-2-3 inning. The 9-1 win gave the Yankees back-to-back wins for the first time in two weeks and just the second time in a month.

3. Giancarlo Stanton hit his 12th home run of the season (in only 157 plate appearances) and had his first four-hit game in two years. Stanton is now up to .300/.376/.586 on the season and has been the Yankees’ best hitter since he returned from the injured list. The games he lost sitting on the bench over the last couple of weeks that the Yankees lost because he was on the bench look even worse now than it did at the time.

“It’s refreshing after missing so much time, because I contribute zero when I miss time,” Stanton said. “Anything I can do when I’m back is always nice.”

4. Anthony Volpe hit a three-run home run after what looked like a little help from Jazz Chisholm on second base relaying him the pitches. As long as Chisholm is on second base waving his arms for Volpe to see, Volpe is a great hitter. To his credit, Volpe has been a much better all-around player in recent weeks, especially defensively. I still don’t trust him at the plate and will never trust him in the field, but he’s fine since the boos starting raining down in him at home last month.

5. Aaron Judged homered in the first to tie the game. It was Judge’s first home run since July 23. Yes, he missed a chunk of time on the IL during the last three weeks, but he had gone seven games without a home run, which is an eternity for Judge.

6. Wins by four or more runs are always welcome, like the Yankees provided the last two days. Blowout wins like Tuesday’s are the best. It’s no coincidence the Yankees’ starter pitched into the seventh inning and the offense scored six-plus runs in both games in the series and the Yankees won both. Aaron Boone looks like a genius when he doesn’t have to think. Pitch well, hit well and play clean baseball and Boone doesn’t get to be a part of the equation. It’s the best kind of baseball there is.

7. “Our mission is still the same thing: Go back to the World Series and win it,” Judge said. “We made it a little tough for ourselves the past couple of weeks, falling out of first place, but we have a lot of ballgames left to go do our thing.”

First, let’s settle down with any World Series talk. Right now the Yankees are tied with the Guardians in the loss column and the Guardians have two games in hand. If the Guardians and Yankees finish with the same record for the third wild-card spot, the Guardians will get in based on their record against their own division. Second, you didn’t make it “a little tough” you made it a lot of tough. You went from an eight-game division lead over the Blue Jays to pissing it away entirely in two months. And it hasn’t been a few weeks, it’s been more than two months of bad baseball and you haven’t been in first place since July 3. Third, there aren’t “a lot of ballgames left” as there are now 42 games left.

Unfortunately, the Mariners, Blue Jays, Guardians and Red Sox all won, so the Yankees’ blowout win didn’t change the standings. (The Rangers did lose to fall 4 1/2 games behind the Yankees, so for now they aren’t worth worrying about.)

8. It was another start at catcher for Ben Rice on Tuesday. The Yankees traded away every catching prospect they had because they believed Austin Wells would be their starter for the next decade and that J.C. Escarra would be a worthy backup. Now Wells is benched since he can’t hit sliders or sweepers and Escarra was sent down at the trade deadline and only recently recalled because of the injury to Amed Rosario. The Yankees’ payroll distribution and roster construction are deplorable and their decisions at catcher are a big reason why.

9. I can’t believe I forgot to write about Brooks Kriske in Tuesday’s thoughts after he pitched against the Yankees on Monday. Kriske threw 11 1/3 innings across 12 games for the Yankees in 2020 and 2021 and is best known for his wild pitch meltdown at Fenway Park to lose an extra-inning game in 2021. But my favorite thing about Kriske is just looking at his pitching line as a Yankee: 11.1 IP, 15 H 20 R, 19 ER, 6 HR, 13 BB, 15 K, 1 HBP, 7 WP, 15.09 ERA, 2.471 WHIP. What a masterpiece. That’s 29 baserunners in 11 1/3 innings! That’s an average 11.9 hits, 4.8 home runs and 10.3 walks per nine innings. It has to be the single-worst pitching line in Yankees history for someone who was allowed to pitch in 12 games. And to think the Yankees chose to protect Kriske and Nick Nelson instead of Garrett Whitlock. Now you know how it’s possible the same front office chose Wells and Escarra over Carlos Narvaez and Agustin Ramirez, only to have someone (Rice) they said wasn’t good enough to be a catcher in the majors become their starting catcher.

10. The Yankees will go for the sweep on Wednesday night, and in order to pull it off, they will need to beat the Twins’ best starter in Joe Ryan. The active Yankees have only faced him a couple of times in their careers and their numbers against him are weak. Cam Schlittler will need to match Ryan for as long as he can because after scoring 15 runs over the last two nights, Wednesday has a Yankees offensive no-show written all over it. Yes, it’s hard to sweep any team, even the Twins, but the Yankees need to find a way to. That’s what happens when you spend two-and-a-half months losing more often than not.

1. Oh how easy being a Yankees fan would be if the Yankees were part of the AL Central. In desperate need of a win, the Twins arrived in the Bronx and rolled over for the Yankees like they always do. The Yankees won 6-2 to win the first game of a series for the first time since the July 11-13 against the Cubs (though the Yankees ended up losing the second and third games of that series).

2. Will Warren (6.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 2 HR) was dominant and economical through the first 5 2/3 innings before Byron Buxton got him for a solo home run. Up until that point it felt like the Yankees had the game in the bag with Warren throwing a one-hitter, even though the Yankees only had a 3-0 lead. Warren gave up another solo home run in the seventh and the three-run lead that felt like it would be enough for a win was suddenly down to a single run.

3. Thankfully, the Yankees added two runs in the bottom of the seventh and another in the eighth. Luke Weaver got four outs across the seventh and eighth in relief of Warren and David Bednar got the final three outs of the game. Starter to Weaver to Bednar is a recipe for success and the only formula that can be trusted at this point since no other relievers can be trusted and Boone doesn’t know how to or when to properly use anyone other than those two.

4. “I think we’ve been needing that spark,” Warren said. “The past month hasn’t been how we’re supposed to play baseball.”

The past month? How about the past two months? Because this collapse started back after the win over the Royals on June 12. If you want to go back further, the Yankees are just one game over .500 since April 27.

Cody Bellinger hit a first-inning solo home run, Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice hit back-to-back solo home runs in the third and Jazz Chisholm hit a solo home run in the eighth. The solo home run: the only way the Yankees seem to know how to score.

5. “That’s what it’s supposed to look like right there,” Boone said of the win.

And that’s what it’s supposed to look like to take Boone out of the game: 6 2/3 innings from the starter, only needing your best two relievers, six runs from the offense and no errors in the field or on the bases. A Boone-less game is the best kind of game. The manager never had a chance to impact the game and ruin it.

6. Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge and Ryan McMahon each went 1-for-4 and combined for five strikeouts. Anthony Volpe went 1-for-3 with a walk and Paul Goldschmidt went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts as he continues to be unable to hit right-handed pitching, no matter who it is, and demolish left-handed pitching, no matter who it is. The Yankees went 10-for-34 as a team with a double, four home runs, two walks and 12 strikeouts.

7. Do I feel any better about the Yankees after Monday’s game than I did before it? No. The Yankees are still a mess. One win against a team going nowhere and a team that sold nearly half its roster at the trade deadline isn’t exactly feeling-changing. The Yankees could (and should) win on Tuesday and again on Wednesday for their first sweep in more than a month and I would feel the same way about them. The Twins suck and beating up on them should be expected and nothing more. Yes, wins over the Twins are crucial and much-needed, but there is nothing the Yankees could do in this series to make me think the Yankees team that is one game over .500 over their last 91 games isn’t going to show up in St. Louis on Friday.

8. The Blue Jays, Mariners and Guardians were off, the Red Sox lost and the Rangers won, so it was a pretty good night for the Yankees. The Yankees remain in the third wild-card spot (and would play a best-of-3 against the Astros with all games in Houston if the season ended today). Here is where the Yankees are in the standings:

7 games back of the Blue Jays in the division (because of the head-to-head tiebreaker)
3 games back of the Mariners for the first wild card
2.5 games back of the Red Sox for the second wild card (because of the head-to-head tiebreaker)
Tied with the Guardians in the loss column (Guardians hold intradivision tiebreaker)
3.5 games up on the Rangers (because of the head-to-head tiebreaker)

9. The Yankees really need the Guardians to start losing because it’s going to be very difficult for the Yankees to finish with a better record against the AL East than the Guardians will have against the AL Central.

While the Yankees play the Twins, the Blue Jays play the Cubs (great), the Red Sox play the Astros (great), the Mariners play the Orioles (not great), the Guardians play the Marlins (OK) and the Rangers play the Diamondbacks (not great).

10. Carlos Rodon gets the ball on Tuesday. In his last seven starts dating back to June 30, he has one quality start (July 11 against the Cubs). Outside of that start, he failed to go more than 5 1/3 innings in any of the other six and has put 55 baserunners on in 38 innings. He has been bad for a long time (just like Max Fried has) and that needs to change on Tuesday. It has to change on Tuesday.

1. Another series against a playoff team and another series loss for the Yankees. Aaron Boone let Devin Williams ruin Friday’s game (a 5-3 loss), then allowed Camilo Doval to nearly ruin Saturday’s game (a 5-4 win) and then the offense Boone called the “best in the league” at various points this season was no-hit by Jason Alexander — a 32-year-old journeyman with a 5.97 ERA this season — in a lackluster 7-1 loss.

2. The last time the Yankees played a series against a team currently over .500 and won was back from July 8-10 when they swept the Mariners at the Stadium. Before that it was June 3-5 when they took two of three from the Guardians at the Stadium. In the last 10 weeks the Yankees have won two series against teams over .500. During that time they have dropped series to the Red Sox (twice), Reds, Blue Jays (twice), Mets, Cubs, Phillies and now Astros.

3. Unsurprisingly, the Astros did to the Yankees what they have been doing to them for the last decade. The crowd booed Jose Altuve in the first inning on Friday night with chants of “FUCK AL-TU-VE” and Altuve responded with a two-run home run. Two days later, he homered again in the first inning and would finish the series 6-for-11 with a double, two home runs, four RBIs, three walks and a stolen base.

Carlos Correa returned to the Astros at the trade deadline just in time to arrive in the Bronx playing third base for his former-and-once-again-current team. Like Altuve, Correa didn’t miss a beat against the Yankees with a 6-for-11 weekend, including a home run, three RBIs and three walks.

Why is it that every time these two teams meet the Astros’ stars play like stars and the Yankees’ stars run away and hide? (The one outlier was Juan Soto last season, but he’s no longer here.) Aaron Judge did what he does best against the Astros in a short series, picking up just two singles over the weekend, and the rest of the offense followed with a comeback effort that fell short on Saturday and a dismal performance on Sunday.

4. Not only was the defense a mess, yet again, but Max Fried wasn’t good, yet again. Fried has one quality start since June 25. He blew a lead and the Yankees lost to the last-place Orioles on June 20. On June 25, he shut out the Reds for seven innings to salvage the last game of that series. He pitched poorly in Toronto on July 1, struggled against the Mets in just five innings on July 6, left the game against the Cubs after three innings on July 12 and then pitched poorly in Toronto again on July 23. He followed that up by beating the Rays before getting beat up by the Rangers and Astros. He has put 22 baserunners on in his last two starts and 10 innings.

5. My biggest fear with Fried has always been how he will perform in the postseason and in big games, since he has been atrocious in October in his career. In 20 games and 12 starts in the playoffs, he has a 5.10 ERA and 1.493 WHIP which is a far cry from his 3.02 career ERA and 1.148 career WHIP. Well, my fear is being realized as the season progresses with the Yankees essentially playing a playoff game every night and Fried pitching like it’s October in July and August every five days.

6. If Fried and Rodon are going to lose every time they take the mound then there’s no point playing the remaining 44 games. On Saturday, Luis Gil became the first Yankees starting pitcher to get an out in the sixth inning since July 30 (stat from Katie Sharp). The starters have been bad and the bullpen has been overworked. Add in an offense that is benching their best hitter over the last month (Giancarlo Stanton) on purpose every game and you get a bad team, which is what the Yankees have been for a long time. At 20-31, the Yankees have the worst record in the American League since June 13. For two months (or one-third of the season) the Yankees — the team with the highest payroll in the AL has been the worst team in the AL.

7. As the Yankees have gone from 17 games above .500 with an eight-game division lead to out of the playoff picture like they were for about an hour yesterday, Boone’s tone and demeanor have changed in his postgame press conferences. The confident, cocky, arrogant version of Boone who acts as if he has a ring for every finger on one hand as Yankees manager is now speaking like someone who seems to be thinking about his job security for the first time on the job.

After Sunday’s loss, Boone said the following: “The game is littered with dead and buried teams … that are sitting in a worse position than we are right now that go on a run.”

Hmm, that sounds familiar. Wait a second, Boone said the same thing two years ago on Aug. 16, 2023 when the Yankees were swept by the Braves.

“The game is still littered with examples of teams going on unlikely runs,” Boone said back then.

8. On Sunday, Boone also said, “This is different than ’23 where I didn’t think we were necessarily capable of that run we needed … This is different.”

Oh really? Now it’s different? I find it quite amusing Boone says he didn’t believe in the 2023 team considering there are endless quotes from him from July and August of that season telling us how the offense will find it and how the team has the players to turn it around and have they will get going. It sounds an awful lot like the bullshit he has been spewing over the last two months.

2023: “We got the players to do it. We have the players with the track record to do it.”

2025: “I believe we have the people to get it done.”

2023: “We’ve got to fix out own house and get going.”

2025: “We got to play consistent baseball.”

9. Boone has run out of answers or ways to motivate his team, so on Sunday, he did what he knows best: he argued balls and strikes and got ejected in the third inning for the fifth time this season. At the time the Yankees were trailing 2-0. If Boone thought he could light a fire under his team, well, they were no-hit for two more innings and outscored 5-1 the rest of the game after he was tossed.

10. Maybe the Yankees will win a couple of games against the Twins over the next three nights at the Stadium, but who knows? The Twins sold at the deadline and yet they have a winning record since then, while the Yankees turned over 27 percent of their roster at the deadline and have lost seven of nine. Even if the Yankees are able to win a couple of games and a series against a team counting down the days until their season is over, then it’s off to St. Louis and Tampa and back home to host the Red Sox.

I keep hearing about how “easy” the Yankees late-August and late-September schedules are, but they have to actually be alive to have those matter, and they actually have to be playing well to think they can advantage of them. Otherwise, this season will end the same way 2023 did, whether Boone or anyone in the clubhouse believes in this team or not.

1. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe in the eighth inning of a 0-0 game with the 3-4-5 hitters of the Rangers lineup due up that Aaron Boone was going back to Devin Williams a night after he blew a one-run lead in the ninth inning. Then again, everything is believable when it comes to Boone and in-game decisions.

These were Williams’ last three appearances entering Tuesday:

Tuesday, July 29 vs. Tampa Bay: Entered with a three-run lead in the ninth. Allowed a triple and a walk and brought the tying run to the plate with no outs before eventually getting out of the inning.

Wednesday, July 30 vs. Tampa Bay: Entered with a one-run lead in the ninth. Allowed a walk and then a go-ahead, two-run home run for the blown save.

Monday, Aug. 4 at Texas: Entered with a one-run lead in the ninth. Allowed a game-tying home run for the blown save.

2. Williams has been untrustworthy since the first day he put on pinstripes on Opening Day when he nearly blew a three-run lead in the first game of the season. I don’t care about his run from early May through mid-July. Late March and April were enough to make me never trust him on the mound and when you add in his body language when things aren’t going well and the way he handles answering for blown saves — citing “just one bad pitch” when he blows a one-run lead like he did on Monday — there’s nothing to like about him. Devin, as a closer with a one-run lead, YOU CAN’T HAVE “ONE BAD PITCH!”

But there he was unable to command his fastball and throwing his changeup for easy takes on the Globe Life Field mound on Tuesday for the second time in 24 hours. And there he was ruining a game on the Globe Life Field mound for the second time in 24 hours as he allowed two runs and the Yankees lost 2-0.

3. It’s not Williams’ fault he was pitching in that spot in the game. It’s not his fault he’s still viewed as the highest-leverage reliever the team has. It’s not his fault he’s a Yankee. It’s his fault he sucks, but it’s not his fault the Yankees’ decision makers aren’t willing to accept that he sucks.

Boone could have and should have gone to either David Bednar or Mark Leiter Jr. for the eighth against the 3-4-5 hitters, but he decided to save both, likely wanting Bednar for a save situation as Boone continues to worry about a situation that may never come instead of worrying about the moment even as the Yankees continue to plummet down the standings. Boone stayed with Williams after he loaded the bases. He only went to Leiter Jr. once the Rangers had scored twice.

4. There have been a lot of stars over the years who have come to the Yankees and failed and failed miserably and Williams is the latest. It won’t surprise me when he’s somewhere else in 2026 and pitching like his pre-Yankee self and serving as the closer of the All-Star Game. It’s sad that so many great players and Hall of Fame players that have played for the Yankees under the Steinbrenners’ ownership were forced to cut their hair and shave daily, but the policy was modified for Williams of all players. One of, if not the softest player to ever come through the organization.

5. For as soft as Williams is, the offense as a collective group is much, much softer. After suffering a disastrous loss on Friday, the offense went out and got two-hit and shut out on Saturday. After suffering a disastrous loss on Monday, the offense went and got two-hit and shut out on Tuesday. This team has no fight. It’s why they didn’t have a late-game comeback for months to begin the season. When the going gets tough, the Boone Yankees get going. They always have, outside of a select few.

6. One of those few is Giancarlo Stanton who was held to one plate appearance on Tuesday because Aaron Judge returned and Judge can only DH, and because the Yankees are worried about Stanton’s health with 48 games left and a playoff berth hanging in the balance, Stanton is going to be held to one plate appearance a lot moving forward. Shockingly, the Yankees’ problems weren’t resolved with the return of Judge as Boone suggested they may be when he sternly said, “Judge tomorrow,” to the media after Monday’s game as if to foreshadow that everything would change. The Yankees were a bad team for a long time with Judge playing every day and continued to be one without him and are still one now with him again. Judge wasn’t himself for a long time before going on the injured list and still isn’t himself as he went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Judge did say the Yankees “have a good ball club” and Boone said he’s “confident” the team will turn it around. The same “good ball club” and the same “confidence” the two have never stopped referring to despite being 19-29 since June 13.

7. It’s always the ex-Yankee fucking the current the Yankees. It was Nathan Eovaldi throwing eight inning of one-hit ball on Tuesday. On Monday, it was former Yankees minor leaguers Josh Smith and Ezequiel Duran (two players traded for Joey Gallo) combining to go 3-for-7 with three RBIs. Over the weekend in Miami, it was Augustin Ramirez (traded for Jazz Chisholm) with the walk-off hit on Friday and two solo home runs in the Yankees’ 2-0 loss on Saturday. It’s always the ex-Yankees.

8. Eovaldi’s line looks great from Tuesday, but he didn’t do anything special. Eury Perez and the Marlins did the same thing to the Yankees on Saturday. Shutting out the Yankees isnt some great accomplishment. In June, they were shut out at Fenway Park on a Sunday and then shut out for 11 innings by the Angels the next day and then shut out by the Angels again the day after that. Eovaldi was good on Tuesday because he’s been good in nearly every start since leaving the Yankees after 2016.

9. Boone has had nearly three full seasons to pinch hit for Anthony Volpe in big spots and has always refrained. Yes, Stanton presented a better chance at a game-tying home run in the ninth inning on Tuesday and I would have made the same move, it’s just funny that Volpe is finally showing some semblance of offense and power for the first time in his career and now he’s a pinch-hit opportunity for Boone. Maybe Boone will finally start pinch hitting for Austin Wells now too.

10. Unfortunately, Carlos Rodon, who is as soft as Williams gets the ball in the series finale on Wednesday. Anyone who tells you they like Rodon, trust him, think he’s good or believe he will go out and lead the Yankees to a win on Wednesday is either a Yankees homer, full of shit, soft themself or all three. Sure, Rodon could go out and pitch well and the Yankees could end their five-game losing streak and avoid falling out of a playoff spot for the first time all season, but no one can feel confident in thinking he will. Because even if Rodon pitches well, the offense is likely to no-show. And if the offense does show, Rodon likely won’t pitch well. And if the offense does show and Rodon does pitch well, someone will make a baserunning or defensive mistake you have never seen before. And if the offense does show and Rodon is great and the Yankees play a clean game in the field and on the bases, the bullpen will blow it. And if the offense does show, Rodon is stellar, the Yankees play a clean game in the field and on the bases and the bullpen is unhittable, the Yankees just may win. And if all of those things happen it will be their first clean game and their first win since the trade deadline and in August. And if all of those things happen, the Yankees will leave Texas still in a playoff spot.

1. The Yankees led the Rangers 5-4 with one out and no one on the ninth inning on Monday night.

“And here is Joc Pederson, who has really struggled,” Ryan Ruocco said on YES as the Rangers pinch hit for Ezequiel Duran.

YES displayed a graphic with Pederson’s season stats showing a .126 batting average, two home runs, six RBIs and a .473 OPS on the season.

“Stunning,” David Cone replied. “Those numbers are absolutely stunning from Joc Pederson, who signed a two-year, $20 million deal to come over here. Hitting a-buck-twenty-six.”

Four pitches later Pederson destroyed a 2-1 changeup off Devin Williams to tie the game.

The moment Pederson’s blast landed, the Yankees lost. Yes, technically, there was still baseball to be played, but either the Yankees were going to get walked off on in the bottom of the ninth, or they were going to get walked off on in extra innings. Every Yankees fan knew the game was over. The worst extra-inning road team since the automatic runner was implemented was only going to provide one result.

2. And lose they did. After failing to score in the top of the 10th, the Yankees lost, as expected, in the bottom of the 10th.

In the top of the 10th with Jasson Dominguez as the automatic runner, Jazz Chisholm moved him over to third with a groundout. Anthony Volpe walked to set up runners on first and third with one out, but Austin Wells failed miserably (as he always does) and hit a weak grounder back to the mound to start an inning-ending double play. The Yankees 0-for in the 10th has them now at 1-for-33 (the one was a single) with no RBIs in six extra-inning road games this season. The only run they have scored in extras on the road this season was on a wild pitch.

Aaron Boone had already used Luke Weaver, Camilo Doval, David Bednar and Williams, so he went with Jake Bird for the 10th.

Bird got the hardest out of the inning — striking out Marcus Semien to prevent the automatic runner from advancing to third — and got Adolis Garcia to ground out to keep the automatic runner at second. Bird was one out away from sending the game to an 11th inning.

Boone decided to intentionally walk Wyatt Langford, choosing instead to pitch to Josh Jung. Jung went on to hit a 1-1 sinker 401 feet for a game-winning, three-run home run to drop the Yankees to 0-6 on the season in extra-inning road games and extend their losing streak to four straight.

3. Brian Cashman was praised for bringing in Bird, Bednar and Doval at the trade deadline, but we’re quickly seeing why he was able to hold on to his top prospects to acquire the three. The games Bird and Bednar have appeared in have been the biggest of their careers as Bird had only ever pitched for the Rockies and Bednar had spent the last five seasons in Pittsburgh after throwing 17 1/3 innings for the Padres to begin this career. Doval is the only one of the three to ever throw a meaningful pitch in August let alone October.

4. Max Fried had a 1.29 ERA through 11 starts and the Yankees were 10-1 in them. Fried has a 4.30 ERA over his last 12 starts and the Yankees are 5-7 in them. Fried was bad again on Monday: 5 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 7 K. Eleven baserunners in five innings isn’t going to cut it. Fried now has one quality start (July 29 against the Rays) in his last six outings going back to July 1. In those six starts he has a 5.81 ERA and the Yankees are 2-4.

5. Aaron Judge is set to return on Tuesday. “Judge tomorrow,” is what Boone told the media on Monday night in a way that makes me believe Boone thinks Judge is going to come back and solve all of the team’s problem. I hate to break it to you, but Judge only missed nine games since going on the injured list. The Yankees were a bad team with Judge. They have just continued to be a bad team without him.

6. Judge’s DH-only return means Giancarlo Stanton will be going to the bench. The Yankees are taking their best active hitter out of the lineup because they are afraid to let him play the outfield. There are 49 games left and the Yankees are closer to being out of the playoffs than they are to moving up in the current playoff picture. If Stanton gets hurt playing the outfield, so be it. His bat is too valuable to remove because Judge can’t play the outfield. Stanton has to play. What are you saving him for? The postseason that you’re not going to play in if he doesn’t play every day right now. Stanton can’t be a glorified pinch hitter and allowed only one plate appearance a night until Judge can throw again.

7. “Do you feel like this stretch is weighing on guys?” Boone was asked after the game.

“Yes,” Boone answered surprisingly.

I didn’t think Boone had it in him to admit things aren’t going well when things are obviously not going well, and that’s the first time in his eight years as manager I can recall him doing so. Boone said after Sunday’s loss that it’s “gut-check time” for his Yankees and they went to Texas, checked their gut and got punched in it again.

As I wrote after Sunday’s loss, Boone’s postgame tone completely shifted over the weekend. He sounds like someone who knows where this season is headed and with each passing day they are one loss closer to missing the postseason.

8. Despite having a somber tone in his voice, Boone did manage to throw out some of his favorite go-to lines after the loss. He gave us a “Gotta get over it” and a “We gotta win games” and a “We gotta do it better” when asked about his team’s recent play. The team he called “the best team in the league” a month ago. Boone said, “The season is getting shorter in a hurry.” I wonder if he has relayed that message to his clubhouse, especially Volpe, who has recently mentioned how the Yankees have so many games left.

9. On Friday, the offense scored 12 runs and the pitching gave up 13. On Saturday, the pitching held the Marlins to two runs and the offense was shut out. On Sunday, both the offense and defense sucked. On Monday, the offense scored five runs and the pitching gave up eight. The Yankees find a new way to lose every game, and that’s the most obvious sign of a bad team, which is what they have been for a long time now.

10. The Yankees are 19-28 since June 13. They went 13-14 in June, 12-13 in July and are 0-4 in August. They had an eight-game lead in the division at the end of May and are now 6 1/2 games back in the division (tiebreaker included). They had a 12-game lead in the loss column over the Red Sox at the end of May and now trail the Red Sox by 3 1/2 games for the first wild card (tiebreaker included). They are now tied with the Mariners record-wise, but do hold the head-to-head tiebreaker to be the second wild card. With Will Warren going against Nathan Eovaldi on Tuesday and the Mariners hosting the White Sox, I expect the Mariners to pass the Yankees by the end of play on Tuesday.

1. The Yankees blew a 6-0 lead. They blew a 9-4 lead. They blew a 12-10 lead with one out and no one on in the ninth inning and the bottom of the Marlins’ order due up. The Yankees lost a game in which they scored at least 12 runs and had at least 15 hits for the first time in 85 years (stat from Katie Sharp), falling to the Marlins 13-12.

In the Aaron Boone era, the Yankees have made sure to let any good feeling fans have about the team be short-lived. In 2018, the Yankees did their job to begin the ALDS by splitting the first two games at Fenway Park and then returned home to a raucous Stadium crowd only to suffer the most lopsided home postseason defeat in the franchise’s history. In 2019, they won Game 1 of the ALCS on the road against the Astros only to blow Game 2 and lose Games 3 and 4. They momentarily saved their season by coming back in the top of the ninth in Game 6 only to be walked off in the bottom of the ninth. In 2020, they won the first game of the ALDS and then lost three of the next four, including a Game 5 defeat in which they couldn’t hold on or add to an early lead. In 2022, they survived elimination in Games 3, 4 and 5 in the ALDS only to be humiliated in the ALCS. They re-signed Aaron Judge after 2022 and promised to add more, and that more only ended up regrettably being Carlos Rodon. In 2024, they reached the World Series and looked to be on their way to forcing a Game 6 before producing the single-worst inning in the history of the World Series. They traded for Juan Soto and then lost him to free agency after one season.

2. The 2025 Yankees have given fans little to feel good about over the last two months. The team had an eight-game lead over the Blue Jays at the end of May and now trail the Blue Jays by 4 1/2 games with the head-to-head tiebreaker included. The team had a 12-game lead over the Red Sox in the loss column and now they have a one-game lead in the loss column and are tied in wins. But a depressing June and July was supposed to be forgotten with a big August and September. The Yankees finally released DJ LeMahieu last month and did the same to Marcus Stroman on Friday. They had added an actual third baseman to play third base, revamped their bullpen and created a functional bench for the first time in years. Before the first pitch on Friday against the Marlins, I felt the best I had about the Yankees since they took a 3-2 lead over the Dodgers in the 10th inning of Game 1 of the World Series. Again, every good feeling in the Boone era is short-lived.

The bullpen was responsible for a lot of the losses over the last two months, but that was supposed to be resolved on deadline day with the addition of Jake Bird, David Bednar and Camilo Doval. You couldn’t find a Yankees fan on Thursday at 6 p.m. who wasn’t ecstatic about the Yankees adding three high-leverage relievers to replace the crap they had been trotting out for most of the summer. But like every bit of happiness the Yankees have produced since the start of 2018, it was immediately destroyed.

3. Before the deadline day duds ruined Friday’s game, Boone put the wheels in motion. Rodon was awful, needing 107 pitches to pitch 4 2/3 innings. But for as bad as Rodon was, Boone’s decision to let him keep pitching in the fifth inning when he clearly had nothing was worse. The Yankees led 6-0 when Rodon took the mound in the bottom of the fifth and he promptly allowed four runs with a little help from the mess that is Jonathan Loaisiga. Loaisiga hit a batter to load the bases and then allowed a two-run single to ding Rodon’s ERA.

Brent Headrick managed to throw a scoreless sixth to hold the Yankees’ 6-4 lead and the Yankees added three runs in the seventh to take a 9-4 lead. A five-run lead with nine outs to go with the newly-stacked bullpen? That’s about as close to a guaranteed win as you get in this sport. The deadline day acquisitions made sure to remind everyone there’s no such thing as a guarantee in this sport.

4. Bird was the first deadline day reliever to come into the game. The sweeper version of Tommy Kahnle and his changeup, Bird decided he was only going to throw sweepers and when it was evident he had no command of the pitch and had to come in the zone with a fastball, the Marlins rocked him.

Bird went sweeper, sweeper, sweeper, sinker to Agustin Ramirez and Ramirez drilled the fastball off the right-field wall. Bird did then got the recently-called-up rookie to go down swinging after four straight sweepers. Otto Lopez singled when Bird threw him three straight sweepers and Liam Hicks walked when Bird threw sweepers and a curveball out of the zone.

At that point, Bird had thrown 15 sweepers in 19 pitches and it had led to the bases being loaded. Up came Kyle Stowers — the only star in the Marlins’ lineup — and Bird remained in the game. It was obvious Bird didn’t have it, but that wasn’t going to stop Boone from trying to let him find it against the majors’ sixth-highest OPS (.949) in Stowers. Bird went away from the sweeper, thinking Stowers would be sitting on it and missed the zone with a first-pitch curve. Thinking that Stowers would now certainly be sitting on the sweeper after not throwing it on the first pitch, Bird went with a sinker and Stowers hit a grand slam off of it. Bird didn’t find “it” on the mound like Boone thought he would. The grand slam pulled the Marlins to within one run at 9-8 and then Boone decided to pull Bird after he had jumpstarted the Marlins’ comeback.

5. The next of the deadline day duds to enter the game was Bednar. The former Pirates closer quickly found out he wasn’t in Pittsburgh anymore. For the first time in his career he was pitching in a game that mattered in August and he handled it about as well as someone who had spent five years with the Pirates would. Michael Kay warned fans the Marlins broadcast team had told him about Bednar’s struggles in the Marlins’ park and three pitches into his Yankees debut, Bednar allowed a game-tying home run to Javier Sanoja. Yes, the powerful Sanoja who hit 20 home runs with a .719 OPS in 415 games in the minors and who entered Friday with one home run and a .634 OPS in 93 games in the majors homered off Bednar after homering off Rodon earlier. Tie game.

Bednar wasn’t done. He then gave up a double to Jakob Marsee in his major-league debut for the first hit of Marsee’s career. Xavier Edwards then reached on an infield single that “the fucking elite” Anthony Volpe couldn’t handle because he can’t handle anything with the smallest amount of difficulty involved and once Volpe couldn’t end the inning, you just knew the Marlins would take the lead before the inning was over. They did so on the very next pitch as Ramirez — traded last year for Jazz Chisholm — ripped an 111-mph line-drive single to left. Bednar allowed one earned run in his last 23 1/3 innings with the Pirates and then allowed two in his first five batters with the Yankees (stat from Katie Sharp). 10-9 Marlins.

Volpe made up for his inability to play shortstop in the majors by hitting a game-tying home run to lead off the eighth. Volpe flipped his bat and then made some odd gesture either to his bench or the crowd as to quiet them down before going on the slowest recorded home run jog of his career. How about we get to league average as a hitter before we act like that? Tie game again.

The game was still tied at 10 in the ninth when the Yankees built a two-out rally against the tough Anthony Bender. Ben Rice hit a pinch-hit single to right, Jose Caballero stole second after pinch running for Rice and Ryan McMahon battled back from 1-2 against Bender to single in Rice and give the Yankees an 11-10 lead. Volpe followed with a double to drive in McMahon and the Yankees had a 12-10 lead. Kay screamed on YES, “FOUR-HIT NIGHT FOR ANTHONY VOLPE,” as if Volpe had just eclipsed Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak because the odds of Volpe having a four-hit game were just about as impossible as someone breaking the Yankee Clipper’s record.

Because no big moment during the Boone era goes without retaliation, anyone who thought the two ninth-inning runs would be enough to put away the Marlins must be new around here. Bird sucked and Bednar sucked just as bad, so Boone figured the final deadline acquisition in the bullpen in Camilo Doval couldn’t possibly be as bad.

6. Bird had been given a five-run lead as a soft landing spot to get his feet wet as a Yankee and couldn’t handle it. Bednar was given a one-run lead to protect against the bottom of the Marlins’ lineup and couldn’t do so. Doval was being asked to protect a two-run lead with the 7-8-9 hitters due up. Get three outs before the bottom of the Marlins’ lineup could score two runs and the Yankees would have themselves a fourth straight win and would be one game closer to the Blue Jays.

It seems unfathomable anyone hits Doval with his 100-mph cutter, but when he inexplicably doesn’t use that pitch it’s easy to see how he gets hit. Doval got the first out of the ninth on four pitches and then the immortal Sanoja singled on a line-drive right right after Doval went sinker, slider, slider against him without showing the Marlins’ 8-hitter the cutter. Doval then threw seven pitches to Marsee (again making his major-league debut) and only one was a cutter — clocked at 99.5 mph — and Marsee walked. The Marlins had the tying run on base and the winning run at the plate with the lineup turning over. Maybe now Doval would go to his best pitch? No, he wouldn’t.

Doval went slider then sinker to Xavier Edwards and Edwards singled to right. The base hit was going to score one run, but it ended up scoring two as Caballero let the ball roll under his glove. Caballero is a middle infielder by trade, but he has played 33 games in his career in the outfield, so it wasn’t his first time out there. But there’s nothing that Boone loves more than playing players out of position if he can. Cody Bellinger had to move to first after Paul Goldschmidt and Rice were removed from the game, so Caballero had to play right field because he was the only option left for Boone. Wait … what’s that? The Yankees recently traded for Austin Slater who has played 1,049 2/3 innings in right field in his career and he was available off the bench. Oh …

“I feel sad,” Caballero said, “because it’s definitely a game that we could have won.”

Yes, I would say a 6-0 lead over the Marlins constitutes as a game that could have been won. I would say a 9-4 lead over the Marlins constitutes as a game that could have been won. I would say a 12-10 lead with one out and no one on in the ninth and the 8-9 hitters due up constitutes as a game that could have been won.

7. No one could have envisioned all four deadline day acquisitions would play a major role in the Yankees suffering a loss not experienced by the franchise in more than eight decades in their very first game with the team. But my biggest worry when the Yankees made all the moves they made at the deadline was that they gave Boone so many pieces to play with that he wouldn’t know how to use them. It took one game for that fear to be realized. Boone needs eight everyday players at all eight positions, five clear starting pitchers, a pure seventh-inning pitcher, eighth-inning pitcher and closer. He needs a 12-piece puzzle with giant pieces and pictures of safari animals on them. He was supplied with a 1,000-piece puzzle of the Manhattan skyline at night.

The Yankees treated the winter and first two-thirds of the seasons as if they didn’t matter. They didn’t have a real third baseman play third base until July 26. They didn’t improve their bullpen until July 31. Brian Cashman spent $300 million on a roster that needed to add seven players to before the deadline. More than a quarter of the Yankees’ roster is different than it was a week ago because the original roster was so poorly constructed.

8. It’s not Boone’s fault Rodon sucked again, Bird couldn’t throw his sweeper for a strike, Bednar pooped his pants in the biggest game of his career, Doval was a disaster and Caballero played the ball in right like the drunkest guy on a beer league team stuck in right field where he couldn’t possibly impact the game. But it’s Boone fault that Rodon was allowed to pitch as long as he did. It’s Boone’s fault he didn’t get Bird out of the game when he clearly didn’t have it. It’s Boone’s fault Caballero was playing right field with Slater on the bench.

With Edwards on third representing the winning run, Ramirez came to the plate with one out. It would be nearly impossible to throw out the speedy Edwards if Ramirez put the ball in play on the ground and because Doval had no swing-and-miss stuff in his debut, the sensible decision would be to intentionally walk Ramirez. That would create the possibility of a double play, so that a ground ball wouldn’t necessarily end the game with Edwards on third.

I’m not sure if the thought to walk Ramirez ever entered Boone’s mind. I’m not sure he’s capable of reading the situation and thinking of such an option because he didn’t. Instead, he had Doval pitch to Ramirez, Ramirez put the ball in play on the ground and the Marlins won 13-12.

“It’s now how you draw it up,” Boone said.

Actually, if you know anything about the Boone era, it’s exactly how things get drawn up. The endless list of lowlights and miserable franchise records set during his tenure as Yankees manger is depressing.

9. “We fought,” Volpe said. “Overall, I’m proud of the fight everyone showed.”

What the fuck are you talking about? The Marlins should be proud of their fight, not the Yankees. The Yankees had a 96 percent chance to win when they led 6-0. It was 97 percent when they led 9-4. It was 95 percent when Doval got the first out of the ninth. Bird, Bednar and Doval combined to allow nine runs on nine hits in just 2 1/3 innings. I bet Ian Hamilton and Yerry De los Santos are together still floating up against a ceiling from laughter like Uncle Albert and Bert in Mary Poppins.

10. The Blue Jays lost again, so the Yankees missed an opportunity to trim the loss column deficit in the division to two. The Red Sox and Mariners both won, so the Yankees’ lead on the first wild-card spot was cut into.

WC1: Yankees (4.5 games back of Blue Jays because of tie-breaker)
WC2: Red Sox (0.5 games back of Yankees)
WC2: Mariners (1.5 games back of Yankees)
First team out: Rangers (4.5 games back of Yankees because of tie-breaker)

Friday’s loss was the kind of loss that keeps you up and makes you question why you like the Yankees. It’s also the kind of loss that makes you get up and write nearly 3,000 words about it. I don’t want to write about a game like that again. Not this season. Not ever.

1. The Yankees won a game and won it against a division opponent, beating the Rays 7-5 to improve to 12-19 in the AL East.

The Yankees won a game they had to have: a game started by Max Fried. The Yankees had been 2-4 in Fried’s last six starts and when the rest of your rotation is the untrustworthy Carlos Rodon, the inconsistent Will Warren, the inexperienced Cam Schlittler and the inept Marcus Stroman, you have to win the games Fried starts.

2. It didn’t necessarily look like the Yankees were going to win the Fried start on Tuesday. With a runner on first and no outs in the first inning, Anthony Volpe fielded a ground ball up the middle and shoveled a throw out of the reach of Jazz Chisholm at second. The Yankees may have been able to turn two on the play and erase the runner on base, but at worst they were going to get the first out of the inning. Instead, they got nothing and the Rays ended up scoring twice with two outs in the inning when the inning should have been over. Unfortunately, the errant throw wouldn’t be Volpe’s only of the game.

3. The Rays added a third run in the third inning to take a 3-0 lead and the Yankees’ odds of coming back felt insurmountable with an offense that had scored in just two of 20 innings since Aaron Judge went on the injured list. (And in one of those two innings, both runs scored on bases-loaded walks.) But Cody Bellinger (inexplicably batting fourth despite being the best active hitter in the lineup) tied the game with a three-run home run in the bottom of the third.

The Yankees scored three more runs in the fourth to take a 6-3 lead. They gave one back in the seventh, but added a seventh run in the eighth and then eked out a win in the ninth as Devin Williams was shaky and his defense was even shakier as Volpe threw away the would-be final out of the game to extend the inning and give the Rays another crack at tying or taking the lead in the ninth.

4. Volpe moved back on the ball in the ninth inning — as he now always does — and let the ball play him. Once he fielded it, he took two hops to gather himself and then put his left leg (his plant leg) exceptionally far from his body before delivering a throw in the the dirt to first. I have no idea how the player who failed to make that play and the player who now has that poor of footwork and fielding technique was able to win the Gold Glove two years ago.

“I’ve never really experienced something like this,” said Volpe. “I know what I’m capable of.”

5. Volpe did provide an RBI bloop single, managed to steal third on an errant throw and hit the longest home run of his career for one of his best offensive games of the season, but he’s still 11 percent worse than league average for the season. The battle for the worst defensive shortstop in the league continues to be between Volpe and Elly De La Cruz. The difference is you can live with the errors Cruz has made at the position because he’s hitting .282/.362/.484 with an .846 OPS, a 128 OPS+ and 29 steals.

6. There’s no current resolution for Volpe, nor do the Yankees want to have one. They want Volpe to work out and be the player they promised because they passed on the deepest shortstop free-agent class in history to cater to him. They have played him every single day since the start of 2023 and have defended him to the media in a way no player has ever been defended by the organization before. The idea Volpe is going to lose playing time to Amed Rosario is not worth thinking about because it’s never going to happen. The only way out of this mess is for George Lombard Jr. to develop into the player the Yankees thought they had in Volpe.

7. Trent Grisham went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts. Ben Rice went 0-for-2 with two walks. Paul Goldschmidt went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts. Bellinger had the big, game-tying blast. Jazz Chisholm went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Jasson Dominguez went 2-for-4 with a stolen base. Ryan McMahon went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Volpe went 2-for-4 with a home run and Austin Wells went 0-for-3 with a walk. Jonathan Loaisiga threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings following Fried and Williams closed out the ninth around a triple, walk and the Volpe error.

8. The Blue Jays lost for the fourth straight game, so the Yankees — despite going 2-2 in their last four — have now picked up two games on them in the division. The Red Sox also won, but the Mariners and Rangers lost to go along with the Rays loss.

WC1: Yankees (5 games back of Blue Jays because of tie-breaker)
WC2: Red Sox (1 game back of Yankees)
WC2: Mariners (1.5 games back of Yankees)
First team out: Rangers (3.5 games back of Yankees because of tie-breaker)
Second team out: Rays (4.5 games back of Yankees)

9. It’s going to be extremely hard to win Thursday afternoon’s series finale against the Rays with Stroman starting, so the Yankees need to win Wednesday night’s game with Warren starting. Unfortunately, Warren has faced the Rays twice this season and pitched poorly in both outings. On April 17, he was pulled in the second inning in Tampa after allowing four hits and two walks and needing 53 pitches to get five outs. On may 4, he allowed seven hits and three walks over 4 2/3 innings, needing 102 pitches to get 14 outs.

10. Which version of Warren will show up on Wednesday? Will it be the one who couldn’t beat the Rays in either start this season? The one who ruins the game in the first inning? The one who has trouble getting through five innings? Or the one who can shut out a team and rack up double-digit strikeouts? I have no idea and neither do the Yankees.

1. The Yankees played a team that doesn’t completely suck on Monday, so if you didn’t watch, you know how it went: they lost 4-2. The Yankees scored two first-inning runs on two bases-loaded walks against the Rays and then didn’t score again in the game. They had six hits, all singles. Following Ryan McMahon’s bases-loaded walk to tie the game in the first, the Yankees went 3-for-28 with eight strikeouts. They had one hit from the last out of the first inning until one out in the eighth inning.

“We just weren’t able to mount enough and couldn’t hold them down just enough,” Aaron Boone said, essentially defining the meaning of the word “loss”.

2. On a day the Rays traded their starting catcher (All-Animosity Team member Danny Jansen) to show they aren’t sold on their current roster, they still managed to beat the Yankees in the Bronx. The Red Sox and Rangers also lost, but the Mariners won to go along with the Rays’ win, so the updated wild-card picture looks like this:

WC1: Yankees
WC2: Mariners (0.5 games back of Yankees)
WC3: Red Sox (1 game back of Yankees)
First team out: Rangers (1.5 games back of Yankees)
Second team out: Rays (3.5 games back of Yankees)

The Blue Jays also lost for the second straight game, which seemed like an impossible feat of late. But really who cares about the Blue Jays right now, since the Yankees are just 2 1/2 games up on a playoff spot (because of they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Rangers) and they are 6 1/2 games out in the division (because the Blue Jays hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over them).

3. There isn’t much to feel good about right now with the Yankees. They have fewer wins than both the Rockies and White Sox over the last nearly six weeks, Aaron Judge is out with a flexor strain, the bullpen sucks, the rotation provides no length, the lineup is a collection of inconsistent performers and the manager is somehow in his eighth season making the same kind of in-game decisions he made in his first weekend in his first season. And oh yeah, they’re 11-19 against the division.

It’s depressing watching the 2025 Yankees die a slow, painful death. Because if you think it’s OK they are currently holding the first wild-card spot, you’re a fool. This is a team that had an eight-game lead over the Blue Jays in the last week of May. A team that led the Red Sox by 12 games in the loss column. They didn’t fight to get to where they are like the Red Sox and Rangers. Actually, I guess they did since they didn’t fight and that’s why they are where they are.

4. Cam Schlittler wasn’t good on Monday (11 baserunners in 4 1/3 innings), but I have nothing bad to say about him because nothing bad can be said about him. He has three major-league starts to his name after having just six Triple-A starts and 14 Double-A starts to his name. He has had to start against the Mariners, Blue Jays and Rays, or in other words, the best team in the American League, a team currently holding a playoff spot and a team battling for a playoff spot. He wasn’t exactly given a soft landing spot to get his feet wets in the bigs, and he’s being asked to win important games with no limited run support and a bad defense.

5. After playing a mistake-free defensive game on Sunday in the win over the Phillies, the Yankees made up for it on Monday with a couple of miscues. Jazz Chisholm couldn’t get a ball out of his glove on a play that was inexplicably ruled a base hit and Anthony Volpe couldn’t make a play on a ball to his left that was also inexplicably ruled a hit. I don’t think we’ll hear Boone talk about the official scorer in the Bronx after he did both of his middle infielders a favor on two plays that were clearly errors.

6. The boos came out for Volpe after his misplay. Sure, it was a tough play, but it was also a play a major-league shortstop should make, especially one who has been deemed “fucking elite” by his manager. I don’t know that Volpe is equipped to handle boos from the Yankee Stadium crowd. The Golden Boy has only ever been told how great he is by everyone in the organization. He was a first-round pick who moved quickly through the minor leagues and was given the everyday shortstop job after just 22 games of a .718 OPS at Triple-A because of a good spring training. Since then, the threat of being sent down has never been an option as he has never even been benched. Not for a series, not for a game, not for an inning. He just continues to play every single day in every single game despite being one of worst everyday offensive players in the majors over the last three years, all while his defense and baserunning have regressed to poor levels. If the boos continue for Volpe (and every indication is that they will if he continues to put up 0-for-4s and misplay ground balls) that may be what leads to him losing playing time because his manager and general manager can shield him from the media, but they can’t shield him from the fans, and the fans have put up with below-league-average play from him for long enough and they have the power to make a performance reversal impossible

7. I think it’s time Paul Goldschmidt stopped playing against right-handed pitching, don’t you? The Yankees’ defense is a mess whether Goldschmidt plays or not, so they need to focus on creating offense and Goldschmidt just doesn’t do that. Goldschmidt has one home run since June 6 and a .589 OPS since the beginning of June. He has a .615 OPS against righties this year. Ben Rice needs to be playing against righties every game. He needs to be pinch-hitting for Goldschmidt against righties in games.

8. Give me this lineup against a right-handed starter:

Trent Grisham, CF
Cody Bellinger, RF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Jasson Dominguez, LF
Ben Rice, 1B
Ryan McMahon, 3B
Austin Wells, C
Anthony Volpe/Amed Rosario SS

And this lineup against a left-handed starter:

Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Cody Bellinger, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Amed Rosario, RF
Jasson Dominguez, LF
Ryan McMahon, 3B
Anthony Volpe, SS
Austin Wells, C

(I would play Dominguez in center field with Grisham out of the lineup, but we all know that’s not going to happen.)

9. Again, the defense is going to be a problem no matter who is playing, so it’s time to worry about offense, especially with Judge out. I wish the Yankees had one regular, everyday lineup, but they don’t seem to believe in that and also lack the personnel to have that. Their righties don’t hit righties and their lefties don’t hit lefties for the most part. The roster construction remains a mess in that they have players who don’t deserve to play every day and others who can’t play every day because they don’t have positions.

10. The summer slog continues on Tuesday in the second game of four against the Rays. I went into this series wanting the Yankees to split the series. Take four games off the calendar and keep the Rays at bay, while trying to stay afloat until the trade deadline and injured list bring back some names and Judge returns. But after Monday’s loss, the Yankees need to win two of three to accomplish that and (as of now) Marcus Stroman is starting one of those three games. Max Fried needs to go out on Tuesday and make sure the bullpen usage is kept to a minimum. He needs to go out and give the Yankees the kind of start he gave them every five days through the end of June. The kind of start he hasn’t given them in more than a month.

1. The Yankees played a good team over the weekend, so if you didn’t watch, you know how it went: they lost two of three and dropped another series. The Phillies blasted the Yankees’ bullpen for a 12-5 win on Friday and rocked Marcus Stroman for a 9-4 win on Saturday before the Yankees managed to salvage the third game by somehow getting to Zack Wheeler for four runs. The Yankees played one error-free game in the series, and guess which one was it was? The one they won. What a coincidence.

2. Going back to May 30, the Yankees have played 10 series against teams with a winning record. Here is how those series went:

Lost two of three to the Dodgers
Lost two of three to the Red Sox
Swept by the Red Sox
Lost two of three to the Reds
Lost two of three to the Blue Jays
Lost two of three to the Mets
Swept the Mariners
Lost two of three to the Cubs
Lost two of three to the Blue Jays
Lost two of three to the Phillies

The Yankees went 1-9 in the 10 series with an 11-17 record. Over that time, they have watched their eight-game lead over the Blue Jays turn into a 5 1/2-game deficit (and it’s really 6 1/2 when you account for the head-to-head tiebreaker).

3. The Yankees have been a bad team for a long time. They were 42-25 after sweeping the Royals on June 12. Since then, they have gone 15-23 and blew a massive division lead. They are now clinging to a 1 1/2-game lead for a playoff berth (though it’s really 2 1/2 games since they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Rangers).

4. Things have been going poorly for the Yankees for nearly two months and now they will be without Aaron Judge for at least 10 days (and possibly more) and when he does return he will only be allowed to be the designated hitter at first. That means for Giancarlo Stanton to play, he will have to play the outfield. That means the Yankees’ defense (which is already a well-known embarrassment) will get even worse.

5. The Judge injury annoys me because not only does it hurt the Yankees’ chances of winning, it creates a built-in excuse for Aaron Boone’s job security if the season ends poorly (and all signs point to the season ending poorly), the same way Judge’s long absence in 2023 served as an excuse for the Yankees’ 82-80 disappointment. No single player in baseball should have as a great of an impact on a team as Judge does, and his absence shouldn’t serve as an excuse for anyone keeping their job if the season spirals out of control (which it has been doing since the end of May). The Yankees were in a bad place while Judge was healthy and playing. They are in a much worse place now.

6. The Yankees finally addressed third base after neglecting to do so in the winter or for 2024 or 2023 or 2022. The last time the Yankees had a solid everyday third baseman was when they had Gio Urshela there from 2019-2021, and he wasn’t supposed to be there, Miguel Andujar was. After trying Josh Donaldson, Oswaldo Cabrera, DJ LeMahieu, Jazz Chisholm, Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas there over the last three-and-a-half years, the Yankees now have Ryan McMahon for this season and the next two.

7. When I wrote about McMahon recently, I wrote that he wasn’t worth trading for because I never thought Hal Steinbrenner would agree to take on his whole salary in order to lessen the prospect cost. I figured the Yankees would have to give the Rockies a real prospect in order to get the Rockies to eat some of McMahon’s money, like the Yankees did to get Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo four years ago. Instead, Steinbrenner agreed to take on McMahon’s contract, which is essentially double at the moment because of the Yankees’ luxury-tax penalties.

8. McMahon had a nice first weekend as a Yankee, going 3-for-6 with a double, walk and two RBIs. It’s enjoyable to see him make challenging plays with such ease at third and it’s comical to see his arm make throws from the left side of the infield to first compared to Anthony Volpe. Maybe the pinstripes will enhance McMahon’s performance the way they have for so many over the years. At least the Yankees know who their third baseman will be for the rest of 2025 and 2026 and 2027.

9. Giancarlo Stanton hit two more home runs over the weekend. Cody Bellinger went 1-for-the series. Volpe went 3-for-12, which is about as good as it gets with him. Austin Wells went 1-for-4 with a couple of walks. Jazz Chisholm went 4-for-12. Paul Goldschmidt went 2-for-10 with a walk. Ben Rice went 1-for-9 with a walk. Jasson Dominguez went 2-for-7 and Trent Grisham went 2-for-12 with a walk.

Will Warren was OK, Stroman was bad and Carlos Rodon was blah. The bullpen was an unmitigated disaster and Boone was his usual nonchalant, everything-will-be-fine self. Except everything isn’t fine, hasn’t been fine in two months and is unlikely to be fine over the next two weeks.

10. The Yankees’ next two weeks are daunting. They were going to be that way with Judge, and without him, the next two weeks have the potential to sink the season.

The Yankees play four games at home against the Rays, who are sitting at .500 and three out of the last wild-card spot. (The Yankees could destroy the Rays’ season with a big week here, but we all know that won’t happen.) Then it’s three in Miami against the Marlins, who are red-hot and 20-9 over the last month. Then it’s three on the road against the Rangers, who are 27-15 over the last six weeks and trying to chase down the Astros in the West. Then it’s three at home against the Astros. Thirteen games in 14 days, many of them without Judge, and possibly all of them.

While the Yankees’ schedule from late August through the end of the season is favorable, they have to survive the end of July and rest of August to get there.

1. It’s no longer right in front of them. The Yankees no longer control their own destiny when it comes to winning the AL East this season and potentially avoiding having to play in the best-of-3, wild-card series. After Wednesday’s 8-4 loss to the Blue Jays, the Yankees now need outside help to overcome the four-game deficit in the division with 64 games left to play and only three of those games are against the Blue Jays.

2. The Yankees had their best three starting pitchers lined up for the last three days in Toronto and they still lost the series. They had every position player aside from Oswaldo Cabrera healthy and available and they still lost the series. The Yankees did what these Yankees have always done during the Aaron Boone era and that is lose in the biggest of games in the most remarkable of ways.

With a chance to win the division in 2018 still on the table in early August, the Yankees went to Fenway Park for a four-game series. They were swept after blowing a three-run lead in the ninth in the series finale. In the postseason, they split the first two games of the ALDS on the road against the Red Sox and then suffered the worst home postseason loss in franchise history in Game 3 and were eliminated in Game 4.

The 2019 Yankees hit .214/.289/.383 in the ALCS and lost four of the final five games of the series. They were eliminated in Game 6 after they erased a two-run deficit in the top of the ninth inning only to get walked off on in the bottom of the inning.

The 2020 Yankees lost three of the last four games in the ALDS, and in the decisive Game 5, scored just one run and gave up the go-ahead home run in the bottom of the eighth.

The 2021 Yankees were the odds-on favorite to represent the AL in the World Series, and instead, they finished third in their own division and fifth in the AL and were eliminated in the one-game playoff.

The 2022 Yankees were swept in the ALCS after their manager used the darkest moment in the organization’s history as motivation to come back in the series, all while FaceTiming the man responsible for the darkest moment in the organization’s history.

The 2023 Yankees missed the playoffs entirely despite 40 percent of the league getting in.

The 2024 Yankees were embarrassed in a five-game World Series loss, which included blowing a five-run fifth-inning lead at home in Game 5. The champions spent the entire offseason publicly bashing and laughing at the Yankees’ sloppy, undisciplined brand of baseball. And the Yankees did nothing to change it.

3. The Yankees committed four official errors in their loss to the Blue Jays on Wednesday and that doesn’t even account for J.C. Escarra mishandling a ball in the dirt allowing a runner to advance to second, Escarra being unable to block a breaking ball in front of him to allow runners on first and second to move up to second and third and Cody Bellinger throwing his arms up to indicate he wasn’t going to catch a routine fly ball that led to a one-out “triple” with the game tied at 4 in the sixth inning.

4. “I think we have a very good defensive club,” Boone said with a straight face. “I think it’s here and I think it’s in this building we haven’t played well.”

This isn’t just about the Yankees’ play in Toronto, which has been unacceptable. It’s been their play everywhere. It’s been their play during Boone’s entire tenure. It continues to be their play because there is no accountability for poor play and no consequences for it either.

5. Not only was the defense a mess, yet again, but Max Fried wasn’t good, yet again. Has Fried been great as a Yankee? Yes. Has Fried been mediocre to bad for more than a month now? Also, yes.

Fried has one quality start in more than a month. He blew a lead and the Yankees lost to the last-place Orioles on June 20. On June 25, he shut out the Reds for seven innings to salvage the last game of that series. He pitched poorly in Toronto on July 1, struggled against the Mets in just five innings on July 6, left the game against the Cubs after three innings on July 12 and then pitched poorly in Toronto again on Wednesday.

My biggest fear with Fried has always been how he will perform in the postseason and in big games, since he has been atrocious in October in his career. In 20 games and 12 starts in the playoffs, he has a 5.10 ERA and 1.493 WHIP which is a far cry from his 3.02 career ERA and 1.148 career WHIP. I pray the version of Fried we have seen of late in big regular-season games isn’t the one that is going to show up in the postseason.

Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman and Will Warren can’t be trusted and Cam Schlittler has two career starts to his name. The Yankees aren’t going anywhere if Fried pitches in August, September and October the way he has pitched in July. With all of their pitching issues, the Yankees are only going to go as far as Fried takes them.

6. The same goes for Aaron Judge. In the biggest series of the season, Judge went 1-for-10 with two walks and four strikeouts. That one was the game-tying, two-run home run in the sixth inning on Wednesday that momentarily made me think the Yankees may actually win the series and season finale in Toronto. Instead, it was nothing more than a short-lived moment that was immediately destroyed in the bottom of the inning.

It seems like every time Judge hits a big home run, the Yankees end up losing. There was the home run on Wednesday. There was the ninth-inning home run off Garrett Crochet at Fenway Park earlier this season. There was his first World Series home run in Game 5 last year. There was his home run off Emmanuel Clase in the ALCS last year. There was his solo home run in Game 5 of the 2020 ALDS and his two-run home run off Justin Verlander in Game 2 of the 2019 ALCS. If Judge hits a big home run in a big game, the Yankees seem to lose.

7. If Fried is going to be a run-of-the-mill starter and if Judge is going to be merely great and not otherworldly, the Yankees’ chances at the division aren’t just over, their chances at reaching the postseason at all are going to be increasingly difficult. I’ll worry about how the duo performs in October once the Yankees get there. For now, they need to make sure they get there.

8. For a team that once led the Blue Jays by eight games and had a 12-game lead in the loss column over the Red Sox, the Yankees now hold just a two-game lead on a postseason berth. If the Blue Jays play .500 baseball for the rest of the season (30-30), they will finish at 90-72. The Yankees would need to go 35-25 to tie them. So if the Blue Jays — a team that is 18 games over .500 becomes a .500 team for the rest of the season — the Yankees will have to go at least 10 games over .500 in 60 games to pass them. The Yankees are 10 games over .500 through 102 games.

9. It’s very likely the Yankees will end up as a wild-card team and end up in the vaunted best-of-3. It’s something I hoped they would avoid. It’s something that seemed impossible not to avoid at the beginning of June. But I lived through the one-game playoffs of 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2021. I hoped the Yankees would never end up in that one-game playoff when it was implemented in 2012 and they ended up in it more times than any other team in baseball.

10. If the Yankees continue to play the way they have for the last six weeks, I won’t have to worry about the best-of-3, wild-card series because they won’t even be in that and will miss out on the postseason for the second time in three years despite the format allowing 40 percent of the league in. But if the Yankees are going to get in and they play like they did against the Dodgers in the World Series or like they did in Toronto the last three nights then I don’t want them in anyway. Save all Yankees fans from the humiliation. Because a postseason berth guarantees no organizational changes. A missed postseason likely means no changes as well (as we saw in 2023), but it leaves the door open for them. It’s disappointing missing the postseason is even an option again.

1. The Yankees played a good team on Monday, so you know what that means: the Yankees lost on Monday. The good feeling from the five-run comeback win on Saturday and the series-clinching win on Sunday were erased as soon as the Yankees stepped on the same field as a team headed for the postseason. The Yankees lost 4-1 to the Blue Jays and it wasn’t even as close as a one-run effort in a three-run game could be.

2. For all of the complaining about Jacob Misiorowski being an All-Star this season, no one complained about Carlos Rodon being one, but they should have. Rodon took the mound on nine days rest and was in trouble all game. He loaded the bases in the second inning and escaped. He allowed a two-out walk in the third inning and got out of it and left the bases loaded again in the fourth. In the fifth, his playing with fire caught up to him and the Blue Jays’ first three batters went walk, single, double, and while the inning should have ended with Rodon simply blowing the Yankees’ small one-run lead and facing a one-run deficit, it turned into a three-run deficit because of throwing errors on back-to-back plays by Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe.

3. Even if Peraza had made a good throw with two outs to end the fifth to keep it a 2-1 game, it still wouldn’t have been a good outing from Rodon. If that play had ended the inning, he still would have thrown 97 pitches in five innings (he ended up throwing 107 in five innings) and the Yankees still would have needed the offense to tie the game and the bullpen to get 12 outs. Rodon’s night was a far cry from the eight innings and turning the ball over to Luke Weaver (since Devin Williams pitched the last two days) I dreamed about. It wasn’t good enough. But that’s who Rodon is in big games: not good enough.

Rodon lasted only five innings in both of his starts against the Blue Jays this season. He lasted only five innings in both of his starts against the Red Sox. He lasted only five innings in both of his starts against the Mets. To be fair, he did make it through six innings against the Tigers … except he allowed five earned runs. He made four postseason starts last year and only once pitched six innings. In the other three starts, he went 3 2/3 innings, 4 2/3 innings and 3 1/3 innings. But that’s who Rodon is: a pitcher who will dominate the weak teams in the league (he has a 2.36 ERA and 0.859 WHIP against teams not currently holding a playoff spot) and will struggle against the league’s best.

4. Rodon’s crappy-but-expected performance would have been easier to stomach if the offense had showed up, but it didn’t, of course. The bigger the game, the worse the offense performs. In this Yankees era, the only bat to consistently show up in the biggest of games has been Giancarlo Stanton, and sure enough, it was Stanton who provided the Yankees’ only run with a solo home run in the fourth inning to give the Yankees a brief 1-0 lead.

Aaron Judge did what he does when the games are the most important: nothing. Judge struck out swinging in the first, was intentionally walked in the third, popped out in the fifth and struck out swinging again in the eighth. Jasson Dominguez, Austin Wells and Volpe all went hitless as well and the Yankees struck out 12 times as a team. (The Blue Jays struck out four times.)

5. The defense did what it does when … well, always. Peraza and Volpe threw the ball away on back-to-back plays in the fifth, which scored two runs for the Blue Jays. Peraza has the lowest OPS in the majors for all hitters with at least 150 at-bats. If you’re going to be the worst hitter in the league, you have to make every play in the field. Peraza was given an opportunity to become an everyday player this year and change his life and stop the Yankees from going out and wasting assets on a third baseman at the deadline, and he has done nothing but force them to do whatever they can to have someone who resembles a major leaguer playing third base by 6 p.m. on July 31.

6. As for Volpe, there is nothing left to say about him. It’s nice he had the big game on Saturday with two home runs to help the Yankees overcome a five-run deficit and win a game, but it didn’t last. He’s 1-for-7 since that game and his at-bats are as bad as they have been all season. On Monday, he flew out to right twice and grounded out to the pitcher. The expected batting average on those three balls were .020, .010 and .250. The ball with the highest expected batting average was a weak, 40.7-mph groundout back to the mound.

Then there’s the defense. Volpe’s fifth-inning error made him the league leader for position players with 12 errors. Congratulations! After the game, Boone was asked about Volpe’s defense on back-to-back questions. He started to get heated answering the first question and then got increasingly annoyed when the second one was asked. Last week, Boone told Meredith Marakovits that Volpe “is fucking elite” when she asked about his poor play. When she asked Boone about Volpe’s poor throw that led to a run on Monday and about him being the league leader in errors, this is what Boone said: “Errors get handed out in a lot of different places in a lot of different ways.” Yes, Boone blamed official scorers around the league for Volpe leading the league in errors and not Volpe.

7. It was the latest moment in Boone’s lack of accountability for himself or his players. If you wonder why the Yankees can’t play one, clean nine-inning game of baseball it’s because it doesn’t matter if they do or not as they don’t have to answer for it. If you’re wondering why the infield throws the ball all over the field or why runners take off for third with no outs in extra innings or why the Yankees had two cut-off men on a play over the weekend and no one covering second base or why they seem to have catcher’s interference called against them every other game, it’s because nothing happens to them for having a lack of fundamentals. After Jorbit Vivas was thrown out at third base by Ronald Acuna on Friday, Boone was asked why he didn’t bench Vivas and Boone said he only benches players who don’t run hard. Except the only player he ever benched for supposedly doing that was Gleyber Torres. Jazz Chisholm ran out a ground ball on Friday as if he had two broken ankles and he wasn’t benched. The Yankees gave the Dodgers three free runs in the biggest inning of last season and they gave the Blue Jays two free runs in the biggest inning of this season.

8. Boone calls Volpe “fucking elite” and considers him “one of the best shortstops in the league” even though both are categorically false and Volpe made a massive error on Monday. Boone refers to his offense “as the best offense in baseball” even though they are third in the majors in runs scored and scored one run on a solo home run and had two hits over their last 22 batters on Monday. Boone recently called his team “the best in baseball” even though they have the ninth-best record in the majors and lost a fifth straight game to the Blue Jays on Monday.

9. “It’s still the middle of July,” Volpe said. “We’ve got so many games ahead of us.”

The middle of July is from 8 a.m. on July 11 through 8 a.m. on July 21, so it’s no longer middle of the July. And there aren’t a lot of games left. Monday’s game was Game 100. There are 62 games left. If the Blue Jays were to play .500 baseball for the rest of the season, they would finish 90-72. The Yankees would have to go 36-26 to finish ahead of them. So if the Blue Jays simply win half of their remaining games, the Yankees have to play 10 games above .500 to pass them. The Yankees are only 10 games above .500 at this moment through 100 games.

10. The Yankees are now four games back in the division. They are one loss to the Blue Jays in the five remaining games against them from no longer controlling their own destiny in terms of winning the division and from not being able to say “It’s right in front of us.” That loss will come on Tuesday if Cam Schlittler isn’t great in just his second career start or if the offense performs yet another disappearing act in a big game.

1. It may not have been the most exciting series of the season and we all know it wasn’t the most well-played series of the season, but in terms of importance, this past weekend in Atlanta was the most important series of the season to date. In terms of importance, it will be immediately replaced by the upcoming series in Toronto. Before the Yankees could think about their last three games of the season north of the border, they had to think and deal with a bad Braves team clinging to life for their season.

2. On Friday, the Yankees opened the “second half” of the season with an opener. The thing about using an opener is that it only works if the opener doesn’t suck. Unfortunately, Ian Hamilton sucks, and the Braves tagged him for three runs in the first inning, going single, double, double to open the game. It was disheartening the Yankees thought using Hamilton to face the few good hitters in the Braves lineup to open the game put them in the best possible position to win. I understand Cam Schlittler was supposed to start the game and was pushed back due to biceps soreness, but how is a plan of Hamilton then recently-signed Rico Garcia, Scott Effross and JT Brubaker the best course of action? If the Yankees feel going with a bullpen game with those names gives them a better chance than Allan Winans or Carlos Carrasco, then why even have them in the organization?

The Braves led 3-0 after the first, 6-0 after the third and 7-0 after the seventh. The Yankees scored three runs in the seventh for one of their patented do-just-enough-to-get-the-manager-to-say-we-showed-fight fake comebacks and lost 7-3. While the Yankees were losing to the Braves, the Blue Jays were busy beating up on the Giants to extend their division lead to three games.

3. On Saturday, the thoughts of being swept by the under-.500 Braves became a real thought. The left-handed Joey Wentz and his 6.32 ERA and 1.703 WHIP shut out the Yankees for four innings, and in the meantime, Will Warren was getting blasted. Warren allowed a long solo home run to Michael Harris and his .550 OPS in the third and then gave up four runs — all with two outs — in the fourth to put the Yankees behind 5-0. Earlier this season, YES liked to opine “If you remove Warren’s start against the Dodgers, he’s been great.” Then it was “If you remove his starts against the Dodgers and Blue Jays … .” I guess now you just need to remove his starts against the Dodgers, Blue Jays and Braves and you have yourself a good, young pitcher you can trust.

After scoring in just one of the first 13 innings of the series, the Yankees scored twice in the fifth to make it a 5-2 game. But Effross and Tim Hill gave those two runs right back in the bottom of the inning and the Braves led 7-2 through five.

4. The Yankees scored four more times in the sixth to make it a 7-6 game, but Jonathan Loaisiga immediately gave one of them back to make it an 8-6 game. Since June 24, Loaisiga has allowed 19 baserunners, nine earned runs and three home runs in 8 1/3 innings. In his best season (2021), he allowed three home runs all season (70 2/3 innings). That best season was a long time ago. Four years in baseball years can be measured in dog years. Loaisiga was OK in 2022, missed nearly all of 2023 and 2024 due to Tommy John surgery and has been bad in 2025. Maybe Loaisiga just stinks now? Maybe a career marred by injuries and the surgery caught up to him? The Yankees are going to have to find out because they are paying him $5 million for this season (with a $5 million team option for 2026) and there is no one else right now. The only two trustworthy relievers in the bullpen are Luke Weaver and Devin Williams. Loaisiga, by default, is the next most-trusted arm? Then Hill? Then no one between Brubaker, Effross, Hamilton and Winans? The Yankees have given an abundance of relievers a chance to be major leaguers and to win important roles and each one of them has sucked. Not just Brubaker, Effross, Hamilton and Winans, but Garcia, Brent Headrick, Yoendrys Gomez, Tyler Matzek, Clayton Beeter and Geoff Hartlieb. (I leave Javien Sandridge out since his chance was sabotaged by Aaron Boone having him face Juan Soto and Pete Alonso as his first two hitters in the majors.) I guess all of those guys just really like living in Scranton and taking bus rides everywhere.

5. The Yankees desperately miss Fernando Cruz, Mark Leiter Jr. and Ryan Yarbrough They even miss Yerry De los Santos. If those four were healthy then Brubaker, Effross, Hamilton and Winans aren’t on the 26-man roster and the bullpen looks so much different and better. The team looks so much different and better.

6. Loaisiga’ latest disappointing effort put another obstacle in the way of a Yankees comeback, but they added a run in the seventh to make it 8-7 and tied the game at 8 in the eighth with Anthony Volpe’s second home run of the game. It was Volpe’s first multi-home run game of his career. It was his first multi-hit game since June 23 and his second multi-hit game since June 13. The two-home run game guarantees he will never come out of the lineup (not that he was ever going to anyway). If Boone was willing to tell Meredith Marakovits that Volpe “is fucking elite” last week, like Michael Kay reported, then he probably thinks he’s a Hall of Famer now after hitting two home runs in a game. But good for Volpe to help the Yankees win a game for the first time since … I don’t know? All season?

7. The game remained tied at 8 into the ninth. With the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the ninth, I feared the game would find its way to extra innings and the Yankees would endure yet another road extra-inning loss to add to their majors-worst record since the automatic runner was implemented in 2020. Trent Grisham put those fears to rest when he hit a go-ahead grand slam off Braves closer Raisel Iglesias to give the Yankees a 12-8 lead. They would go on to win 12-9.

8. Grisham batted in the leadoff spot on Friday and then sixth on Saturday. I figured his two-hit, five-RBI night would have him back in the leadoff spot on Sunday. Instead, he wasn’t even in the lineup. Never change, Boone and the Yankees. Never change. Saturday’s win was so important to keep pace with the Blue Jays (who won again), but also important because with Marcus Stroman going on Sunday it wasn’t unrealistic to expect the Yankees to lose. But Stroman didn’t suck, and the Yankees didn’t lose. Stroman pitched six innings of one-run ball and the Yankees won 4-2.

Here are Stroman’s first three starts of the season in March and April:

9.1 IP, 12 H, 12 R, 12 ER, 7 BB, 7 K, 2 HR, 11.57 ERA, 2.036 WHIP

Here are Stroman’s four starts in June and July since coming off the injured list:

21 IP, 21 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 5 BB, 12 K, 3 HR, 3.00 ERA, 1.238 WHIP

9. The best possible scenario is occurring with Stroman for the Yankees. He missed too much time to have his 2026 salary clause automatically kick in, as long as four of Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, Will Warren, Ryan Yarbrough, Cam Schlittler or any starter the Yankees trade for are healthy in October then Stroman won’t be needed in the postseason and he’s giving the Yankees winnable starts now at a time when they need him and need him to be good the most. It couldn’t have worked out better.

This four-start run doesn’t mean anyone should feel good when Stroman gets the ball and everyone should be concerned with him scheduled to start against the Phillies at Yankee Stadium next weekend, but for now, Stroman is doing exactly what the Yankees need him to do.

10. The next three games are the most important of the season to date. Three games in Toronto with three games separating the Yankees and Blue Jays in the division. The Yankees have their pitching set up with Rodon, Fried and Schlittler, and all of their rostered position players healthy and available. The bullpen is an enormous weak spot and could potentially ruin this series, but here’s to hoping it doesn’t come to that. How about eight from Rodon to Weaver on Monday and then eight from Fried to Weaver on Tuesday and then six from Schlittler to Hill, Weaver and Williams on Wednesday? Keep everyone else in the bullpen and as far away from the mound as possible and keep Boone’s decision-making to a minimum. That seems like a good plan to me. Let’s go with that plan.

1. The Yankees played a series against a contender, so you know can guess how it went: they lost two of three. To no surprise, the Yankees are 5-11 against the current division leaders this year. (They have yet to play Houston and Philadelphia.)

As currently constructed, the Yankees’ ceiling is likely enduring the same fate they did last year: losing in the World Series (hopefully without the humiliation). And to get there, as of now, they would have to win a best-of-3 against the Red Sox (a team that has won 10 straight and is 5-1 against the Yankees this year) then beat either the Astros or the Tigers in the ALDS, and then likely whichever one of the Astros or Tigers they didn’t face in the ALDS in the ALCS. The road to the 2025 World Series is going to be littered with obstacles. The path isn’t going to be the red carpet the Yankees received last year with Kansas City and Cleveland.

2. With the “first half” complete, the Yankees have the AL’s fourth-best record and the majors’ ninth-best. Despite this, their manager refers to them as the best team in the league. That opinion is shared by the players who talk about how good they are and how good they know they can be (like Will Warren did again on Sunday), but don’t play like it, having lost 18 of their last 29 games.

In that time the Yankees have watched their division lead vanish. Once eight games ahead of the Blue Jays, they are now two games behind them. Once 12 games ahead of the Red Sox in the loss column, that lead is now down to two and they are tied in wins.

3. After beating the Cubs 11-0 on Friday, the Yankees lost 5-2 on Saturday and 4-1 on Sunday. That’s their motto: Win blowouts and lose close games. The offense was no-hit until the eighth inning on Thursday, shut out until the ninth on Saturday and held to one run on Sunday in a game in which they sent the minimum amount of batters to the plate over the final seven innings.

A lot has been made about the Yankees scoring five-plus runs in the first 10 games of July, but they went 5-5 in those games. That’s because their pitching has been atrocious. Inconsistent starting pitching combined with a depleted bullpen and a manager who doesn’t have a clue about how to utilize the relievers he does have has led the Yankees to a 5-7 record this month despite scoring 6.3 runs per game.

4. Carlos Rodon completed eight scoreless innings on Friday with some magnificent help from Aaron Judge in right field. Max Fried left Saturday’s game with a blister on his left hand in what was his shortest and worst start of the season (and he has now been blah to bad in four of his last five starts). Warren put nine baserunners on in 5 1/3 innings on Sunday, but limited the damage to two runs. One good start, one bad start and one OK start. That’s the way it has been going for the Yankees for the last month. Mostly, when they hit, they don’t pitch, and when they pitch, they don’t hit. And when things are going well, their manager hinders their odds of winning, like on Sunday.

5. In the series finale, the game was tied with one out in the sixth. With a well-rested bullpen, 11 outs to get and four complete days off ahead, who do you think was the first reliever out of the bullpen? Ian Hamilton! Hamilton allowed a two-run home run to the first batter he faced, the Cubs took the lead and never looked back.

Paul O’Neill suggested on YES that Boone should have let Hamilton start the inning clean instead of having him come in with a runner in scoring position. Are you new around here, Paul? Stealing outs with the starting pitcher is Boone’s signature move. Whether it’s April or July or September or even the postseason, Boone will stop at nothing to try to get an extra out from a clearly labored and fatigued starter. It’s what he does best.

6. The trade deadline is 17 days away. I wouldn’t give up anything of value for the third base options that have been mentioned. Because the options aren’t worth giving up anything for. You’re either getting a good bat with no defense or good defense with no bat. This team also isn’t a third baseman away from wining a championship. They are a third baseman, a starting pitcher, at least two relievers, a shortstop and a manager away.

Even if the Yankees trade for a third baseman, get a starter and two relievers, Boone will still be in the dugout and Anthony Volpe will still be at shortstop. Brian Cashman likes to say the Yankees went to the World Series with Volpe at shortstop. But when he says that, he doesn’t mention that the Yankees lost the World Series. That they were thoroughly embarrassed in the World Series. He doesn’t mention that Volpe was part of the fifth-inning meltdown. He doesn’t talk about only needing to beat the Royals and Guardians to win the pennant.

7. It’s painful watching Volpe play. He can’t hit for average. He doesn’t have power. He’s a liability on balls hit to him. His arm is weak. His baserunning instincts are poor and his overall Baseball IQ is frightening. There’s not a single positive quality he brings on the field, and his media sessions are every bit as bad as his actual play.

After Sunday’s game, in which he posted his latest 0-for and screwed up two more plays in the field, the media huddled around Volpe to hear him say, “Everything’s in front of us.” I wonder where he learned that line from. From his manger, of course. The same manager who backed Volpe’s ridiculous inning-extending play on Sunday by blaming Jazz Chisholm.

“As a shortstop, you gotta have the freedom to try and get yourself the best hop,” Boone said, “and then, Jazz probably has to turn into a first baseman there where we’re stretching.”

No, it can’t be the Golden Boy’s fault. It can’t be the fault of the shortstop who won’t charge a ball and doesn’t have the arm to make up for his hesitation.

“I feel like we have the makings of a good defensive club,” Boone said, as delusional as ever.

8. Volpe is down to .214/.287/.384 offensively. His .671 OPS is right in line with his .663 career OPS. He’s down to being 14 percent worse than league average with an 86 OPS+. Guess what his OPS+ was last year? 86. There has been no improvement even though Boone told everyone two weeks ago how much he has improved year over year and how “everybody is losing their mind” when it comes to criticizing the Golden Boy’s performance. Volpe is at best the same hitter he was in 2023 and 2024, and now he’s a worse defender and baserunner. But sure, keep telling everyone what they see every single day (since he gets to play every single day the way All-Stars Judge and Jazz Chisholm do) isn’t real and that it’s all an illusion. The Yankees’ internal metrics will tell you Volpe should have been elected an All-Star like Judge and Chisholm. The same metrics that Boone cited when talking about how great Isiah Kiner-Falefa was at shortstop in 2023, only to bench him in the postseason. The same metrics that Boone cited in talking about Gleyber Torres’ 2024 season when he was leading all second baseman in errors, and then when it came time to pay Torres they let him walk.

9. Volpe isn’t the answer at shortstop. He’s likely not an answer at any position, because after 414 games and 1,674 career plate appearances he’s closer to not being a major leaguer than he is to being part of the solution, like Cashman told us last week. He’s not part of the solution, he’s part of the problem. A big part of it.

George Lombard Jr. needs to be part of the solution. The most enjoyable moment of the weekend for the Yankees was happening 900 miles away with Lombard Jr. starring in the Futures Game. Lombard Jr. is the most important person in the organization not currently on the 26-man roster. He needs to work out. He has to work out because Volpe certainly isn’t.

10. I typically hate the All-Star break with no baseball for four days. Not this year. This year I’m welcoming the All-Star break and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The Yankees need a break and I need a break from the Yankees.

Maybe the four days off will reset them before the open the “second half” in Atlanta. Maybe it will cool off the Red Sox who haven’t lost in their last 10 games. Maybe it will serve as tailspin for the Blue Jays who erased an eight-game deficit between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Maybe it will be the end of the Yankees’ annual summer swoon and for the rest of July and August and September they will be the team they were in March, April and May.

Here’s to four, Yankees-less, relaxing days this week. I don’t think the next nine-plus weeks won’t be so relaxing.

1. The Yankees have started to do what they spent nearly a month undoing. After losing 16 of 22, the Yankees have won four straight games. They salvaged the final game of the Citi Field portion of the Subway Series, chased the league leader in strikeout percentage, beat the crap out of a rookie starter and overcame a five-run deficit in a game they were no-hit into the eighth inning in to win four straight.

“It just shows the versatility that we have,” Austin Wells said. “We’ve shown that we can go big early in the games, and we can come back late.”

2. Prior to Thursdays game, I wrote: The best anyone can ask for from Stroman against a solid team like the Mariners is three earned runs over five innings and even that is likely asking for too much. Here’s to him surprising everyone and extending the winning streak to four straight.

Stroman did even better than I asked, allowing only two earned runs over five innings. If the Yankees were going to lose, it wasn’t going to be because of him. And for the majority of the game, it looked like the Yankees were going to lose. Bryan Woo was dominant for seven innings, no-hitting the Yankees until Jazz Chisholm led off the eighth with a single.

“It felt like we were getting dominated,” Boone said. Yeah, I would say getting no-hit into the eighth inning is getting dominated.

3. Boone decided a two-run deficit was too much to overcome, so he went to his last man in the bullpen for two innings with the Yankees trailing 2-0. The decision to go to Clayton Beeter was because of Boone’s decision-making the night before. After Wednesday’s game, I wrote about how unnecessarily using Jonathan Loaisiga and Luke Weaver for multiple innings in a game in which the Yankees had a comfortable lead and had Cam Schilittler pitching well with a low pitch count could come back to screw the Yankees in the series finale. It nearly did when Beeter let the Mariners’ lead go from 2-0 to 5-0.

Giancarlo Stanton hit a pinch-hit, two-run home run to make it a 5-3 game in the bottom of the eighth and Boone’s latest bullpen mismanagement looked like it would cost the Yankees a real opportunity to win the game. But in the ninth, the Yankees saved Boone from any hard postgame questions when they got to Andres Munoz for two runs to tie the game.

4. Trent Grisham led off the ninth with a single. Aaron Judge flew out for the first out, but Cody Bellinger singled to put two on with one out. Chisholm just missed a walk-off home run on a hanging slider, and instead, flew out for the second out. Down to their last out and eventually their last strike as Ben Rice fell behind 0-2, Rice battled back to draw a walk to load the bases. Wells followed with a two-run single to right to tie the game.

5. When Bellinger was on second base in the ninth, I noticed he was waving his arms wildly and visibly. Then I noticed each time he did it Munoz would throw a slider. Then I went back and saw Grisham was doing the same thing when he was on second, just not as noticeably as Bellinger. It was clear the Yankees had something on Munoz, whether it was a tell with his glove position or the runner on second being able to see his grip as he began his delivery because the arm waving would start as soon as Munoz began his motion. Whatever it was it worked and led to the two-run, ninth-inning comeback against a closer that entered the game having allowed 15 hits in 34 innings.

6. Devin Williams did his job in the 10th, stranding the automatic runner. I still don’t trust Williams. I don’t know that I ever will. But with the state of the bullpen he may very well be the most trustworthy at the moment given the home run issue with Luke Weaver recently. Williams has allowed 12 hits and five earned runs in 22 2/3 innings with 31 strikeouts and 1.99 ERA since May 7. He’s been awesome I just can’t erase the first month of the season from my memory.

7. With Volpe serving as the automatic runner in the bottom of the 10th, I was waiting for him to try to steal third with no outs in extras like he unsuccessfully did against the Red Sox last month. Thankfully, he didn’t. Oswald Peraza was asked to bunt Volpe over to third and took a first-pitch fastball at the bottom of the strike zone and then tried to bunt a a elevated second pitch and popped it up to third for the first out. With a lefty on the mound, Boone removed Jasson Dominguez from the game for Paul Goldschmidt and the Mariners immediately walked Goldschmidt. If you’re wondering why the Yankees are so bad in extra innings, the lack of fundamentals and situational hitting coupled with Boone’s brain demonstrated in the first two batters of Thursday’s 10th inning is why.

8. Grisham drew a walk to load the bases to bring up Judge who never gets to hit in extra innings. Judge hit a medium-depth fly ball to center field that Julio Rodriguez made a perfect throw home on, but Volpe made a nifty move to slide around the tag and win the game. Volpe finished the game with another 0-for-4 and his OPS+ is down 88 on the season (it was 81 in 2023 and 86 in 2024, but his slide helped win the game as he would have been out with any other slide. The Yankees wouldn’t have won on the play if anyone other than Volpe, Dominguez or Chisholm had been on third. It was the Yankees’ first win when trailing after eight innings this season.

9. The Yankees’ four-game winning streak will be put to a real test this weekend in the Cubs. The Cubs lead the majors in runs scored per game and the Yankees will try to combat that with Carlos Rodon on Friday, Max Fried on Saturday and Will Warren on Sunday.

With three games to go until the All-Star break, the season will be 59 percent over when the break hits. The Yankees head into the weekend trailing the Blue Jays by two games in the East, trailing the Astros by three games for a bye and have a four-game lead on a wild-card berth. They are in an OK spot. They were in a much better spot a month ago, but they are in a much better spot than they were on Saturday afternoon in Queens.

10. If a midsummer swoon under Boone is tradition then a disastrous weekend heading into the All-Star break under Boone is one as well. In 2021, they led the Astros 7-2 in the ninth, but gave up six runs, including a three-run, walk-off home run to Jose Altuve to lose 8-7. In 2023, they held a 4-1 lead over the Cubs in the seventh, but allowed six runs over the final three innings to lose. Last year, the Yankees had the humiliating loss in Baltimore to end the first “half” when Volpe and Alex Verdugo misplayed balls that would have ended the game. Let’s not do that again. How about a nice series win to go into the break? How about a sweep to keep the winning streak going? Let’s do that.

1. Goodbye to DJ LeMahieu. I always liked LeMahieu and was an advocate for him to be re-signed during the 2020-21 offseason. Did I think giving him a six-year deal to spread out the $90 million the Yankees gave him was the right decision? No. But when you’re worried about the luxury tax that’s what you do and Hal Steinbrenner is worried about the luxury tax more than you’re worried about anything in your life.

The Yankees signed LeMahieu as a free agent prior to 2019 despite coming off back-to-back below-league-average seasons in 2017 (93 OPS+) and 2018 (88 OPS+) while playing half of his games at Coors Field. If you remember, LeMahieu wasn’t even part of the Yankees’ expected everyday lineup in 2019 and didn’t even play on Opening Day. He quickly forced himself into the lineup and hit .327/.375/.518 with a career-high 26 home runs and 102 RBIs. (Let’s forget about the juiced ball that season that saw Brett Gardner hit 28 home runs and Gleyber Torres 34.)

LeMahieu was every bit as good in the postseason that year as well, posting a .976 OPS in the three-game sweep over the Twins and a 1.029 OPS in the ALCS loss to the Astros. He was the Yankees’ best hitter in the six games against the Astros and his ninth-inning home run to tie Game 6 would have been an all-time moment in the team’s history if they had gone on to win the game and the series. Instead, it will be mostly forgotten like Alfonso Soriano’s go-ahead home run in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.

After finishing second for the batting title in 2019, LeMahieu won it with a .364 average in the shortened 2020 season. He hit .364/.421/.590 and led the league in WAR despite missing 17 percent of the 60-game season. He also led the league in on-base percentage, OPS and OPS+.

The Yankees had to sign LeMahieu after 2020. He had become the second-most important piece of their offense and on defense he was a versatile Gold Glove winner. At the time, no one knew Torres would play his way off of shortstop and force LeMahieu to play third and first. No one knew LeMahieu was about to break down.

2. The Yankees spread out the $90 million over 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, hoping the first half of the six years would be the same old LeMahieu and they would deal with the second half of the six years. But after being designated for assignment on Wednesday, LeMahieu only lasted for four-and-a-half years of the deal, and for those four-and-a-half years, he wasn’t himself, plagued by a multitude of injuries, which turned him into a seeing-eye-singles hitter at the plate and an immobile defender in the field.

LeMahieu played in 150 games in the first year of the deal in 2021 (and was two percent worse than league average), but was shut down prior to the postseason — a postseason that lasted only one game for the Yankees.

He began to return to form in 2022, posting a 118 OPS+, but again missed time and was shut down for the postseason.

His 2023 season looked a lot like his 2021 season and he managed to play in 84 percent of the team’s games, but was four percent worse than league average in those games.

His 2024 season was the worst of his career as he hit .204/.269/.259 in 67 games and was on the injured list to end the season for the third time in four years.

He got hurt again in spring training in 2025 and missed the beginning of the year. When he returned, I wrote: LeMahieu has become the Yankees’ family dog who wanders around aimlessly and goes to the bathroom all over the place and lies around and sleeps all day. You try to pretend like the end isn’t near and you try to remember the good times to get through the bad times. Once in a while the dog will do something to remind you of what it used to be, but it’s just a momentary tease. The moments were too far and few between at the plate, and in the field, he was a liability at second base, unable to get to balls within reach. And so on Wednesday he became a former Yankee.

3. It was the right move, though at the wrong time. It was a move that should have been made either during last season or prior to this season. Aaron Boone spent the winter telling everyone how LeMahieu would return to his old self in 2025, the same way he told everyone they were crazy to not believe in Josh Donaldson in 2023 before his eventual release. The same way he tells everyone how good Anthony Volpe is despite every stat and metric suggesting he’s not and anyone with eyesight knowing he’s not.

4. It happened quickly for LeMahieu. He went from starting on Sunday to being told he was going to be a bench player on Tuesday to being designated for assignment on Wednesday. He was a good Yankee and I’m sure some other team will sign him even though he seems as washed as it gets. The Yankees gave late-career Kendrys Morales and Jay Bruce a chance. The Brewers signed Donaldson after he left the Yankees. The Orioles and Angels gave Aaron Hicks a chance. Some team is always willing to give some washed-up player a chance. I know how these things work out and I can already see LeMahieu coming to the plate with runners on second and third and two outs against Jonathan Loaisiga in the playoffs and LeMahieu hitting a 37-hopper up the middle to score two.

5. After the news of LeMahieu’s designation tapered off, the Yankees won their first game since Game 2 of the 2018 ALDS without LeMahieu in the organization. For the second straight night they beat the crap out of a Mariners starter and this time it was Logan Evans allowing 11 baserunners and six earned runs in 4 2/3 innings to the Yankees. The offense has come alive in July with at least five runs in all eight games this month.

6. But the story wasn’t the bats it was Cam Schlittler making his major-league debut. Schlittler looked great in his 5 1/3 innings of work, frequently throwing 100-mph fastballs by Mariners hitters. It was refreshing to see a Yankees pitcher not trying to fool everyone and just throwing the ball right by them instead.

7. Schlittler’s final line of three earned runs in 5 1/3 innings may not look great, but I blame the solo home run on Austin Wells for calling for back-to-back breaking balls to Jorge Polanco, and when they both missed and the count was 2-0, Polanco knew the rookie would come with a fastball and he destroyed it.

I blame the third earned run on Boone. Schlittler allowed a leadoff bloop double to begin the sixth to Julio Rodriguez. He then got to face Cal Raleigh a third time and blew Raleigh away with a high fastball at 98 mph. Schlittlter was only at 75 pitches after striking out Raleigh, but Boone went to Loaisiga, who has been dreadful, to face Randy Arozarena. Arozarena promptly hit a two-run home run to right field and Schlittler was charged with an earned run.

8. There is a lot behind this horrible decision. Schlittler was allowed to face the major-league leader in home runs a third time, but not Arozarena? With Marcus Stroman starting on Thursday, the most innings the Yankees could expect is five, which means the bullpen would be leaned on for four innings. Knowing that, why would you remove a starter pitching well with a four-run lead at 75 pitches?

For all of the talk recently about how Boone shouldn’t be Yankees manager because he won’t tell it like it is, no, that decision right there summarizes why Boone shouldn’t be the manager. He has no idea what he’s doing in terms of in-game management in Year 8 in the position. He had Loaisiga pitched multiple innings and Luke Weaver pitch multiple innings when he didn’t need to. So now both will be unavailable on Thursday when they are more likely to be needed. Boone’s decision-making on Wednesday nearly blew the game before the offense tacked on additional runs and those decisions could lead to a loss on Thursday. Boone, himself, is a bigger problem than the Yankees’ pitching staff depth or their lack of a third baseman.

9. Jasson Dominguez was back in the leadoff spot where he went 3-for-4 with a walk. I’m sure he will either be moved down on Thursday or benched so Trent Grisham can play. Aaron Judge went 1-for-3 with two walks, Cody Bellinger went 2-for-4, Giancarlo Stanton and Paul Goldschmidt picked up singles, Jazz Chisholm homered twice and Austin Wells had a pair of hits. Volpe hit a ball off the right-field wall and was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a double. Oswald Peraza went 0-for-4, but his four balls were hit 99, 109, 99 and 92 mph, which was a welcome sight. Maybe with consistent playing time he will prove he can hit in the majors.

10. Unfortunately, the three-game winning streak and the mood around the team that seems to be changing for the better is likely to come to an end on Thursday with Stroman pitching. I can’t envision him pitching well or giving the Yankees enough innings to not ask what is a shaky-at-best bullpen to get at least 12 outs. The best anyone can ask for from Stroman against a solid team like the Mariners is three earned runs over five innings and even that is likely asking for too much. Here’s to him surprising everyone and extending the winning streak to four straight.

1. The Yankees won on Sunday. They had Monday off. They won on Tuesday. That means the Yankees won two games in a row. It was the first time since June 25 and June 27 they had won back-to-back games and just the third time since June 12. For a team whose manager calls them “the best in baseball” despite having the ninth-best record and despite having lost 11 1/2 games of ground to the Blue Jays, you would think the “best team in baseball” would win back-to-back games more than three times in a month.

2. If you were wondering how long the Yankees would be comfortable with Jazz Chisholm playing a shaky third base and DJ LeMahieu being unable to get to balls within reach of him at second base, well, we received out answer on Tuesday. The answer is going from an eight-game lead over the Blue Jays to trailing the Blue Jays by 3 1/2 games.

The best part of the Yankees staying with Chisholm at third as long as the Yankees did is that he was given the day off on Sunday because of a shoulder issue that was affecting his throwing. Aaron Boone said it had been going on a for a while. So for a while, Boone knowingly was starting Chisholm at third base every day even though he had an issue throwing. Chisholm said he didn’t want to use it as an excuse for his poor throws across the diamond (of which there was at least one a game for an extended period), but by saying he didn’t want to use it as an excuse, he was using it as an excuse.

3. I don’t fault Chisholm for playing a bad third base, considering he has never been a third baseman in his career outside of his time with the Yankees — the only team in the majors that takes pride in playing multiple players out of position on a daily basis. But with Oswald Peraza at third base on Tuesday, you could see the glaring difference between having an elite left-side infielder on the field compared to a player being asked to do something he wasn’t asked to do with his previous organization and to do something he wasn’t even told to prepare for in spring training. Peraza made roughly four plays on Tuesday that Chisholm wouldn’t have made.

4. It turns out when you play a clean game defensively it makes it easier to win. It also helps when you get a strong starting effort like the Yankees got from Will Warren (5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K) and when you hit with runners in scoring position, which the Yankees did going 5-for-7 (I don’t think they had five hits with runners in scoring position over the last five weeks). The Yankees got to Logan Gilbert — the league leader in strikeout percentage — for five runs in 5 1/3 innings and then torched Casey Legumina for five runs in an inning of work. The 10-3 rout was a big win for the “Lookout the Yankees’ run differential!” crowd.

5. I like LeMahieu. I was all for re-signing him after 2020 before he started to break down. He should be happy every day he wakes up and is still in the majors at this point. Boone said LeMahieu took the news of going to the bench, “Not great, necessarily.” LeMahieu can’t be even a little upset he’s not going to be anything more than a bench player for the time being. He should be grateful he’s still on the team.

6. Aside from Chisholm back at second, Peraza at third and LeMahieu on the bench, Jasson Dominguez was batting leadoff. Dominguez had a big game out of the leadoff spot on Saturday and then was batting sixth on Sunday. He should be the leadoff hitter moving forward, though, unfortunately, because Boone is trying to overcorrect for not playing Trent Grisham over Alex Verdugo last year, and in doing so is doing everything he can to stunt Dominguez’s development by playing Grisham as much as possible. I’m sure Dominguez will sit on Wednesday so Grisham can play.

7. Tim Hill, Ian Hamilton and Scott Effross combined to throw three scoreless innings of relief and Geoff Hartlieb gave up three runs while recording just one out. Hartlieb couldn’t have done less with his two appearances this season (1.1 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 1 HR).

8. Aaron Judge went 2-for-5 with a solo home run with the Yankees up 6-0 in the seventh. Cody Bellinger went 3-for-4, Giancarlo Stanton hit the game-opening three-run home run, Jazz Chisholm had a double, Paul Goldschmidt had three hits, Austin Wells homered and Peraza singled in the first run of the game. Anthony Volpe — as expected — went 0-for-4. The “really good” and “productive” offensive player Boone spoke about last week is down to .217/.293/.393 on the season. The “above league average” offensive player Boone talked about is now nine percent worse than league average.

9. Because the Yankees blew a sizable division lead and because they have lost 16 of their last 24 game, there has been the annual midsummer call for Boone to be fired. (It’s as expected each summer as the Fourth of July is at this point.) As a leader of the movement in recent years, I wish I could take part in this year’s edition, but it’s a waste of energy. Boone survived finishing third in the division and fifth in the AL in 2021 when his team was the favorite to win the AL. He survived missing the postseason completely in 2023 when 40 percent of the league gets in. There is nothing he could do to get fired this season, especially off a World Series appearance, even if that appearance was embarrassing, humiliating and disturbing.

Because of the annual midsummer call for Boone to lose his job, there has been this narrative — led by Michael Kay — that Boone shouldn’t be fired because he doesn’t tell it like it is. That’s not the reason Boone should be removed. It’s one of the reasons, but it’s second at best to his in-game strategy and decision-making. Boone shouldn’t be the manager of the Yankees because he routinely fails to put his players in the best possible position to succeed (like playing Chisholm at third base every day or having Jayvien Sandridge make his major-league debut against Juan Soto and Pete Alonso) and because he’s incapable of making consistent logical in-game decisions. His lack of urgency, misevaluation of performance, defense of underperformance and telling everyone how good the Yankees are when they aren’t is second to all of that.

One day Boone will no longer be the Yankees’ manager. That day is not any time soon. He will never be fired. Hal Steinbrenner would rather have the team finish in last place for a decade than pay two people at the same time for one job. One day Boone’s contract will end and the Yankees won’t offer him a new one. That’s the only way he will no longer be the Yankees’ manger. (This doesn’t mean I won’t take every opportunity I get to criticize him. I just know it won’t lead to anything until his contract expires.)

10. Cam Schlittler gets the ball on Wednesday in his major-league debut. With Luis Gil and Ryan Yarbrough on the injured list and Clarke Schmidt out for this season and next, Schlittler has an opportunity to be a part of the rotation for the long haul if he pitches well. Right now, the Yankees’ No. 3 starter is Warren and the No. 4 is Marcus Stroman, so yeah, Schlittler has an amazing opportunity here and the bar is just be better than Stroman.

Can the Yankees win a third straight game on Wednesday? If they do, it will be the first time since June 10-12.

1. The Yankees held an eight-game lead over the Blue Jays on May 28. That lead is now gone. That lead is now a deficit. Because of the head-to-head tiebreaker, the Yankees are in second place in the AL East. They are a wild-card team.

2. It took a lot of losing to get to this point. It took a 13-14 June into an 0-3 July. It took going 6-10 against five teams outside of the playoff picture (Red Sox, Angels, Orioles, Reds and A’s). It took blowing a two-run lead to the Blue Jays on Monday and blowing another two-run lead to them on Tuesday. It took giving up five runs before recording an out on Wednesday and facing an 8-0 hole in the fifth, only to come back and tie the game at 9 to then lose anyway, 11-9.

3. Wednesday’s game was much of the same from the Yankees. Will Warren laid another first-inning egg and the offense took the first four innings off. The offense woke up and made one of their rare appearances just in time for the bullpen to implode. The Yankees wasted an amazing three-week run of starts from their rotation with embarrassing offensive efforts. Now that the starting pitching has regressed, the offense has reappeared, but so have the early-season bullpen meltdowns. Mark Leiter Jr. ruined Monday’s game (with help from the left side of the infield). Luke Weaver ruined Tuesday’s game (with help from his catcher). Devin Williams ruined Wednesday’s game (with help from his catcher).

4. The Yankees are a collection of pieces that don’t fit and it’s by design. After years of being too right-handed heavy, they overcorrected to become too left-handed. They have multiple players without positions, so they have some of those players play out of position. Then for players that do have positions, they play them out of position as well.

Their best second baseman plays third base every game to accommodate an immobile statue who will turn 37 next week because he’s still owed $22 million between this season and next. Their best defensive shortstop sits on the bench every day, but when he does get the rare chance to play, he plays second base or third base to cater to the 24-year-old Golden Boy of the organization — the only player who gets to play as much as Aaron Judge. Their starting left fielder is a center fielder who they have forced to play left field, so that their supposed fourth outfielder (who wasn’t good enough to play over Alex Verdugo last season) can play center field. On Wednesday, their starting catcher was making his fourth career start behind the plate because he’s really only been a first baseman in the majors. Two weeks ago the Yankees weren’t convinced he could start a game at catcher in the majors and now he has started four of the team’s last 14 games there, starting over the actual backup catcher, who the Yankees believed in more than the right-handed-hitting Carlos Narvaez, so they gave away Narvaez to the Red Sox where he is a middle-of-the-order bat with an .800 OPS. Now the Yankees have three left-handed-hitting catchers on the roster. All of these players playing out of position has led to game-changing errors and mistakes throughout the season.

5. When the Yankees lose (which they have nearly every day for the last three weeks), well, “That’s baseball.” When they win, they act as though they will never lose again. They have the swagger of Yankees teams that won without ever having won. This has been going on throughout the Boone era.

They carried themselves like defending champions in 2018 when Judge carried a boom box blasting “New York, New York” while walking out of Fenway Park following a Game 2 win in the ALDS. The Red Sox responded by blasting the Yankees for 16 runs in the worst home postseason loss in franchise history the next game and eliminated them in four games. After winning Game 1 of the 2019 ALCS, they lost four of the next five games to end their season. They thought they could outsmart the Rays with their series-changing opener strategy with Deivi Garcia and J.A. Happ in Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS. After being the odds-on favorite to win the AL in 2021, they finished fifth in the AL, went on the road for the one-game, wild-card game and were laughed off the field in the first inning. After that loss, Boone said, “The league has closed the gap on us,” as if the team was coming off a run of four championships in five seasons.

That level of arrogance continued in 2022 when they were pantsed by the Astros in the ALCS, culminating in Boone using video of the darkest moment in Yankees history as a motivational tactic that resulted in no motivation. It continued in the summer of 2023 when Boone kept saying the team would turn a corner they never turned missed the playoffs despite 40 percent of the league getting into October. Last season, seven years of no accountability and a lack of fundamentals came to a head in the World Series and they were humiliated on the game’s biggest stage.

6. Boone has learned nothing from seven seasons at the helm. He makes the same lineup mistakes, presses the wrong bullpen buttons and lies to the media and fanbase in 2025 as if it’s 2018.

Judge — the captain — has learned nothing with Boone at the helm. Judge was likely one of the driving forces in Joe Girardi being replaced and he has spent the last seven seasons recycling Boone-isms about how “They’ll get ‘em tomorrow” until they run out of tomorrows, and they have always run out of tomorrows during this era.

Young Yankees like Anthony Volpe don’t know what accountability is because they have never seen or needed to experience it. That’s why you get postgame answers like Volpe gave on Monday, when instead of owning up to his two-game changing fielding decisions, he doubled down and said he would do the same thing “every single time.”

New(ish) Yankees like Jazz Chisholm talk shit they can’t back up. Chisholm called the Royals’ Game 2 win in last year’s ALDS “lucky” even though he hit .133 in that series. He hit .182/.250/.309 in the postseason. After salvaging the third game in Cincinnati last week, Chisholm participated in the postgame, on-field interview and said, “I feel like we got a great team and I feel like we’re going to make the World Series again,” even though it was June 25, the Yankees had lost eight of 12 and their lead in the loss column had dropped from seven to one.

On Friday, after beating the second-worst team in the AL, Boone called the Yankees “a team to be reckoned with.” They had lost nine of 14 at the time and have lost three of four since. They are being reckoned with and are being wrecked in the process.

7. Now that they’re out of first place for the first time since April 13, you would think maybe, just maybe they would be humbled by the last four weeks. Not only are they not humbled, they are every bit as cocky and delusional as they have ever been.

“We think we’re really good,” Boone said after Wednesday’s crushing loss.

If the players on the team take on the personality of their manager in Boone then Boone has taken on the personality of his manager in Brian Cashman. It was Cashman who told reporters after the 2023 season in which the team missed the postseason, “I think we’re pretty fucking good.” If Cashman could think a roster that went 82-80 and missed the playoffs is good then of course Boone thinks a team that blew an eight-game division lead in just a month is good.

8. Boone was asked, “Is it jarring when you’ve been in first place for two months and then somebody ties you?”

“No,” Boone quickly answered.

Of course it’s not jarring. This type of thing happens every year under Boone, He’s used to it. Three years ago, the Yankees had a 15 1/2-game lead in the division that got cut by 15 games. You think blowing an eight-game lead is a big deal?

9. Asked if he thinks it’s going to be a tight race all season now, Boone replied, “I hope not.”

It didn’t have to be. You had an eight-game lead over the team that has now passed you. (Spoiler: It’s going to be a tight race.) And it’s not just about winning the division. It’s about winning the division and getting a bye. If you win your division, but finish as the third division winner and end up in a best-of-3 series anyway, who cares.

10. After Tuesday’s loss Boone said, “We gotta play better overall and hopefully get it going tomorrow.”

Surprisingly, hoping for a win didn’t work.

After Wednesday’s loss Boone said, “We’ll come ready to go tomorrow, hopefully Clarke will get us off to a good start.”

That’s the Yankees’ plan to get out of this mess: hoping. Not benching underperformers. Not putting players at their best positions. Not putting the worst hitters at the bottom of the lineup no matter what hand they hit with. Not shoring up the defense. Not playing a full, clean game. Hoping. A team with a $300 payroll and World Series aspirations is hoping to win games.

1. I cringed when I heard it. I was hoping I wouldn’t hear it this season, but after hearing it in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, I should have known better.

“We obviously gotta play a little better,” Aaron Boone said after Tuesday’s 12-5 loss, “and we have the people capable of doing that.”

You know it’s summer for the Yankees when Boone starts telling you about how the players the Yankees have are “capable” of turning the season around. He said it in 2021 when the team had a .500 record for the season in July. He said it in 2022 when was slamming press conference tables as the Yankees went 15-27 in July and August and watched their 15 1/2-game lead dwindle to one game. He said it in 2023 went the Yankees went 14-30 in July and August on their way to missing the postseason despite 40 percent of the league getting in. He said it in 2024 when the Yankees went 11-24 from mid-June to late July. And now he has said it in 2025 with the Yankees having lost 12 of 18 and their division lead down to one game.

2. You know what’s next, right? “It’s right in front of us.” Phase 1 of a Yankees midseason meltdown is losing to bad teams and the Yankees just went 6-10 against five teams not holding a playoff spot in the Red Sox, Angels, Orioles, Reds and A’s. Phase 2 is the division lead falling to one game. Phase 3 is Boone saying how “capable” his roster is. Phase 4 — the final phase — is him saying, “It’s right in front of us.” If the Yankees lose on Wednesday, it will be the first time since March 29 they aren’t alone in first place in the AL East. “It’s right in front of us” is imminent.

3. In 2022, Boone said, “It’s right in front of us,” on August 20. In 2023, he said, “It’s all there right in front of us,” on July 15. Last year, he said, “It’s all right in front of us,” on July 7. Each year it’s come a little earlier, but it always comes.

If the Yankees continue to play the way they have played over the last three weeks it will come in Toronto. After ending June with a 5-4 loss, the Yankees opened July with 12-5 disaster.

4. The Yankees scored two runs in the first to take an early 2-0 lead on a two-out, two-run single from Jasson Dominguez. (Dominguez drove in three of the Yankees’ five runs in the game. I bet Boone is upset he can’t bench Dominguez on Wednesday in favor of Trent Grisham, who has a hamstring injury.)

The Yankees still led 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Max Fried allowed a solo home run to George Springer. Fried bounced back to retire Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk. He thought he was out of the inning when he got Davis Schneider to hit a ground ball to Jazz Chisholm, but Chisholm threw it away to extend the inning. Then Myles Straw drew a walk and Andres Gimenez crushed a three-run home run to straightaway center. The fourth inning should have ended with the Yankees leading 2-1. Instead, they trailed 4-2 because they continue to play a second baseman at third base, so that they can play an immobile 36-year-old at second because they owe him $22.5 million between this season and next. Boone is usually quick to shut down any suggestion of personnel changes, but even he said, “We’ll talk through that stuff,” when asked if continuing to play Chisholm at third and LeMahieu at second was the best alignment.

5. The Yankees tied the game at 4 in the seventh when the Blue Jays did their best Yankees impersonation by booting the ball all around the infield to allow two runs to score. The idea the Yankees would repay the Blue Jays for their error-fueled win the night before with one of their own was short-lived as the Yankees’ bullpen crumbled in the bottom of the seventh and allowed five runs and then allowed three more in the eighth for some icing on the cake.

Mark Leiter Jr. was the first reliever to be used in the game. He entered in the seventh with the score tied at 4. He faced three batters and retired one. Leiter Jr.’s WHIP this season is now 1.592. That ranks 150th out of 157 AL pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched (stat from Katie Sharp).

Luke Weaver relieved Leiter Jr. and he faced four batters and retired one and allowed a grand slam to put the game out of reach.

6. The Yankees scored two non-defensive-aided errors in the game and they both came in the first inning. Their ace allowed four runs in six innings. Their bullpen allowed eight runs in two innings. Their third baseman made a game-changing throw for the worse because he’s not a third baseman. Their catcher committed catcher’s interference for the second straight game and leads the league in that stat despite being 44th in games played for catchers.

7. “I didn’t help my team win today or yesterday,” J.C. Escarra said. “It shouldn’t have happened, but it’s something I can control.”

At least Escarra was accountable for his error. Anthony Volpe would have said he will do the same thing every single time like he said about his wild play the day before.

Weaver defended his catcher — the worst catcher at interfering with swings in the majors.

“I feel like that’s a really unfortunate part of our game,” Weaver said. “I don’t think, personally, that belongs in our game.”

Let’s change the rule for Escarra. Rather than have him not hit the batter’s bat mid-swing, let’s just have the rule removed from the game!

8. The Yankees were 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, a day after they went 1-for-7. So they’re 3-for-24 in the first two games of the series with runners in scoring position.

“I will say the last two nights we’ve stung a number of balls with runners in scoring position,” Boone said. The New York Yankees: where process is more important than results. That’s what Brian Cashman told everyone at the 2022 end-of-the-season press conference.

9. “We’re going to have this conversation next year and the next year and the next year with what’s going on with runners in scoring position,” Boone said.

So Boone not only knows his job is safe for at least three more years through 2028, but he knows those Yankees teams will also suck at driving in runners in scoring position.

10. “That is baseball,” Boone said.

Nothing like a “That’s baseball” from a Yankee to evaluate their latest loss. Volpe used the same phrase on Monday. Aaron Judge said it last week. Boone says it all the time. If they lose again on Wednesday, someone else will say it. Or Boone will resort to telling us it’s right in front of them.

1. On Thursday, I wrote the following:

This weekend will show us a lot of about what to think of the Yankees. If their June swoon has ended and their annual midsummer poor play is done, they will take care of the A’s. If the Yankees can’t beat up on the AL West’s worst at home in the middle of the A’s nine game road trip then we will know this recent two-and-a-half-week slide is much more than the “That’s baseball” the Yankees tell us it is.

The Yankees beat the A’s 3-0 on Friday, were routed 7-0 on Saturday and did the routing on Sunday with a 12-5 win to win the series. I’m much closer to believing the last few weeks were “That’s baseball” than thinking the summer the rest of the season is going to be what we have seen in June, but we will really know after the next week-plus against the Blue Jays, Mets and Cubs.

2. The Yankees did just enough to get to reliever-turned-starter Mitch Spence on Friday with three runs in five innings before being shut out for the final three innings by journeyman (and a not very good journeyman at that) Sean Newcomb. But three runs was enough because Will Warren went five scoreless and Tim Hill, Fernando Cruz, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams all pitched scoreless innings as well.

“A baseball season is full of ups and downs,” Cody Bellinger said after the win. “But we’ve handled both well. I really like where we’re at.”

3. Aaron Boone was asked how we would grade the first half of the season and he said, “Incomplete,” but also said the Yankees “are a team to be reckoned with.” Nothing like talking about how great you are after beating the last-place A’s and winning for just the eighth time in 17 games. Then again, this is a man who said the “the league has closed the gap” on the Yankees after losing the 2021 one-game playoff despite having never won a championship prior to or since that loss.

4. On Saturday, Clarke Schmidt’s scoreless inning streak came to an end as the A’s got to him for four runs with a pair of home runs over six innings. Allan Winans gave up a couple of more in relief, though it didn’t matter since the Yankees couldn’t score. The offense was stifled by former Yankee JP Sears (5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) again as he allowed one earned run in 11 1/3 innings against his former team this season. Sears has a 0.79 ERA against the Yankees in two starts this season and a 5.74 ERA in his other 15 starts. The Law of Ex-Yankees playing against the Yankees never fails.

5. With one day left in June, here is the OPS for each Yankee in what has been an abysmal offensive month:

Jazz Chisholm: .979
Aaron Judge: .975
J.C. Escarra: .867
Cody Bellinger: .845
DJ LeMahieu: .742
Trent Grisham: .683
Ben Rice: .671
Anthony Volpe: .661
Austin Wells: .647
Jasson Dominguez: .627
Giancarlo Stanton: .580
Paul Goldschmidt: .464
Oswald Peraza: .387

(Judge’s OPS looks much better than it has been after his two home runs on Sunday with the Yankees leading by five runs both times he went deep.)

6. Chisholm has been the Yankees’ best hitter since coming off the injured list on June 3. It was his solo home run that got the Yankees on the board on Friday and his bases-clearing triple that opened up Sunday’s game. When Chisholm went on the injured list on April 29, he was hitting .181/.304/.410. Since coming off the IL, he’s hitting .318/.379/.600.

7. After getting rocked by the Yankees in May (4 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 2 K), Luis Severino was lit up by his former team once again on Sunday: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 2 HR. Severino had issues with pitch tipping with the Yankees, and with the Yankees aware of them, they had to have been on something or some things to get to him for 14 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings over two starts.

8. When Marcus Stroman went on the IL in April, I figured we wouldn’t see him throw another pitcher as a Yankee. I prayed we wouldn’t see him throw another pitch for the Yankees. On Friday, Boone said the Yankees wanted to see Stroman throw his latest bullpen session before deciding on if he would start Sunday, since a bullpen session is more than important than the actual on-field results Stroman has provided for the last calendar year. Sure enough, Stroman got the start on Sunday. Not because of his bullpen, but because the Yankees are paying him $18 million and it will be impossible at this point for him to reach his innings clause to guarantee his 2026 salary.

Stroman only allowed one earned run over five innings, which was better than Schmidt provided on Saturday, even if it was only against the A’s, who went 13-31 between Yankees series. The Yankees are going to keep Stroman in the rotation because of the money owed, though with days off and the All-Star break soon, they won’t need to use him that often if they don’t want to. (They shouldn’t want to.) As of now, Stroman is scheduled to pitch on Friday at Citi Field. That’s about as guaranteed as a loss gets in the majors even with how bad the Mets have been for weeks now. If Stroman does start that game, it will likely be the last big game of his career. Maybe he goes out and gives it all he has one last time and surprises everyone.

9. Before the Yankees get to the second half of the 2025 Subway Series they have an enormous four-game series in Toronto with the Blue Jays, who are only three games behind the Yankees. I’m much less worried about the Blue Jays than I am the Rays, but as long as they are this close, I’m worried. If the standings were based on expected wins and losses from run differential, the Yankees would have a 12-game lead on the Blue Jays. But in reality, the Yankees have played five games worse than their expected record suggests and the Blue Jays have played four games better.

10. There isn’t a Blue Jays starter that should scare me (the Yankees will see Max Scherzer, Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios and Chris Bassitt), but with the inconsistent offense the Yankees have provided throughout the season, everyone scares me right now. If Sears can shut down the Yankees like he did on Saturday, any of those four names could duplicate that type of performance and all four have much more talent and ability than Sears to do so.

I trust the Yankees’ starting pitching. I expect strong starts from everyone in the rotation, so I’m not worried about the pitching not showing up this week in Toronto. I’m only really worried about the offense. Will we get the offense that blasted Gausman in April or that the offense couldn’t hit Kyle Hendricks at home two weeks ago? It better be the former.

1. The 16-games-in-16-days stretch is over. The Yankees finished their longest off-day-less part of 2025 with a 7-9 record. None of the five teams they played (Royals, Red Sox, Angels, Orioles and Reds) currently holds a playoff spot.

It was a disappointing two-plus weeks. The Yankees were supposed to stack wins during this time, and instead, they stacked losses. When the stretch began they had a seven-game lead in the loss column over the Rays. That lead is down to one game.

2. At least the Yankees ended the stretch with a win. After being unable to score following the first inning on Monday, the Yankees blew a three-run lead late on Tuesday. That loss helped them increase their league lead for most losses (five) when leading by multiple runs at the start of the seventh inning and increased their league lead for worst road extra-inning record in automatic runner history. (Stats from Katie Sharp.) (The Yankees have scored two of 11 automatic runners this season and one of those two scored on a wild pitch). On Wednesday, they won behind Max Fried for the 13th time in 17 games, finally beating the Reds 7-1.

3. The Yankees are 13-4 when Fried starts and the only one of his 17 starts that should have been a loss was when he blew a three-run lead to the Dodgers at the end of May. The Yankees are 33-30 in games not started by Fried, which is a problem.

“I told him again today, ‘Just watching you more and more, I would not have wanted to hit off you,’” Aaron Boone said of Fried.

Boone was six percent worse than league average as a hitter in his career. I’m not sure there was anyone he wanted to hit off of.

4. The only run the Reds scored was unearned thanks to a throwing error from Jazz Chisholm. He has been shaky at third of late, but that’s to be expected when you’re being asked to play out of position. In his career, Chisholm has gone from shortstop to center field to second base to third base.

Chisholm is an exceptional talent. Since the start of the last season, he is one of five players with 50-plus steals and 35-plus home runs. The other four players are Elly De La Cruz, Shohei Ohtani, Jose Ramirez and Bobby Witt Jr. (Stat from Katie Sharp). In 96 games as a Yankee (regular season only), he has hit .257/.332/.483 with 22 home runs and 53 RBIs and has stolen 28 bases in 32 attempts. Again, he’s an exceptional talent. But it would be nice if he could stop talking all of the time.

5. On Tuesday, Chisholm had a 2-0 pitch called a strike that was clearly a ball. Instead of the count being 3-0 it was 2-1 and Chisholm eventually struck out swinging. Did the umpire force him to strike out swinging? No. But once the 2-0 pitch was called a strike he couldn’t compose himself and let the bad call ruin his at-bat. Eventually it ruined his game as he was ejected because he the extra long leash he was given to argue his point wasn’t enough.

On Wednesday, Chisholm hit a mammoth two-run home run, further proving how talented he is.

“After what happened last night, it felt great to get a hold of one, Chisholm said.

After what happened last night? YOU created what happened last night and your ejection. YOU couldn’t get over one missed call. (On Wednesday, a blatant strike was called a ball against Chisholm, but he didn’t have anything to say about that.)

After Wednesday’s win, Chisholm participated in the postgame, on-field interview and said, “I feel like we got a great team and I feel like we’re going to make the World Series again.” Even if you believe that why are saying that on June 25 after you just managed to salvage a game against the crappy Reds, have lost eight of 12 and have watched your seven-game lead in the loss column over the Rays drop to one?

I like Chisholm. I want to like him more, but he makes it so hard.

6. Trent Grisham and Jasson Dominguez each had four hits in the win. Because Cody Bellinger sat on Wednesday (despite being 2-for-2 with two home runs in his career against Brady Singer) he won’t be sitting on Friday. That means either Grisham or Dominguez will sit coming off a four-hit game. (It’s going to be Dominguez as they continue to stunt his development.)

“The more games that you play, the more if helps your confidence,” said Dominguez who will be benched for at least one of the three games this weekend.

7. It was another ho-hum hitless night for Anthony Volpe. He went 1-for-11 with six strikeouts in the series, but he did have the fake triple in the second game that he, his manager and the front office will be able to live off of for a while. He’s 4-for-37 in his last 12 games. Those four: an infield single, a bloop single, a home run off the short porch foul pole and a single turned into a triple. He’s down to .230/.418/.723 on the season. Fortunately for him, the Yankees’ roster construction allows him to keep playing every day.

8. Fernando Cruz struck out all three batters he faced in a scoreless eighth. It was the second time in three outings Cruz struck out all three batters he faced. He has 53 strikeouts in 32 innings and hasn’t allowed a hit in his last seven appearances. 

9. The Athletics come to the Bronx this weekend for a three-game series. The last time the Yankees played them in the second week of May, the A’s were 20-18. Now they’re 33-49 with a game against the AL-best Tigers on Thursday. The A’s are 13-31 since the start of their last series with the Yankees.

10. This weekend will show us a lot of about what to think of the Yankees. If their June swoon has ended and their annual midsummer poor play is done, they will take care of the A’s. If the Yankees can’t beat up on the AL West’s worst at home in the middle of the A’s nine game road trip then we will know this recent two-and-a-half-week slide is much more than the “That’s baseball” the Yankees tell us it is.

1. If you thought the Yankees’ 9-0 blowout win over the Orioles on Saturday and their 3-2 comeback win over the Orioles on Sunday would put an end to their annual midsummer swoon, you thought wrong. The Yankees followed up back-to-back wins over the Orioles with a 6-1 loss to the Reds in Cincinnati on Monday. Aaron Judge hit a first-inning home run and the offense followed with 8 1/3 scoreless innings.

2. The Yankees went 8-for-36 with one walk and 13 strikeouts. They stranded nine baserunners, going 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position. It was the type of offensive performance Yankees fans have come to expect this month from Aaron Boone calls “one of the best offenses in baseball.”

“We didn’t put the ball in play with runners out there when we had opportunities,” Boone said, stating the obvious.

3. Paul Goldschmidt went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts. Jazz Chisholm went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Anthony Volpe went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. DJ LeMahieu went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. Giancarlo Stanton went 1-for-4 with three strikeouts. (Jasson Dominguez went 2-for-4 and will probably be benched on Tuesday.)

“I think it’s just going back to guys having intent, going up there with a plan and trying to execute,” Judge said. “You’re not always going to drive the guy in or move him over, but as long as we continue to have good at-bats, I like our chances.”

4. The Yankees placed Ryan Yarbrough on the 10-day injured list with an oblique strain that bothered him for two starts. They called up the 29-year-old Allan Winans with 40 career innings in the majors to take his place in the rotation. Winans faced the minimum over the first three innings on Monday in his Yankees debut, but then unraveled after the Reds’ lineup saw him for a second time.

“He’s not overpowering with his stuff,” Boone said, “so his mix has got to be good and his command has got to be right.”

Winans through the third inning: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Winans after the third inning: 1.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 1 HR, 2 HBP

“I feel like there’s another gear I could hit, probably,” Winans said. “A couple of missed execution pitches, a couple of fastballs I’d like back.”

5. Winans had a golden opportunity to pitch well and keep a rotation spot while Yarbrough is out and possibly keep one for a while if he were to continue to pitch well and someone else were to go down. If he does have another gear, he should have gone to it on Monday as now he’ll likely be replaced in the rotation by Marcus Stroman.

6. After not starting on Sunday, Anthony Volpe returned to the lineup and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and misplayed a ball for good measure. Volpe went nearly a week without getting a hit, then had a three-hit game on Saturday (his three hits were an infield single, a home run off the short porch foul pole and a bloop single), walked as a pinch hitter on Sunday and then had his fifth 0-for-4 in eight days on Monday. His OPS+ dipped below 100 after Friday, making him once again worse than league average, but went back above 100 after Saturday. It now sits at 101. Please turn out to be great, George Lombard Jr.

7. The Yankees will face Chase Burns in his major-league debut on Tuesday. In 66 innings this season across High-A, Double-A and Triple-A, the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft has struck out 89 and allowed only 38 hits. The Yankees struck out 13 times on Monday and it wouldn’t surprise me if that number is surpassed on Tuesday.

8. With the right-hander starting, I’m sure Boone will go back to hitting Trent Griffey and Ben Bonds at the top of the lineup and will give us something like this:

Trent Grisham CF/Ben Rice 1B
Ben Rice 1B/Trent Grisham CF
Aaron Judge DH
Cody Bellinger RF
Jazz Chisholm 3B
Jasson Dominguez LF
Austin Wells C
Anthony Volpe SS
DJ LeMahieu/Oswald Peraza 2B

9. The Yankees started out June with four wins in five games. Then they lost two to the Red Sox, swept the Royals, were swept by the Red Sox, lost three of four to the Angels, won a home series against the Orioles and were shut down by the Reds. They have lost eight of 11 and are now 10-11 in June. The 16-games-in-16-days stretch was supposed to be an opportunity for the Yankees to stack wins against some mediocre teams in the Royals, Red Sox, Angels, Orioles and Reds, and instead, they’re 6-8 against them.

10. There are two games left in the stretch before the Yankees’ first day off since June 9. (Poor Yankees, 16 games in 16 days!) Carlos Rodon gets the ball in the first of the two looking for his first great start in three weeks, as the offense looks to do to Burns what a major-league offense is supposed to do to a rookie starter in their debut. The Yankees need to get back in the win column as their lead in the loss column is down to two games.

1. I thought Sunday would be the low point of the season. The Yankees were shut out at Fenway Park and swept by the Red Sox, falling to 1-5 against their storied rival on the season. They finished the weekend having scored just three runs in 28 innings for their worst offensive showing at the hitter-friendly park in more than 100 years. But then Monday happened.

I thought Monday’s loss to the Angels would be the low point of the season. The Yankees left 12 runners on base, couldn’t score in multiple leadoff-runner-in-scoring-position situations and lost in 11 innings to the lowly Angels. But then Tuesday happened.

On Tuesday, the Yankees were shut out again and again by the Angels, tying a franchise record with three consecutive shutouts against. They didn’t face a capable starter like they had on Sunday or Monday, instead they faced Kyle Hendricks, who entered the game with a 5.20 ERA, good enough for second worst in the majors. Hendricks had averaged 5.6 strikeouts per nine innings with his mid-80s repertoire this season, but he struck out nine Yankees over six innings, his most strikeouts in a single game in nearly five years.

The Yankees haven’t scored a run in their last 29 innings. They have scored five runs in their last 63 innings. They have scored in five of their last 69 innings.

2. Cody Bellinger called the Yankees’ offensive performance over the last six games “a little rut” after Tuesday’s loss. On Monday, Boone had called it a “few-game tough stretch.” Six games isn’t “little” and it’s certainly more than a “few.” If it weren’t such a big deal then why did the Yankees need to hold a team meeting after being blanked by the-hanging-on-to-a-career Hendricks to “remember who they are” like they’re Mufasa talking down from heaven to Simba.

3. On Tuesday, Boone attributed the Yankees’ embarrassing six-game run to “baseball” and with a straight face said, “We are one of the best offenses in the league.”

“Hendricks, I thought, was good,” Boone said, “rocking us back and forth.”

You want to tip your cap to Garrett Crochet? Sure, he’s one of the best in the game. Jose Soriano? OK. Hendricks? No. Absolutely not. Tipping your cap ends with Hendricks.

“We gotta go up and really focus on having quality at-bats,” Boone said. “And that will happen and hopefully tomorrow’s the day.”

“Hopefully!” That’s where the state of the offense is now: relying on hope.

4. Aaron Judge went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. After the Yankees’ win last Wednesday, Judge had homered four times in four games and was hitting .394/.490/.779 on the season. Aaron Boone didn’t start him for the first time in 2025 the next day, and since then, Judge is 2-for-20 with 13 strikeouts and two walks. He has lost 22 points on his batting average, 21 points on his on-base percentage and 39 points on his slugging percentage.

5. Paul Goldschmidt went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Goldschmidt is hitting .161/.230/.232 over the last three weeks. He has one multi-hit game in June and two extra-base hits in the month.

6. Austin Wells went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Despite his impressive three-run home runs against Crochet and Noah Cameron over the last two weeks, Wells has a .680 OPS over the last five weeks. He has struck out multiple times in three of his last four games and has struck out 31 times in his last 90 plate appearances.

7. Anthony Volpe went 0-for-3. The Golden Boy was finally moved all the way to eighth in the batting order ahead of the only hitter worse than him in the “everyday” lineup. Volpe’s slash line is down to .238/.311/.426. His OPS+ has fallen to 106+. The faction of fans that defend him with the argument that he has been above league average this season are watching their argument dissolve with each game. Volpe is another week like this past one from being right where he has been since his debut: below league average.

8. DJ LeMahieu went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. A few days ago he couldn’t go first to third on an obvious first-to-third base hit because of his legs. On Monday, he couldn’t get a bunt down that would have possibly led to a Yankees win and instead struck out because of his abilities. On Tuesday, he couldn’t keep a ground ball to second from reaching the outfield and it led to the Angels’ first run because of his age. LeMahieu is down to .244/.333/.341 with a 92 OPS+. He’s 2-for-17 over the last week. He has no power, no legs, no range.

LeMahieu has become the Yankees’ family dog who wanders around aimlessly and goes to the bathroom all over the place and lies around and sleeps all day. You try to pretend like the end isn’t near and you try to remember the good times to get through the bad times. Once in a while the dog will do something to remind you of what it used to be, but it’s just a momentary tease.

LeMahieu is being paid $15 million this season and next. He’s going to continue to get opportunities because of that. And there will be days a ground ball of his finds a hole or he inside-outs a pitch to right field. But those will be the momentary teases. I will remember his 2019 and 2020 seasons. I will always defend him for how good he was in trying to single-handedly bring the Yankees to the 2019 World Series while the rest of the team no-showed like it does every October. But he’s as washed up as it gets for someone still being given playing time.

9. Boone moved Volpe down and benched Trent Grisham and Ben Rice, while batting Jasson Dominguez leadoff. I liked it. I would do it again on Wednesday. I have seen enough Grisham and Rice over the last month to think Grisham is anything more than a fourth outfielder and it’s hard to keep harping on Rice’s all-red Statcast metrics when it’s not translating into actual results. Keep Dominguez at the top of the lineup for an extended period and see what he gives you there. On Tuesday, he provided a base hit and a stolen base, which is a lot more than anyone else is doing.

10. The Yankees’ franchise record for consecutive shutouts against is three (stat from Katie Sharp), so they are one away from the record. The franchise record for consecutive scoreless innings by the offense is 37 (stat from Katie Sharp), so they are eight scoreless innings away from that record. The Yankees could break both records on Wednesday night. Will Michael Kay exclaim, “History with an exclamation point!” if they do?

1. The Yankees were shut out by the Angels for 11 innings on Monday at Yankee Stadium. They were shut out by the Red Sox on Sunday. They were held to two runs by the Red Sox on Saturday. They scored one run against the Red Sox in 10 innings on Friday. They scored one run against the Royals on Thursday. They scored one run over the last seven innings against the Royals on Wednesday. The Yankees haven’t scored a run in their last 21 innings. They have scored five runs in their last 54 innings. They have scored in five of their last 60 innings.

2. “Going through a few-day tough stretch here of producing some offense,” Aaron Boone said.

I would say it’s more than a few. The Yankees have had trouble scoring for six straight games. They single-handedly revived the Red Sox’ season, and following their 1-0 loss to the Angels on Monday, their lead in the loss column in the AL East is down to three games.

“[Jose] Soriano was really good,” Boone said. “He kept us in the ballpark.”

That’s what Soriano does. He hasn’t allowed a home run since April 22. And when the Yankees don’t hit the ball over the wall, they don’t know what to do. When they aren’t hitting home runs, they’re pathetic. Today marks a week since someone other than Aaron Judge hit a home run. A week!

3. It’s not that the Yankees didn’t have opportunities to score runs, it’s that they are the worst situational hitting team in baseball. They lack the awareness and ability to get a runner in from second with no outs, and if they were given five outs to get the runner in, I still don’t think they would be capable of it.

On Monday, they had runners on first and second with no outs in the first inning and didn’t score. They got a leadoff double in the second inning and the runner stayed put. They hit into an inning-ending double play in the fourth. They stranded two in the fifth. They left a runner on second in the seventh and left another on in the eighth.

4. With the game tied 0-0 in the bottom of the ninth, Giancarlo Stanton delivered a leadoff double and then was removed for a pinch runner in Jasson Dominguez. Rather than do everything possible to score the run and win the game, the Yankees seemed to be playing for multiple runs when one run would end the game.

Boone inexplicably let Jazz Chisholm swing away, and Chisholm, as he always does, tried to hit the ball on the 4 train tracks rather than just put the ball in play. He struck out on three pitches.

Next up was Anthony Volpe. If Chisholm is the worst situational hitter in baseball then Volpe is second. Volpe constantly swings at early pitches in counts as if he’s in an 0-2 hole. In this at-bat, Dominguez had third base stolen, but Volpe swung away and popped up a ball foul to send Dominguez back to second. When Dominguez went for third again, Volpe did what he does best and hit a ground ball to the left side of the infield, leading Dominguez to be tagged for the second out. Austin Wells struck out swinging to end the inning, with the third strike above his head.

5. Jonathan Loaisiga stranded the automatic runner in the top of the 10th, but the Yankees stranded theirs in the bottom half. DJ LeMahieu tried to bunt the runner over to third, but couldn’t and ended up striking out and then Trent Grisham and Paul Goldschmidt flew out;.

In the 11th, Loaisiga allowed a one-out, excuse-me double down the left-field line to score the automatic runner from second. In the bottom of the inning, the Angels intentionally walked Aaron Judge to secure the win. Cody Bellinger flew out, Goldschmidt was thrown out at home, Chisholm reached on an infield single and then Volpe swung at the first pitch of his at-bat and did what he does best again: hit a weak ground ball to the left side.

“First pitch is the best one to hit sometimes,” Boone said.

Sometimes the first pitch is a good one to hit. But that one wasn’t. If it had been good, why did Volpe swing like he was in an 0-2 hole battling for the game and take an off-balanced, half-hearted swing? Either the pitch wasn’t a good one to swing or Volpe isn’t good. Or both.

6. “We had some leverage there late with the runner on second,” Boone said, “and just couldn’t push it around.”

The Yankees are a disaster in extra innings. They have played nine extra innings this season, which means they have had nine automatic runners. One of those nine have scored.

7. Do you think it’s a coincidence the Yankees continue to lose one- and two-run games? Do you think it’s random that the team Boone manages has no idea how to drive in runs with productive outs? Do you think it’s just bad luck that the team can’t win games when situational hitting, fundamentals and managing are heightened? On Monday, the Yankees were 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position in the game. (The one was the infield hit that led to no runs.) They left 12 on base.

8. It wouldn’t surprise me if this dumbass team gives Stanton the day off on Tuesday while they are starved for offense. It would be very Yankees for them to sit him and say it was the plan to give him a day off after he played one game since the World Series.

9. The free fall for Grisham and Ben Rice continues. Volpe and Wells are back to their usual selves. Chisholm is swinging for the fences with every swing like he was before he got hurt, DJ LeMahieu’s few-game hot streak is over and April Bellinger has returned. The only capable, trustworthy bat remains Judge and Ron Washington isn’t dumb enough to let him beat his team as he continues to intentionally walk him. Things are bad right now with four straight losses and losses in six of nine, but it’s not hard to see how it can get worse if the offense doesn’t wake up.

10. The Yankees have wasted strong starts by Ryan Yarbrough, Max Fried and Clarke Schmidt and a winnable start from Carlos Rodon. The starting pitching isn’t good enough to continue to give the Yankees these efforts, and outside of Fried, there aren’t any expectations for the other four. That includes Will Warren, who gets the ball on Tuesday.

Kyle Hendricks goes for the Angels. If the Yankee can’t wake up and hit the soft-tossing Hendricks and his 5.20 ERA, I don’t know when they will wake up and put an end to this embarrassing offensive run.

1. It’s about that time of year. The time of year when the Aaron Boone Yankees begin their annual midseason free fall that leaves the team in disarray, the fan base calling for the jobs of the manager and general manager and the season in peril.

Last year it began this same exact weekend when the Yankees lost two of three to the Red Sox at Fenway Park and then lost 22 of their next 33 games, leaving Boone to say, “It’s all right in front of us,” on July 7. In 2023, Boone said, “It’s all there right in front of us,” on July 15, and in 2022, he said, “It’s right in front of us,” on August 20. Each year it’s come a little earlier, but it always comes.

2. It takes about a month of poor play from the Yankees for Boone to explode and go deep into his bag of bullshit to pull out a version of “It’s right in front of us.” This team has all of the necessary qualities and traits to extend the annual midseason meltdown to a fourth straight season: poor fundamentals, a general lack of awareness, inept situational hitting, sloppy defense, a shaky bullpen, underperformance from the majority of the lineup for a lengthy period and a manager who may be the very worst at in-game decisions in the league.

3. The Yankees showed the world their flaws this weekend against the Red Sox and were swept for the first time in 2025 and had their worst offensive output as a franchise at Fenway Park in more than 100 years. The Yankees scored four runs in 28 innings, hit one home run and were stifled by two starting pitchers and a bullpen that have been lit up by the league this season.

4. If Aaron Judge’s historical season spirals out of control and his 2025 season turns out to be amazing and not legendary, we’ll know exactly when it turned. As of now that moment is June 12 in Kansas City when Boone didn’t start Judge for the first time all season. Since then Judge is 1-for-13 with 10 strikeouts and looks like his 2016 late-season call-up self than anything he has been over the last eight-and-a-half seasons. The Yankees go as Judge goes and Judge did nothing this weekend, and to no surprise, the Yankees were humiliated, falling to 1-5 on the season against a team that is 32-35 against the rest of the majors.

5. It was frustrating to watch Jasson Dominguez get picked off of second base to end the seventh inning on Saturday. It was comical to watch Ben Rice do the same on Sunday. In both instances the Yankees had two runners on, had the potential tying run on base and the go-ahead run at the plate. The characteristics of the team the Dodgers exposed in the World Series and then spent the offseason laughing about publicly in every opportunity they got are still present. They’re still present because their manager is the same manager and for as long as Boone is at the helm of the Yankees, fundamentals will be held in no regard and accountability won’t exist.

6. The Yankees were 8-0 this season following a loss with Max Fried starting, but that streak came to an end. Fried did his part to be a stopper by allowing two earned runs over seven innings, but sloppy defense and a no-show performance from the offense led to the loss. It’s not wise to waste Fried starts when the rest of the rotation remains a coin flip in terms of performance every time out.

7. There’s an old adage that any time you watch a baseball game you may see something you have never seen before, and on Sunday, I saw something I had never seen before. Trent Grisham led off the third inning and got ahead in the count 3-0. He took the next pitch and it barely grazed the bottom of the strike zone to make it 3-1. Grisham could hunt a fastball on 3-1 or pick a small part of the zone to look for a pitch and drive it for a hit, an extra-base hit or a home run to tie the game, or he could take the next pitch if it wasn’t in that small part of the zone he wanted it to be in and possibly walk since Brayan Bello is among the league leaders in walks per nine innings. Grisham did neither. He squared up to bunt and laid a bunt down the third-base line foul to run the count to 3-2. On the next pitch he popped out to third for the first out of the inning. Outside of a hitter trying to sacrifice a runner over in the ninth inning or extras innings at all costs or a pitcher trying to sacrifice a runner over when pitchers had to hit, I’m going to say no batter in history has ever laid down a bunt attempt on a 3-1 pitch as the leadoff hitter in the third inning of a game. The Yankees aren’t just sloppy, they’re unintelligent. In a weekend in which their shortstop threw a ball away he didn’t have to throw, two players got picked off of second base in the late innings of a close game, a strike was given to a batter for not getting in the batter’s box in time and a runner was caught stealing third with no outs in extra innings, Grisham’s 3-1 bunt attempt was the dumbest decision of the weekend. Well-earned, Trent.

8. After Saturday’s loss I wrote about how bad Grisham and Ben Rice have been for more than a month now, so what does Boone do? Bats them first and second in the lineup. Let’s give the two worst hitters on the team since the middle of the May the most plate appearances on the team! Let’s give them more plate appearances than Judge and Cody Bellinger!

9. I want to like Anthony Volpe. I really do. But he makes it so hard. On Friday, he got caught stealing third with no outs in the 10th. On Saturday, he gifted the Red Sox their first run with an ill-advised throw. On Sunday, he booted the first ball of the game for yet another error and threw up an 0-for-4 at the plate for good measure. I don’t know how anyone can watch Volpe play every day since being called up at the start of 2023 and think he’s a winning player. What exactly does he do well other than commit an error in every big moment and hit mostly weak ground balls? His fielding is overrated. His arm is below average. His Baseball IQ isn’t exactly glowing. His power is limited to the short porch at home and he doesn’t even attempt to steal anymore. He may as well be Giancarlo Stanton once he reaches first base. He has stolen seven bases in 12 attempts (58 percent), which proves he has no instinct on the basepaths and his last stolen base was back on May 13. I’m not sure why a faction of the fan base loves Volpe other than that he was born in New York, grew up in New Jersey as a Yankees fan and is a homegrown product. In terms of what matters, which is performance on the field, he’s lacking in every aspect.

10. The Yankees may not have the roster to avoid a fourth straight midseason meltdown and it may be inevitable, but they at least have the schedule to avoid it. They have the lowly Angels at home the next four days and then a weekend series against the even lowlier Orioles. After that it’s three in Cincinnati and three back home against the A’s. When the best team you will play in a 13-game stretch is the Reds, you’re in a great position. Coming off the embarrassment and humiliation of the weekend, if the Yankees don’t have an impressive homestand against two shitty teams then get ready for a rocky summer because it will be right in front of them.

1. Carlos Rodon was bad, the offense was worse, the Yankees once again lacked any semblance of fundamentals under Aaron Boone and they lost 4-3 to the Red Sox. The loss dropped them to 1-4 against their storied rival this season.

Not everyone thought was Rodon was bad. His manager didn’t think he was bad despite lasting only five innings and allowing nine baserunners, four runs and three earned runs in those five innings.

“I actually thought he was pretty sharp,” Boone said.

2. Rodon’s last two starts have come against the Red Sox, the Yankees have lost both and he has allowed eight earned runs in 10 innings. In the first of the two, he blew two different leads.

“It seemed like they had a team approach today,” Rodon said. “They were a little more aggressive than last time.”

Rodon went on to say that he would try to have better location with his pitches the next time he faces the Red Sox instead of trying to overpower them. The idea Rodon and the Yankees thought a good game plan would to be to not locate pitches and try to overpower the Red Sox is unbelievable (but actually very believable with this organization).

We’ll always have those few weeks when Rodon dominated the Rays, Guardians, Orioles, Padres, Rangers and Angels and people were fooled into thinking he figured it out and could be trusted. As I wrote multiple times during that stretch, I still didn’t trust Rodon and never will.

3. Is it possible the Yankees have gotten worse with fundamentals and details under Boone? I didn’t think it was possible given the last seven years, culminating in the World Series Game 5 disaster, but it just may be.

In the first inning, the Red Sox had a runner on second with two outs (Rob Refsnyder doubled on a middle-middle fastball on Rodon’s first pitch). Carlos Narvaez hit a ground ball to Anthony Volpe in the hole at short and after recently making two successful Derek Jeter-esque jump-throws, Volpe attempted it again and wildly threw the ball nowhere near the bag. Narvaez was safe at first and Refsnyder came around to score to give the Red Sox an early lead. Not only was Volpe’s throw poor, but Paul Goldschmidt played the throw like he had never received an errant throw before. He played it like he had never played first base before.

“I feel like that one was on me,” Goldschmidt said. “He should have the freedom to throw that ball across the diamond like he did.”

4. A day after foolishly attempting to steal third with no outs in the 10th inning, Volpe tried to a be a first-inning hero rather than put the ball in his pocket and let Rodon face the left-handed Jarren Duran with two on and two outs. Duran popped out to third. Complete unawareness from Volpe.

His unawareness didn’t end there. In the fourth inning, Trevor Story drove in Narvaez with a base hit to center field. With Volpe’s back to second waiting for the throw in, Story took off for second and turned a single into a double. Volpe turned around stunned to see Story sliding safely into second.

5. A night after it took the Yankees until the ninth inning to get on the board, it took until the seventh inning on Saturday. Trailing 4-2 with two runs in and still two on with two outs, Jasson Dominguez was inexplicably picked off of second to end the inning.

The following inning with the Yankees desperate for a baserunner to bring the tying run to the plate, Ben Rice was given an automatic strike for a pitch clock violation to start his at-bat 0-1. He would go on to strike out.

At this point, I’m waiting for the day the Boone Yankees bat out of order.

6. If Boone thought Rodon was “sharp” in his inadequate performance, I wonder what Boone thought about Hunter Dobbins’ performance. Dobbins shut out the Yankees for six innings, allowing just two hits. In two starts over the last week against the Yankees, Dobbins allowed three earned runs over 11 innings and won both starts.

7. It was more of the same from the ex-Yankees on the Red Sox playing well at the Yankees’ expense. Refsnyder went 2-for-3; Narvaez did the same and added a walk; Justin Wilson faced six Yankees, struck out three and put an end to their eighth-inning rally and Greg Weissert pitched the ninth to earn the save. All that was missing was another pair of dominant outings from Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman.

8. The Yankees 1 through 3 hitters went 0-for-12 with six strikeouts. Everyone has been so worried and concerned about what will happen with the lineup when Giancarlo Stanton returns, but Rice and Trent Grisham seem to have resolved the issue on their own. Since May 13, Rice has a .527 OPS and Grisham has a .552 OPS.

9. I have written this before, but I would have Judge lead off. I don’t care that he will bat with no one on base in his first at-bat of the game. He’s the best player in baseball at getting on base given his majors-leading .479 on-base percentage and no pitcher is going to pitch around the first batter of the game. If Shohei Ohtani can lead off for the infinitely smarter Dodgers who do everything better than the Yankees then Judge can lead off for the Yankees. Give me Judge, Cody Bellinger and Stanton at 1 through 3 when Stanton returns this week. (It will never happen.)

10. Max Fried gets the ball on Sunday to try to salvage the series. The Yankees offense scored one run in 10 innings on Friday and two runs on Saturday. My expectation for “the best offense in baseball” which has scored four runs in its last three games isn’t high for Sunday . But maybe the bats will show up in the series finale to support their ace and keep their performance against the Red Sox this season to just embarrassing and not allow it to progress to humiliating.

1. “That’s brutal” is what DJ LeMahieu says he said to first-base umpire Jeremie Rehak to get ejected in the 10th inning of Friday’s 2-1 loss to the Red Sox for the first ejection of his career. Rehak’s call on the “foul” ball LeMahieu hit with two outs in the 10th that remained foul after review was just one of many things that were “brutal” in the loss.

2. The Yankees’ offense was brutal. The Yankees didn’t get on the board until there was one out in the ninth inning when Aaron Judge hit a game-tying home run off of Garrett Crochet. Prior to the home run, Judge had been 0-for-6 with six strikeouts against Crochet this season, but he got him for a 443-foot blast well over the Green Monster. The home run would have been remembered as an awesome moment in a great comeback win, except the Yankees didn’t win. Instead, it will just be remembered as a game-tying home run in a loss. Once the game was headed for extra innings it was only going to end with a Yankees loss.

3. The Yankees’ extra-inning approach was once against brutal. The Yankees are now 12-26 in extra-inning road games since the automatic runner was implemented five years ago, which is the worst win percentage in the majors. It’s not a coincidence Aaron Boone is the manager of the team that is the worst in the majors at succeeding in a in which success can only be obtained by a combination of smart managing, situational hitting and creativity. The Yankees continue to play for multiple runs on the road in extras rather than one run to take the lead, and they continue to not score any runs let alone multiple runs, and they continue to lose.

3. On Friday, Anthony Volpe was the automatic runner for the 10th. With no outs and Jasson Dominguez up, Volpe took off for third. Sure, Volpe has been good at stealing third in three years in the majors, but when you attempt to steal third with no outs in extra innings, you have to make it. There’s no excuse if you don’t. There’s no excuse unless you’re Boone who has an excuse for everything.

“The only reason he’s out [is] because he kind of gets caught on the slide where he doesn’t extend,” Boone said of Volpe’s attempt.

Ah, yes, Volpe would have been safe if not for the slide. And the Yankees would have won the game if not for the Red Sox scoring more runs than them. And the Yankees would have won the World Series if not for the Dodgers winning four games and the Yankees only winning one. And Boone would have multiple championships as Yankees manger if not for disappointing postseason losses in six of his seven seasons as manager and if not for completely missing the postseason in the other season.

4. If you wonder why it’s always reported how much players love playing for Boone it’s because of instances like this. Instead of calling out Volpe for a dumb decision (and it was a dumb decision because unless you’re safe in that spot, it’s dumb), he says it’s the slide’s fault. Guess who is in control of the slide? Volpe! (It was dumb whether Boone called for it or Volpe did it on his own. With one out it would have been acceptable to attempt. With no outs it’s completely unacceptable.)

Last Sunday night Jazz Chisholm did the in-game interview with ESPN against the Red Sox and when asked about Boone, Chisholm said, “We’re really good friends.” He didn’t say Boone is a “really good manager,” no, he mentioned how good of friends they are. A manager has to have the ability to call out his players when they deserve to be called out. A friend? A “really good friend” isn’t about to call out their friend even if they deserve to be.

5. It was brutal LeMahieu’s ball was called foul on the field and even more brutal the call stood after review. The ball was clearly fair.

“I want the courage to overturn the call,” Boone said, “a quarter of the ball is on the line.”

I want the courage for you to call out Volpe for trying to steal third.

6. It was brutal for Tim Hill to face Carlos Narvaez with two outs in the 10th. Hill sent the game to extras by retiring David Hamilton for the final out in the ninth. Once the Yankees didn’t score in the 10th, you knew Hill would come back out with three straight lefties due up. Hill got Jarren Duran to ground out, which moved the automatic runner to third, intentionally walked Rafael Devers and struck out Marcelo Mayer. The winning run was on third with two outs and the right-handed Narvaez due up.

Boone had right-handed options in Mark Leiter Jr. or Devin Williams to go to. Leiter had pitched the previous two days and even if he had only thrown 23 pitches over those two days, the Yankees don’t use relievers three days in a row, so he wasn’t “available” in Boone’s eyes. The Yankees had yet to take the lead and Boone manages to a fictitious stat in the save, so Williams also wasn’t available in Boone’s eyes. Boone would rather lose the game than use his “closer” to extend it, so the best two options to send the game to the 11th weren’t available because of make-believe reasons. Boone stayed with Hill and Narvaez hit a ball high off the Monster to end the game. The ex-Yankee has now beaten the Yankees in back-to-back games between last Sunday night’s 11-7 loss and Friday’s 2-1 loss. Meanwhile, J.C. Escarra has a .706 OPS, is 0-for-17 throwing runners out this season and there are talks of him losing playing time at catcher to Ben Rice.

7. Rob Refsnyder served as the Red Sox’ leadoff hitter and had a hit and a walk, Aroldis Chapman retired both hitters he faced in the ninth and Garrett Whitlock threw a scoreless 10th. It was yet another all-around effort for the ex-Yankees on the Red Sox in beating the Yankees.

8. Prior to the series, I wrote “I expect the pitching to be much better than this weekend than it was last weekend, for both teams that is” and it was in the first game. Crochet was unfortunately magnificent until the Judge home run and Yarbrough held the Red Sox to one run over 4 2/3 innings. The only run the Yankees’ bullpen allowed over five innings was the unearned automatic runner and the Red Sox’ bullpen went five up and five down.

9. The Yankees’ offense has now scored two runs over its last 21 innings dating back to the start of the eighth inning on Wednesday. One of the runs was the Pablo Reyes chaos run on Thursday and the other was the Judge home run on Friday. It’s not only runs the Yankees are lacking, it’s hitting altogether. They have nine hits in those 21 innings. It’s not like they leaving everyone on, they aren’t getting anyone on.

10. That needs to change on Saturday. It’s embarrassing the Yankees are 1-3 against the Red Sox. The Red Sox season was hanging by a thread before last weekend in the Bronx and the Yankees revived them and the Red Sox have won five of seven since last Friday. With Carlos Rodon against Hunter Dobbins and Max Fried against Brayan Bello on Saturday and Sunday, the Yankees hold extreme pitching advantages in both games. Anything less than winning both games and taking the series will be brutal.

1. The Yankees didn’t score four runs against the Royals on Thursday, but they still won. The Yankees beat the Royals 1-0 for their fourth 1-0 win of the season. As I wrote after Monday’s win, since the start of last season the Yankees seem to always do enough to beat the Royals. Whether it’s winning a blowout game, needing a late-game big hit or holding on for a 1-0 win, I love when the Yankees play the Royals.

2. It was always going to be hard for the Yankees to score on Thursday with Seth Lugo on the mound, but Aaron Boone made things harder by keeping Aaron Judge out of the lineup along with Jazz Chisholm, Austin Wells and DJ LeMahieu. It was the first game Judge didn’t start this season. I “get” he can’t play every day, but I also don’t really get it. He’s having the best offensive season in the history of baseball. Maybe don’t give him a day off, considering there’s no proof random days off keep anyone healthy over the long haul.

3. The Yankees used a 7-8-9 of J.C. Escarra, Pablo Reyes and Oswald Peraza, which is about as bad as it gets for a 7 through 9 in the majors. But Escarra had two of the Yankees’ five hits and their only extra-base hit, and Reyes scored the only run of the game. (Thursday ended up being the only game this season Reyes has started and completed.) You can’t predict baseball.

4. I was shocked when Reyes led off the eighth with a single against Lucas Erceg. It’s rare someone of Reyes’ ability beats someone of Erceg’s ability, but I guess anyone with a bat in their hand is truly dangerous. I figured Boone would use Judge to hit for Reyes, but he didn’t, and instead had Judge hit for Peraza after Reyes reached. Judge struck out on a 3-2 pitch clearly outside the zone to fall to 1-for-18 as a pinch hitter in his career.

5. After Judge struck out, Trent Grisham grounded out to move Reyes to second and Erceg pitched around Ben Rice to put two on with two outs. Paul Goldschmidt came up and hit a line drive to Vinnie Pasquantino at first and the ball went off Pasquantino’s outstretched glove and landed behind first. Reyes raced around third and tried to stop halfway down the line, but stumbled. When he saw Pasquantino try to make the out at first rather than throw home, Reyes then took off for home. Erceg threw home on a hop, but it wasn’t handled and Reyes slid in headfirst safely to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

“I saw Pablo stop halfway and then I was like, ‘Oh, no,” Boone said. “And then we’re still able to score, so, whew, we’ll take it.”

6. Reyes is going to be designated for assignment when Giancarlo Stanton returns, which could be as early as Friday. If Friday was the last game Reyes plays in as a Yankee, we can remember it as the Pablo Reyes Game.

“Pablo juked him out, I think,” Will Warren said. “We were all pumped … that changed the game.”

7. It did change the game because it was the only run scored in the game. Warren turned in his best start (5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) in more than three weeks, pitching around a 28-minute rain delay. Warren got out of a first-and-second-no-out jam in the second inning and pitched around a one-out triple in the fifth.

8. The Yankees own the Royals. They swept the six-game season series, outscoring them 29-11. The Yankees are 14-3 against the Royals since the start of last season. If the Royals aren’t at the top of every Yankees fans’ I Hope the Yankees Play This Team in the Postseason list, they should be.

9. Boone made a lot of odd choices in the game, but it worked out. Not pinch hitting for Reyes worked out. Using Tim Hill for the seventh and a two-righty lane was risky, but worked out. Not going back to Jonathan Loaisiga after an eight-pitch inning against the Royals 2-3-4 hitters was risky given Devin Williams being an unknown from game to game, but it worked out. He gave Judge a day off and gave Wells and LeMahieu days off and kept Chisholm out of the lineup, but it worked out. It all worked out because the Royals are an offensive disaster. It’s why the Kauffman Stadium crowd continues to give Jac Cagliannone standing ovations when he comes to bat as they hope and pray and try to will him to be an important piece of an offense that currently has three pieces at most.

10. For the second straight weekend the Yankees will play the Red Sox. I expect the pitching to be much better than this weekend than it was last weekend, for both teams that is. Ryan Yarbrough will go on Friday, Carlos Rodon on Saturday and Max Fried on Sunday, so the Red Sox will be seeing the Yankees’ best starter this weekend after missing him last week. Following the disappointment of last weekend’s series (which was made up for by sweeping the Royals), I expect the Yankees to win this series.

1. Score four runs against the Royals and you win. That’s what I wrote about after the Yankees’ Tuesday romping of the Royals, and the Yankees went out and scored four runs against the Royals on Wednesday and won again.

With the win, the Yankees are now 5-0 on the season against the Royals, and 9-3 against them dating back to last season (including the postseason). These Yankees own the Royals no matter who is pitching, whether it’s a lefty, a righty, the league leader in strikeouts per nine innings in the AL last season or the AL ERA leader this season like it was on Wednesday.

2. The Yankees were one of two teams to get to Kris Bubic for three or more earned runs this season entering Wednesday when he took the mound with his sparkling, best-in-majors 1.43 ERA.

“Came out feeling pretty hot,” Bubic said, “feeling pretty good in the first inning.”

Bubic retired the side with 10 pitches in the first, striking out Paul Goldschmidt and Aaron Judge. And then the Yankees ended the game in the second.

3. Cody Bellinger led off the second with his third triple of the season. Jazz Chisholm followed with an eight-pitch walk. That walk was the most important plate appearance of the inning. Chisholm struggles mightily against lefties and when he fell behind 1-2 it seemed like he would strand Bellinger at third. If Chisholm makes an out there, that leaves Bellinger on third and the Royals bring the infield in for Anthony Volpe. Instead of Volpe’s groundout scoring Bellinger with the Royals playing at double play depth, Bellinger is still at third with two outs. Then Trent Grisham grounds out to end the inning and the Yankees don’t score.

4. But that didn’t happen because of Chisholm’s walk. The walk put runners on first and third with no outs and the Royals kept their middle infielders back for a double play. Volpe’s groundout scored Bellinger and Volpe was able to beat the throw to first to prevent the double play. Grisham grounded out for the second out, advancing Volpe to second. DJ LeMahieu drew a four-pitch walk and Austin Wells came up with yet another big hit against a lefty, doubling to center field to score Volpe. Paul Goldschmidt singled in LeMahieu and Wells and Ben Rice singled in Goldschmidt (after Goldschmidt went to second on the Royals’ throw home to try to get Wells). Four of the Yankees’ five runs came with two outs.

5. The game was over at that point because when you score four runs against the Royals, you win. Clarke Schmidt made sure that trend continued with six scoreless innings (6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K).

“I thought he looked really good,” Bellinger said of Schmidt. “I was just kind of out there in the outfield just hanging out. He was pounding the zone, getting a lot of swings-and-misses, and it was good to play behind him.”

Schmidt has made 10 starts this season. Five have been good, three have been OK and two have been bad.

“I think every time I go out there, I’m getting stronger and stronger as far as pitch mice [goes] and more confident in who I am as a pitcher,” Schmidt said. “It’s a constant tinkering process and figuring out who you are. I think we’re going a good job of that.”

6. Brent Headrick and Fernando Cruz combined to throw a scoreless seventh and eighth. Mark Leiter Jr. had his worst outing of the season in the ninth with a six-run lead to close out and was only able to get one out before Devin Williams came in to get the final two.

7. Chisholm left the game early with a groin issue, which isn’t good. He missed a month because of a swing, was taken out early of the game on Tuesday with a neck issue and had to be removed on Wednesday because of a groin issue. Hopefully the strength and conditioning geniuses employed by the team can figure it out because these aren’t freak injuries like getting hit by a pitch or getting hurt sliding into second on a steal.

8. Volpe picked up his 20th double of the season. He had 23 doubles in 601 plate appearances in 2023 and 27 doubles in 689 plate appearances last season. He now has 20 doubles in 266 plate appearances this season. His OPS is at .776 and he’s hitting 16 percent better than league average. He still strikes out too much, isn’t stealing enough and is prone to extended slumps, but he is trending in the right direction offensively after not really improving from 2023 to 2024.

9. LeMahieu reached base twice (walk and single). His slash line is up to .279/.372/.397. He’s as close to the old version of himself as possible at this point I would think, considering he’s going to turn 37 next month. With each day he continues to hit like he has, it becomes less likely the Yankees will make a move for an infielder at the deadline (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing unless LeMahieu gets hurt after the deadline).

10. The game plan remains the same in the series finale on Thursday as it was on Tuesday and Wednesday: score four runs. Score four runs and win. The Yankees will face Seth Lugo and the last time they faced him in April they scored four runs against him … and won.

Will Warren will get the ball for the Yankees. In his last start against the Red Sox last Friday, he held them to one run through five innings before coming undone in the sixth and allowing three more. The start prior to that was the disaster against the Dodgers. The start prior to that one was his rain-shortened outing in Colorado that started off rocky. Warren hasn’t had a good outing start to finish since he shut out the Rangers for five innings more than three weeks ago. We’re back to not knowing what to expect when Warren starts. But as long as the Yankees score at least four runs, that will be enough in the last regular-season finale with the Royals.

1. After the Yankees’ disappointing home series loss to the Red Sox over the weekend, I was fearful their sloppy play may linger and travel with them to Kansas City. But I forgot how badly these Yankees own the Royals. In 2024, the Yankees went 8-3 against the Royals in the regular season and postseason. After Tuesday’s 10-2 thumping, the Yankees are now 4-0 against them this season.

2. Before Max Fried threw a pitch on Tuesday he had a two-run lead to work with after Aaron Judge crushed a 469-foot home run in the top of the first.

“I’ve never seen a ball come closer to being up there,” Austin Wells said.

“He’s playing in a different league,” Aaron Boone said.”

3. Fried didn’t need much (7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HR), but the offense put up 10 for him. Ten runs on 16 hits and three walks. After winning a pair of one-run games and a three-run game against the Royals in April, the Yankees blew them out this time. Since the start of last season the Yankees seem to always do enough to beat them. Whether it’s winning close games like in the postseason or in April or hitting a big multi-run home run when needed like they did on Tuesday, the Yankees come through against the Royals.

4. The big blast in the game came in the fourth inning. With the Yankees holding a 2-1 lead, Wells took the left-handed Noah Cameron deep. It was Wells’ second three-home run off of a lefty in as many games for him after he took Garrett Crochet deep on Saturday.

“He’s just been really productive,” Boone said. “He’s really good in the bigger the spot.”

Wells’ OPS is up to .770, thanks specifically to his power as his on-base percentage sits at .294. Last year, he was forced to hit cleanup behind Judge because of the Yankees’ lack of lineup depth. He batted ninth on Tuesday. A No. 9 hitter with a 113 OPS+ in 2025 is as rare as a Yankees’ road extra-inning win.

5. Every Yankees starter had a hit in the game, including DJ LeMahieu with two. The Yankees have to decide what to do with their infield between now and the trade deadline in less than six weeks and LeMahieu’s resurgence is complicating the expected plans.

The Yankees certainly want LeMahieu to be the answer. They’re paying him $15 million to be the answer (even if they paid him for six years thinking they would get above average production for at least 2021 through 2023 and then deal with 2024 through 2026). LeMahieu being the answer saves them from having to trade from their system to acquire another infielder and/or prevents Hal Steinbrenner from having to pay a tax on any infielder acquired.

6. If LeMahieu continues to hit the way he has so far at .277/.365/.400, he will be the answer. LeMahieu has been 16 percent better than league average in 21 games and 74 plate appearances this season. If he were to continue to hit 16 percent better than league average, it would be his best offensive season in five years (since the 2020 shortened season). If he were to continue to hit like this, everyone who plays for, works for and roots for the Yankees would be ecstatic.

7. My biggest fear isn’t that LeMahieu continues to do well and the Yankees then don’t address adding an infielder at the deadline. My biggest fear is that those things happen and LeMahieu gets hurt post-deadline and the Yankees are stuck with Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas playing every day or holding out hope for a miracle return by Oswaldo Cabrera.

LeMahieu missed the 2021 wild-card game due to injury. He missed the entire 2022 postseason because of his injury. He missed the entire 2024 postseason because of injury. In three of the last four years, LeMahieu has been shut down before the season ended because of injury and he missed the first month of this season because of injury. Every day LeMahieu plays and plays well at this point is a luxury and he can’t be trusted to stay healthy for however long the Yankees’ 2025 season goes.

I want LeMahieu to play well and be the answer. I’m just worried he will do enough that the Yankees won’t bring another player in and then he will get hurt.

8. Before Wells broke open the game, the Yankees were a clinging to a one-run lead after the Royals AL Central’d their way to a run in the second. Fried allowed an infield to Vinnie Pasquantino and then a bloop single (which should have been caught) to Salvador Perez. A ground ball from Mark Canha for a double play was bobbled by LeMahieu to only get the runner at second, allowing Pasquantino to go to third. Pasquantino then scored on a groundout. It was the pesky, infield-singles-and-bloop offense the AL Central loves.

9. The Royals want to play low-scoring games because it’s the only type of game they can win. Once Wells homered, the game was over. Get four runs against the Royals and you win. The Royals are 3-14 this season when the opposition scores four or more runs. Those three wins were against the Rockies (who will go down as the worst team in baseball history), the last-place Orioles and then the Astros.

10. I don’t expect the Yankees to put up 10 again on Wednesday with Kris Bubic starting for the Royals. Bubic has a 1.43 ERA in 12 starts. He has allowed no earned runs in six starts, one earned run in three starts and two earned runs in one start. In the other two starts he allowed three earned runs and four earned runs. That start with three earned runs allowed was against the Yankees on April 16 (5.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 6 K). The Yankees got to him in that start with an Anthony Volpe two-run double and a Cody Bellinger RBI double. Judge added a solo home run in the seventh off of John Schreiber and the Yankees won 4-3.

It will be the same matchup on Tuesday as that game with Clarke Schmidt going against Bubic and hopefully the same result. Score four runs and win.

1. After beating the Guardians 4-0 on Thursday night to win that series, the Yankees nearly blew a seven-run lead on Friday to the Red Sox and the Red Sox nearly blew a five-run lead on Saturday to the Yankees. Then the Yankees went out and blew two different leads in the rubber game on Sunday to lose a home series to the reeling Red Sox.

2. The Red Sox aren’t good. They came to the Bronx four games under .500 with a lackluster lineup, an awful rotation, a bad bullpen and the worst defense in the majors. They left the Bronx with a series win, having scored 27 runs over the last 23 innings of the series.

One-run losses aren’t a result of randomness and winning or losing one-run games is not a product of luck. The Red Sox have lost 17 one-run games this season. Not because they’re unlucky. But because they wildly throw the ball around the infield, lack an actual first baseman, have an untrustworthy bullpen and a top-heavy offense. Don’t try to justify the Yankees losing this series as “That’s baseball!” or anything other than what it was: disappointing.

3. The Yankees had a distinct pitching advantage for the series finale with Carlos Rodon starting and all of their top relief arms rested and available for large workloads going into the scheduled day off on Monday.

As I wrote after Rodon’s last two starts when I praised him for his turnaround in his third year with the Yankees, I still don’t trust him. Ten starts isn’t enough to erase the last two years for me because 2023-24 Rodon still exists inside him, you just hope it never rears its ugly head. Unfortunately, it did on Sunday.

When things unravel for Rodon, they unravel quickly. There’s a reason I have called him the left-handed A.J. Burnett. If you’re not prepared for a Rodon game to spiral out of control, it will do so before you get the chance to save it. The bullpen needs to be up at the first sign of trouble because there won’t be enough time to get anyone warm before the second and third signs.

4. The first sign of trouble on Sunday was when Rodon went from two outs and no one on in the top of the fifth inning to allowing a walk and home run to tie the game at 2. Rodon walked No. 8 hitter Ceddanne Rafaela and then gave up a two-run home run to No. 9 hitter Kristian Campbell, the player all Red Sox fans have been calling to be sent down in recent weeks. Having blown a two-run lead and with the Red Sox’ lineup turning over for a third time, all of the ingredients of a Rodon meltdown were present, but Aaron Boone let the pot simmer during the Yankees’ half of the fifth.

DJ LeMahieu regained the lead for the Yankees during that half with a solo home run, but the Yankees’ second lead in the game didn’t last long.

Rodon walked Rafael Devers to begin the sixth. The last four batters Rodon faced had gone walk, home run, strikeout, walk. The meltdown was in motion and with the well-rested bullpen and an all-righty lane coming up for the Red Sox, pulling Rodon then would have been the right choice based on “matchups” which is what Boone always cites when feeding the media his bullshit reasoning for any move. But in this instance, Boone said screw the matchups, fooled by Rodon’s run of strong, lengthy starts against lineups like the Guardians, Angels and Rangers. He was going to let Rodon face the heart-of-the-order righties who were solely batting in those places in the Red Sox lineup because of their outstanding success against lefties.

5. With Devers on first, former Yankee Rob Refsnyder (who is only in the league at this point because of his success against lefties) came up and Rodon walked him. Rodon had now gone walk, home run, strikeout, walk, walk. Certainly Boone would remove him with two on and no outs and another righty due up? Certainly not.

Rodon was allowed to face Carlos Narvaez — the former Yankee who is hitting .282 with an .820 OPS and who the Yankees had lower on their internal depth chart than J.C. Escarra who puts every ball on the ground to first base and who is 0-for-17 throwing out runners. Narvaez crushed a Rodon fastball down the left-field line for a three-run home run to give the Red Sox a 5-3 lead. (Escarra started the game even though it was a night game after a night game and even with a day off on Monday because he has quietly become Rodon’s personal catcher. We can throw that nonsense out the window now.)

6. Five of the last six batters Rodon faced reached base (walk, home run, strikeout, walk, walk, home run) and he allowed five runs to those six batters. Once Rodon had blown his second lead in as many innings and put the Yankees in a two-run deficit Boone had seen enough. A move that at worst two batters too late. The unraveling was evident when Rodon walked Devers, but Boone let him face a righty and walk that righty and then face yet another righty and give up the go-ahead home run.

“Falling behind hitters and giving out free bases is a no-go,” Rodon said, stating the obvious. “I need to be better.”

7. Trailing by two with still 12 outs of offense to work with, Boone went to one of his ‘A’ arms in Fernando Cruz. This is a big deal because the night before, Boone went to one of his ‘A’ relievers in Mark Leiter Jr. with the Yankees trailing by three. After the Yankees cut the deficit from three to one, Boone went to Ian Hamilton, the last or second-to-last arm in the bullpen and he put the game out of reach. Boone had committed to doing his best to give the Yankees a chance to come back on Saturday with Leiter Jr., but then abandoned his commitment to the comeback after the Yankees had started the come back.

Cruz showed up in relief of Rodon’s fire with a can of gasoline in his right hand as he couldn’t get through the sixth without allowing three baserunners and a pair of runs. He wasn’t on the mound when the runs he was charged with scored, though. That would be left-handed specialist Tim Hill who came in with the bases loaded and two outs to face a lefty and gave up a game-opening, two-run single.

After Hill, it was Jonathan Loaisiga’s turn to inflate his ERA. Loaisiga allowed two runs over 1 1/3 innings and then Boone waved the white flag, going to his Brent Headrick who gave up two more. With the Yankees down six runs in the ninth, guess who Boone called on? Hamilton! So Boone used Hamilton in a 16-run game last Saturday, didn’t use him for a week because of all the close games the Yankees played, then used him in a one-run game this Saturday followed by a six-run game. Ladies and gentlemen, Aaron Boone!

8. “They had their hitting shoes on,” Boone said. “They beat us here this weekend.”

The Yankees scored seven runs on Saturday and lost and scored seven runs on Sunday and lost. That seems like a problem. The Yankees gave up 29 runs to the Dodgers last week and 27 runs to the Red Sox this weekend. Not every game is going to be against the Rangers, Angels or Guardians where the Yankees’ relief trickery with changeups and splitters works. They need a couple of relievers who can throw a fastball by someone and not always rely on deception and smoke and mirrors to get outs. The good offenses aren’t fooled by the Yankees’ offspeed stuff.

9. The ex-Yankees on the Red Sox had one collective and enormous laugh at their old team. Narvaez and Refsnyder were in the middle of every big Red Sox rally, Greg Weissert retired all five batters he faced (and struck out four), Garrett Whitlock didn’t allow any damage after taking a line drive off his leg and Aroldis Chapman got the save in both Yankees losses. Embarrassing.

10. With the series loss, the Yankees’ lead in the loss column in the division is down to five games over both the Blue Jays and Rays. (The Red Sox are 10 games back of the Yankees in the loss column.) After the day off on Monday, the Yankees begin a stretch of 16 games in 16 days across four cities and two time zones. Get ready for weird lineups, odd bullpen usage and a lot of already scheduled days off for certain players.

1. Last week I wrote Yankees Thoughts titled ‘I Like This Rendition of Carlos Rodon‘ and I still like this rendition. Rodon dominated the Guardians on Tuesday night in the Bronx in similar fashion to his ALCS Game 1 performance and the Yankees won 3-2.

Rodon joked with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman about being 50/50 with fastballs and sliders when he first became a Yankee, and while I’m glad he’s no longer a two-pitch pitcher, it’s not a joking matter. For as bad as Rodon was in 2023 and inconsistent as he was in 2024, he’s been that great in 2025. For a guy who seemed to struggle to get through five innings the last two years, he’s averaging more than six innings per start this season and has pitched every bit like someone who signed a six-year, $162 million.

2. Rodon has been so good that I now expect him to be good when he starts, which is a dangerous place to be given his history. Maybe he has changed for good and this rendition of Rodon is the one we will get more often than not, but I still don’t trust him yet. It’s been 10 great starts and three bad starts for him this year, and it’s going to take a lot more than 10 great starts for me to believe in him. But just the fact that it’s a conversation and a possibility in the future that I could believe in him says a lot from where we were two years ago when he was blowing kisses to fans and turning his back on the pitching coach or being pulled from a start without recording an out or last year when he was out of control emotionally against the Royals in the ALDS and couldn’t keep the ball in the park against the Dodgers.

4. The defense was its usual mess in the seventh inning when the Guardians tied the game. Anthony Volpe couldn’t get to a ground ball that it’s debatable if he should have been able to get to, J.C. Escarra couldn’t get a handle on the ball to even make a throw on a stolen-base attempt, DJ LeMahieu couldn’t field a hard-hit grounder and Trent Grisham booted a ball while fielding it in center field. It’s never surprising when the Yankees’ defense fails them given everything we know about the Yankees’ defense under Aaron Boone, but it’s always frustrating.

5. After the Guardians blooped together the game-tying run in the seventh inning, the Yankees answered with back-to-back home runs from Jazz Chisholm and Volpe. Playing in his first game since April 29, Chisholm went 2-for-3 with the go-ahead home run.

“I didn’t have the best start, so starting the season over,” Chisholm said. “You don’t focus on what happened before. So yeah, this is how I wanted to start the comeback.”

Chisholm was a .181/.304/.410 hitter when he landed on the injured list. For as bad as he had been through the first month of the season — seemingly always trying to hit a home run — his first month stats looked like Barry Bonds’ compared to what Jorbit Vivas and Oswald Peraza provided in his absence. Hopefully the big home run on Tuesday doesn’t send Chisholm back chasing the long ball like his early-season success against the Brewers seemed to do for all of April.

6. Leading 3-1 in the eighth, Mark Leiter Jr. pitched around a one-out walk, and the Yankees still led 3-1 to begin the ninth. With Luke Weaver out for the next month or so, the ninth inning is once again Devin Williams, and once again Williams was a shaky shitshow as the closer.

Williams allowed a one-out double to Carlos Santana when he couldn’t put away the veteran after getting ahead 1-2. He then gave up a two-out RBI single to Daniel Schneeman to put the tying run on base. Schneeman made things even scarier when he stole second to move into scoring position as the tying run. Williams quickly got ahead of Bo Naylor 0-2, but when Naylor forced the count full, I figured nothing good was going to come from his at-bat. But on the seventh pitch to Naylor and the 30th pitch of the inning Williams ended the game with a flyout to left.

“I feel confident,” Williams said. “Santana put up a really good at-bat there and they found some holes, but I felt good overall.”

7. It’s going to be a mentally, emotionally and physically challenging next four-or-so weeks with Williams as the closer and Weaver unavailable. This next month isn’t going to be for the faint of heart. YES should have a disclaimer about the health effects of continuing to watch the game when Williams comes in. Here’s to hoping the Yankees don’t play any closer games until Weaver returns.

8. Chisholm played third base in his return and it looks like that will be the plan moving forward: Chisholm at third and LeMahieu with Peraza playing every once in a while.

“I really thought I was done at third base,” Chisholm said. “I thought I left my career over there with a good stamp, but I guess we’re back again.”

Obviously, the Yankees will look to add a second baseman or third baseman within the next two months, something they have neglected to do since the 2021 season ended.

9. Over the next two months, LeMahieu will try to prove they don’t need to go out and trade for another middle infielder. Just when you think LeMahieu may never get a hit again he goes 4-for-5 with two RBIs against the Dodgers on Sunday night and 1-for-3 with an RBI on Tuesday against the Guardians. Not only is LeMahieu picking up hits, he’s hitting the ball hard and even some of his outs have been hard, like on Tuesday when he hit a 107-mph line drive in the seventh inning. The lineout was hit harder than both home runs by Chisholm and Volpe. I want nothing more than for LeMahieu to be his old self or even resemble his old self every now and again. He’s done that these last two games.

10. Let’s see if LeMahieu can keep his turn-back-the-clock last two games going on Wednesday. It will be Clarke Schmidt against L.L. Ortiz. The Yankees got to Ortiz back on April 23 in Cleveland with four runs over 4 1/3 innings as Ortiz gave up five hits and walked five. I’ll take that kind of performance from the right-hander again.

Schmidt struggled against the Guardians in that same April series: 4 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 2 HR. Coming off of his best start of the season with six shutout innings in Anaheim last week, I would like to think Schmidt will build off of that performance, but Schmidt is a lot like Rodon (at least up until Rodon recently) in that you don’t know what to expect from start to start. That needs to change. I want to write a Yankees Thoughts titled ‘I Like This Rendition of Clarke Schmidt’ at some point.

1. The Yankees followed up their meltdown on Friday night with the worst loss to a National League team in franchise history: an 18-2 drubbing from the Dodgers.

I actually felt good about the Yankees’ chances on Saturday, thinking they would be able to get to Landon Knack even if the Dodgers were able to get to Will Warren.

Prior to the game I wrote:

The good version of Warren needs to show up on Saturday. The version that shut down. the A’s and Mariners, stifled the Rangers and handled the Rockies after a shaky first inning. If early-season Warren or first-inning in Colorado Warren shows up against the Dodgers, things could get ugly. Warren can’t nibble and be afraid to throw strikes like he has the penchant to do at times against the Dodgers. Even without Mookie Betts, the Dodgers won’t allow Warren to settle in and figure it out if he doesn’t have it from the get-go. That’s why the offense (especially the top of the order since all that can be trusted) needs to go out and have the kind of start they had on Friday on Saturday and support him early.

Warren nibbled, fell behind hitters and got rocked. A day after Max Fried allowed the most runs any Yankees starter has allowed this season (six), Warren went and one-upped him. Warren faced 15 batters and 11 of them reached base. He gave up seven runs on six hits and four walks and needed 57 pitches to get four outs. He also added in a pitch clock violation for good measure.

2. “I talk about executing and being aggressive in the zone, and today didn’t go that way for me,” Warren said. “They took advantage of it.”

It’s frustrating that Warren goes in and out of windows when he challenges hitters and when he doesn’t. After giving up four runs and letting nine hitters come to the plate in the first, Aaron Boone kept him in face Ohtani for a second time in the first inning, this time with the bases loaded. I expected Ohtani to drive a ball deep into the late Los Angeles afternoon, but instead, Warren got two swings-and-misses and struck out Ohtani. How could the guy who couldn’t retire Andy Pages in a nine-pitch at-bat strike out Ohtani after Ohtani had already seen him in the inning and with Warren having thrown an exorbitant amount of pitches (39) before facing him. That’s what makes the Will Warren experience so maddening.

“I’m going to let it soak in,” Warren said. “It hurts. It sucks. I let the team down.”

At least Warren admitted he was awful and didn’t go the Sonny Gray route of years past and claim he had “good stuff” when he clearly didn’t. Not even Boone couldn’t concoct a positive evaluation of Warren’s dismal performance.

3. There’s not much to say about the Yankees’ offense. Trent Grisham led off the game with a four-pitch walk and then Aaron Judge was ahead in the count 2-0 before hitting into a double play. Maybe if Judge puts one in the seats there or the Yankees score in the first to give Warren a cushion the game plays out differently. But the Yankees didn’t score in the first and were down four runs when they batted for a second time and 10 runs when they batted for a third time. Judge did hit a meaningless home run down 10-0 and another one down 15-1 to pad his stats though.

4. All seven of the Yankees’ runs in the two games have come by way of the home run. The Dodgers have scored 26 runs with 14 coming from home runs. If the Dodgers didn’t hit a home run in either game they still would have won both games.

5. The offense couldn’t even score when the Dodgers had Kike Hernandez pitch the ninth inning of a 16-run game, which was more embarrassing than suffering the worst lost to an NL team in franchise history. Jasson Dominguez doubled against the position player and then Oswald Peraza and Austin Wells both grounded out and DJ LeMahieu flew out. LeMahieu had three hits in the blowout win over the Rockies last Saturday, but aside from that game, he hasn’t had a hit since two Saturdays ago against the Mets. Remove the Coors Field rout and LeMahieu is 0-for-24. He’s not hitting into bad luck or having good at-bats that would make you believe he’s about to break out. He’s having the at-bats of someone who has been 18 percent worse than league average over the last three seasons and 836 plate appearances.

6. Jorbit Vivas looks like a hitter in the batter’s box. He packs a fat lip, waggles his bat as if he’s the left-handed Gary Sheffield and takes monster cuts that would make you think he’s going to hit a 120-mph line drive somewhere. Excepts he sucks. Vivas is hitting .156/.255/.267 for a .522 OPS that puts him 51 percent worse than league average. The Dodgers traded Vivas and Victor Gonzalez to the Yankees for Trey Sweeney. Vivas is awful and the Yankees released Gonzalez during last season and now he’s pitching in Mexico. The Dodgers used Sweeney to trade for Jack Flaherty to help them win the World Series.

7. Pablo Reyes pitched the ninth inning for the Yankees and somehow had a better outing (1 IP, 3 ER) than Warren (1.1 IP, 7 ER) and Brent Headrick (0.2 IP, 3 ER). Reyes has started one game since May 4. I’m guessing he will be the one to go when Jazz Chisholm returns this week?

8. “It always feels good to beat the Yankees,” Dave Roberts said. “They’re the class of the American League right now.”

Roberts was on the right side of history against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS and 2024 World Series. For him to call the Yankees “the class of the American League” after his team just beat the shit out of them is such a snarky, sarcastic remark. But hey, he can say whatever he wants. His team won on Friday and Saturday and is 8-2 against the Yankees over the last two seasons and he has the World Series ring to prove it. All the Yankees have are their American League champion rings, which I wouldn’t be surprised if Boone wears.

9. “It’s definitely been a tough few games here,” Cody Bellinger said. “But we haven’t lost confidence in the group of guys here.”

I’m glad Bellinger hasn’t lost confidence, but he must be the only person in the world who hasn’t. The Dodgers are without Mookie Betts, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Blake Treinen, Brusdar Graterol, Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech and Kirby Yates and they just humiliated the Yankees in back-to-back games. The Yankees couldn’t beat the Dodgers with their ace on the mound and a three-run lead in the sixth. They suffered the worst loss to an NL team in franchise history with at worst an even matchup on the mound.

10. Now the Yankees have Ryan Yarbrough (who has been great, don’t get me wrong) going against Yoshinobu Yamamoto to salvage the series. Yamamoto allowed just two hits over seven shutout innings against the Yankees last June and then allowed one hit over 6 1/3 innings against them in Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees have scored one run on three hits in 13 1/3 innings against Yamamoto. I’m not sure how anyone could feel good about the Yankees’ chances of winning on Sunday. If they don’t win, a road trip that started out so promising at 5-1 will end in disappointment at 5-4.

1. This time it was the sixth inning.

Seven months after the fifth-inning meltdown, which ended the Yankees’ bid to end the franchise’s 15-year championship drought, the Yankees did their best to recapture the disappointment of that night on Friday at Dodger Stadium.

This time it was the new ace.

Paying homage to Gerrit Cole’s unraveling in Game 5 of the World Series, Max Fried — the best pitcher in the league this season — fell apart in the sixth. Cole was on the mound when the five-run lead turned into a tie game last fall and Fried was on the mound on Friday as a three-run lead turned into a one-run deficit. Fried couldn’t get an out in the sixth, allowing a home run, two singles and a double before he was relieved. The six earned runs charged to Fried were the most given up by any Yankees starter this season, a season in which Will Warren had a 5.65 ERA through early May and Carlos Carrasco was allowed to make six starts.

“The guys did a great job tonight, putting up early runs,” Fried said. “I just didn’t do my job.”

Fried and the relievers who followed (Jonathan Loaisiga, Tim Hill and Yerry De los Santos) weren’t any good in turning a 5-1 lead into an 8-5 loss (the vision of Freeman doing the Dodgers dance on second base haunts my life), but they were let down by their defense the same way Cole was last fall.

2. It was a rough night for Anthony Volpe and his supporters. Those supporters consist of fans who will defend Volpe to no end against criticism, citing his exceptional defense as the reason to disregard his inconsistent offense. It seems when a game and moment are at their biggest, Volpe is at his worst in the field. A disastrous trait for the most important position within the infield. Volpe couldn’t come up with two ground balls in the sixth that would have snuffed the dodgers rally. Two balls that a “Gold Glove” defender has to come up with. Two balls that someone who provides nothing for long stretches with the bat needs to come up with.

3. Defensively, Volpe served as fuel for the Dodgers sixth-inning fire. Offensively, he served as an extinguisher for the Yankees’ rallies. With one run in and two on in the first and a chance to break the game open the game before the Dodgers could bat for the first time, Volpe hit a fly ball with a .010 expected batting average.

When he came up in the third after Paul Goldschmidt hit a leadoff home run to give the Yankees a 5-2 lead and Ben Rice had ripped a 110-mph single to right, Volpe hit into a a double play. Eight of 14 Yankees had come to the plate and reached base before Volpe’s double play and the two batters after him also reached. Four Yankees reached in the inning, but sandwiched around Volpe’s costly double play, the Yankees weren’t able to score. An 0-for-4 night with five outs made, a strikeout, three weakly hit balls, three left on and two have-to-have plays not made in the field. A golden night for the Golden Boy.

4. There is this perception that Volpe has been better in 2025 than he was in 2024. Sure, if you take the last third of 2024 and compare it to the first third of 2025, Volpe has been better. But here is Volpe through the first third of 2024 compared to the first third of 2025:

Home runs
2024: 6
2025: 6

RBIs
2024: 23
2025: 33

Walks
2024: 22
2025: 23

Strikeouts
2024: 52
2025: 59

Doubles
2024: 9
2025: 12

Stolen Bases/Attempts
2024: 11 of 14 (78.6%)
2025: 7 of 11 (63.6%)

Runs
2024: 36
2025: 27

Batting Average
2024: .285
2025: .241

On-Base Percentage
2024: .356
2025: .319

Slugging Percentage
2024: .434
2025: .433

OPS
2024: .791
2025: .752

(He has more RBIs this year because he’s always hitting fifth or sixth, and he had more runs last season because he hit at the bottom of the lineup ahead of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.)

For all the talk about how good Volpe has been this season by many, he was much better at this time last year and still managed to finish 16 percent worse than league average for the year. If Volpe were to maintain the .752 OPS he has now for all of 2025 and stay on pace with the other numbers, yes, this season would be a success for him and a sign he has taken the next step in his development. But we’re a long way from that and all signs through two months point to him being an exceedingly streaky hitter.

5. Five runs should be more than enough to win a game started by Fried, but it wasn’t. Like the Game 5 collapse, the Yankees scored five runs in the first three innings on Saturday, however, in Game 5 they managed to score a sixth run over the final six innings. On Friday, the Yankees packed it in after the third and didn’t score again despite facing Tony Gonsolin for three more innings and the Dodgers’ bullpen for the last three.

6. Unlike the World Series, Judge actually showed up for this one, homering in his first at-bat and doubling in the seventh to put the potential tying run in scoring position before being stranded because the Dodgers’ relievers actually did their jobs. And unlike the World Series when Judge dropped a fly ball hit right at him that will forever be the lasting image of the the collapse, he made a nice diving catch early in the game, completely laying out for the ball in right field.

7. The Yankees continue to play daily with two automatic outs in the lineup with at least two of DJ LeMahieu, Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas playing every game. That will change this coming week when Jazz Chisholm returns, but it still means one of those three will play every day. That trio combined for an 0-for-5 game with a walk and hit by pitch in the series opener. One of the zeros was from LeMahieu who pinch hit for Peraza in the eighth representing the tying run and hit a fly ball with an expected batting average of .030 to end the threat. With each passing day and each unproductive at-bat, LeMahieu sadly inches a little closer to no longer being a Yankee, and with only recording a hit in one game (he had three in the blowout last week at Coors Field) in the last nearly two weeks, that day will be coming soon if he doesn’t turn it around immediately.

8. I could pick apart Aaron Boone’s bullpen management, which helped the Dodgers come back, but I will give the manager the day off, considering Hill walked in the go-ahead run in the sixth (even if removing Loaisiga and/or loading the bases purposely before brining in Hill was foolish and letting the last man in the bullpen face the 2-3-4 hitters of the Dodgers in a one-run game was irresponsible). Loaisiga needs to be better. Hill needs to be better. Yerry De los Santos … well, it’s not his fault as the last or second-to-last arm in the bullpen the “lane” given to him in a one-run game was Teoscar Hernandez, Will Smith and Freddie Freeman. Luke Weaver, Devin Williams and Mark Leiter Jr. are all more than rested going into Saturday and I expect to see them if. the game is close.

9. Hopefully, the game isn’t close. Hopefully, the offense beats the crap out of Landon Knack, stakes Warren to a multi-run lead and it’s smooth sailing for the night. The Yankees could use a game like that. Their most recent games were last night’s meltdown, a 1-0 win, a 3-2 win, a 5-1 win that was a nail-biter in the ninth, a 5-4 win that was a nail-biter in the ninth, a 13-1 blowout win, a 3-2 loss, a 1-0 win, a 4-3 win and. a 5-2 win. Of. theYankees’ last 10 games, only last Saturday’s rout of the Rockies wasn’t close.

10. The good version of Warren needs to show up on Saturday. The version that shut down. the A’s and Mariners, stifled the Rangers and handled the Rockies after a shaky first inning. If early-season Warren or first-inning in Colorado Warren shows up against the Dodgers, things could get ugly. Warren can’t nibble and be afraid to throw strikes like he has the penchant to do at times against the Dodgers. Even without Mookie Betts, the Dodgers won’t allow Warren to settle in and figure it out if he doesn’t have it from the get-go. That’s why the offense (especially the top of the order since all that can be trusted) needs to go out and have the kind of start they had on Friday on Saturday and support him early.

1. If you had told me the Yankees would have two doubles, three singles and three walks in the first two innings against the Angels on Wednesday, I would have figured they put up a big, crooked number and sent everyone on the East Coast to bed early and happy. The Yankees did put eight runners on base in the first two innings against the Angels on Wednesday, but only one of them scored.

2. The Yankees put another runner on in the third, but then instead of leaving everyone on base, they just stopped putting anyone on base. Starting with one out in the third, Yusei Kikuchi retired eight straight to end his day, having allowed just the one run through five despite putting nine on and needing 93 pitches to get 15 outs. (It wasn’t as if one run allowed over five innings from Kikuchi against the Yankees was surprising as the lefty pitched well against them over the last three years with the Blue Jays.)

3. The Yankees’ lack of offense didn’t end with Kikuchi leaving the game. Thirteen straight Yankees were retired from one out in the third until two outs in the seventh and 22 of 26 were retired from the last out of the second through the end of the game. The Yankees struck out 13 times.

4. While the Yankees offense didn’t do anything, neither did the Angels thanks to the best start of the season from Clarke Schmidt: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. Similar to Kikuchi, Schmidt put two on in the first, two on in the second and one on in the fourth, but escaped each jam without damage.

With Luke Weaver, Devin Williams and Jonathan Loaisiga all unavailable, I was hoping for a big night from the offense to mitigate whatever crazy bullpen plan Aaron Boone would use to navigate the game after Schmidt. The plan ended up being Ian Hamilton for five outs, Tim Hill for one and Mark Leiter Jr. for three and the trio made the lone run from the first inning stand up in the 1-0 win.

5. In the last 20 games Yankees started have averaged nearly six innings per start with 138 strikeouts, 29 walks and a 2.25 ERA. Yankees pitching held the Angels to three runs in the series.

“We have guys with great stuff and guys who throw strikes and execute,” Schmidt said. “It’s a credit to this pitching staff.

The Yankees have won seven straight series and 16 of their last 20 games. The only loss standing between them and a 10-game winning streak is a one-run loss to the Rockies, the team that will go down as the worst in baseball history. I guess that’s baseball, Suzyn.

6. All I wanted from DJ LeMahieu was for him to be league average at the plate, but I knew even that was asking for a lot from a guy who was five percent worse than league average from 2021 through 2024. After a few good at-bats in his first couple of games back this season, LeMahieu looks every bit as bad as he did last year in 67 games. He had another 0-for-4 on Wednesday and it wasn’t an 0-for-4 with productive outs or bad luck, it was four bad at-bats. In his first at-bat, he ended the first inning by swinging at the first pitch he saw with the bases loaded, hitting a weak fly ball to center with an expected batting average of .150. He grounded out on a ball with an expected batting average of .080 in his second at0bat and struck out in both his third and fourth at-bats against hard-throwing relievers. LeMahieu is 3-for-his-last-26 and all three hits came in Saturday’s blowout at Coors Field. LeMahieu is hitless in the other seven games he has played since the second game of the Subway Series.

LeMahieu is going to continue to get to play second because it looks like the Yankees are going to have Jazz Chisholm play third when he returns. Chisholm could be back as early as next week, which will lengthen the lineup and remove one of the Yankees’ two weakest bats from the lineup.

7. Like LeMahieu, Aaron Judge also took a fastball down the middle to strike out looking in his final at-bat of the game. In that at-bat, Trent Grisham was on first and took off for second once Judge had two strikes. It was a smart move by Boone to have Grisham run because he would have either been safe and Judge would either hit with a runner in scoring or be walked, or Grisham would be thrown out and Judge would get to lead off the right with a fresh count.

Judge didn’t get to see a pitch until the fifth inning in his third plate appearance as he was intentionally walked in both the first and second innings. It was the first time a Yankee had been intentionally walked in the first since 2012.

“I didn’t really like the intentional walk there, but it’s the manager’s decision, so we’ll just go with it,” Kikuchi said.

Judge was intentionally walked again in the second inning to become the first Yankee to be intentionally walked twice in the first two innings since 1953. (Stats from Katie Sharp.)

“I don’t know what would’ve happened in that game if I wouldn’t have walked him those first two times,” Ron Washington said. “You don’t mess with that. I don’t care how he’s swinging the bat. You don’t mess with that if you don’t have to.”

8. Grisham went 2-for-5 with a double and three strikeouts. Grisham has been immune to the lineup rotation, having started the last 17 games dating back to May 8 in Sacramento. He’s started 27 of the last 28 games and continues to bat first or second in the lineup. When he bats second, Judge bats third as was the case on Wednesday, and once again Judge didn’t bat in the ninth inning because of it. Again, Judge should be batting second no matter what hand the opposing starter throws with and no matter who is in the lineup.  Unfortunately it seems like he’s going to continue to hit third as Boone has been putting Goldschmidt and a lefty ahead of him when a lefty starts and Grisham and Ben Rice ahead of him when a righty starts.

9. Rice was the odd man out of the lineup against the lefty, a night after hitting a home run off a better lefty. It’s too bad the Yankees can’t have two designated hitters. One in the actual DH spot and one that gets to hit for either LeMahieu or Oswald Peraza, while still get to play the field. Rice did pinch hit for Peraza to lead off the seventh on Wednesday and smoked a first-pitch line drive, it just happened to go right at Luis Rengifo at second base for an out. A one-pitch night for Rice and back to the bench until Friday.

10. On Friday, the Yankees will be back at Dodger Stadium where they lost Games 1 and 2 of the World Series. With all three games on national platforms this weekend, get ready for a heavy dose of replays of Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam and the fifth inning meltdown.

“It’s going to be great to see how we stack up against them,” Judge said. “I think the boys in here are all excited and ready to go.”

Max Fried gets the ball on Friday and what better way to show the Dodgers this Yankees team is much different than last year’s than sending the best pitcher in baseball to the mound to begin the series.

1. For the last two seasons I have written a lot of words about Carlos Rodon, nearly all of which have been critical. Those words have been deserved. I don’t need to recite all of Rodon’s shortcomings since signing his six-year deal for which he makes roughly $800,000 per start, but every word I wrote about his lackluster first two seasons with the Yankees was earned.

2. For as bad as Rodon was in his first season and inconsistent in his second with the Yankees, he’s been that good and that consistent this year. Sure, the season is only one-third of the way through and at he could revert to his clean-shaven self, though I don’t see it. It doesn’t mean that I trust Rodon (or will ever, especially in the postseason), it’s that this version of Rodon is different, mainly because he stopped being a two-pitch pitcher.

3. “I just have a good understanding of what I want to do out there,” Rodon said. (Where was that understanding the last two years? I don’t know.)

Rodon has made 11 starts for the Yankees this season and has allowed just 42 hits in 72 2/3 innings. He’s averaging six innings per start and looks like the 2021-2022 version of himself that the Yankees were so eager to give $162 million to.

4. Rodon’s seven shutout innings on Tuesday in Anaheim were nearly for nothing. With a 3-0 lead in the eighth, Jonathan Loaisiga relieved Rodon and pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, but with Luke Weaver down after a recent heavy workload, Devin Williams served as the fill-in closer for the ninth and was every bit as shaky as he was when he was the closer.

Williams gave up a leadoff home run to Yoan Moncada to make it 3-1 and Taylor Ward followed with a single. Williams got Travis d’Arnaud to fly out to center on a ball hit 105 mph with an expected batting average of .900 before Luis Rengifo singled to center, setting up first and third with one out. Jo Adell grounded out to make it 3-2 with the tying run was still on base at first. Williams fell behind Logan O’Hoppe 3-0 and O’Hoppe swung at the 3-0 pitch and popped it up to third in foul territory to end the game.

“At the end of the day, we won,” Williams said, “and that’s all that matters.”

Yes, that’s true, but the inning did nothing to dispel the fear Williams is still broken.

5. The Yankees built their three-run lead with a Ben Rice solo home run in the fourth, an Anthony Volpe RBI single in the sixth and an Oswald Peraza solo homer in the seventh. Runs were going to be tough to come by against a left-handed starter (despite Michael Kay telling everyone still awake and watching how good the Yankees have been against left-handed pitching), especially a lefty like Tyler Anderson. The Yankees only had six hits in the game, but three of them were for extra bases and they drew five walks and caught a massive break when Matthew Lugo misplayed a ball in center.

6. Kay continues to ask the question of what’s going to happen with Rice once Giancarlo Stanton returns, and as of now, there’s no answer. Rice’s bat is worthy of playing every day, but without a position other than first base, it will be even harder than it has been to play him every day. The Yankees’ lineup conundrum continues to be that their best bats all play the same position or have no position and their worst bats are the only options at second base and third base. If Rice were a third baseman, there wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, he’s not. Until Stanton is off of the injured list and available to play in a game, it’s not an issue. And given Stanton’s lengthy injury history and inability to recover without setbacks, it’s a problem not worth worrying about until he’s activated.

7. Jasson Dominguez got the night off against the lefty, but the Yankees are going to face another lefty on Wednesday in Yusei Kikuchi, who always had their numbers as a Blue Jay. Dominguez will be back in the lineup, and I think Trent Grisham will sit since Bellinger has destroyed lefties this season and just had a day off in Colorado.

8. Is this the lineup on Wednesday?

Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Ben Rice, DH
Aaron Judge, RF
Cody Bellinger, CF
Anthony Volpe, SS
Jasson Dominguez, LF
DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Austin Wells, C
Oswald Peraza, 3B

9. Weaver pitched on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday and Monday, so I think he will be unavailable again on Wednesday (and he should be). Williams may be down also (though no one is sad about that) after throwing 19 pitches on Tuesday. So the “A” arms available will likely be Loaisiga and Mark Leiter Jr. That means there will be some outs in the middle innings needed from Tim Hill, Yerry De los Santos, Brent Headrick and Ian Hamilton. And there will be outs needed in the middle innings because Clarke Schmidt is starting.

10. It would be great if Schmidt could go seven (like Rodon did) and hand the ball off to Leiter Jr. and Loaisiga the way, but Schmidt has just to get an out in the seventh inning this season. I’ll sign up for five strong innings from Schmidt, a big day from the offense and a sweep of the Angels before Thursday’s day off and the Dodgers this weekend.

1. Memorial Day is the unofficial first checkpoint to evaluate the baseball season when the season is roughly one-third of the way through. The Yankees are in first place at the first checkpoint. They have a six-game lead in the loss column in the AL East, have scored the most runs in the AL with 301 (2o more than the next team), have allowed the third fewest and have the best run differential at plus-111 (30 runs more than the next team). When the Yankees left spring training, their win total was set at 88.5 (which yours truly jumped all over), and as of now, the Yankees are on pace for 101 wins. (They have to go 56-53 the rest of the way to hit the over on 88.5 wins.)

2. Overall, the Yankees have had a very successful first third of the season, especially when you consider Carlos Carrasco was allowed to start six games; Will Warren didn’t figure out how to pitch until his eighth start; they lost their starting second baseman before the end of April; have used four different third basemen; won’t receive a start this year from their former ace; haven’t received a start yet from last season’s Rookie of the Year; their closer to start the season couldn’t get anyone out for a month and Cody Bellinger didn’t start hitting until the first week of May. Even with all of the injuries and underperformance, the Yankees have the largest division lead in the majors, have a 90 percent chance to reach the postseason, a 76 percent chance to receive bye to the ALDS and the highest odds in the AL to win the World Series at 15 percent.

3. All of that is possible because Max Fried has been the best pitcher in baseball, Carlos Rodon is having his best season as a Yankee; something has finally clicked for Warren; Ryan Yarbrough has been a Swiss Army Knife; the bullpen has been mostly solid led by Luke Weaver; Aaron Judge is again having one of the single-greatest seasons in history; Trent Grisham and Ben Rice hit like two Juan Sotos for a month; Paul Goldschmidt looks like his 2022 NL MVP self; Bellinger has a 1.024 OPS in May and Jasson Dominguez, Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells have come through with timely hits along the way.

4. Even with all of their early-season success, the Yankees have their flaws, they just have less than the rest of the AL other than the Tigers to date. Aaron Boone will always be a flaw, the bullpen is shaky with its lack of overall velocity, the rotation has used up all of its depth and the two-thirds of the lineup is extremely inconsistent. We saw the inconsistencies of the lineup over the weekend in Colorado and on Monday in Anaheim.

So far on this West Coast trip, the Yankees are 3-1, but outside of their Saturday rout of the Rockies, the lineup has done it’s no-idea-what-to-expect-from-one-game-to-another act. The Yankees mustered just two runs in nine innings against Rockies pitching in elevation on Friday in an embarrassing loss, barely held on to win the rubber game against the worst-team-ever Rockies on Sunday and had one big inning against the Angels and close to nothing else on Monday.

5. After avoiding becoming the first team to lose a series to the Rockies this season, the Yankees arrived in Anaheim to play another bad Angels team. Despite the Angels mediocre-at-best play in recent years, the Yankees haven’t had much success against them, going 3-3 against them last year and 2-4 against them the year before. The Yankees tend to play to the level of their competition, which how you get series like this past weekend against the Rockies, and how the Yankees have managed to lose series to the Rays and Orioles and needed a comeback win to win a series against the Pirates earlier this year. When the Yankees play the Angels, they tend to play like the Angels.

6. That held true for the first three innings on Monday. Facing Jack Kochanowicz and his major-league-worst 1.30 strikeout-to-walk ratio, the Yankees made it easy for him early. They went down on 10 pitches in the first, 11 pitches in the second and seven pitches in the third. Kochanowicz went nine up, nine down to start the game, needing only 28 pitches to get through the Yankees once with two strikeouts and no walks. It was beginning to feel like the Yankees maybe enjoyed their first night Southern California after arriving from Denver on Sunday a little too much. But in the fourth, the good version of the Yankees offense showed up.

7. Trailing 1-0 from the Zach Neto leadoff home run off of Yarbrough, Rice, Grisham and Judge hit back-to-back-to-back singles to begin the fourth. Bellinger drew a four-pitch walk to score the tying run and after Dominguez struck out in the least competitive at-bat of his season, Volpe cleared the bases with a three-run double to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead.

“It’s been everyone, up and down the line, the whole season,” Volpe said. “And tomorrow, it’ll be someone else.”

The score remained 4-1 until the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs again in the eighth, but managed to only plate one run on a Wells sacrifice fly. Unable to break the game open, Weaver was used in the ninth with a four-run lead and after making things interesting in a bad way on Sunday in Colorado, he did the same against he Angels before ending the game and securing the win. Based on Weaver’s recent usage, I don’t think he will pitch again until the Dodgers series this weekend.

8. The Yankees finished the game with six hits and three walks. Four of those hits came in the fourth, one in the fifth and one in the eighth. They went down in order in six innings and made the one big inning stand up. They were able to make it stand up because Yarbrough was awesome once again. Yarbrough has now made four starts this season with each one better than the last.

9. Yarbrough was forced to start on May 3 after Clarke Schmidt was a late scratch and held the Rays to one run over four innings. Then eight days later he held the A’s to two runs over five innings. Ten days after that, he limited the Rangers to one run over five innings, matching Jacob deGrom and against the Angels he held them to one run on two hits over six innings.

“I’ve never been the guy to really blow up a radar gun,” Yarbrough said. “I’ve really had to understand how to get guys out.”

Yarbrough has been outstanding. He has pitched in middle relief, long relief, as a spot starter and now as a member of the rotation. He has dealt with five eight days between starts, 10 days and five days.

10. Carlos Rodon gets the ball on Tuesday against the left-handed Tyler Anderson. The Yankees will also see a lefty in Yusei Kikuchi in the series finale. (Kikuchi seemed to always have their number as a Blue Jay.) Goldschmidt and DJ LeMahieu will be back in the lineup with either rice or Grisham and Jorbit Vivas headed to the bench. It will be another late start, and thankfully, there’s only three of those left this season.

1. The Yankees played a one-run game against the Rangers on Wednesday and … WON! Yes, the Yankees won a game decided by one run, beating the Rangers 4-3. 

A night after Will Warren pitched the best game of his career against Patrick Corbin, Ryan Yarbrough followed it up by matching Jacob deGrom through five strong innings. Before the game, I wrote:

You have to think two runs is the ceiling of what the Yankees can expect as long as deGrom is in the game. Yarbrough needs to match him until the bullpens get involved.

deGrom allowed two runs in the seven innings he pitched and Yarbrough matched him for the five innings he was in the game. Once the bullpens got involved the Yankees came back and won.

2. It was a win that almost wasn’t. Aaron Boone did everything he possibly could with his bullpen management to lead the Yankees to a loss, but the Yankees’ offense over the final three innings was too much for Boone’s incompetence to overcome.

Boone’s nonsense began in the seventh inning. Yarbrough gave the Yankees five innings off one-run ball and Boone went to Jonathan Loaisiga for the sixth. Loaisiga got two quick outs before loading the bases, which led to Boone to ask Tim Hill to get out of the jam and get the final out of the sixth. Hill did his job and the game remained tied at 1 through six.

In the seventh, Boone sent Hill back out despite lefty mashers Jake Burger and Kyle Higashioka due up. If there’s one thing that duo does well, it’s hit left-handed pitching. If there’s one thing Hill doesn’t do well, it’s face right-handed hitting. Lefties are hitting .086/.158/.086 against Hill this year. Righties are hitting .311/.354/.578 against him. Sure enough, Boone’s stupidity backfired and Burger hunted a first-pitch fastball from Hill and hit it into the seats in right-center to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.

Even though Hill finished the sixth, because he started the seventh, he had to face three batters. After the Burger home run Hill bounced back to retire Higashioka and Josh Smith. The Rangers’ lineup was going to turn over with Sam Haggerty, so who did Boone think was best suited to get the Rangers’ leadoff man? Ian Hamilton, of course! The same Ian Hamilton who couldn’t close out a five-run ninth the night before was now going to face the top of the Rangers’ lineup in a one-run game. Like Burger, Haggerty hunted a first-pitch fastball, got it, and hit it into the second deck in right field. 3-1 Rangers. After allowing another base hit, Hamilton finally got the last out of the seventh.

3. The Yankees got a run back in the bottom of the seventh when Cody Bellinger destroyed a deGrom middle-middle fastball for his eighth home run. The game was back to being a one-run game, and who better to keep the deficit right where it was than Yerry De los Santos, the last man in the bullpen who, in his last appearance, couldn’t close out a six-run lead in the ninth inning against the Mets on Friday. De los Santos allowed two singles, a stolen base and a walk in the inning, but managed to escape his own mess without giving up a run.

In the bottom of the eighth, Bruce Bochy went to left-hander Robert Garcia. Garcia got DJ LeMahieu to ground out before Paul Goldschmidt drew a one-out, pinch-hit walk, Trent Grisham followed Goldschmidt with a walk of his own to put two on with one out. Boone idiotically had Aaron Judge batting third instead of second, so instead of forcing Bochy to go to a righty to face Judge and then the righty would also have to face Ben Rice and Bellinger, Bochy was able to leave his lefty in to face Rice, who hit a weak fly ball for the second out. Bochy then went to his closer Luke Jackson, who got ahead of Judge before throwing a middle-middle fastball Judge smoked to left for a base hit. Goldschmidt raced home to tie the game, but right after he touched the plate, Grisham was thrown out trying to advance to third to end the inning, meeting the Yankees’ quota of at least one fundamental breakdown per game. It would have been nice to have Bellinger up with the go-ahead run on second base, but instead, Grisham thought it would be better if he could get into betting scoring position.

The game was tied at 3 through eight and then Boone showed the world why he can’t be trusted under any circumstance.

4. The old adage is you use your closer in the ninth inning of a tie game at home because there won’t be a save opportunity (though anyone still managing to a statistic in 2025, like Boone, is a complete idiot). Here was Luke Weaver’s recent workload entering Wednesday:

Thursday: No game
Friday: 2 pitches
Saturday: 0 pitches
Sunday: 0 pitches
Monday: 2 pitches

Weaver had thrown four pitches over the last five days. Remember when Boone didn’t use him in the ninth inning of a tie game at home on Saturday against the Mets (and the Yankees lost) because he had pitched on three of the last four days, even though he had only thrown two pitches on Friday? Well, Weaver then wasn’t needed for anything other than two pitches over the next three days.

As rested as Weaver will ever be, it was easy to see Boone pitching him in the ninth and then again in the 10th if the game went to extra innings. But there was Del los Santos standing on the Yankee Stadium mound with Haggerty and the top of the Rangers’ lineup due up in the ninth.

I have documented every nonsensical decision Boone has made since becoming Yankees manager in 2018, and of the thousands of examples, the decision to let Del los Santos start the ninth inning on Wednesday is easily in the Top 10. It may be in the Top 5.

There were two possibilities for Boone’s decision:

1. He was trying to steal outs in the ninth inning of a tie game with the last man in the bullpen against the top of the opposing lineup.

2. He didn’t call down to the bullpen in time to get Weaver ready to start the ninth.

Either Boone was incompetent in that he didn’t have Weaver ready or he was incompetent for trying to steal outs with De los Santos. Either way, he showed he’s incompetent.

YES had shown Weaver warming up earlier, so it couldn’t be the second possibility, which means Boone felt the last man in his bullpen had a better chance of retiring Haggerty than his all-world closer. Haggerty singled to lead off the ninth. It was the best-case outcome. De los Santos wasn’t going to retire Haggerty, but at least he held him to one base. What if Haggerty had put one in the seats like he had against Hamilton and the Rangers took the lead?

Once Haggerty reached base, Boone called for Weaver. It took Weaver six pitches to get three outs against the top of the Rangers’ lineup.

In the bottom of the ninth, with one out, Jasson Dominguez hit the Yankees’ first walk-off home run since 2022 and saved all Yankees fans from having to watch Boone screw up another extra-inning game.

5. I used to joke that Boone as Yankees manager was a social experiment, but now I believe it. There’s no logical reason for his decision to have Del los Santos start the ninth other than he’s fucking with everyone. If you can’t see how in over his head Boone continues to be, I don’t know what you’re watching. The closer the score and the more involved he becomes, the worse off the Yankees are. And his choices aren’t resigned to only the regular season. We have mountains of poor moves in the postseason when the stakes are the highest to evaluate him on, including 2018 ALDS Games 3 and 4, 2019 ALCS Game 2, 2020 ALDS Game 2, 2021 wild-card game, 2022 ALDS Games 2 and 3, 2022 ALCS Games 2, 3 and 4, 2023 … oh that’s right he missed the postseason completely despite 40 percent of the league getting in and 2024 World Series Game 1. Boone is a professional idiot.

6. Judge needs to bat second every game. It doesn’t matter what hand the pitcher throws with: Judge bats second. Boone continues to screw with Judge in the 2- or 3-hole depending on the day’s starter rather than leaving him in the spot that will get him more plate appearances. Grisham and Rice aren’t exactly Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter at the top of the lineup. The place of Judge shouldn’t be impacted by either being in the lineup. (The duo went 0-for-7 with a walk and four strikeouts on Wednesday.)

7. Another two-hit game for Bellinger to extend his hitting streak to 15 games. He’s hitting .377/.441/1.130 over his last 68 plate appearances. This is the guy I used to watch hit at 11:30 p.m. for the Dodgers. The guy that played himself out of the Dodgers’ future plans. I don’t know how long this will last, but it’s a lot more fun to watch this Bellinger than whatever he was from Opening Day through April.

8. Austin Wells went 0-for-2 with a walk and two strikeouts on Tuesday and 0-for-3 with three strikeouts on Wednesday. Over the last two weeks, he’s hitting .129/.256/.290. He has one multi-hit game since April 27 and is down to .200/.269/.443 on the year.

9. Hamilton may want to throw some scoreless innings soon before he finds himself as the odd man out in the bullpen. Here is his line over his last six games: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 5 BB, 6 K, 2 HR, 16.62 ERA, 2.309 WHIP. He’s pitching himself off the team.

10. The win on Wednesday clinched the series for the Yankees for their fifth straight series win. They are now 10-3 over their last 13 games and have opened up a five-game loss column lead in the AL East.

If the weather allows for the series finale on Thursday, it will be Carlos Rodon against Nathan Eovaldi. Eovaldi remains my most hated pitcher in all of baseball for what he was a Yankee and what he became with the Red Sox. He has been exceptional this season with a 1.61 ERA, a league-leading 2.18 FIP and a league-leading 0.766 WHIP. He has only allowed 39 hits, eight walks and three home runs over 61 1/3 innings. If the Yankees are going to beat him and sweep the Rangers, they’re going to need Rodon to match him the way Warren and Yarbrough matched Corbin and deGrom. They’re going to need the offense to do just enough and their manager to not screw it all up.

1. On paper, the Yankees went into this three-game series with the Rangers with a distinct starting pitching disadvantage for all three matchups. But so far, through one game, it hasn’t played out that way.

Will Warren had the best start of his career two weekends ago in Sacramento. He followed that up with a career-high nine strikeouts in Seattle. Then on Tuesday, he struck out a career-high 10 in the Bronx with 5 2/3 scoreless innings against the Rangers.

2. “Be aggressive in the zone, I guess,” Warren said. “Like I’ve said, if we execute our pitches, I think we’re going to have success.”

“Like you’ve said?” You mean like I’ve said. Here is what I wrote after his putrid start in Baltimore on April 28:

He needs to attack the strike zone, believe in his stuff and let the ball get put in play. He can’t be afraid to pitch in the zone and he can’t nibble around the edges, which how he gets in trouble with deep counts and walks.

Warren has finally stopped nibbling (three walks in his last three starts combined) and is attacking hitter and trusting the defense behind him. He’s learning he doesn’t have to strike out every hitter he faces, even if he did strike out 10 Rangers on Tuesday.

3. “It’s been fun to watch him grow and develop, especially this season,” Aaron Judge said. “He’s a big piece for us now.”

It wasn’t even three weeks ago when it looked like Warren was no longer going to be a piece and may be on his way out of the rotation. He couldn’t give the Yankees length, the innings he did give provide were rarely ever good and the team was 2-5 in his seven starts. But since getting pulled in the fifth inning against the Rays on May 4, Warren has allowed three earned runs over his last three starts and 18 innings with 26 strikeouts, and the Yankees have won all three starts.

4. His performance against the Rangers convinced Boone to stay with him in the sixth inning with the bases loaded and one out and the Yankees clinging to a 2-0 lead. A walk and a pair of bloop singles had put the tying and go-ahead runs on, but Boone let the rookie face Marcus Semien, and Warren struck him out with a two-seam fastball on his 101st pitch. It was Warren’s 60th strikeout of the season, which is 17 more than any other rookie (stat from Katie Sharp).

“That was awesome,” Warren said. “I’m glad he left me in that situation.”

Mark Leiter Jr. came in for the final out of the sixth, and went on to pitch a scoreless seventh as well.

5. Devin Williams threw another scoreless inning, pitching around a one-out double with two strikeouts in the eighth. Williams has now had six straight scoreless appearances and nine of his last 10 have been scoreless. (The one outlier was the meltdown against the Padres.) The trust level continues to improve as his fastball command has improved. I still don’t trust him with anything less than a three-run lead, but a few weeks ago I didn’t trust him with anything less than a five-run lead, so yes, there’s improvement.

6. The combination of Warren and the long ball led the Yankees to their ninth win in their last 12 games. Ben Rice (getting the start against a lefty) hit a second-inning solo home run into the second deck in right field. The Yankees added a run in the fourth when Rice drove in Judge with a sacrifice fly and added a third run in the sixth on an Anthony Volpe RBI double. In the eighth, Judge broke the game open with a two-run home run to the short porch in right.

7. Those two runs from Judge ended up being needed. Boone sent Ian Hamilton out to get the last three outs of the game with a five-run lead, and just like Yerry De los Santos on Friday against the Mets, Boone ended up needing to go to Luke Weaver to get the final out of the game. And just like Friday, Weaver got the final out with two pitches.

8. The top two-thirds of the lineup went 9-for-22 with all five runs, all five RBIs, a walk and two strikeouts. The 7-8-9 hitters (DJ LeMahieu, Austin Wells and Oswald Peraza) went 0-for-8 with two walks and three strikeouts. Peraza was the only Yankee to not reach base in the game, and the 9-hole, whether it’s Peraza or Jorbit Vivas continues to be the only real hole in the lineup. Once Jazz Chisholm returns, though, that would no longer be the case.

9. Jasson Dominguez didn’t play against the left-handed Corbin, which was odd as Boone elected to go with the three lefties of Rice, Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger over Dominguez’s right-handed bat. That likely means Dominguez will play against both Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi. I could see Boone sitting Grisham on Wednesday against deGrom and then sitting Paul Goldschmidt on Thursday against Eovaldi in the day game after a night game.

10. Ryan Yarbrough against deGrom is about as lopsided of a starting pitching matchup as you can have in the majors. deGrom has allowed three runs over his last four starts, and you have to think two runs is the ceiling of what the Yankees can expect as long as he is in the game. Yarbrough needs to match him until the bullpens get involved.

The Yankees have had a tendency this season of getting traffic on the bases early against some of the league’s best starters, but not taking advantage of it and then getting shut down. If they’re able to get early baserunners against deGrom and they don’t take advantage of it, they may not have a chance to score until he’s out of the game.

1. When the Yankees lost out on Juan Soto to the Mets, they signed signed Max Fried and Paul Goldschmidt and traded for Cody Bellinger. On Sunday, the Soto replacements trio led the Yankees to a rubber game win to win the Yankee Stadium portion of the 2025 Subway Series.

Once again, Fried didn’t have his best stuff, and once again, without it, he only allowed two earned runs over six innings: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K. It was Fried’s 10th start of the season and the Yankees are 9-1 in those starts, having only lost his last start in Seattle 2-1 in extra innings.

“It was intense,” Fried said. “Series that feel like playoff series are always good, especially early in the year. It preps you for the kind of baseball you want to play towards the end.”

Goldschmidt led off in the series finale against the left-handed David Peterson and reached in the first inning on a Mark Vientos error. He came around to score on Bellinger’s two-run double and with the Yankees leading by one run in the eighth, he made it two runs with a crucial two-out RBI single.

That hit kept the inning going for Bellinger to eventually come up and break the game open with a grand slam. Bellinger went 3-for-3 with two walks, the double, the slam and six RBIs.

“I feel like his approach is a little better,” Aaron Judge said of Bellinger. “When he gets what he’s looking for, he’s not missing.”

I would say his approach is more than just “a little better.” Since May 3, Bellinger is hitting .377/.450/1.129 with four doubles, four home runs and 12 RBIs in 13 games. Prior to May 3, Bellinger had hit .190/.263/.340 in the first 28 games of the season.

2. If Soto had signed with the Yankees, Fried would be elsewhere and Bellinger would still be a Cub or something else. It’s likely Goldschmidt is the only one of three that would have still become a Yankee and that’s not a certainty, considering after the Yankees signed Carlos Rodon two years ago they did nothing else to improve the roster and after they traded for Soto last year they did nothing else to improve the roster.

Soto went 1-for-10 at the Stadium with three strikeouts and four walks. He was taunted for the entirety of the series as he will be for the duration of his 15-year contract. He failed to drive in a run over the weekend, came up in big spots several times and did nothing and declined being an in-game interview for ESPN after initially excepting.

3. Soto finally met up with Judge before the series finale in the outfield after the two went all of Friday and Saturday without a greeting. Like Soto, Judge contributed little offensively over the weekend. He had had his worst game of the season on Saturday and was unable to come through in a few big moments like Soto. With all of the players mentioning how the atmosphere over the weekend felt like the postseason, I guess it’s no surprise Judge gave us a postseason performance.

4. The Yankees may have won by six runs and the Soto replacements all did their part in winning a fourth straight series for the Yankees, but it wasn’t as easy the final score indicates. For most of Sunday’s 8-2 win, it felt a little too much like Saturday’s disappointing 3-2 loss in that the Yankees blew an early lead and then failed time and time again to come up with a tie-breaking hit.

5. I’m sorry I wrote something nice about Anthony Volpe last week when I wrote how good he looked at the plate of late. I did provide caution though, writing:

Am I ready to believe he is the player the Yankees promised? No. He’s done this before. He has fooled us all into believing he has figured it out several times in his first two-plus seasons in the league.

If you were on the latest Volpe Has Figured It Out train, it came to a stop on Sunday. Volpe was so bad offensively on Sunday he nearly cost the Yankees the game all by himself. Volpe grounded out in the first to strand Bellinger and struck out in the third to strand Bellinger again. In the fifth, Volpe came up with the gamed tied at 2 and the bases loaded with two outs. Peterson had just walked Bellinger four straight pitches. So what does Volpe do? He swings at a first-pitch curveball at the bottom of the zone and hits a weak ground ball to short to end the inning. If your plan is to attack on the first pitch with the belief you’re going to see a fastball with the bases loaded following a four-pitch walk then you better get that fastball and do damage with it. You better not swing at a bottom-of-the-zone curveball like you’re down 0-2 in the count and hit a 66-mph grounder to leave three on.

6. With an 0-for-3 night and five left on already to his name, Volpe came up in the seventh in the same situation: score tied at 2, bases loaded and two outs. Huascar Brazoban had thrown 21 pitches in the inning and was clearly fatigued when he started Volpe out with three straight balls, none of which were close to the zone. David Cone opined on the broadcast that Volpe shouldn’t just take one strike, but take all three since it was doubtful Brazoban would throw three strikes before another ball.

Volpe had other plans. He took a fastball down the middle for strike 1. Then he swung at ball 4 in on his hands and fouled it away to create a full count. Then he swung at ball 5, which was the same pitch and result as the previous pitch to keep the count full. Then he swung at ball 6 and missed it to strike out, end the inning and leave the bases loaded again.

7. Had Volpe gone to the plate for his plate appearance without his bat, the Yankees would have led 3-2 after Brazoban walked him to score a run and the bases would have remained loaded for the Yankees to potentially add to their lead. Instead, Volpe moved to 0-of-4 on the night with eight left on and the score remained tied at 2.

8. It’s hard to believe you can blow a chance like Volpe got in the fifth and get another chance, but he did in the seventh and blew that one too. It’s hard to believe the Yankees would find a way to win after the missed opportunity like the one in the seventh, but in the eighth, Pete Alonso gave them the help they needed.

Jasson Dominguez worked a leadoff walk against Ryne Stanek to begin the eighth and after DJ LeMahieu struck out, Austin Wells doubled to right field. Dominguez didn’t try to steal with either LeMahieu or Wells at the plate and was never even in motion, and and just like the day before, he was unable to score from first on a late-inning double to right field because of it.

9. The Yankees had second and third with one out and Jorbit Vivas at the plate. The Mets brought the infield in and Vivas would need to hit a ball through the drawn-in infield or a fly ball to score the speedy Dominguez and give the Yankees a lead. Vivas battled Stanek, fouling away 100- and 101-mph fastballs before finally hitting the 11th pitch he saw on the ground to first. The Yankees had the contact play on because that’s what they do under Aaron Boone and the only way for the contact play to work when the ball is hit to a corner infielder is for the infielder to bobble the ball or throw it away. And that’s what Alonso did as his throw sailed over the head of Francisco Alvarez allowing Dominguez to score. A god throw wouldn’t have just beat Dominguez to home, it would have been there waiting for him for a couple of seconds as Dominguez was barely in the picture when the ball was approaching Alvarez. The throwing error gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead, and then Goldschmidt provided his RBI single and Bellinger his blast.

10. The Subway Series is stressful. It’s very much like a postseason series and there’s a heightened sense of concern when the Mets get a baserunner and a heightened sense of importance when the Yankees score a run. I wish the Yankees were about to play the Rockies during the week rather than next weekend after the last three games against the Mets. Instead, the stressfulness of the Subway Series will remain as the Yankees host the Rangers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Stadium and will face a renewed Patrick Corbin (3.35 ERA this season after after a 5.62 the over the last five seasons), Jacob deGrom (1.49 ERA over his last six starts) and Nathan Eovaldi (1.61 ERA this season). The Yankees won’t have Fried for the season and will counter with Will Warren, Ryan Yarbrough and Carlos Rodon. The offense that took down the Mets in the eighth inning on Sunday will need to be present this week against the Rangers.

1. If you didn’t watch Saturday’s Subway Series game, the only information you need to know the outcome is that it was a one-run game. Knowing that, you can safely assume the Yankees lost. And they did.

The level of ineptitude displayed by Aaron Boone in every close game somehow grows. Now in his eighth season as Yankees manager, for a man who was born into baseball, it continues to be startling how bad he is at everything involved with in-game strategy. It’s disturbing really.

Boone’s entire in-game job description is to put his players in the best possible position to succeed, and the times he does so each season can be counted with your fingers and you’ll likely have a few unused fingers. He has not improved in this aspect of his role since become manager. At best, he’s the same in 2025 as he was in 2018, though, in actuality, he may be worse.

Boone’s lack of common sense and creativity is the reason the team has the worst extra-inning road record in the majors since the automatic runner was implemented, but his inability to make simple choices that nearly everyone in attendance and watching at home can identify is why the team is 7-15 in one- and two-run games this season (and 19-4 in games decided by three runs or more). The closer the score, the more important every managerial decision becomes. The Yankees’ expected record based off of their run differential is 30-15 and their actual record is 26-19. It’s not a coincidence they are playing four games worse than their run differential when you factor in who is managing the team.

2. Boone had it easy on Friday night. The Yankees scored six runs and Carlos Rodon allowed one run over five innings. By the time Boone had to make a bullpen decision the Yankees had a five-run lead and it wasn’t exactly difficult to call on Jonathan Loaisiga, Mark Leiter Jr. and Devin Williams, who combined to throw three scoreless innings. With a five-run lead in the ninth, Boone decided to go with the last man in the bullpen in Yerry De los Santos. (Tyler Matzek had arguably been the last man in the bullpen, but was designated for assignment by the Yankees on Friday. He was good enough to be pitch in a one-run game in Seattle on Wednesday, but then not good enough to be a Yankee on Friday.) Yes, De los Santos should be able to get three outs with a five-run lead, but there’s a reason he was in Triple-A before injuries led to his call up, and he created a mess in the ninth. Boone ended up needing to use Luke Weaver to get the final out on Friday with two pitches. Those two pitches meant Weaver had pitched three of the last four days and that would make him unavailable on Saturday by the Yankees’ self-created pitching rules. (A little bit of foreshadowing for you.)

3. The Yankees offense wasn’t as good on Saturday as it was on Friday. They only managed to score on a pair of solo home runs in their 3-2 loss, but that doesn’t mean the opportunities weren’t there for them to score more. Their manager prevented them from doing so.

The Yankees didn’t get their first baserunner until the third inning and that runner touched them all. DJ LeMahieu hit a home run to the short porch in right to five the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

“It just felt good to play at Yankee Stadium again and in front of these fans,” LeMahieu said. “It’s obviously a big series. I’m just excited to be out there.”

4. To keep with the Yankees’ ongoing lack of shutdown innings, Clarke Schmidt immediately gave the run back and more in the very next inning. Schmidt walked Francisco Lindor and allowed back-to-back singles to Juan Soto and Pete Alonso. After Brandon Nimmo struck out, the Mets didn’t wait around for another base hit to score a second run. With Soto on second, Schmidt paid no attention to him and Soto took off to easily steal third as Yankees pitching continues to think stealing bases against them isn’t allowed. Mark Vientos hit a fly ball and Soto scored to give the Mets a 2-1 lead.

5. The Yankees had an opportunity to tie the game in the fifth and squandered it in an unbelievable (but very believable with Boone at the helm) way. J.C. Escarra led off with a walk and LeMahieu singled. The Yankees had first and second with no outs and 9-hitter Jorbit Vivas up. Vivas has been 60 percent worse than league average in 34 career plate appearances, so everyone knew he was going to bunt. Everyone except Boone. Vientos was drawn in at third anticipating the bunt, but Boone had Vivas swing away, and swing away he did, all the way to a strikeout to keep the runners where they were for an unproductive out. The Yankees could no longer tie the game with back-to-back productive outs and when Ben Rice followed with a deep fly ball that would have scored the tying run, it made the decision to not bunt hurt that much more. Aaron Judge followed with a groundout. Rally extinguished.

6. The Yankees did tie the game in the sixth with the only way they know how to score in close games: a home run. Cody Bellinger led off the inning with a long solo home run. After a Paul Goldschmidt groundout, Jasson Dominguez and Anthony Volpe hit back-to-back singles with Dominguez going to third on Volpe’s. The Yankees had first and third with one out and Escarra due up. It was too early in Boone’s mind to hit for Escarra with Austin Wells since Boone only hits for his catcher if the team trails in the ninth inning (a scenario that was created for him in this game). He bypassed hitting for Vivas in the fifth and bypassed hitting for Escarra in the sixth. Escarra hit the first pitch from Huascar Brazoban weakly to Pete Alonso at first. Holding true to his managerial deficiencies, Boone had the contact play on and Dominguez was easily thrown out at home. (I can think of one time the contact play worked for the Boone Yankees and it worked because of a throwing error.) The Yankees failed to score in the inning.

Schmidt had given the Yankees six innings of two-run ball and when he reached the dugout after the sixth it looked like his day was over. Not for Boone. Boone sent Schmidt back out for the seventh and he allowed a 105-mph single on the first pitch. Then Boone took him out. Was that really Boone trying to steal outs in the seventh inning of a game in which he already failed to bunt runners over to tie the game didn’t pinch hitter for his backup catchers with a chance to take the lead? You bet it was.

The Yankees caught an enormous break in the inning when Leiter Jr. allowed a double in the gap to 9-hitter Tyrone Taylor. There was only one out in the inning, but that didn’t stop the Mets from sending Brett Baty home in a move I thought only the Yankees were dumb enough to make. A perfect Yankees relay ended with Baty being thrown out at the plate to keep the game tied. Instead of having second and third with one out and Lindor and Soto due up, the Mets ran themselves out of the inning.

The Yankees would certainly make the Mets pay for their mistake, right? With Trent Grisham pinch hitting for Vivas (two innings two late) and Rice and Judge due up the Yankees had a chance to take a late lead. The trio went down in order.

7. In the eighth, with the game still tied at 2, the Yankees were in a prime position to take the lead. The effective-but-wild Reed Garrett came in for the Mets and walked Bellinger to start the inning. Unfortunately, Goldschmidt banged into a first-pitch double play to erase Bellinger.  Dominguez battled for a seven-pitch walk to extend the inning and with the slow-to-the-plate Garrett on the mound it was likely he could take second and get into scoring position. But Dominguez never took off for second. Not even when Volpe got into a 2-2 count did Dominguez get out in motion. So when Volpe doubled down the right-field line, Dominguez was unable to score. Escarra walked to load the bases for LeMahieu who crushed a first-pitch fastball at 107 mph (an exit velocity we haven’t seen from LeMahieu in years), but it was hit right at Soto in right. Instead of scoring a run or two or clearing the bases with a smoked line drive, LeMahieu and the Yankees had nothing to show for it. Only the Yankees could draw two walks and produce a single, double and a 107-mph line drive in a single inning and not score.

The old adage that you use your closer in the ninth inning of a tie game at home meant Weaver would pitch the ninth. Except he didn’t. Remember the two-pitch outing from the night before? That was enough to keep Weaver out of the game. So Boone sent Fernando Cruz back to the mound after he had gotten the last out of the eighth. Cruz allowed a walk, single, hit a batter and gave up a sacrifice fly and the Mets took a 3-2 lead.

The Yankees went down without a fight in the ninth inning. Boone finally used Wells against Edwin Diaz and he struck out. Rice hit a little flare to third that was caught and Judge struck out for the game. Judge finished the game 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, and unsurprisingly, the Yankees played a close game and lost.

8. “It was a great baseball game,” Boone said. “It really was.”

Boone really said that. The manger of the losing team in a game he single-handedly lost thought it was a “great game.” It was a losing quote from a losing-minded manager. All I could think about after hearing it was the image YES showed during the game of Boone presenting Soto with his American League Championship ring before the game as if producing or wearing a ring celebrating winning the AL and getting pantsed in the World Series isn’t embarrassing. Soto already has a ring. A real ring from when he posted an 1.178 OPS and hit three home runs against the Astros in 2019 to beat the team the Boone Yankees have lost to in the postseason three times during his tenure. Soto doesn’t need some piece-of-shit pennant ring.

9. Sunday presents a rubber game in the Stadium version of the Subway Series. The Yankees will face the left-handed David Peterson. Maybe they can bring back Jahmai Jones and J.D. Davis, the duo Boone famously hit first and fourth against the Mets in last year’s Subway Series.

Would Boone dare to hit LeMahieu first against the lefty? Based on LeMahieu’s at bats in three games it wouldn’t be the worst thing. He did hit a home run on Saturday and hit a ball 107 mph. If you want to say it was a short-porch homer, too bad. I didn’t see anyone else on the Yankees using the short porch on Saturday. I think I would be inclined to use LeMahieu as the leadoff hitter against a lefty. He’s as healthy as he’s going to be and with the more games he plays you never know when he’s going to get hurt and no longer be available. You might as well use him while you still can. I wouldn’t use Trent Grisham or Rice. If anything, I would go with Volpe or Bellinger as both have crushed lefties.

In actuality, this is what Boone is likely to do on Sunday night:

1. Trent Grisham, CF
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Cody Bellinger, LF
4. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
5. Jasson Dominguez, DH
6. Anthony Volpe, SS
7. Austin Wells, C
8. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
9. Oswald Peraza, 3B

10. It shouldn’t matter that much because Max Fried is starting and the offense doesn’t need to provide much when Fried starts. The Yankees lost the last time Fried started on Tuesday and it was the first time they have lost one of his starts, and they lost 2-1 (another one-run, extra-inning road loss). Fried didn’t have his best stuff and still only allowed one run over five innings. I don’t see him having to grind through a second straight start.

Fried is starting and the only relievers who should be needed when he starts are rested in Loaisiga and Weaver and the Yankees have a day off on Monday. The Yankees are set up to win the Stadium portion of this year’s Subway Series. Unless their manager screws it up.

1. It looked like the Yankees’ two-city, six-game road trip would end the same way their other two multi-series road trips had ended this season: with a letdown. After starting their Pittsburgh-Detroit trip in early April 2-1 , it ended 3-3. After starting their Tampa Bay-Cleveland trip in mid-April 3-1, it ended 4-3. After starting their Sacramento-Seattle trip this week 3-1, it was on the verge of ending 3-3.

The Yankees hit Luis Castillo as hard as they ever have (nine balls hit over 100 mph against Castillo) and had nothing to show for it through the first five innings. Trent Grisham hit a ball over the wall to lead off the game that Julio Rodriguez pulled back in to prevent a home run and Aaron Judge singled and Cody Bellinger doubled in the first, and the Yankees still didn’t score a run. In the third, the Yankees had two on with one out and couldn’t score, in the fourth they left a runner on and did so again in the fifth.

The Yankees trailed 2-0 with two outs and no one on in the sixth. Castillo was an out away from throwing six scoreless and turning it over to the strong Mariners bullpen before a two-out rally happened.

Anthony Volpe worked a six-pitch at-bat that ended with a double. With Castillo sitting at 91 pitches, Jasson Dominguez jumped on a first-pitch slider from Castillo and ripped it down the right-field line for an RBI double.

2. Now trailing by one run with three innings of outs to play with, Aaron Boone inexplicably went to Tyler Matzek for the bottom of the sixth to face the middle of the Mariners’ lineup as Boone tried his very best to make sure the Yankees would have a somber cross-country flight home. Matzek entered the game having allowed 14 baserunners in 5 2/3 innings this season, so why wouldn’t Boone go to him in a one-run game with a scheduled day off on Thursday?

Unsurprisingly, Matzek created a mess. He allowed a leadoff single to Cal Raleigh after Boone purposely put Matzek in to turn around Raleigh and have him hit from the right side. He got Randy Arozarena to fly out, but let Raleigh steal second and then walked pinch-hitter Dylan Moore. Matzek was able to strike out Leody Tavares (who was let go by the Rangers earlier this season and has a .554 OPS), and thankfully, Boone removed him from the game for Ian Hamilton.

3. Dan Wilson removed Castillo for the seventh at 93 pitches and went to his trusted lefty Gabe Speier, who had no problem shutting down the Yankees the night before. Boone went to his bench and used Paul Goldschmidt to pinch hit for J.C. Escarra and Goldschmidt blasted Speier’s first pitch into the left-field seats to tie the game at 2.

“It shows you the type of player he is and the knowledge he has,” Judge said of Goldschmidt. “His preparation to where he was ready to go from the very first pitch, and he put a great swing on it.”

After getting the last out of the seventh, Hamilton threw a perfect eighth, and just like Goldschmidt leading off the seventh with a home run, Judge did the same in the eighth to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead.

Fernando Cruz pitched around a couple of baserunners in the eighth and Luke Weaver struck out the side on 15 pitches in the ninth, and the Yankees were able to board their flight home in celebratory fashion.

4. Will Warren put together back-to-back good starts for the first time in his career. After going 7 1/3 innings last Friday against the A’s, he held the Mariners to two runs over five innings with a career-high nine strikeouts. He has brought his ERA down to a respectable 4.61 given where he was earlier this year. I still don’t trust him. I still need more than one of nine starts going more than five innings. But there is intrigue with him after this trip, and there is at least promise that maybe he can figure it out the way Clarke Schmidt kind of/sort of has.

5. DJ LeMahieu reached base with a walk and also hit a line-drive single up the middle in the game. As I wrote after the second game of the series, LeMahieu just needs to be average at the plate. That’s all anyone is asking: Be average.

6. Anthony Volpe has quietly been hitting well of late. For as critical I am of the Yankees’ Golden Boy, I will be fair when he’s going well. He hit .304/.448/.522 on the road trip, hit his first road home run of the season to prove he can hit the ball out away from the short porch at Yankee Stadium and his OPS for the season is back up to .770. He has a .900 OPS over the last three weeks and 17 games. Am I ready to believe he is the player the Yankees promised? No. He’s done this before. He has fooled us all into believing he has figured it out several times in his first two-plus seasons in the league. I’m going to need a much longer period of success than three weeks before I buy into Volpe again, but for the moment, my belief is trending in the right direction.

7. Cody Bellinger is riding a 10-game hit streak. Before the streak he had a .614 OPS. Now it’s all the way up to. 688. Wow! A .688 OPS for a $25 million player! What an accomplishment. I’m sure the trio of Bellinger, Grisham and Dominguez will all sit a game this weekend. That seems to be the way things are going. It’s going to take one of them turning into Aaron Hicks or Josh Donaldson to get something close to an everyday expected lineup, and even then, as you remember with Hicks and Donaldson, that still may not be enough. Even if Bellinger is the worst of the three (which he has been by a large margin), his defense, reputation and owed money will always keep him at the top of the pecking order.

8. The Yankees have already told us they don’t give a shit that Dominguez is destroying right-handed pitching with a .305/.383/.512 slash line against them and an .895 OPS since they continue to sit him against them. (For comparison, Bellinger has a .639 OPS against righties.) Grisham seems to need to homer twice a series to stay in the lineup, and Bellinger seems to be able to do whatever he wants to stay in the lineup. Throw in the extra-base hit machine in Ben Rice, who can’t get into the lineup daily and the Yankees have a problem in that they have too many hitters for not enough lineup spots. The problem derives from the fact that their best hitters don’t play positions of need. The Yankees need a second baseman and third baseman, and unfortunately, none of Dominguez, Grisham, Bellinger and Rice play those positions, so LeMahieu and Oswald Peraza/Jorbit Vivas get to play every day.

9. This is the best possible Yankees lineup against a right-handed starter at the moment:

1. Trent Grisham, CF
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Ben Rice, DH
4. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
5. Jasson Dominguez, LF
6. Anthony Volpe, SS
7. Austin Wells, C
8. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
9. Oswald Peraza, 3B

10. The Yankees will see two right-handed starters this weekend against the Mets. Friday’s game is going to have a postseason feel to it in the first game of the 2025 Subway Series and the first game back in the Bronx for Juan Soto. I love the Subway Series, always have, even after all of these years. I don’t think the games have lost their luster, and this year’s (especially this weekend) will show that.

Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt and Max Fried are lined up to go this weekend, so it’s the best possible three the Yankees could use going in the series. A night game on Friday, followed by a day game on Saturday and then another night game on Sunday leading into a day off on Monday. It’s going to be a loud weekend at the Stadium.

1. Blowout wins and close losses. That’s what the Aaron Boone Yankees do. That’s what they have always done, and that’s what they did on Tuesday night in Seattle, losing to the Mariners 2-1 in 11 innings.

It’s not a coincidence the Yankees are 7-12 in one- and two-run games this season and 15-5 in games decided by three or more runs. The Yankees win games with a large gap in the score because their offense is capable of going off and their pitching is sound enough to rarely be on the wrong end of a blowout. They lose close games because the closer the score, the more important managing, situational hitting and fundamentals are, and the Yankees suck at all three. It’s why the Yankees have the worst extra-inning road record (12-25) since the automatic runner was implemented (stat from Katie Sharp). It’s why they lost for the third time in three extra-inning road games this season.

2. Bryan Woo is a very good starter. Coming off a 22-start, 2.89 ERA season last year, Woo has been mostly good this year, though he was lit up in Sacramento in his previous start (6 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR). Couple Woo going against Max Fried, who has been the best or second-best (to Tarik Skubal) starter in the league this year and runs were always going to be at a premium on Tuesday.

That’s why it hurt so much when Trent Grisham played a ball in center field like late-career Aaron Hicks would have. Grisham got turned around on a Cal Raleigh deep drive to center and played it into a run-scoring double. That one run is all that would come in the game until the ninth.

3. The Yankees had a couple of chances to get to Woo in the game, but only a couple. That’s because from the third out in the first inning until there were two outs in the sixth inning, Woo didn’t allow a baserunner, retiring 15 straight. The Yankees stranded Cody Bellinger at second in the first, and in the sixth, Bellinger left both Grisham and Aaron Judge on.

4. In the seventh, trailing by a run with one out, Austin Wells doubled on a ground ball inside first base. It wasn’t like Wells drilled one in the gap, but Dan Wilson still pulled Woo at 88 pitches. Even with Anthony Volpe (who hits lefties well) due up, Wilson went to a lefty in Gabe Speier, the way every manager has gone to lefties in the middle innings against the Yankees this season. Volpe drew a seven-pitch walk to set up first and second with one out. With Jasson Dominguez batting right-handed at the plate, Boone called for a double steal and both Wells and Volpe were safe. With runners now on second and third and one out, the Yankees had their best chance of the game to that point to score.

They didn’t. Dominguez continued his struggles against lefties with a couple of ugly hacks to go down swinging and Speier made quick work of Oswald Peraza with a three-pitch strikeout.

5. The Yankees went down again in the eighth and still trailed 1-0 in the ninth with Anthony Munoz and his 0.00 ERA taking the mound. The Yankees caught a break when Munoz hit Paul Goldschmidt with a pitch to put the leadoff man on, and Goldschmidt made him pay by immediately stealing second. The Yankees had the opportunity to score the tying run without a hit, and they did just that as Pablo Reyes (pinch running for Goldschmidt) scored after a couple of ground balls.

The Yankees failed to score Volpe from second with one out in the ninth, and the moment the game went to extra innings I knew the Yankees were doomed.

“When you don’t score in the extra innings, it puts the home team at a real advantage,” Boone said, “so we were kind of up against it there.”

6. The Yankees don’t score in extra innings on the road because their entire extra-inning road strategy seems to be to hope Judge is due up in the 10th and then hope he hits one in the gap or over the wall. The problem is Judge is never allowed to bat in extras because no opposing manager is dumb enough to let the one Yankee who will beat them, beat them.

DJ LeMahieu in his first plate appearance of 2025 led off the 10th with an unsurprising strikeout and Grisham followed with a strikeout as well. Grisham worked the count full before going down on a slider in the dirt. Had he taken that pitch, Judge would have had a chance to hit. Instead, the Mariners threw up four fingers and put Judge on before he even stepped foot in the batter’s box. Bellinger ended the inning with his patented lazy fly ball.

Devin Williams kept the game alive with a scoreless bottom of the 10th, but with the bottom of the order due up it wasn’t going to matter.

Reyes hit a ground ball to move the automatic runner to third with one out, Wells popped out for the second out, and after Volpe walked, Dominguez grounded out.

In the bottom of the 11th, Tim Hill took the mound. Hill is the last pitcher you want to see with the game-winning run on second and no outs, considering he pitches to contact and can’t get whiffs. In the span of three pitches, the Mariners singled twice and ended the game.

7. Max Fried had to grind through five innings and still only allowed a run: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. It was the first game the Yankees have lost this season Fried has started. He still leads the league in WAR, wins, ERA, innings pitched and ERA+.

8. I expect LeMahieu to be in the starting lineup on Wednesday and with the West Coast trip coming to an end, a scheduled day off on Thursday and the Mets waiting back in New York for Friday’s Subway Series opener, I think Boone could give us a lineup like this for the rubber game in Seattle:

1. Trent Grisham, CF
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Ben Rice, 1B
4. Cody Bellinger, LF
5. Anthony Volpe, SS
6. Jasson Dominguez, DH
7. J.C. Escarra, C
8. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
9. Jorbit Vivas, 3B

9. After scoring one run in 11 innings on Tuesday, things won’t get easier on Wednesday with Luis Castillo going for the Mariners. Castillo is coming off a brutal performance against the Blue Jays, but Dylan Cease and Woo were both coming off of clunkers recently and then dominated the Yankees. I doubt Castillo will suck for a second straight start, especially since he always pitches well against the Yankees.

Will Warren gave the best start of his career on Friday in Sacramento, and now for the first time in the majors, he’s going to try to give back-to-back good-enough-to-win efforts. For the Yankees to have a chance against Castillo, they’re going to need Warren to not ruin the game early, which he seems to have a knack for doing.

10. The Yankees’ first multi-series road trip of the season started out 2-1 and ended 3-3. Their second started out 3-1 and ended 4-3. Their third and current started out 3-1 and can either finish 4-2 or 3-3. If it’s the former, it will be an enjoyable cross-country flight home leading into Thursday’s day off. If it’s the latter, it will be an enormous disappointment after the way the first four games went.

1. In all four games of this two-city, six-game West Coast trip the Yankees have had a four-plus-run inning. On Friday, they had an five-run eighth. On Saturday, they had have a five-run sixth. On Sunday, they had had a five-run second and a five-run fifth. On Monday, they had a six-run fifth to blow the game open in their 11-5 win over the Mariners.

2. It’s been an extra-base hit barrage for the Yankees in the Pacific Time Zone where they are now 3-1, having outscored the A’s and Mariners 40-20 in four games. In the series opener against the Mariners the Yankees had three doubles (Aaron Judge, Ben Rice and Oswald Peraza) and three home runs (Trent Grisham with two and Austin Wells).

3. The pair of solo home runs from Grisham went to the exact same spot in straightaway center. The first tied the game at 1 in the third after Clarke Schmidt (6 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 2 HR) had given up a solo home run to Julio Rodriguez in the first. On Grisham’s home run, Rodriguez had a chance to make a play on the ball at the wall, but the ball hit off the top of his glove and went over the wall. Had Rodriguez done nothing, the ball would have stayed in the park for a double.

4. Schmidt gave the Mariners the lead back after allowing another solo home run, this one to Jorge Polanco in the third. In the fifth, Grisham got the run back with his second home run, which managed to go three feet farther (415 feet) than his first (412 feet), preventing Rodriguez from making a play on it. Grisham’s leadoff home run in the fifth ignited the six-run rally that carried the Yankees to a win as the first five Yankees of the inning all reached: Grisham homered, Judge doubled, Rice doubled, Paul Goldschmidt singled and Cody Bellinger singled. The Yankees went from trailing 2-1 to leading 4-2 following Bellinger’s RBI single. After Anthony Volpe lined out, Wells hit a three-run home run to break the game open and give the Yankees a 7-2 lead.

5. The Yankees added a run in the seventh and the Mariners answered with one in the seventh and two in the eighth to pull within three. The Yankees extended their lead in the ninth with a three-run inning that included a severe leg injury for Oswaldo Cabrera. Cabrera was on third when Judge hit a sacrifice fly to right field. Cabrera raced home and looked to plant his left leg awkwardly to score, immediately went to the ground and both training staffs attended to him. He was eventually put on a stretcher and removed from the field by ambulance.

“For him to get hurt on a play like that, it speaks a ton to what type of guy he is,” Judge said. “It’s a game where we’ve got a little bit of a lead, and he’s still fighting to the very last out.”

Based on the pain Cabrera looked to be in and the way he was attended to and removed from the field, it’s likely a season-ending injury.

“Before he got on [the gurney], he said, ‘Judgy, did I score?’ and Judge said, ‘Yeah,'” Aaron Boone said. “That made him smile.”

This season Cabrera had finally been getting the most playing time he has received in his four years in the majors before Monday’s injury. During his time in the majors he has played every position other than catcher.

“[Grisham] said something after: ‘Cabby does it right every day,” Boone said. “Every day. How he prepares to do his job, the kind of teammate he is, the joy he walks in this room with every single day. He is an example in so many ways for anyone to look to for how to go about living their life.”

6. Cabrera will be missed in the clubhouse, where he’s clearly well-liked by every person on and involved with the team and on the field where he can fill in at any position, whether in a starting or reserve role. It looks like the Yankees have their replacement on the way in DJ LeMahieu.

“He’s en route now,” Boone said of LeMahieu before Monday’s game.

LeMahieu missed the first two months of last season after breaking his foot on a foul ball near the end of spring training. His season ended a month early due to a hip impingement, making it the third time (2021, 2022 and 2024) in four years his season ended early due to injury. He hurt his left calf on March 1 of this year, having played in one spring training game.

“The stuff I’ve been watching has been really good,” Boone said of LeMahieu’s rehab games.

Boone always says everyone looks really good, no matter how they really look. He told everyone Nestor Cortes’ bullpen sessions leading up to the World Series looked really good. Freddie Freeman proved it was all bullshit.

“DJ LeMahieu could fall out of bed and hit,” Boone said. “I think the biggest thing that’s tripped him up over the years is nagging, different injuries that have popped up and slowed him.”

Yes, once upon a time LeMahieu could fall out of bed (Boone meant to say “roll out of bed”) and hit. But it’s been a long time. LeMahieu hit .204/.269/.259 last season in 228 plate appearances. Since the start of 2021 and his six-year contract, he has hit .252/.336/.362, has been five percent worse than league average and has missed 31 percent of the Yankees’ 689 regular-season games and has missed all 24 postseason games. As for the “nagging, different injuries” Boone spoke about, well, that’s called getting old and LeMahieu is about to play in his 15th season in the majors.

I don’t expect LeMahieu to contribute, and I hope I’m pleasantly surprised. Even a league-average version of LeMahieu is an upgrade over what the Yankees have gotten in the infield in recent years. We know LeMahieu will be fine defensively. Just be average at the plate. That’s all anyone is asking. Be average. (LeMahieu has been league average offensively in one of the last four seasons.)

7. I wrote on Monday how Jasson Dominguez (despite being outstanding against right-handed pitching with a .948 OPS) would be benched for at least one game in Seattle, and sure enough, he sat out the first game. (Have to get Bellinger in there! Just have to to.) That means Dominguez will play on Tuesday, especially since he’s for 1-3 with a home run off of Bryan Woo. Boone can’t possibly sit Grisham coming off a two-homer game, can he? He can’t, but he might. It makes all of the sense in the world to sit Bellinger. Here is what I think Boone will do:

1. Trent Grisham, CF
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Ben Rice, DH
4. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
5. Jasson Dominguez, LF
6. Anthony Volpe, SS
7. Austin Wells, C
8. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
9. Oswald Peraza/Jorbit Vivas, 3B

8. I would play Peraza at third over Vivas, given Peraza’s glove, his homer on Saturday and his double on Monday. But I don’t know that Boone can stomach batting two right-handed hitters consecutively in the lineup in the event a tough right-handed reliever is summoned at some point in the game, since Boone thinks the late innings are more important than the early innings of a game.

9. I also could see Boone sitting Goldschmidt on either Tuesday or Wednesday against Woo or Luis Castillo, two elite righties. That allows Rice to play first and opens up the DH spot so one of the outfielders doesn’t have to sit. With Thursday’s day off, it’s likely Boone gives Goldschmidt the day off on Wednesday, so Goldschmidt has all of Wednesday and Thursday off before Friday’s game against the Mets.

10. Whatever lineup Boone chooses to go with on Tuesday shouldn’t matter that much with Max Fried starting. Three runs is all the offense should need to give Fried to work with. And since Devin Williams and Luke Weaver haven’t pitched in six days, the easy path to victory is Fried for seven to Williams to Weaver. An easier path is Fried to Weaver. That’s the path I would like to see on Tuesday in Seattle.

1. The Yankees’ first stop on their two-city, six-game West Coast road trip had everything the 2025 Yankees seem to offer: the best hitter in baseball continuing to be that, a poor showing against a left-handed starter, a career game for the top prospect, a late-inning meltdown from the bullpen, questionable in-game decison-making from the manager and a few explosive innings from the offense.

2. It had been more than two weeks since Will Warren had given the Yankees a serviceable start after being unable to get through four innings against the Orioles and taking a loss in 4 2/3 innings against the Rays his last two times out. On Friday, Warren turned in the best performance of his career: 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K.

For much of the game, Warren needed to be as good as he was. The Yankees only had a 2-0 lead entering the fifth, before tacking on one run in each of the fifth, sixth and seventh and then blowing the game open with a five-run eighth. Warren entered Friday having been unable to record an out in the sixth inning this season and was still on the mound in Sacramento in the eighth.

3. The Yankees got to Osvaldo Bido (5.1 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 2 HR) and then pounded Hogan Harris and Elvis Alvarado. Aaron Judge, J.C. Escarra, Jorbit Vivas, Ben Rice and Oswaldo Cabrera hit doubles, Paul Goldschmidt had a solo home run and Jasson Dominguez became the youngest Yankee ever to hit three home runs in a game.

“Tonight was special,” Dominguez said. “A very special night that I will remember.”

Dominguez homered from both sides of the plate on three different pitch types. His third home run was his first career grand slam.

“He just needs to play,” Aaron Boone said. “It’s just the experience with him. He’s so talented.”

I feel like Boone is just fucking with everyone at this point. Who is the one who decides when Dominguez plays? BOONE! Boone played Dominguez in all three games in the series and he went 5-for-12 with six runs, three home runs, seven RBIs, two walks and two strikeouts. It was the first time Dominguez appeared in every game of a series since the Guardians series nearly three weeks ago.

Dominguez should be in the lineup every game, but leave it to the Yankees to toy with their top prospect who is hitting .324/.407/.541 against right-handing pitching and just hit his first career home run against a lefty. Overall, Dominguez has a .343 on-base percentage and is hitting 24 percent better than league average. And yet, he doesn’t play every day. You can guarantee he will sit at least one game in Seattle. Can you imagine how the Yankees would have acted if Anthony Volpe had this type of production in his rookie season? Or any season? Volpe gets to play every day and has since the moment he was called up. If he had these kind of numbers two years ago in his rookie year there would already be a plaque for him in Monument Park. But not for Dominguez.

Not for Dominguez because the Yankees traded for Cody Bellinger, and reputation combined with owed money will always trump actual performance, talent and development. Bellinger is hitting .221/.293/.382 on the year and is nine percent worse than league average. If you gave Bellinger’s salary to Dominguez and Dominguez’s salary to Bellinger, Dominguez would be batting third as Judge’s protection every game and Bellinger may not even be on the team. Because if Dominguez were hitting nine percent worse than league average, he would be back in Scranton. Instead, even with his numbers, he has to settle for batting seventh or eighth in 28 of his 34 games.

4. The Yankees nearly came back from a four-run deficit on Saturday to win, but instead, they just added to their league-leading total of blowing games they lead in after the seventh inning. Ex-Yankee JP Sears (traded for Frankie Montas in a memorable Brian Cashman deal) stifled the Yankees for five innings (5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR), allowing only one run on a Judge solo home run. Add Sears to the list of left-handed starters that have shut down the Yankees.

5. Trailing 4-0 after three because of a couple of home runs and a crooked-number inning against Carlos Rodon, Judge homered in the fourth. The Yankees exploded for a five-run inning for the second straight day in the sixth to take a 6-4 lead. Judge solo homered for the second time in as many at-bats, Bellinger walked, Volpe doubled, Austin Wells hit a sacrifice fly, Dominguez walked, Oswaldo Cabrera hit a sacrifice fly and Oswald Peraza hit a two-run home run. All of that happened against the same reliever. Mark Kotsay removed Sears after five innings and only 82 pitches for fear of Judge facing him again and the rest of the lineup seeing him for a third time. He brought in Justin Sterner and let him throw 28 pitches and allow five runs.

For a moment I felt thankful for Boone as Yankees manager. Even Boone wouldn’t allow something so egregious to happen. Then the very next inning Boone reminded me why I feel the way I do about him.

6. Ahead 6-4 with the top of the A’s lineup due up to begin the seventh inning, the spot screamed for Luke Weaver. But as I wrote in these Thoughts when Weaver was moved into the closer role, Weaver being the closer is detrimental to the Yankees because he will be assigned to the ninth inning (and maybe an out or two in the eighth every once in a while) no matter who is due up. Boone went to Fernando Cruz because Boone manages his bullpen to set innings. His plan was for Cruz to pitch the seventh, Devin Williams to pitch the eighth and Weaver the ninth. Boone has a plan and once the plan is deployed, there’s no stopping it. No matter what takes place on the field, he will see the plan out. Because in his mind, the plan will work flawlessly. Cruz will pitch a 1-2-3 seventh, Williams will do the same in the eighth and Weaver the same in the ninth.

Cruz allowed a one-out single followed by a double. The slugging Shea Langeliers came to the plate and Cruz threw a splitter that didn’t split and ended up being a middle-middle 81 mph fastball and Langeliers hit it 418 feet to regain the lead for the A’s.

7. There are likely some (idiotic) fans who will side with Boone and ask, “Well, if Weaver gets through the seventh, who pitches the eighth or ninth?” Cruz and Williams, obviously. If Weaver had pitched a scoreless seventh, the Yankees have a two-run lead with six outs to go. It changes how the eighth is managed by Kotsay. He may use someone other than Tyler Ferguson for the eighth and he’s certainly not going to Mason Miller for five outs when trailing. (He’s not going to Miller at all when trailing.) But because Cruz gave up the lead, Kotsay went to his elite relievers to close the door and they did.

The Yankees trailed by one still in the eighth and Boone used Ian Hamilton to try to keep it there. Hamilton got two outs but had the bases loaded against him, so Boone went to Tyler Matzek to try to get Tyler Soderstrom out to end the threat. Matzek gave up a first-pitch, two-run single and followed that up by allowing a two-run double to give the A’s an 11-6 lead. Sure enough, in the ninth, Trent Grisham led off the inning with a triple against Miller and Judge drove him in. If only, the Yankees had gotten out of the eighth still trailing by a run.

It’s time for Matzek to go. He was great for the Braves from 2020-2022, missed all over of 2023 and was bad in 11 appearances when he returned last year. As a Yankee, he’s allowed 14 baserunners in 5 2/3 innings despite four of his six appearances coming in games decided by eight runs or more. That’s really the only time he can be trusted: in a game of eight runs or more.

8. The power of the Law of Ex-Yankees may be waning. Sure, Sears had a nice start on Saturday, but any person using their left hand to throw a baseball would have success against this Yankees team. It used to be any ex-Yankee playing or pitching against their former team would have an exceptional performance. But Nestor Cortes got rocked in the second game of the season, Wandy Peralta was a disaster last week and Luis Severino pitched against the Yankees on Sunday the way he would pitch in the postseason for the Yankees.

9. Severino was bad in the series finale (4 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) and it allowed the Yankees to pick up their second straight series win. Not only was Severino awful, but Ryan Yarbrough was solid: 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR. I asked for Yarbrough to join the rotation long ago, and in his second start this year (he started for a scratched Clark Schmidt last week) he gave the exact type of performance you would expect. At this moment, the Yankees won’t need to use a fifth starter until Memorial Day Weekend in Colorado, so back to long relief he goes.

The Yankees had two five-run innings on Sunday (the second and fifth innings), Goldschmidt had three doubles, Cabrera had another double, Judge had a double and Rice hit his first career grand slam. It was the exact type of win anyone could ask for on Mother’s Day: an early-blowout-and-coast-to-the-ninth win.

10. Now it’s off to Seattle for three games against the slumping Mariners. The Mariners just got swept at home by the Blue Jays over the weekend and embarrassed in the series finale in a game in which the Blue Jays used Jose Urena as an opener and then went to Eric Lauer for the bulk work and were able to coast to a 9-1 win.

It’s never easy for the Yankees in Seattle. Add in that it’s the last leg of the West Coast trip, there’s a scheduled day off on Thursday and Juan Soto and the Mets come to the Bronx on Friday, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the end of this series is a slog for the Yankees. But the start of the series shouldn’t be.

1. Late-game comebacks on back-to-back nights? Who are these Yankees?

After erasing a one-run deficit in the seventh inning on Tuesday with a 10-run outburst for their first win when trailing after the sixth inning of the season, the Yankees had another late-game rally on Wednesday. A night after getting to the best bullpen in baseball for their highest-scoring inning in nearly a decade, the Yankees got to the best bullpen in baseball again, this time erasing a two-run deficit in the eighth.

2. The Yankees were down 3-1 in the eighth because they were no-hit for 6 1/3 innings by Dylan Cease. Cease arrived in the Bronx with one quality start in seven games this season, had been unable to get through five innings in his two most recent starts against the light-hitting Pirates and Rays, and earlier this season got tagged by the A’s for nine runs. So of course, he took the Yankee Stadium mound with his best stuff and gave his best performance of the season.

3. It wasn’t until Cody Bellinger’s game-tying solo home run in the seventh that the Yankees put a hit on the board. The reason a solo shot was able to tie the game that late is because Max Fried was unbelievable again: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 1 HR. The Yankees have now won all eight of Fried’s starts this season (they are 13-16 when he doesn’t start) and he leads all pitchers in WAR, wins, ERA, innings pitched and ERA+. If Fried were to allow 10 earned runs in his next start without recording an out, his ERA would still be 2.79, which is essentially what Paul Skenes’ ERA (2.77) is.

“I thought this might have been his best command game, in my opinion, all year,” Aaron Boone said. “Obviously, that’s saying something with how well he’s pitched.”

I was fearful the Yankees’ offense would waste another strong Fried start with a lackluster effort the day after exploding for a 10-run inning. Fearful because the Yankees can’t afford to lose Fried starts.

4. If you find yourself wondering why the Yankees are so bad in one- and two-run games, Boone was in the dugout on Wednesday to remind you. Boone did everything he could to manage his team to a loss on a night when Fried was exceptional and Bellinger provided a big blast.

With the game tied at 1 entering the eighth and the top of the Padres’ order due up, Boone decided to go to Ian Hamilton. Why? Because of his belief in set innings for relievers. I warned in these Thoughts that Luke Weaver becoming the closer of the team would be detrimental to the team’s success because instead of Weaver getting through the toughest part of the opposing lineup in winnable games, he would now be locked into the ninth inning and pitching to a meaningless statistic: the save. That’s exactly what happened on Wednesday.

5. Hamilton has been in Boone’s relief circle of trust since becoming a Yankee despite his struggles in big spots and Wednesday was no different. Hamilton walked two of the three batters he faced (Fernando Tatis and Manny Machado) and then Boone decided to go to Weaver with two on and one out. If Boone was willing to use Weaver in the eighth inning, why he didn’t he just let him start the inning clean against the top of the order? Instead, Boone decided to try to steal a few outs with Hamilton and it backfired, like it always does, and then he broke the emergency glass to call on his only trustworthy relief option.

Weaver entered his second game of the series with little margin of error because Boone likes to make things as hard as possible on his relievers. That margin was erased after an RBI single and a sacrifice fly. The more close games the Yankees play, the more games they will lose solely because of their manager.

6. Thankfully, the Yankees didn’t lose this one. After inexplicably keeping Trent Grisham on the bench to start the game, Boone used him as a pinch hitter for Jorbit Vivas representing the tying run in the bottom of the eighth and Grisham crushed his ninth home run of the season to the second deck in right.

“Every game we were down, fighting back,” Grisham said. “We were in every single one of them, and then to come away with the last two was huge.”

With every Grisham home run and every big play in the outfield, it’s hard not to think about the 621 plate appearances the Yankees gave Alex Verdugo last season as he finished 17 percent below league average at the plate. If Grisham had been an everyday plater in 2024, are the Yankees the defending champions?

Both closers pitched scoreless frames in the ninth and to extra innings the game went.

The Yankees had lost both extra-inning games this season, and as a whole they are medicore-at-best in extra innings since the implementation of the automatic runner. Again, this is solely because of Boone’s lack of creativity and logic with a runner on second and no outs.

7. With a tired bullpen (tired in the Yankees’ organizational eye), Boone decided he would give the middle finger to the fan base by having Devin Williams pitch the 10th. Williams had already lost one extra-inning game this season (in Pittsburgh) to go along with his other three blown games in non-extra innings.

Williams struck out Tatis on three pitches to lull Yankees fans into thinking maybe he’s fixed. But before that thought could even process, Williams walked Arraez, struck out Machado and drilled Jackson Merrill. Williams had loaded the bases and for a pitcher who has had no idea where the ball has been going this season, it wasn’t exactly promising.

Up came Xander Bogaerts, who had a big hit in the series opener on Monday and has destroyed the Yankees throughout his career. (No hit bigger than his two-run home run in the first inning of the 2021 wild-card game.) Williams got ahead of Bogaerts 1-2, but then threw a non-competitive changeup in the dirt and a fastball that nearly sailed to backstop. With a full count, Williams went back to his changeup and had Bogaerts let it go, it would have walked in the go-ahead run, but Boagerts swung over it and Williams celebrated as if he had just clinched a postseason series for the Yankees.

8. Williams is anything but fixed. Wherever the catcher puts his glove, Williams’ pitch finds itself on the other side of the plate. The fastball is wild and the changeup is all over the place. I’m happy he finally had a big moment in pinstripes and the Yankees won, but it’s hard to come away from the outing and think he can be trusted the next time he enters in a big spot. And the next time he enters it will be a big spot. Boone has shown he’s only going to use Williams in high-leverage situations. There’s no finding himself in blowouts and mop-up duty. Boone is going to let Williams figure it out on the fly with games on the line.

9. After Williams pitched a scoreless top half, the Yankees ended the game with two batters in the bottom half. A day after popping up a sacrifice bunt for an easy Oswaldo Cabrera laid down a beauty to lead off the inning and move Jasson Dominguez to third. Boone went to his bench and used J.C, Escarra to pinch hit for Oswald Peraza. Down in the count, 1-2, Escarra battled back to send a sacrifice fly to left to win the game.

“Theres are things you dream about as a kid,” Escarra said, “and it’s all unfolding in real time in front of my eyes.”

10. There’s nothing better than a comeback win going into a day off. For the Yankees, there’s nothing better than a comeback win before hopping a cross-country flight for the first West Coast trip of the season.

The Yankees head to Sacramento to play the A’s in a Triple-A stadium. The A’s are two games over .500 and much improved from the team they were the last two seasons. Unfortunately, the Yankees are going to let Will Warren start another game and start the series opener on Friday.

Warren was given an unbelievable opportunity this season with injuries to Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt, he was going to be given countless chances to start and prove himself worthy of staying in the rotation as the Yankees got healthy. But instead of taking the opportunity and running with it, he continues to fall behind hitters, nibble around the edges to elevate his pitch count and pitch the Yankees out of games. He has no quality starts in seven starts and has failed to get through five innings in four of them. The Yankees have lost five of his seven starts and every time he takes the ball it’s irresponsible for a team with championship aspirations. It also says a lot about their pitching depth at Triple-A and Double-A. It says it sucks if no one there is a better option than Warren and his 7.71 ERA and 1.695 WHIP in 51 1/3 career innings.

Six games in Sacramento and Seattle before the Mets come to the Stadium next weekend. Get your rest in today, it’s going to be a long, late week.

1. Finally. Finally the Yankees won a game in which they trailed later than the sixth inning. It took until the 36th game of the season (22 percent of the season), but the Yankees overcame a one-run deficit in the seventh inning on Tuesday with a 10-run outburst — their most runs scored in an inning in nearly 10 years — in a 12-3 win over the Padres.

For the first six-plus innings on Tuesday, it was more of the same from the Yankees. Defensive issues, a run forced in by a balk and a whole lot of nothing against a dominant starting pitcher other than an Aaron Judge solo home run and a run produced by a throwing error.

When the Padres took a 3-2 lead in the the top of the seventh, I figured that was it. In every other instance in which the Yankees trailed at any point after the sixth inning this season, they went on to lose. Going out against the best bullpen in the majors figured to be their latest such loss.

2. The latest comeback the Yankees had staged prior to Tuesday was on April 15 against the Royals. They trailed 2-o in the sixth inning of that game before Jasson Dominguez, hitting right-handed, cleared the bases with a double to left field. Dominguez served as the rally starter on Tuesday with a hustle double to lead off the seventh.

“It’s fun to watch him run,” Aaron Boone said. “He can really go.”

It’s so fun for Boone to watch Dominguez that he only plays him half the time. Dominguez doesn’t play every day so that Cody Bellinger can. Why? Owed money. 

3. Anthony Volpe followed Dominguez with a single to put runners on the corners with no outs. Austin Wells drove in Dominguez with a single to tie the game at 3.

Maybe Boone is a reader of Yankees Thoughts based on some of his decisions to put pressure on the Padres in the seventh. After what I wrote about him on Tuesday and always waiting around for the  multi-run home run, Boone called for a sacrifice bunt and double steal in the same inning.

After Wells’ single, Boone had Oswaldo Cabrera bunt, but Cabrera popped up the bunt for an easy out. Instead of sitting back after the failed sacrifice bunt, Boone called for a double steal with Volpe and Wells, and they were both successful. The Baseball Gods then went on to reward Boone for his managerial creativity with the Yankees’ highest-scoring inning in nearly a decade.

4. Paul Goldschmidt was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out and the Padres turned to former Yankee Wandy Peralta. It’s almost a guarantee a former Yankee will perform exceptionally well against the Yankees. Almost. There’s the example of Nestor Cortes getting bombed in the second game of the season, and there’s Peralta on Tuesday. Michael King did his part against his former team (6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HR), but Peralta had nothing.

5. With the bases loaded, Peralta walked Trent Grisham on four pitches. Then came a Ben Rice two-run double followed by an intentional walk of Judge. Bellinger singled in Grisham and Dominguez (batting for the second time in the inning) flew out. Volpe hit his second single of the inning to give the Yankees a five-run lead and Wells ended the game with the first grand slam of his career. (Cabrera ended the inning with a ground out. The Yankees sent 13 batters to the plate in the inning and scored 10 runs, and somehow, Cabrera made two of the inning’s outs.) Peralta’s line: 0.2 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HR.

6. This is what the Yankees do. They struggle to score runs for a week then blow a team out to prop up their run differential and give postgame quotes about how good and deep their lineup is (it isn’t). The Yankees have a plus-60 run differential on the season and lead the American League in runs scored with 202. But that plus-60 is a mostly a product of four games: a 20-9 win over the Brewers, a 12-3 win over the Brewers, a 15-3 win over the Orioles and a 12-3 win over the Padres. The Yankees outscored the opposition by 41 runs in those four games.

7. The Yankees are 20-16 on the season, though their expected record suggests they should be 24-12 based on their run differential. The problem with expected record is it treats the offense as if it’s playing in one long continuous game instead of 162 games. Look at last week’s series against the Orioles. The Yankees outscored the Orioles 22-12. They lost the series because while they blew the Orioles out in one game, they lost two one-run games.

8. A blowout win is always fun. Scoring 10 runs in an inning is fun. Hitting grand slams is fun. Consistent offense is the most fun though, and the Yankees haven’t been that. Far from it. If you were to have not watched a game this season and looked at the standings and run totals, you would think the Yankees were some offensive juggernaut, which simply isn’t the truth.

9. The offense will see Dylan Cease on Tuesday, who has struggled this season. Cease has made it to the sixth inning in one of his seven starts, pitching to a 5.61 ERA and 1.604 WHIP. In his two most recent starts he couldn’t get through five innings against the Pirates or Rays and a month ago the A’s scored nine runs off of him in four innings. If the Yankees’ offense is to be believed to be anything other than a lineup that gets mostly held in check and goes off once every couple of weeks, this would be the matchup and game to show it.

10. Max Fried gets the ball for the Yankees for his eighth start of the season. The Yankees have won all seven of his starts to date, as he has averaged 6 1/3 innings per start to go along with a league-best 1.01 ERA and 0.940 WHIP. How about Fried for eight and Luke Weaver for the ninth for a nice, easy Yankees win going into the day off on Thursday?

1. The Yankees are 16-16 since sweeping the Brewers to open the season. That’s a .500 record over 32 games, which is equal to 20 percent of the season.

The Yankees fan who thinks Aaron Boone can do no wrong, believes Anthony Volpe is closer to being a star than a bust, feels Cody Bellinger can’t possibly be this bad and promises Devin Williams will figure it out will tell you the Yankees have the second-best run differential in the American League, are playing three games worse than their expected record and are in first place in the division.

The Yankees fan who has watched this team underachieve in every season during the Boone era knows this team for what it really is: a roster with a top-heavy lineup, a top-heavy rotation, a top-heavy bullpen and a manager who is every bit in over his head in 2025 as he was in 2018. The Yankees fan who sees a team with a run differential propped up by a couple of blowout wins over the Brewers, one over the Blue Jays and one over the Orioles. A team that has lost three straight at home and four of five and five of seven overall.

2. The offense is Aaron Judge, Trent Grisham and Paul Goldschmidt, and at times Ben Rice. The rotation is Max Fried and half the time Carlos Rodon. The bullpen is Fernando Cruz and Luke Weaver. The Yankees have no depth, and the depth they do have is mismanaged in inexplicable ways. It’s how you get Pablo Reyes starting and batting seventh twice recently. It’s how you get Reyes playing over Jorbit Vivas and pinch-hitting nightmare matchups created by a manager who seems to be unaware the opposing manager is allowed to make counter moves.

3. Boone manages the team the same way no matter the personnel. He manages a team whose infield the other day was Vivas, Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza as if he had Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano. He manages his rotation as if it’s full of studs and his lineup as if it’s full of sluggers. He thinks fringe major-league starting pitchers (at best) are going to figure it out mid-game after allowing 12 baserunners in three innings. He thinks a 31-year-old, career 76 OPS+ right-handed bat should not only play against a right-handed starter over a left-handed bat, but bat seventh. If you’re going to have a roster with so few impact players, you can’t have this manager managing it.

4. The Yankees aren’t managed, they’re mismanaged. It’s rare when Boone puts his players in the best possible position to succeed. They can’t create offense and fail to ever put the pressure on the defense. They play station-to-station baseball and wait for a multi-run home run to save them, and when they don’t get it, they lose. The Rays used creativity and speed to cause chaos on Saturday and come from behind, just like the Guardians did recently against them as well. When the Yankees get a baserunner on in the eighth or ninth, the runner never advances past their initial base. They’re never in motion. They stand there and wait for the ball to go over the wall, and when it doesn’t, they lose. The ball hasn’t gone over the wall in late-game spots year, and that’s why they keep losing close games: a combination of no late-game power and middle relief decisions made without logic.

5. The two one-run losses last week in Baltimore were frustrating, and the Yankees followed those up by losing another one-run game on Saturday, a two-run game on Sunday and yet another one-run game on Monday. If you’re wondering why the Yankees are 6-13 in games decided by one or two runs and 13-3 in games decided by three runs or more, it’s because they are without a competent manager, are a disgrace fundamentally and lack capable situational hitters. At their core they are the same team the Dodgers spent the offseason publicly laughing about any chance they got.

6. Sunday’s eighth inning roster management was disturbing. Here is the thought process of the man responsible for in-game strategy of the Yankees on his eighth-inning personnel choices on Sunday:

Boone said he was going to pinch hit Ben Rice for J.C. Escarra or Jorbit Vivas. He decided to let Escarra hit because he’s “the guy that’s been here and more experienced.”

(What exactly is Escarra experienced at? Rice has more games played in the majors and then Escarra and has had much more success.)

Once Escarra grounded into the double play, Boone “shut that (idea) down.” Then Vivas had the two-run hit, so Boone used Rice as the potential tying run instead of Oswaldo Cabrera. Boone went on to say he could have used Austin Wells as a pinch hitter, “but I can’t shoot both of them because all I have is Escarra left.”

(Guess what happened? Wells ended up appearing in the game for defense, but wasn’t used as a pinch hitter.)

If you’re confused by all of that, so am I. But Boone has had similar nonsensical answers in the past when asked about lineup choices. Three years ago, Boone went on CC Sabathia’s podcast and was asked how to comes up with his daily lineups:

“My process for making the lineup is actually a little bit different all the time. There’s the ebb and flow of the season. Let’s assume everyone is healthy and we’re not going to bed that night with ‘We’re waiting to find out if this guy’s available tomorrow.’ So if our guys are available, a lot of times, I’ll buzz by my coaches the night before going home where we may have a thought. A lot of times it’s usually with Mendy where I’ll just be like, ‘What do you think about this guy in tomorrow?’ And we’ll kind of bounce things off. When Marcus was here, I said, ‘What do you think of this guy in tomorrow? This guy out? What do you think about flipping these guys in the lineup?’ So that’s usually how it starts and then when I come in, usually I’ll come into my office and Mendy will follow me in and we’ll kind of go through our different things if theres a little tweak we want to make.

Boone said that’s the process he uses if the team is completely healthy. If he said that’s how he thought about things when the lineup was full of Greg Allen, Tim LoCastro, Estevan Florial, Ryan LaMarre and Rob Brantly in mid-July, it would be somewhat acceptable, but that’s the process he uses when “our guys are available?” He’s not even close to done explaining.

“Sometimes I’ll reach out to like I’ve even done this with Cash and Cash is not usually very much involved at all. But sometimes if I have a tough decision that I’m really wrestling with, I may call Cash on it. I may call Mendy on my way home. I may call Marcus Thames when he was here on my way home. When there’s that tough decision I have when I’m thinking about getting a different guy in tomorrow or sitting a guy a day, I may go to different people and ask their opinion on it, and then ultimately, I gotta decide which way I want to go.”

When Boone interviewed to be manager of the Yankees, he was so extraordinary that the front office canceled all other interviews and didn’t even hold a second round of interviews, handing Boone the job with no prior coaching experience at any level. I’m certain he didn’t explain this process in his supposed spectacular interview.

“We have a very strong analytics department that gives us so much information that kind of helps us decisions, give us context on what we’re seeing, what we’re looking at. And I think the reality is any of the really strong franchises are very strong analytically, but ultimately, the teams that do it the best are able to … the secret sauce is how do you strike the balance? Because every day is unique amongst itself, especially in a big league season when you’re playing 162 games. So you’ve gotta be able to strike the balance, but as Cash puts it, ‘We want to have a buffet of everything available to us,’ so that we can make really good decisions and I think we do that here even though we get criticized about it a lot.”

“Sometimes I’ll start a sentence and I don’t know where it’s going. I just hope to find it somewhere along the way. Like an improv conversation. An improversation.“

OK, that final part was from Michael Scott on The Office, but everything else came out of Boone’s mouth. Now knowing exactly how his lineup creation process works, I feel much more at ease about the team’s failure to meet expectations since he became manager because it makes perfect sense that someone who uses the above strategy to create a lineup would fail to meet expectations. The man who gave that answer is now in his eighth season in the same position, having overseen more than $2 billion in payroll.

Boone’s managing on Sunday was a mess. It was nonsensical, illogical choice after choice, and ultimately (to use Boone’s favorite word), the Yankees lost 7-5 in the latest disastrous Will Warren start (4.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 1 HR).

The day before Boone had another banner day when he decided with a one-run lead in the eighth to use Mark Leiter Jr. against the Rays’ 2-3-4 hitters. It went about as well as expected when the Rays scored twice to take the lead and go on to a 3-2 Saturday afternoon win.

It was the latest example of the Yankees blowing a late lead in a game and then rolling over and losing with a chance to stage a comeback of their own. It was the latest example until Monday.

7. On Monday, the Yankees and Padres started late due to a rain delay and then were interrupted in the fourth inning with another rain delay. When play resumed, the Yankees had a 3-0 lead they would carry into the seventh inning.

With two outs in the top of the seventh, Boone removed Carlos Rodon from the game (6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K). Rodon provided his fourth straight quality start after having none in his first four starts of the year.

Boone went to Cruz and Cruz ended the innings with two pitches.

The Yankees still led 3-0 when the eighth began. Cruz had only thrown two pitches in the seventh, so it made sense for Cruz to get two or all three outs in the eighth and for Weaver to take care of the rest. A simple formula with a high win probability.

Boone had a different plan.

Boone removed Cruz from the game in favor of Williams. After removing Williams from the closer role last week, Boone has continued to use him a high-leverage role and only in close games. Boone felt three scoreless appearances from Williams was enough to erase his first 10 miserable appearances of the season.

After recording a leadoff strikeout, Williams walked Tyler Wade. He then allowed a two-strike single to Brandon Lockridge, and with two outs, he walked Luis Arraez. Williams walked career .590 OPS Wade, couldn’t put away career .561 OPS Lockridge and then walked Arraez who despises free passes. Boone removed Williams for Weaver, leaving Weaver zero margin for error and that margin was destroyed by a Manny Machado double and a Xander Bogaerts single.

8. Why did Boone remove Cruz after one out and two pitches?

“Cruz had thrown two innings two days ago,” Boone said. “Keep everyone in play moving forward.”

There it is. There is Boone admitting he was playing for tomorrow with his decision to remove Cruz. He’s more worried about a fictional late-game scenario in the future in this series in which he may need Cruz instead of the three-run, late-game situation that actually existed.

The best part about Boone’s answer is that once Cruz entered the game with two outs in the seventh, he either had to get the last out of the inning or face up to three batters to come out of the game. When Boone went to him, he was accepting of the possibility that Cruz may throw a lot of pitches and then be down for a few days, which makes his thought process even more idiotic.

9. Once Williams ruined the eighth and the Yankees fell behind, the rest of the game became a formality just like it does every time these Yankees trail late. These Yankees only blow late leads, they don’t overcome late deficits. They have yet to win a game this season when trailing after six innings. They lead the majors in games blown in the eighth inning or later with five.

10. The always-injured Clarke Schmidt who was scratched on Saturday with discomfort that couldn’t be detected with imaging tests (just like Volpe’s shoulder “pop” that wasn’t enough to take him out of Saturday’s game, but was enough to keep him out of Sunday’s game only to return on Monday couldn’t be found with imaging either) will take the ball on Tuesday. He will be asked to outpitch former Yankee Michael King.

Wade continued the tradition of ex-Yankees coming back to haunt the team with his eighth-inning walk to start the Padres’ rally on Monday. King is a bad matchup for the Yankees lineup, though I guess what opposing starter isn’t? The Yankees need Schmidt to match or better King to end the current three-game losing streak, but even if that happens, there’s a good chance the manager will be more worried about a future late-lead the Yankees may have instead of the one they actually have.

1. What a comeback win for the Yankees on Wednesday night in Baltimore. Trailing late, the Yankees rallied against the struggling Orioles to win the three-game series and go into their scheduled day off feeling good.

Unfortunately, that isn’t true.

The Yankees didn’t come back to beat the last-place Orioles on Wednesday. Instead, they blew an early lead and then rolled over and lost the way they always do when they trail late in a game. These Yankees only blow late leads. They don’t overcome late deficits.

2. The reason they were in a deficit for most of the game was because of Carlos Carrasco. In his sixth start of the season, Carrasco put together his worst performance: 3.1 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 2 HR.

Carrasco blew an early two-run lead and allowed more hits (8) then he got outs (7), including two home runs. The Yankees lost 5-4 and lost a series to the team with the worst run differential in the American League.

3. It’s time for Carrasco to be designated for assignment. It’s more than time. Someone else needs to get an opportunity to start. I don’t care if it’s someone at Triple-A or Double-A or someone recently waived or released by another team. It’s hard to hear “So-and-so isn’t ready” from the same people employed by the Yankees who think Will Warren is ready and believe Carrasco is still a major leaguer. Something has to change with the rotation. The white flag can’t be waved in two of every five games between Carrasco (5.90 ERA) and Warren (5.63 ERA).

4. The way the torpedo bats don’t seem to work if you can’t make contact, it turns out when the Yankees’ offense isn’t facing an end-of-spring-training-scrap-heap pickup making his first start of the season like they did on Tuesday, they can’t score. Unless, Aaron Judge scores for them.

Judge was 3-for-3 with a walk in the game to raise his slash line to an absurd .427/.521/1.282. (If he were to go 0-for-50 beginning on Friday, he would still be hitting .299.) The first of his three hits was a two-run home run in the first inning, the second a single and the third an RBI single. He drove in three of the Yankees’ four runs with Paul Goldschmidt driving in the other with his first home run since March 29. Unfortunately, Judge didn’t get a fifth plate appearance in the game and was left watching the final out of the game from the on-deck circle because his trusty manager inexplicably decided to bat him third instead of second.

5. Judge, Goldschmidt and Trent Grisham combined to go 5-for-12 with two walks and all four of the Yankees’ RBIs. The rest of the lineup went 2-for-21 with three walks. That includes Pablo Reyes, who is not only a New York Yankee, but somehow started and batted seventh in this one. Remember last year when Boone batted Jahmai Jones leadoff and J.D. Davis fourth in the same game? This wasn’t exactly that, but it was a step just below that. (Jones hasn’t been in the majors since his time with the Yankees and Davis has a -36 OPS+ with the Angels this year. Yes, he’s 136 percent worse than league average.)

6. The Yankees had their chances to erase their deficit, but each time they got close, the sloppiness the Dodgers spent all offseason on a media tour publicly laughing about showed up.

With two outs in the fifth, Judge singled to bring up Ben Rice. Rice was getting a favorable matchup against a righty, but Judge got picked off first, and when Rice came back up to lead off the sixth, the righty was gone and he was greeted by the left-handed Keegan Akin, who struck him out with ease. Judge’s pickoff helped created a nice little sixth-inning lane for Akin, and Akin thanked him by striking out the side.

When the Yankees cut the deficit to one in the top of the fifth, they gave it right back in the bottom of the fifth when Anthony Volpe booted a double play ball. What exactly is it that Volpe does well? His offense is abysmal. Every error of his seems to come in a big moment, and with three stolen bases in six attempts this season, he’s no longer a threat on the bases. When Volpe led off the eighth with a walk, it seemed like the perfect time for him to run and put pressure on the defense representing the tying run. Instead, all he did was his jumps and hops around the bag, acting like he may go, only to never go and never advance past first.

7. That would be the last baserunner of the game for the Yankees, as they went quietly in the eighth and as quiet as anyone could possibly go in a 1-2-3 ninth. Judge getting left on-deck because he was inexplicably batting third was the icing on the cake in the ninth, but the cake was Oswald Peraza getting to bat for himself against the hard-throwing righty Felix Bautista.

8. For a moment it seemed like Rice may have hit a go-ahead, two-run home run in the seventh. After Judge singled with two outs, Gregory Soto threw a wild pickoff attempt to allow Judge to go to second.

“A gift,” David Cone said.

“Can they capitalize on it?” Joe Girardi asked.

No, they couldn’t. Rice flew out to right on a ball that was easily caught, but a ball Michael Kay thought was going to travel 570 feet and break a window on the warehouse across the street from the park with the way he got excited when it left Rice’s bat.

It was a forgettable day for Rice at the plate, as he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. I don’t think there’s anyone in the league who takes more check swings against left-handed pitching than Rice, and he always goes around. If you’re a lefty who throws Rice anything other than breaking balls away, you’re a fool.

It’s not like Rice is the only Yankee who can’t hit lefties. Pretty much the entire lineup can’t. It’s how they lost a game started by Cade Povich. It’s how they got embarrassed by Andrew Heaney and stifled by Kris Bubic and had no chance against Tarik Skubal. The only lefty the Yankees have been able to hit this season was Nestor Cortes, whose elbow had been hanging by a thread dating back to last season.

9. A 3-3 week against the Blue Jays and Orioles isn’t anything to get excited about. One of the three losses was by two runs (the game in which they blew a one-run lead in the ninth to the Blue Jays), and the two losses to the Orioles were both by one run. The Yankees are 6-10 in games decided one or two runs and 12-3 in games decided by three-plus runs. That’s not a coincidence. The larger the gap in score, the less managing, situational hitting and fundamentals matter. At some point you would think the Yankees would come back and win of these late-and-close games. But when the going gets tough for these Yankees, they get going.

10. Now they’re going home with a day off on Thursday and this frustrating loss lingering until Friday’s series opener against the Rays. The Rays won’t be throwing any Kyle Gibson types this weekend in the Bronx, so it would be welcome if others in the lineup outside of the top third of the order could hit actual major-league pitching. If not, Max Fried is pitching Friday, so the Yankees are assured at least win one game this weekend. 

1. What a difference a day makes. Or what a difference a starter makes.

A day after getting shut down and striking out an excessive amount against the starter with the worst strikeout rate in the majors in Tomoyuki Sugano, the Yankees faced a late-spring-training-scrap-heap signing making his first start of the season in Kyle Gibson. The Yankees bombarded Gibson from the moment he stepped foot on the mound.

2. Trent Grisham homered on the second pitch of the game for his second leadoff home run in three games. Aaron Judge homered on the third pitch of the game for his ninth of the season. Ben Rice homered on the fifth pitch of the game for his seventh. After Gibson retired Paul Goldschmidt on four pitches, Cody Bellinger homered on the second pitch he saw for his third. The Yankees started the game with back-to-back-to-back home runs just like they did in the second game of the season against Nestor Cortes, and just like they did against Cortes, they homered four times in the first inning. Add in back-to-back doubles from Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Volpe after the Bellinger home run, and the Yankees had a 5-0 lead before Carlos Rodon threw a pitch.

3. This was a lead and an offensive outburst and a game not even Rodon could ruin. When you never know which version of Rodon you’re going to get, scoring five runs before he throws a pitch is a good way to negate the possibility of the bad version of Rodon showing up. But not only did the best version of Rodon show up, he took a perfect game into the sixth inning and finished with a strong line: 6 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K. It was his third straight quality start after having not thrown one in any of his first four starts of the season.

4. “I was able to attack the zone and just get outs because we had such a nice lead,” Rodon said. “Get outs as quick as we can and get the boys back in the dugout so they can score more runs.”

Rice homered against in the second to give the Yankees a 6-0 lead. They added three more in the fourth, which is when Gibson was finally pulled, finishing the day with this unfortunate line: 3.2 IP, 11 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 5 HR.

The Yankees extended their lead with three more in the fifth, and had a 12-0 lead before the Orioles got on the board in the sixth. A run in the seventh, one in the eighth and another in the ninth for the Yankees led to 15 in total on 19 hits, four walks and two hit batters. Every starter had at least one hit, and 11 of the 12 players to appear in the game had one. The offense hit four doubles and five home runs.

5. “It really starts with Grish,” Judge said. “Grish got it going for us.”

I’m glad Aaron Boone went with my suggestion from Tuesday’s Thoughts to go with Grisham, Judge and Rice at the top of the order. The trio went 6-for-11 with four home runs and two walks. That should be the top of the order for the foreseeable future whether the starter is right-handed or left-handed.

6. Unfortunately, Jasson Dominguez was on the bench for this one and was the only position player to not enter the game. If Dominguez isn’t hurt, he needs to play. He should be playing over Bellinger, but again, owed money trumps performance and development. It’s nice that Bellinger went 2-for-4 with a double, home run and two walks in the game, though it was against Gibson and Matt Bowman, not exactly elite arms. Bellinger’s big day against the scrap heap assures him of indefinite playing time (not that it was ever in question with the more than $20 million owed to him).

7. Chisholm was injured in the game on a swing in the first inning. It looked like an oblique injury and he was attended to mid at-bat before hitting a double down the right-field line on what looked like a half-effort swing. (Maybe good things happen when you don’t try to hit a 750-foot home run with every swing? Or maybe it was just Gibson on the mound.) Chisholm slid into third (thanks to an error) on the hit and when he got up was in obvious pain and was removed from the game. The Yankees reported it as a “right flank” injury mid-game and after the game Boone said Chisholm would go for testing, while Chisholm said he was fine. It didn’t look like he was fine, but if he is, at best I would think he would be back in the lineup on Saturday or Sunday.

8. The big day from the offense and the six innings from Rodon meant a day off for the back end of the bullpen. Ian Hamilton was able to pitch two innings after having pitched once in the last 10 days and Tyler Matzek was able to throw an inning to continue to get his feet wet after having thrown 10 innings since 2022.

9. The bullpen is more than rested for the series finale on Wednesday and with a day off on Thursday I expect Boone to go to the bullpen at the first sign of trouble with Carrasco. There’s no need for him to take one on the chin if he’s off or to eat innings. Luke Weaver has thrown 11 pitches in a week. Fernando Cruz has pitched once in five days. Mark Leiter Jr. has thrown 28 pitches in eight days and Tim Hill has thrown 21 pitches over the same time. There’s at least 12 outs available between those four on Wednesday, and I would think even more.

Cade Povich is going for the Orioles, and while he’s a lefty, which poses an extreme threat to the Yankees, he’s not a good one. If there’s a lefty in the league the Yankees can hit, it should be someone of Povich’s stature. Povich pitched well in his last start against the Nationals, but even with that start, he has allowed 43 baserunners in 25 innings this season.

10. Both teams have a shaky starter going and both teams have well-rested bullpens and both teams desperately want this rubber game with the Orioles trying to climb slowly back to .500 and the Yankees wanting to go into their day off on a high note. If the version of Carrasco who pitched against the Blue Jays on Friday or the offense that lit up Camden Yards on Tuesday, they’ll get that high note.

1. Here is what I wrote about Monday’s Orioles starter prior to the game:

The Yankees will see Tomoyuki Sugano for the first time ever in the series opener. Sugano doesn’t strike anyone out with just nine strikeouts in 28 innings this season, but he doesn’t walk anyone either with five free passes so far.

After striking out nine in his first five starts in the majors, Sugano struck out EIGHT Yankees over five innings in what was an offensive performance from the offense. As advertised, Sugano only walked one in his start and managed to get every big out.

2. Paul Goldschmidt struck out in the first to leave two on and after a Jazz Chisholm hit by pitch, Anthony Volpe left the bases loaded.

In the third, the Yankees had first and third and one out and couldn’t get on the board as Goldschmidt struck out again and Chisholm did the same.

In the fourth, Jasson Dominguez was stranded, and in the fifth, Trent Grisham was as well when Goldschmidt was robbed of a two-run home run by Cedric Mullins.

“We pressured him,” Aaron Boone said of Sugano. “We had some chances and just couldn’t break through on him.”

In typical Yankees fashion, the team wasn’t able to score a run until the seventh, and added two more in the eighth, in what was the latest rally-enough-to-make-you-think-they-may-come-back-and-win-only-to-lose effort.

3. And in typical Will Warren fashion, the right-hander followed up a promising start with a miserable one.

Warren immediately put himself in a jam in the first with second and third and no outs, but miraculously escaped to momentarily make you think he may be figuring out pitching in the majors. That thought was short-lived as he allowed a two-out rally in the second to score a run and then in the fourth, he walked the first two hitters of the inning with his nibbling act and hung a 2-2 sweeper to Ryan O’Hearn that was crushed over the high wall in right for a three-run home run and a 4-0 Orioles lead.

Let’s go through what I wrote about Warren prior to Monday’s game:

Warren was solid in his last start, but he tends to alternate good starts with disastrous ones.

Last start: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
Monday’s start: 3.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR

He needs to attack the strike zone, believe in his stuff and let the ball get put in play. He can’t be afraid to pitch in the zone and he can’t nibble around the edges, which how he gets in trouble with deep counts and walks.

Two costly walks to begin the third that led to the three-run home run.

4. “It’s been up and down,” Warren said. “I think it’s been a mix where you have some good ones in there.”

Warren has made six starts this season. Three have been good to solid and three have outright disasters. He has done just enough to continue to be part of the rotation despite his 8.14 ERA in 12 career starts because he shows promise at times and because the Yankees have no one else. They traded their starting pitching depth to the Padres for Juan Soto, and then were unable to re-sign Soto. They banked on Gerrit Cole who missed a portion of last season with elbow issues to be healthy moving forward only for him to now be out until next summer. They brushed aside Luis Gil’s entire career being marred by injuries, and did the same with Clarke Schmidt who is 29 and has made more than 16 starts in a season once. Warren is in the rotation because there is no alternative. The same goes for Carlos Carrasco and the same went for Marcus Stroman before his supposed knee injury.

5. Ryan Yarbrough was fantastic in relief of Warren: 3.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K. Yarbrough hadn’t pitched in a week and after throwing 53 pitches will likely be down for about another week. I would be all for sending Warren down and using Yarbrough as an opener.

6. It’s going to be hard for the Yankees to put together extended winning streaks because of their rotation, considering you don’t know what you’re going to get the 80 percent of the time Max Fried isn’t starting. It’s also going to be hard because you don’t know which version of the offense is going to show up as well. Is it the version that chased Kevin Gausman and got to Chris Bassitt? Or the version that can’t hit the starting pitcher with the worst strikeout rate in the majors?

7. Chisholm had another banner night at the plate: 0-for-3 with three strikeout and a hit by pitch. Chisholm is now hitting .173 on the season. To put into perspective how bad that is (and how good Judge has been), if Judge were to go 0-for-150 beginning tonight, he would then have the same batting average as Chisholm.

8. Another blah game from Bellinger (1-for-4 with a walk), who struck out to end the game. I don’t think there was a person in the world (not even Bellinger himself) who thought he was going to put the ball in play against Felix Bautista in his ninth-inning at-bat.

9. A day after being removed from the closer role, Devin Williams found himself in a one-run game in the eighth. You would think Boone would have found a way to get him into Sunday’s first-game blowout to get some work in. Nope. Not Boone. Throw him right back into a winnable, one-run game in the eighth. Williams pitched his third 1-2-3 inning in 11 outings and even got three whiffs and a strikeout. He’s going to need to do that for about a month before I want to see him in a late-game situation with a lead.

“It’s just little things here that can you your mojo and remind you just how darned good you are this game,” Boone said of Williams. “Hopefully, it’s a step in the right direction.”

I don’t think it’s possible for Williams to go anywhere other than the right direction, after allowing 20 baserunners and 12 earned runs in his first eight innings of the season.

10. The Orioles have the worst run differential in the American League. Their lineup is struggling and their starting pitching sucks. And yet, they won the first game of the series. The Yankees had their opportunities to win between stranding runners, leaving a runner on third with less than two outs and having a two-run home run robbed, but they still lost. They need a win on Tuesday with Carlos Rodon going against Kyle Gibson in his season debut because Carrasco goes on Wednesday. No one wants to be looking at needing to win a Carrasco start to salvage the third game of a series, especially going against the Yankees’ kryptonite in the series finale: a left-hander.

1. The weekend couldn’t have started out worse with Devin Williams blowing his second games in as many appearances. After blowing a four-run lead on Saturday in Tampa, Williams blew a one-run lead on Friday to the Blue Jays. It was the first time he entered a game with only one run to work with, and he gave up that run and two more without recording an out.

It took Clay Holmes five months of blown saves last season for him to be removed from the closer role. It only took Williams a month after allowing 20 baserunners and 12 earned runs in just eight innings.

“Being a closer is a position you have to earn and you have to keep earning to continue to be in that role,” Williams said. “I haven’t been doing that. It’s disappointing.”

The wild part about how bad Williams’ numbers are is that all of this damage has come without allowing a home run. Eight singles, four doubles, seven walks and a hit batter. An impressive combination of ineptitude.

Everyone treated the update of Williams’ removal from his role as news on Sunday. No one should be surprised that a pitcher who single-handedly cost the Yankees two games in six days was removed from being the closer when the team has another elite option already in place.

2. Luke Weaver has been exceptional since the beginning of last season. This season he has allowed three hits over 14 scoreless innings and has stranded all five inherited runners, and now he moves back into the ninth-inning role where he was at the end of last season.

“I prepare the same way,” Weaver said. “I try to not look at the situation any different. I need to get outs.”

I wish the Yankees would operate without a set closer. Because now Weaver will be attached to the ninth inning (and maybe used for an out or two in the eighth here and there), when he’s most valuable pitching when the game needs him the most. Maybe that’s in the sixth inning with two on and the heart of the order coming up. Maybe that’s in the seventh inning of a one-run game with the tying run in scoring position and the lineup turning over. I don’t like that Weaver is now the “ninth-inning guy” when the game can be ruined before he ever gets into it.

3. The Yankees answered back from their latest late-game collapse with a sweep of Sunday’s doubleheader. In the first game, Max Fried started, and when Fried starts, the Yankees win, and they did again, 11-2.

The Yankees trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the third before Kevin Gausman fell apart.

After a couple of walks and an Aaron Judge single to the wall in right (that Oswaldo Cabrera inexplicably didn’t score from second on in what was another example of the Aaron Boone Yankees’ sloppiness), Cody Bellinger hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1. Gausman was an out away from getting out of the inning, but then walked Paul Goldschmidt, Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Volpe consecutively to score two runs. (You know you suck if you’re walking Chisholm and Volpe with the bases loaded.) The Yankees led 3-1 when Austin Wells came up with the bases loaded, worked a nine-pitch at-bat, and on that ninth pitch, hit a bases-clearing double to center field to break the game open. (It felt weird to experience the Yankees getting a hit to break a game open.)

With Fried on the mound, the rest of the game became a formality. The Yankees plated three more in the fifth, one in the sixth and one in the eighth. Fried finished the day with one earned run allowed over six innings, to remain undefeated on the season with a 1.43 ERA. The Yankees are 6-0 when he starts.

4. I was worried the Yankees used up all of their runs for the day in the first game, but Trent Grisham took care of that fear with a leadoff home run off of Chris Bassitt. It was the first home run Bassitt had allowed this season.

Clarke Schmidt — in his third start — allowed just one hit over five innings (but did walk four). That one hit was an Anthony Santander blast to the second deck in right.

With the game tied at 1 after five, Boone made the right decision to remove Schmidt from the game (90 pitches) rather than let him face Santander for a third time. The idea anyone would let Schmidt face Santander a third time seems outrageous as a possibility, but with Boone you never know.

Tim Hill pitched a scoreless sixth and Judge greeted Bassitt with a first-pitch home run to lead off the bottom half of the inning. After a Chisholm single, a Jasson Dominguez RBI double and a J.C. Escarra RBI single, the Yankees led 4-1.

Escarra added the first home run of his career in the eighth (a long home run into the right-field bleachers) in the 5-1 win, and we got a look at the new eighth-and-ninth-inning tandem of Fernando Cruz and Weaver. We actually got a look at the new sixth-seventh-eighth-ninth formula with Hill, Mark Leiter Jr., Cruz and Weaver. Those four combined to allow two hits and no walks with six strikeouts over four scoreless innings. The first game with Williams out of the late-and-close equation was a resounding success.

5. Volpe looked the best he has in nearly a month in the doubleheader (4-for-7 with a double and home run), but don’t let him fool you. His home run in the first game came off a Triple-A pitcher and we have seen this from Volpe before where he leads many to believe he has turned the corner only to then spend the next four weeks without an extra-base hit while playing every day. He needs to be consistently productive for an extended period of time for anyone to think he has figured out how to hit in the majors.

6. It wasn’t a great day for Bellinger (1-for-7), but what day is a great day for Bellinger? He was in the lineup for both games of the doubleheader, while Grisham sat the first one and proceeded to go 1-for-2 with a home run and two walks in the second one to reach base three times. Bellinger has been on base three times in a game once since March 29. He has one home run since March 29. But he and his .570 OPS are going to keep on playing because he’s owed more than $20M by the Yankees this year and Grisham is owed $5M. Owed money always trumps performance.

7. Judge finally hit his eighth home run of the season after getting screwed in Tampa and then hitting the top of the giant wall in the deepest part of the park in Cleveland over the last week. Judge should always bat second. Either Grisham or Ben Rice can lead off, but then it should be Judge and the other one who isn’t leading off behind Judge. So:

Grisham
Judge
Rice

or

Rice
Judge
Grisham

Either of those work, though I prefer the first one.

That makes the best possible lineup this:

Grisham, CF
Judge, RF
Rice, DH
Goldschmidt, 1B
Chisholm, 2B
Dominguez, LF
Wells, C
Volpe, SS
Cabrera, 3B

That is the optimal Yankees lineup at the moment, even if it’s not a lineup we will see because it doesn’t include Bellinger and has Volpe too low for Boone’s liking.

8. Dominguez quietly had a nice first month in his first full season as a major leaguer. He’s fifth on the teams in hits (despite being seventh in plate appearances), second on the teams in doubles (7), has less strikeouts than Chisholm and Volpe, has yet to be caught stealing (3-for-3), is hitting .315/.383/.500 against right-handed pitching and is hitting nine percent better than league average overall.

Hopefully as he gets more plate appearances against lefties (36) his .450 OPS against them will improve. It’s never going to be the .883 it is against righties, but something respectable in the 6s would be nice. Either way, I’m happy with Dominguez through the first month.

9. Offensively, I’m also happy with Cabrera, who’s hitting .278. Cabrera just needs to continue to hit for average consistently, draw the occasional walk and hit the occasional homer and he’ll be fine, as long as he plays solid defense. The solid defense part seems to be the hardest as Cabrera has been throwing balls to first base all over the place. He has five errors on the year, and while I think he’ll be fine, I don’t have a lot of confidence in the throws coming from the left side of the infield. For as good as Goldschmidt has been over there, things would look a lot worse if an average first baseman had been playing with the way Cabrera and Volpe throws have been.

10. It’s off to Baltimore for the first series of the season against the struggling Orioles. The Orioles are seven games under .500, in last place in the AL East and 6 1/2 games behind the Yankees with an AL-worst minus-39 run differential.

The Yankees will see Tomoyuki Sugano for the first time ever in the series opener. Sugano doesn’t strike anyone out with just nine strikeouts in 28 innings this season, but he doesn’t walk anyone either with five free passes so far.

The Orioles will see Will Warren for the first time ever in the series opener as well. Warren was solid in his last start, but he tends to alternate good starts with disastrous ones. He needs to attack the strike zone, believe in his stuff and let the ball get put in play. He can’t be afraid to pitch in the zone and he can’t nibble around the edges, which how he gets in trouble with deep counts and walks. Go out and challenge the Orioles and make them earn it. If he does that, he should be fine, like nearly every starter has been against the Orioles this season.

1. The Yankees needed a win in Cleveland on Wednesday, and thanks to their offense and Carlos Rodon they got a 5-1 one. And when I say offense, I mean Ben Rice, Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt since those three are the Yankees’ offense.

Those three combined to go 6-for-12 with three walks, three extra-base hits and drove in four of the Yankees’ five runs. The rest of the lineup was 5-for-25 with 10 strikeouts. The rest of the lineup is a problem.

2. Jasson Dominguez and Oswaldo Cabrera aren’t necessarily part of the problem since Dominguez has 48 career games to his name and Cabrera is unnecessarily benched nearly every other day. But for the rest of the lineup excluding those two, yes, it’s a problem.

The two biggest problems are Cody Bellinger and Anthony Volpe. One will seemingly be given endless opportunities to bat second, third and fourth in the lineup, and the other has been given endless opportunities since the day he was called up at the beginning of the 2023 season. One is protected by owed money and the other is protected by the organization’s belief he will eventually figure it out. Together, they are destroying rallies, having issues making contact and are magnets for double plays.

3. I wrote this about Anthony Volpe after Tuesday’s game:

It’s hard to watch Anthony Volpe bat. It’s cringeworthy. Volpe went 0-for-3 with a walk and strikeout in the game, but nothing was worse than his final at-bat against Hunter Gaddis in the eighth. With the tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first, Gaddis blew a middle-middle 95-mph fastball right past Volpe to begin the at-bat. Knowing Volpe’s inability to hit fastballs, even ones in the zone, Gaddis threw three more to set up a 2-2 count. Volpe had seen four pitches, all fastballs. Gaddis then threw a slider about two feet off the plate, but Volpe, guessing fastball and knowing he would need to cheat to catch up to it had committed to swing. Once Volpe recognized slider, his hips had already flown open, his bat was on the plane of where he thought the pitch would end up, and instead he missed it by a laughable amount.

Volpe followed up that performance with an 0-for-5, four-strikeout game on Wednesday. His slash line is down to .198/.295/.385. Volpe hasn’t homered since April 2. He has one multi-hit game and two extra-base hits since April 5. This isn’t a slump. This is what he is, now sitting at an 84+ OPS in 1,395 plate appearances. Continuing to bat Volpe sixth (like he has been) would be unbelievable, and yet totally believable with how he has been treated since he was called up. If Volpe is batting sixth on Friday against the Blue Jays, all you can do is laugh. (Get ready to laugh.)

4. All you can do is laugh if Cody Bellinger is batting third as well. (More laughter coming.) Bellinger has hit one home run since March 29. He has one double this season. He’s hitting .177/.236/.291. For as bad as Volpe has been, Bellinger wishes he had a .295 on-base percentage and .385 slugging percentage.

Here is what I wrote about Bellinger after Monday’s game:

Bellinger is a big problem because he’s going to play because of owed money and his name and for the front office to justify the trade for him. The problem is he’s going to bat near the top of the lineup when he plays because of those things, whether he’s producing or not. The biggest problem is that there’s precedent for Bellinger being this bad.

It looks like the Yankees are going to get the version of Bellinger the Dodgers gave up on and not the one who saved his career with the Cubs.

5. Volpe can’t bat sixth. Bellinger can’t bat third. Bellinger shouldn’t even be in the lineup. This is what the lineup should be on Friday:

Ben Rice, DH
Aaron Judge, RF
Trent Grisham, CF
Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Austin Wells, C
Jasson Dominguez, LF
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Anthony Volpe, SS
Oswaldo Cabrera, 3B

6. We all know that won’t be the lineup. Bellinger will play because he’s 3-for-4 with a home run off Jose Berrios. (Bellinger has yet to hit any pitcher this season he has good career numbers off of.) Grisham should be back, and if he is, you have to play with how good he has been. Judge obviously plays and Rice is only a designated hitter it seems. That means it’s likely the development of Dominguez is stunted and he’s benched so Bellinger can play. Not only that, but Boone will continue to do his nonsensical lefty-right alteration throughout the lineup to plan for some late-inning lane that will likely never come.

7. Nothing will change because it takes an inordinate amount of underperformance for the Yankees to make a change, especially if the proposed changes involve the Golden Boy (who has been treated differently than any other prospect during the Boone era) and Bellinger, a player the Yankees traded for, and the team will stop at nothing to prove they were right about a underperforming player they traded for. Just ask Josh Donaldson, Aaron Hicks and Alex Verdugo.

8. The Yankees have too many holes in the lineup that anyone who is giving them offense needs to play, regardless of their expected role coming into the season, and anyone who isn’t hitting can’t play every day, regardless of their expected role coming into the season. Reward success. It’s a simple concept. Don’t keep running the same players out there in the same order waiting for something to happen. It’s the same way the team operates when they get a pair of runners on with no outs and wait for a three-run home run that doesn’t come before the inning-crushing double play.

9. Carlos Rodon turned in the best start of his season (7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K), and didn’t allow a home run for a second straight start. Progress! It’s frustrating to know that version of Rodon exists, but too many times we get the version of Rodon who unraveled against the Diamondbacks, Tigers and Giants. The left-handed A.J. Burnett.

The good news is he is one off the American League lead for strikeouts with 45 (Cole Ragans has 46). The bad news is he leads the majors with 18 walks. Combine a lot of walks with his penchant for giving up the long ball and you have a frustrating starter who at times can be dominant like he was in Cleveland, or a disaster like he mostly is. Rodon can’t be trusted (like Burnett) and likely never will be because he can unravel in any start in the matter of pitches, and once the unraveling start it never ends. You just have to pray he has more starts like he did on Wednesday than he does clunkers.

10. The Blue Jays are in the Bronx this week and they arrive in the middle of a five-game losing streak. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything with Carlos Carrasco getting the ball for the Yankees on Friday. Carrasco in Yankee Stadium is about as good of a matchup you can ask for in the league to end a losing streak. The Yankees are going to need their offense to extend the Blue Jays’ losing streak to six, and by offense I mean more than just Judge, Rice and Goldschmidt.

1. A two-run lead with 12 outs to go and a completely rested bullpen. That’s the position the Yankees found themselves in on Tuesday night in Cleveland. Twelve outs to get between some combination of Mark Leiter Jr., Tim Hill, Fernando Cruz, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams. It may not have been as easy of a winning formula as Max Fried to Weaver to Williams, but in terms of easy-to-navigate scenarios, it wasn’t exactly difficult.

Aaron Boone made it difficult. After getting five shutout innings from Will Warren in what had been his best start in the majors, Boone decided to push Warren a little more. Boone’s obsession with stealing outs knows no boundaries, even if a pitcher who has never pitched more than 5 1/3 innings in his career and is about to face the top of the lineup for a third time should be the boundary.

Boone thought it would be wise to let Warren pitch to Steven Kwan — one of the game’s premier leadoff hitters — to begin the sixth. Kwan had already singled off Warren earlier in the game after picking up two hits in the first game of the series. He singled again off Warren to lead off the sixth. (Kwan is now hitting .341/.400/.505 on the season.)

OK, leadoff man on and the 2-3-4 hitters due up. Now Boone would pull Warren with the tying run at the plate.

No, he wouldn’t.

He would let Warren face Nolan Jones for a third time in the game. Jones promptly singled.

The tying run was now on base and the go-ahead run at the plate in Jose Ramirez. Apparently, that was enough for Boone to remove Warren and bring in Leiter Jr., who could have easily started the inning clean.

2. Leiter Jr. struck out Ramirez on three pitches to bring up Kyle Manzardo. Stephen Vogt knew he would need to be creative to score runs after Ramirez was retired, so he called for a double steal with Kwan and Jones. The two took off and J.C. Escarra tried to pick-and-throw Leiter Jr.’s pitch rather than simply catch it, and it created a passed ball. Kwan raced around to score and Jones reached third. The Yankees’ lead was now 2-1 with the tying run at third and one out.

Manzardo then hit a ball to Aaron Judge, who dove and missed it, allowing Jones to score the tying run and Manzardo to go to second with a “double”. After getting Carlos Santana to ground out for the second out of the inning, Manzardo moved to third. Leiter Jr. then walked the light-hitting Bo Naylor and allowed an infield “single” to Angel Martinez on a ball Anthony Volpe misplayed to score the go-ahead run.

3. The rest of the game became a formality with the Guardians’ elite relievers slamming the door on the Yankees. If you thought the Yankees would mount a comeback, you must not know these Yankees.

These Yankees were on full display on Tuesday. The game was a good summarization of the Boone Yankees as a whole, representing the same type of team the Yankees have fielded for the last eight seasons. It was the type of the game the Dodgers spent all season laughing about at the Yankees’ expense. It had poor managing, incapable hitting and disastrous defense.

4. When the Yankees led off the fourth with back-to-back walks to bring up Volpe, Boone let his shortstop, who is 15 percent worse than league average for his career swing away. And swing away into a inning-destroying 6-4-3 double play he did. When the Guardians had to two on with no one out in the sixth, they put pressure on the Yankees, created a shitstorm and watched the Yankees unravel and lose the game. The Yankees spent all game waiting around for a multi-run home run to save them and it never came, and when they don’t get said home run, they lose.

5. The Yankees’ offense is essentially Judge, Ben Rice and Trent Grisham (and singles-hitting Paul Goldschmidt). Their rotation is Max Fried and their bullpen is Luke Weaver. It’s a top-heavy team whose flaws are outrageous. Judge is hitting .411, Rice has a 1.004 OPS. Fried has a 1.42 ERA and the Yankees are 5-0 in his starts. Luke Weaver has allowed two hits and no runs in 12 innings. What happens when Judge cools off even a little? What happens if or when the clock strikes midnight on Rice and Grisham? What happens if the Yankees lose a Fried start? What happens if Weaver blows a late lead?

Those things are likely to happen, which is why losses like Saturday’s and Tuesday’s hurt so much. The Yankees need to win the games they are supposed to win, the games in which they hold a late lead. Unless they are going to start winning games they aren’t supposed to, and so far this season you can say that has happened once at most (their 4-2 win over the Royals).

6. Tanner Bibee had been rocked in his two starts not against the Royals, allowing 13 earned runs and seven home runs in 9 2/3 innings. It was the perfect matchup for the Yankees to put up runs, and instead, they scored two runs over six innings, with one of those runs coming on the first pitch of the game. A putrid performance.

7. The Guardians do the little things on the field and do them right because they have to. They create runs, they cause havoc on the basepaths, they play exceptional defense and they try to get to their bullpen as quickly as possible. They can’t sit around and wait for a home run that isn’t going to come because it won’t. They can’t play station-to-station baseball or they won’t score. They make the most of what they have.

8. The decision to steal outs with Warren with all five “elite” relievers available was egregious by Boone. But if the offense could have done more or done anything really, he wouldn’t have been put in the position to ruin the game. When the Yankees play close games, they are going to lose a lot of them with Boone at the helm. The Yankees are going to play a lot of close games with so many automatic outs in the lineup.

Each day I write about how bad Cody Bellinger has been and each day he makes things worse, as he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Guess where he hit, yet again? Third. His OPS is down to .519.

Jazz Chisholm was 0-for-1 with a hit by pitch and two walks, and that’s actually a really good day for Chisholm, who was passed yesterday for the league lead in strikeouts. Congratulations, Jazz! (He also made a throwing error in the game.)

9. It’s hard to watch Anthony Volpe bat. It’s cringeworthy. Volpe went 0-for-3 with a walk and strikeout in the game, but nothing was worse than his final at-bat against Hunter Gaddis in the eighth. With the tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first, Gaddis blew a middle-middle 95-mph fastball right past Volpe to begin the at-bat. Knowing Volpe’s inability to hit fastballs, even ones in the zone, Gaddis threw three more to set up a 2-2 count. Volpe had seen four pitches, all fastballs. Gaddis then threw a slider about two feet off the plate, but Volpe, guessing fastball and knowing he would need to cheat to catch up to it had committed to swing. Once Volpe recognized slider, his hips had already flown open, his bat was on the plane of where he thought the pitch would end up, and instead he missed it by a laughable amount. After Volpe’s inning-ending act, it took Cade Smith four pitches to close out the ninth. When the going gets though, these Yankees get going.

10. The Yankees had a four-run lead in the ninth on Saturday and lost. They had a late two-run lead with their entire bullpen rested and lost on Tuesday. A 3-1 trip to Tampa that could have been more wasn’t and now a seven-game road trip that started out promising is on the brink of being a 3-4 letdown. That is, unless Carlos Rodon and the offense can save it.

1. When the Yankees get shut down by the opposing starting pitcher, they tend to have an opportunity early on to get to them, don’t and end up being stifled for the remainder of the outing.

It happened on April 2 against the Diamondbacks’ Zac Gallen. The Yankees had second and third with one out against the righty in the second inning and failed to score and Gallen settled in to throw 6 2/3 scoreless innings (with 13 strikeouts).

It happened on April 8 in Detroit against Tarik Skubal. The Yankees led off that game with back-to-back singles, couldn’t get either of them in and Skubal found his groove to retire 16 straight in a Yankees’ shutout loss.

It happened again on Monday in Cleveland. Gavin Williams isn’t Gallen or Skubal, but he certainly has the stuff to be, and like the other two, Williams was in trouble early in the game. The Yankees were gifted a leadoff error by defensive wizard Brayan Rocchio and also had two walks in the first and didn’t score a run. Cody Bellinger unsurprisingly hit into a double play and Jazz Chisholm struck out and the Yankees were held scoreless.

2. Williams kept the Yankees off the board until the seventh when he gave up a two-run home run to Jasson Dominguez right before being relieved at 104 pitches. While Williams (6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 1 HR) was throwing up zeros, Clarke Schmidt (4 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 2 HR) was throwing batting practice to light-hitting Guardians.

“I felt like he was a little off command-wise,” Aaron Boone said, stating the obvious.

Schmidt put 10 baserunners on in four innings, allowed up five earned runs and two home runs. Lefties mashed off of him, especially Jose Ramirez and Kyle Manzardo who hit back-to-back homers off Schmidt in the third.

“We did a good job limiting the damage,” Schmidt said in all seriousness.

3. Prior to Monday, Schmidt had made three career starts at Progressive Field with this line: 13 IP, 16 H, 10 R, 9 ER, 9 BB, 17 K, 3 HR, 6.23 ERA, 1.923 WHIP. Add in him blowing Game 3 of the 2022 ALDS, being unable to get through five innings in Game 4 of the 2024 ALCS and Monday night, and it’s a good thing the Yankees don’t play in Cleveland again this season.

“I think I was able to make some good pitches,” Schmidt said after getting lit up.

4. The Guardians had a 6-0 lead after six, but the Yankees put together one of their patented trick-you-into-thinking-they-may-actually-come-back comebacks that fall just short. The Yankees scored two in the seventh (Dominguez home run) and another two in the eighth on a Chisholm home run. In the ninth, they brought the tying run to the plate in Aaron Judge, but he struck out against Cade Smith to end the game.

If only the Yankees had scored in the first when they had three baserunners and Williams had tiring at 25 pitches. It may have not mattered since Schmidt was so bad anyway, but the inability to move runners over and get them in and score runs while making outs continues to be a problem during the Boone era. It’s why the team has been awful in extra innings games since the implementation of the automatic runner. The situational hitting remains poor and the manager doesn’t have the creativity to build runs unless someone is hitting the ball over the wall.

5. When you remove two Yankees from the lineup who have been hitting the ball over the wall in Ben Rice and Trent Grisham (who is out on paternity leave), it’s hard to win. Rice was held out of the game after being hit on the elbow on Saturday (despite all tests coming back negative), however, he was able to pinch hit in the ninth. So Rice (who is only used as the designated hitter) was healthy enough to bat once in the game, but not four times? Was his elbow going to break with three more plate appearances?

6. It’s hard to win without Rice and Grisham because so much of the lineup sucks. Austin Wells went 0-for-5 and his OPS is down to .687. Bellinger (.548 OPS) may as well not bring a bat to the plate and hope the pitcher throws four balls before three strikes. Chisholm (.680 OPS) seems to hit a home run every few days and do nothing else in between. Anthony Volpe has a .614 OPS since April 2 with 20 strikeouts in 60 at-bats. Pablo Reyes isn’t a major-league player.

The lineup is essentially Judge, Rice, Paul Goldschmidt (who is basically a singles hitter), Oswaldo Cabrera (who is also a singles hitter), Dominguez against righties (.926 OPS against righties and .390 OPS against lefties) and Grisham when he plays, which isn’t every day since the Yankees have to play Bellinger because of owed money.

7. Bellinger is a big problem because he’s going to play because of owed money and his name and for the front office to justify the trade for him. The problem is he’s going to bat near the top of the lineup when he plays because of those things, whether he’s producing or not. The biggest problem is that there’s precedent for Bellinger being this bad.

Bellinger won the NL MVP in 2019 when the baseball was juiced and Brett Gardner (28 home runs) and Gleyber Torres (38 home runs) became power hitters. Since then, Bellinger has a 99+ OPS in 575 games and 2,352 plate appearances. He’s a .242/.304/.421 hitter since the start of 2020.

Within these last five-plus seasons, Bellinger posted a .542 OPS in 2021 and a .654 OPS in 2022, and the Dodgers moved on from him. The Dodgers –the best organization in baseball — moved on from their homegrown, 2017 Rookie of the Year, 2019 MVP and Gold Glove center fielder after his age 26 season. That’s not great.

8. The Yankees have used Bellinger in the 2-hole hoping he would mash in-zone pitches expected with Judge behind him. They have used him as Judge’s protection. They have used him to clean up. He has done nothing in every spot. The season may only be 14 percent through, but again, there is precedent for Bellinger being a complete zero at the plate for an entire season. And if this is one of those seasons from Bellinger in a year where a single game could decide the AL East or a wild-card berth, the Yankees can’t afford to play him over other bats, whether those other bats are owed less money or not.

9. Bellinger isn’t the only problem, he’s just the biggest once. Chisholm, Volpe and Wells have been atrocious, Devin Williams has been a joke and every starter not named Max Fried has an ERA of at least 4.34. Despite their glaring issues, the Yankees are fortunately 14-9.

Schmidt was bad and Williams was solid, but the Yankees hit into three double plays in the game (one of them was bad luck on a Chisholm line drive), and when you hit into three double plays in six innings, it’s going to be difficult to win.

10. It’s going to be difficult to win on Tuesday as well. Will Warren gets the ball and based off of his Thursday night showing in Tampa (1.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K), it’s hard to have much confidence in him. Tanner Bibee goes for the Guardians. Bibee has made four starts this season. Two of them were against the Royals, in which he 10 1/3 scoreless innings. The other two were against the Angels and Orioles, and he allowed 13 earned runs and seven home runs in 9 2/3 innings. The Yankees are going to need that Bibee to show up. They’re also going to need some combination of Bellinger, Wells, Volpe and Chisholm to show up and for Rice to play.

1. When the Yankees led off Thursday’s home game on the road against the Rays with three straight singles to take a 1-0 lead, I was feeling great about where the game was headed. When only one of those three baserunners came around to score, that great feeling quickly turned ominous.

The Yankees have struggled in the past against Taj Bradley (one run in 13 innings) and with runners on first and third with no outs and one run already in and the 4-5-6 hitters in the lineup due up, they had the opportunity to break the game open and didn’t. After Aaron Judge’s single scored Paul Goldschmidt, Bradley faced one batter over the minimum for the next 4 1/3 innings.

2. During those 4 1/3 innings, Will Warren gave a reminder to anyone who thought he may have turned the corner last Saturday against the Giants that he hasn’t. With Marcus Stroman on the injured list, Warren paid tribute to his teammate by putting up a Stroman-like line: 1.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K. Warren couldn’t get through the second inning, needed 53 pitches to get five outs and got one swing-and-miss on those 53 pitches. When he was removed from the game, he left the bullpen needing to get 22 outs in the middle of a 13-game-in-13-days stretch, and he left with the bases loaded.

3. It’s rare for Aaron Boone to make a wise in-game pitching decision, considering his lack of feel for what’s unfolding on the field in front of him. But his decision to remove Warren in the second inning and turn the ball over to the bullpen saved the game, and helped lead the Yankees to a win. Had Warren stayed in with two outs and the bases loaded, he was either going to walk in a run or allow the bases to clear. Boone got in front of it for the first of only a handful of times in his seven-plus years as manager.

Ryan Yarbrough (2.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K) managed to keep the damage to a minimum in relief of Warren, despite putting seven baserunners on in 2 2/3 innings, and Tim Hill (2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K) put up a couple of zeros following Yarbrough.

4. The Yankees trailed 3-1 with one in the fifth until Oswaldo Cabrera hit his first home run of the season off of Bradley. I keep writing it in each of these Thoughts, but let Cabrera play every day at third. He had three hits in the game and his average is up to .308 and his OPS up to .757. PLAY HIM EVERY DAY until he gives you a reason not to.

5. After Cabrera homered, Goldschmidt singled and Ben Rice doubled. Judge walked and Cody Bellinger — with the bases loaded — hit the ball on the ground to score Goldschmidt and tie the game at 3. (That’s about all anyone can expect or ask of Bellinger at the moment: put the ball in play. He did his best to end the rally and inning with a double play, but managed to beat it out.)

6. The Yankees added a run in the sixth on a Jasson Dominguez groundout, and later in the inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, Rice singled in two more to give the Yankees a 6-3 lead, which is how it would stay.

Rice finished the game with a career-high four hits. He has a .317 average and 1.064 OPS and with each passing game he looks more and more like this is for real at the plate. He’s doing in front of Judge what Juan Soto did last year.

7. Jazz Chisholm has gone out of his way to complain about the weather since the start of the season as the Yankees have only played in frigid New York, Pittsburgh and Detroit. But now they’re in Tampa and Chisholm still went 0-for-3 with a walk. He was a pitch away from having a second walk, but the umpire called a 3-2 pitch low and away for a strike and Chisholm went wild, getting himself tossed in the process. Minutes after getting tossed he took to social media to voice his displeasure with the call only to later delete the message. Keep it together. One missed strike call isn’t why you’re hitting .169 with a .723 OPS. Having one non-home run hit in your last 11 games is why. Maybe try an approach that isn’t think every pitch thrown is going to be the equivalent of a middle-middle, 3-0 fastball and not take your “A” swing with every swing?

8. On a night when Boone needed to go to his bullpen in the second inning and clearly made Luke Weaver unavailable, he was able to piece together 22 outs between Yarbrough (8), Hill (6), Ian Hamilton (5) and Devin Williams (3). Williams had the easiest outing of his Yankees tenure with a six-pitch ninth. Williams, Weaver and Fernando Cruz will all be available on Friday.

9. They’ll only be needed on Friday if Carlos Rodon doesn’t suck the way he has in three of his four starts this season, and the way he has so many times as a Yankee. Rodon has allowed five home runs in 23 innings this season, and his ability combined with Steinbrenner Field isn’t ideal with the way the ball has been flying out of there.

10. The Yankees will need their offense to show up with Rodon on the mound, and unfortunately, they’re going against Drew Rasmussen, who has allowed one earned run and no home runs this season across three starts. It’s never been easy for the Yankees against the Rays in the Boone era and it won’t be for the rest of the weekend.

1. Earlier this week, Juan Soto went out of his way to call Aaron Judge “the best hitter in baseball” and essentially told the world he misses being a Yankee.

During the three-game series against the Royals, Judge went out of his way to make his former teammate’s claim stand up. Judge went 2-for-4 on Monday, 2-for-3 with a walk on Tuesday and then 3-for-3 with a double, home run and walk on Wednesday. That home run (Judge’s first in 10 games) was a go-ahead shot to lead off the seventh. It gave the Yankees a 4-3 lead and was enough to carry them to a series sweep.

“I just feel like, in any situation, he’s going to come out on top,” Cody Bellinger said. “He’s the best player on this planet.”

2. Judge also scored 25 percent of the Yankees’ runs in the series and is now hitting .409/.519/.803 on the season. He joins Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and Paul O’Neill as the only other Yankees to have a .400 batting average, .800 slugging percentage, 20 RBIs and 10 walks through the team’s first 18 games of the season (per Katie Sharp).

“I want to get on base. That’s the biggest thing, hitting in the middle of the order and hitting second a lot,” Judge said. “I’ve got to touch first base. That’s my job.”

3. Judge touched ‘em all with his seventh-inning shot off of John Schreiber. His late-game heroics were made possible because of another solid pitching performance from the Yankees staff. Clarke Schmidt made his season debut and wasn’t as good as Carlos Carrasco was on Monday or Max Fried was on Tuesday, but he was good enough (5.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) to get into the sixth inning on a night when the bullpen was shorthanded.

“The whole rotation has to step up,” Schmidt said. “I know that my job is to go out there and be as consistent as possible every five days and give my team a chance to win.”

4. Going into the game without Luke Weaver and Devin Williams (to a lesser degree) meant a close game may get tense and trusting Aaron Boone to push the right buttons without his best arms available would likely prove challenging. Boone went to Mark Leiter Jr. for four outs and Fernando Cruz for a two-inning save, and it all worked out.

5. It all worked out thanks to Cody Bellinger’s lead-saving catch with two outs in the ninth when he laid out in right field to prevent a game-tying extra-base hit.

“That’s the reason he’s got gold on his glove,” Judge said. “Very few people make that catch, especially in a big moment like that with the game on the line.”

Bellinger has been atrocious at the plate (.538 OPS), but managed to sneak a hard-hit ground ball inside of first base for an RBI double in the fourth and let his defense make up for his bat with the spectacular grab in the ninth.

“That might be my first game-saving catch,” Bellinger said. “I was just glad I was able to catch it and get the win.”

6. Anthony Volpe had a big, two-run double in the third to cap off a two-out rally. There’s nothing better than a two-out rally. Nothing. Judge doubled, Jazz Chisholm walked and then Volpe crushed a ball to left to score both runners. The Yankees managed to score three runs (on seven hits and four walks) off of Kris Bubic after he had allowed just two earned runs in his first three starts and 18 2/3 innings.

7. Chisholm had that third-inning walk to go along with a single to center off the end of his bat in the first. (He was also hit by a pitch in the seventh.) The first-inning single was the first non-home run hit for Chisholm since the series finale in Pittsburgh 10 days prior.

8. A night after going 3-for-3 with the game-changing, three-run double, Jasson Dominguez went 0-for-3 with a walk, but he did get to play all nine innings of the game with Judge as the designated hitter. No balls were to hit to Dominguez in the eighth or ninth after Judge made it a one-run game.

9. The Yankees have been playing with three near-automatic outs in their lineup in Bellinger, Chisholm and Austin Wells, and yet, they lead the American League in runs scored with 107 and a plus-24 run differential. (Thanks, Brewers.) The lineup has been heavily reliant on Judge, Ben Rice, Paul Goldschmidt and Trent Grisham (when he plays) and some timely hitting from Volpe and Dominguez. The Yankees need their three “everyday” left-handed bats to contribute, especially this weekend in Tampa.

10. It’s off to Steinbrenner Field where the Yankees will be visitors at their own place. (Maybe a trip back to spring training is what Bellinger needs to get going after he had a 1.214 OPS in 19 games during spring training.) It will be Will Warren against Taj Bradley. Now in his third season, Bradley has made two starts against the Yankees over the last two years, holding them to one run over 13 innings and a .331 OPS. But he has never faced the Yankees at their spring training home in real game where they are accustomed to playing and where the ball has been flying out of this season.

1. For the first time since Opening Day the Yankees won a game in which Max Fried didn’t start and the offense didn’t score at least eight runs. It took 15 games, but the Yankees finally proved they can win if their ace isn’t on the mound or if the offense doesn’t go completely off. They have Carlos Carrasco and solo home runs to thank for that.

2. Carrasco was outstanding in the Yankees’ 4-1 win over the Royals on Monday (5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR). One hit allowed in five innings? Sure, it was the Royals’ who are averaging 3.1 runs per game, but one hit allowed in five innings is one hit allowed in five innings.

3. After Carrasco walked two of the the first three batters of the game, I figured it was only a matter of pitches until the game would be out of hand and out of reach, especially with Seth Lugo starting for the Royals. But Carrasco managed to get out of the jam, pitched a perfect second, allowed a solo home run to Bobby Witt Jr. in the third and went six up, six down in the fourth and fifth.

“Everything we did before the game was working,” Carrasco said. “In the first inning, we got two walks and I was able to hold it right there.”

4. Six days after getting blasted for four home runs by the Tigers while Casey Mize shut down the Yankees, this time Carrasco shut down the Royals while the Yankees blasted four home runs against Lugo, all from left-handed hitters.

Trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Jazz Chisholm tied the game with a shot to right-center. Then in the fifth, Trent Grisham led off the inning with a home run, followed by Ben Rice two batters later and Austin Wells two batters after that. The Yankees led 4-1 through five and that’s how it would end thanks to four scoreless innings from Fernando Cruz (three of four outs for strikeouts), Tim Hill (two outs), Luke Weaver (1-2-3 eighth) and Devin Williams (save).

5. I don’t know that there’s anyone who thought the tying run wouldn’t come to the plate with a three-run lead in the ninth against Williams. And sure enough, Williams gave the Royals two cracks at the tying the game with one swing before getting out of it. Williams has now allowed 13 baserunners in in five innings. He nearly blew a three-run lead on Opening Day, a four-run lead in Detroit, made everyone nervous with a four-run lead against the Giants and let the tying run come up against the Royals with a three-run lead. What’s going to happen when he enters a game with a one- or two-run lead? I don’t know want to find out. At least not until he gets himself right and who knows when that will be.

6. Jasson Dominguez had an awesome night in left field, but that didn’t stop Aaron Boone from removing him from the game for a defensive replacement (Cody Bellinger) in the eighth. Bellinger struck out in his only at-bat and his OPS is down to .539. Maybe Bellinger should be the fourth outfielder and late-game defensive replacement? Grisham (1.124 OPS) certainly doesn’t deserve to sit.

7. Wells hit his first home run since the second game of the season against the Brewers, Rice improved his slash line to .300/.417/.680), Aaron Judge (1.212 OPS) and Paul Goldschmidt (.909 OPS) each had two more hits and Oswaldo Cabrera bumped his average up to .278.

8. After going 0-for-24, Chisholm has homered in the last two games. He’s hitting .175 with a .246 on-base percentage, but his OPS (.738) is being propped up by his six home runs (not that a .738 OPS is anything to feel good about). Maybe sprinkle in a walk or a single with runners in scoring position here and there? That would be nice.

9. It’s getting more difficult with each game to not think Anthony Volpe’s hot start to the year was nothing more than what it was last year. Going back to the Sunday walk-off loss in Pittsburgh, Volpe is 2-for-24 (both singles) with six walks and eight strikeouts. He’s walking more than did in either of the last two seasons, but he also has one stolen base through 16 games since you need to get on base with some frequency to steal a base.

10. Michael Wacha gets the ball for the Royals on Tuesday night, and unfortunately for him, he’s going against the Yankees’ ace in Fried. If Carrasco could hold the Royals to one hit through five innings, it’s hard not to envision the possibilities for Fried against that lineup if he pitches the way he did last Wednesday in Detroit.

1. If you sat through the rain and through the Yankees’ 9-1, rain-shortened loss at Yankee Stadium on Friday night I feel sorry for you. The only way I was going to the Bronx on Friday night with the forecast being what it was would have been if the Yankees used me as the starting pitcher. They should have. Instead, Marcus Stroman started for the Yankees in what should be his last start as a Yankee. Unfortunately, it won’t be.

Stroman finished last season by allowing 131 baserunners in 75 innings and pitching to a 5.88 ERA. In those 16 games (15 starts), hitters had an .847 OPS against him. Francisco Lindor finished second in the National League MVP voting last year with an .844 OPS. So Stroman turned every hitter over the last three months of last season into a better hitter than the NL MVP runner-up.

Stroman went to spring training with a trade seemingly inevitable as the odd-man out in the rotation before three injuries made him the No. 3. In his first two starts, he was just plain bad, pitching 8 2/3 innings with a 7.27 ERA. but on Friday agains the Giants, he wasn’t just his usual bad self, he flat-out sucked.

2. The first pitch of Stroman’s night was crushed into the right-center gap for a double. After nibbling around the strike zone for a walk, he allowed a three-run home run to Jung Hoo Lee. A couple of walks and another double later, and Stroman had the Yankees in a five-run hole with a runner on second and still no outs. Stroman didn’t make it through the first inning. He needed 46 pitches to get just two outs. With 13 games over the next 13 days, Stroman put the bullpen in a tough spot, needing to get 25 outs in the game. Fortunately, for the Yankees, the game was called during the top of the sixth inning with them trailing by eight runs, so they could preserve their bullpen for the rest of the night and the series.

3. On Saturday, it was Will Warren’s turn to provide something other than disaster from the four-fifths of the rotation not named Max Fried. Warren was given an early two-run lead to work with, but in the half-inning immediately following those runs, he gave them right back. Warren settled down after the two-run second to pitch three scoreless innings. His final line for the. day: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K 1 HR. If he can do that every five days, everyone would be happy.

4. The Yankees scored five runs in the fifth to break the 2-2 tie and take a 7-2 lead. Fernando Cruz gave two of the runs right back in typical Yankees fashion as he was allowed to face the heart of the Giants’ order with Aaron Boone treating a five-run lead in the sixth inning like a 10-run lead in the ninth. The Yankees got one back to take an 8-4 lead into the seventh.

Because Boone let Cruz unsuccessfully face the heart of the order, he had to lean on Luke Weaver for four outs before turning the ball over to Devin Williams in the ninth. Despite having a four-run cushion, Williams made it as hard as possible to close the game out, allowing a walk and double to begin his outing before finally retiring the side. Williams has now allowed 11 baserunners in four innings this season. My 1-to-10 confidence level with him is about a 1.2 through two-plus weeks. Right where Clay Holmes left off.

5. Then there was Sunday: the rubber game. A chance for the Yankees to win a series and move to three games over .500.

The Yankees were able to jump on Logan Webb early, plating one run in the first and two in the second. They held a 3-0 lead going in the fourth with Carlos Rodon having yet to give up a hit. But then Rodon gave up a solo home run to Lee (who hit the three-run, first-inning home run off Stroman on Friday) to get the Giants on the board. The Yankees’ 3-1 lead held up until the sixth when Rodon unraveled.

No. 9 hitter Christian Koss led off the sixth with an infield single to short. It was a tough play for Anthony Volpe, but one you would think a “Gold Glove” shortstop should make. With one out, Rodon walked Willy Adames, to put the tying run on base and to bring up Lee as the go-ahead run. When adversity hits Rodon on the mound, he tends to lose it all within seconds. Every Yankees fan knows this after watching him make 54 starts with the team. The only person who doesn’t know this is his manager.

I don’t fault Boone as much as normal for leaving Rodon in to face Lee, considering it was a left-on-left matchup. Pitch him away, keep him to the big part of the Stadium and you’ll be fine. But like clockwork, Rodon started unraveling after the infield single and never stopped until he was removed from the game.

Rodon got ahead of Lee 1-2 and then threw the equivalent of a get-me-over-curveball which hung in the middle of the plate for Lee to drive over the wall in right field. Before playing the Yankees this weekend, Lee had hit three home runs in 48 career games. He hit three against the Yankees in the series, and his second on Sunday gave the Giants a 4-3 lead.

Rodon allowed five earned runs in six innings in his last start and Boone said, “I thought he threw the ball great. I really did.” In this one, Rodon only allowed four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. How did Boone think he pitched? “I thought he was excellent,” his manager said. Nothing exemplifies “excellence” like allowing four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings, including two home runs to the same player, while blowing a three-run lead.

6. If Rodon reminds you of a former Yankee who seemed to always have “great stuff” but frequently imploded, couldn’t control his emotions on the mound and could unravel in the span of a few pitches, it’s because you’re thinking of A.J. Burnett. As Katie Sharp posted on social media, Rodon has pitched 36 games in the regular season since the start of last year and has allowed 36 home runs, 69 walks and 10 hit batters. The last Yankee to do that was Burnett. At least Burnett gave us a World Series-saving gem. In Rodon’s only World Series start with the Yankees, he got blasted for three home runs and four earned runs in only 3 1/3 innings.

7. Combine the Yankees’ knack for rolling over and dying when trailing late in games with the Giants’ bullpen depth and once the Giants had the lead the remainder of the game became a formality.

Hayden Birdsong pitched a 1-2-3 sixth on eight pitches, came back out for the seventh, drilled Aaron Judge and threw up another zero.

The Giants led 5-3 in the eighth when Jazz Chisholm led off with a short-porch home run to break an 0-for-24 slump, but Volpe, Jasson Dominguez and J.C. Escarra followed by lying down for Tyler Rogers.

In the ninth, after Austin Wells pinch hit for Oswaldo Cabrera and flew out, Ben Rice grounded out and Judge kept the bat on his shoulder to go down looking to end the game for a 5-4 loss. A nice, solid 1-for-13 with four strikeouts and a hit by pitch for the Yankees against the Giants’ bullpen.

It was a bad loss, the Yankees’ third of the season, along with the April 1 loss to the Diamondbacks (when they blew a two-run lead in the eighth) and the April 6 loss to the Pirates (when they overcame a three-run deficit in the ninth only to lose in the 11th).

8. The Yankees could have scored more early on on Sunday, just like they had their chances to get back in the game on Friday, but in both games, they left runners on all over the place.

On Friday, they stranded one in the first, two in the second, two more in the third and another in the fifth before the game was called.

On Sunday, they left one on in the first and another in the second. In the fourth, they had runners on first and second with no outs, but Boone let Escarra hit rather than sacrifice bunt, and the runners never advanced in the inning. (Not only did Boone let Escarra hit there, but he also let him swing away on 3-0 in the eighth trailing by a run.) They left two more on in the fifth when they had first and second and one out, and then after that, the Giants’ bullpen put them to sleep.

9. When the going gets tough, these Yankees get going. They aren’t about to rally late to win a game. In Pittsburgh, they rallied only for their lack of situational hitting to doom them in extras. At best, they put together enough of a rally to make you think they may come back and win, only to fall short.

The Yankees are now 8-7. They are 2-3 in their five series. They are 5-7 since the season-opening Brewers series. They lost five of seven this past week to the Pirates, Tigers and Giants. On days when Fried doesn’t pitch, they need the offense to score eight-plus runs to have a chance, and it’s hard to do that when you have an inconsistent bat hitting third (Cody Bellinger) and a blackhole in the middle of the lineup in Chisholm. There is one truly trustworthy arm in the bullpen (Luke Weaver) and the manager doesn’t seem to know when to best use him and is mostly too scared to use him.

10. Through 13 games the Yankees have received at least six innings from a starter TWO times. TWO! I’m not sure how the team thinks it can keep that up, but they are going to keep it up as long as Rodon continues to implode and Stroman and Carlos Carrasco keep getting the ball. And they are going to keep getting the ball. At least Carrasco is since Stroman is now suddenly “injured” with knee inflammation. (Yeah, knee inflammation is the cause of him nibbling around the strike zone with 90-mph sinkers dating back nearly a full calendar year.)

10. If Fried starts or the offense scores eight-plus runs, the Yankees win. If neither of those things happen, they lose. When Fried starts, they’re 3-0. When Fried doesn’t start, but the Yankees score eight-plus runs, they’re 4-0. When Fried doesn’t start, but the Yankees don’t score at least eight runs, they’re 1-7. Thankfully, it’s Fried’s turn to pitch on Tuesday.

But before Tuesday, Carrasco will get the ball on Monday. We know how the game will go: the Yankees will score at least eight runs and they’ll win, or they won’t, and they’ll lose.

1. The Yankees had to have the series and road trip finale in Detroit. A loss on Thursday in Detroit would have extended their losing streak to four straight, would have dropped them to .500, would have wasted a dominant starting pitching effort, would have made for a depressed plane ride and trip back home and would have lingered throughout Thursday’s day off. Thankfully, none of that happened or will happen. The Yankees have Max Fried and Ben Rice to thank for that.

2. After Fried’s most recent start in Pittsburgh (5.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR), I wrote: It’s exciting to think about how good Fried will be when he’s “on” in one of his starts, which he certainly wasn’t on Opening Day and really wasn’t against the Pirates.

Well, Fried was “on” on Thursday for the first time as a Yankee: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 K. He stifled the Tigers’ bats in a way the two Carloses couldn’t and led the Yankees to a win.

Prior to Wednesday’s game, I wrote: The series finale is the kind of start the Yankees got Max Fried for. Three straight losses and a matchup against an unimpressive offense. This is a game the Yankees need to Fried to go out there and hand the ball off to Luke Weaver and then Devin Williams with no one in between and salvage the final game of the series and road trip. Fried did just that.

3. For six-plus innings it felt like Fried’s best day as a Yankee may be for nothing. The Yankees couldn’t score against Jack Flaherty (5.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 9 K) and let Flaherty and Tyler Holton off the hook in the sixth inning, unable to score with runners on second and third and one out.

In the seventh, Holton quickly retired Jasson Dominguez and J.C. Escarra.

“The Yankees are a team that’s built on home runs and they have not homered in three games and 6 2/3 innings,” Michael Kay said with two outs in the seventh. “When a pitcher or pitching staff can keep them in the ballpark, you have a chance.”

After Kay finished opining, Oswaldo Cabrera singled.

The Yankees hadn’t homered since Saturday and were a few innings away from not homering in four straight games for the first time since September 2020. Rice made sure that unfortunate stat wasn’t duplicated.

Rice crushed a 1-0 pitch from Holton 419 feet over the center-field wall to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

Prior to the home run, the Yankees had scored five runs in their last 34 innings. Those five runs came in three innings, so the Yankees had scored in 31 of the last 34 innings.

4. After the Rice home run, Fried put up his seventh and final zero of the day before turning the ball over to Weaver (just like I had asked for). Weaver worked around a one-out single to pitch yet another scoreless inning.

In the ninth, the Yankees scored two extremely important insurance runs as a result of some Yankees-esque defense from the Tigers. The game had an ominous feel as though it could turn into a complete letdown after the heroics from Fried and Rice if Williams were to blow the game in the ninth. And based off Williams’ early-season appearances, it certainly wasn’t out of the question.

5. Williams walked the first batter of the ninth. A walk with a four-run lead. If not for the two tack-on runs in the eighth, the Tigers would have the tying run at the plate with no outs in the ninth. Williams struck out the next two, but after a two-out single from Javier Baez (you know Williams isn’t right when Baez is getting a line-drive base off of him), he unraveled. Williams walked Trey Sweeney, threw a wild pitch to score Baez (who had taken second on defensive indifference) and allowed a single to Zach McKinstry to make it 4-3. Aaron Judge (who earlier in the game idiotically got caught in a rundown between third and home on a ball hit back to the mound) moronically threw the ball home, allowing McKinstry to go to second. With two outs in the ninth, the Tigers had the tying run on second and Aaron Boone was forced to take the ball from Williams and give it to Mark Leiter Jr. It’s bad enough Williams nearly blew a three-run lead in the ninth on Opening Day, but now he was about to blow a four-run lead, had given up a hit to Baez and was being pulled for Leiter. What a first 13 days in pinstripes.

6. Leiter got Justyn-Henry Malloy to pop up to Jazz Chisholm in shallow center to end the game. If the Yankees had lost, it would have been a loss that would be hard to top as the worst of the season even with 150 games remaining. A loss would have wasted Fried’s brilliant outing. It would have wasted Rice’s heroics. It would have extended the losing streak. It would have lingered on the plane ride, travel home and day off. It would have dropped the Yankees to .500.

7. The win wasn’t withouts its warts with Williams being the biggest. Chisholm had another hitless day and is down to .180/.255/.460. Anthony Volpe continues to morph back into his 2023-24 self (and lost the grip on the bat on two different strike 3s in the game). Dominguez had an 0-for (.205/.295/.359), and then’s there Cody Bellinger.

8. Bellinger is a problem. Normally, you would think someone being bad (.562 OPS) through seven percent of the season isn’t a big deal, but it is. It is because Bellinger is evidently going to bat second ahead of Judge or third behind him no matter what because of his veteran status, because he was the National League MVP (with the juiced baseball) six years ago and because he bats left-handed. It takes an extraordinary amount of struggling for Boone to move a veteran down in the lineup, and it’s going to take a lot for him to move Bellinger down even if it’s deserved. Here’s to Bellinger figuring it out after a day off with the familiar-for-him Giants coming to the Bronx this weekend.

9. On the positive side (aside from Fried and Rice), Judge looked like himself at the plate after a few shaky days, Paul Goldschmidt had two more hits and Cabrera had a two-hit day with the second hit coming from his “weaker” side (the right side). That hit led to him being on base when Rice blasted his two-run home run.

On Friday, Cabrera had a three-hit game then was benched on Saturday and Sunday, played on Monday and was benched again on Tuesday. With a lefty scheduled to start against the Yankees on Friday, Cabrera will likely be on the bench again. How about just letting him play every day and bat from both sides? The Yankees clearly don’t believe in Oswald Peraza (and shouldn’t believe in Pablo Reyes as even a bench option), otherwise Peraza would have played more in 2022, 2023 or 2024, so they need to stop acting like they believe in him now. Play Cabrera every day, against all starting pitchers and let him be the everyday third baseman.

10. The Yankees head home at 7-5 instead of 6-6. They head home having salvaged the third game of the series to finish the road trip at 3-3 instead of 2-4. They head home on a happy and upbeat plane rather than a somber and disappointed one. They head home to host the Giants where they will have their work cut out for them with Robbie Ray, Jordan Hicks and Logan Webb scheduled to pitch. They can’t let what happened to them against the Diamondbacks and Tigers happen to them against the Giants when facing a team’s best three starters.

1. Against the reigning American League Cy Young winner, the Yankees opened Tuesday’s game with back-to-back singles. Tarik Skubal had struggled in his first two starts of the season, and it looked like the Yankees may be able to get to him early with the heart of the order due up and a chance to give Carlos Carrasco a lead before throwing a pitch.

Instead, Aaron Judge struck out after getting ahead in the count 2-0, Jazz Chisholm hit a weak ground ball back to the mound and Anthony Volpe had an ugly at-bat for an inning-ending strikeout, and that was the game. After that first-inning jam, Skubal looked like his 2024 self, retiring 16 straight until a Paul Goldschmidt single in the sixth.

2. “He’s as good as it gets,” Aaron Bone said. “He had a good day against us today.”

A good day from Skubal is to be expected. But Casey Mize also had a good day against the Yankees the day before and Andrew Heaney had a good day against them the day before that. Add up three consecutive days of a disappearing offense and bad starting pitching and you get a three-game losing streak, which has the Yankees a loss away from falling to .500.

3. During the six shutouts innings from Skubal, Carrasco got lit up. The Tigers scored one run off of him in the second and hit three solo home runs in the span of four batters in the fourth. He lasted just 4 1/3 innings and the Yankees trailed 4-0 when he left the mound in the fifth.

“It’s imperative that he really commands all of it,” Boone said of Carrasco. “He’s gotta be near the edges.”

Ryan Yarbrough relieved Carrasco and gave up a home run to the first batter he faced to make it 5-0, and that’s how it would stay for another Yankees loss.

4. The Tigers are a problem and a horrible matchup for the Yankees. It’s why before the series, I wrote: Had the Yankees played the Tigers in the ALCS, I think it would have been problematic given their pitching staff.

Between their strong rotation, deep pitching staff and experienced manager, they are very Rays-esque. The Rays have dominated the Yankees during the Boone era and the Tigers are starting do the same, having won the last four games against the Yankees dating back to last season. I fear them as much as any team in the AL, and in a short series in October, they would be a big problem.

4. Clarke Schmidt is expected to return to the rotation next week, and there is a debate about whether it will be Carrasco or Will Warren who loses their spot. The argument for Carrasco is that he doesn’t have a minor-league option like Warren does. Umm, who cares? It’s highly unlikely Carrasco will be claimed by another team, and if he is, who cares? Does anyone want him making another start for the Yankees? In three appearances (two starts) this season, he has put 19 baserunners on in 11 2/3 innings and has allowed 10 earned runs. No, don’t let the the guy with a 7.71 ERA and 1.628 WHIP this season (and 5.39 ERA since 2021) get claimed or elect free agency!

5. The Yankees’ 1-through-3 were 6-for-12 in the game. The 4-through-9 were 0-for-20.

Clean-up hitter Chisholm’s big weekend against the Brewers is starting to fade and he’s now down to .196/.260/.500. Austin Wells’ stats are no longer being propped up by homering in the first two games of the year as he’s down to .189/.279/.432. Jasson Dominguez has yet to get going aside from a few plate appearances and sits at .222/.317/.389, though if Volpe had Dominguez’s current .706 OPS during either of the last two seasons there would already be a plaque for him in Monument Park.

7. Cody Bellinger missed another game, this time with food poisoning. Bellinger has missed three of 11 games this year and when he has played he has been bad (.233/.278/.333). He is no way deserves to be hitting second or third before or after Judge in the lineup with the way Ben Rice and Trent Grisham have been hitting, but I expect to see him back in the lineup on Wednesday hitting second or third.

8. The Yankees have a problem right now in that Bellinger is always going to play, Dominguez needs to play, Grisham is tearing the cover off of the ball and Rice is the team’s second-best hitter after Judge. You can’t sit Rice right now. You shouldn’t sit Grisham. But because none of those four play third base, someone has to sit. It may be time for Rice to start taking ground balls at third? Maybe he already is or already has? Maybe he has and he sucked at it? All I know is the Yankees are wasting a lineup spot with whichever third baseman of the day they choose and are putting someone on the bench that shouldn’t be on the bench at the moment..

9. The Yankees will face Jack Flaherty in the series finale. The last time the Yankees saw Flaherty, they chased him in the second inning of Game 5 of the World Series. Flaherty has been very good in his first two starts of the season, and given the way the Yankees offense has hit the last three days, it’s hard to feel confident with them at the moment. It’s also hard not to think they will be thinking about an afternoon getaway day game and returning home tonight with tomorrow off.

10. The series finale is the kind of start the Yankees got Max Fried for. Three straight losses and a matchup against an unimpressive offense. This is a game the Yankees need to Fried to go out there and hand the ball off to Luke Weaver and then Devin Williams with no one in between and salvage the final game of the series and road trip.

1. If a starting pitcher allows five earned runs in six innings, it equates to a 7.50 ERA. There isn’t a person who should think that’s acceptable, especially if the pitcher is making roughly $800,000 per start. But there’s one.

“I thought he threw the ball great,” Aaron Boone said of Carlos Rodon’s disastrous start in Detroit, “I really did.”

2. Last week at Yankee Stadium, Zac Gallen (6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 13 K) “threw the ball great.” Ex-Yankee Andrew Heaney on Sunday against the Yankees (7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K) “threw the ball great.” Tigers starter Casey Mize on Monday against the Yankees (6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K) “threw the ball great.” What Rodon did on Monday wasn’t “great.” It was abysmal. It was the type of performance Rodon has given as a Yankees more often than not.

3. “Look, he doesn’t get a call in that inning and makes the one mistake that turns into a three-run homer,” Boone said. “But really outside of that I thought he was excellent.”

Ah yes, outside of the three-run homer that decided the game, Rodon was excellent. Even if outside of the home run he allowed two other earned runs to score and an unearned one. Six runs and five earned in six innings: the definition of excellence.

4. The whining about the missed third strike call in the third inning is embarrassing. Rodon got countless fastballs outside the strike zone called in his favor early in the game. When he didn’t get a 3-2 pitch called his way in his third, it set up first and second with one out for the Tigers. (The 8- and 9-hitters were on first and second, both from walks.) Rodon bounced back to get the second out of the inning on a strikeout. He was one out away from getting out of the inning and couldn’t get it.

5. “We roll that Carlos every time,” Boone said, “we’re going to be in a good spot.”

If the Yankees allow a run per inning every start they’re going to be in a good spot? What? They did that on Monday and lost. They did it on Sunday and lost. They did it on Saturday and were fortunate the offense showed up.

6. “I thought he did a lot of really good things,” Boone said. “I thought he was in control of the game.”

Why was he in control? Because he had eight strikeouts in six innings against a weak offense? He certainly didn’t look in control when he walked the 8- and 9-hitters to start the Tigers’ third-inning rally. He didn’t look in control when he gave up the three-run home run to Andy Ibanez. He didn’t look in control when he walked the 8-hitter again in the fifth and allowed two runs to score immediately after the Yankees had gotten on the board.

In Rodon’s last start, we had to hear about how the rain and weather affected him, while Gallen tossed an all-time gem. Today, it was the wind chill impacting Rodon, while Mize continued to get out after out. There’s always an excuse with him. The weather, heckling fans, a mound visit he didn’t want, a pitch that didn’t get called his way.

7. Rodon was bad on Monday, which he usually is, but even if he had been better, it likely wouldn’t have mattered because a day after getting humiliated by Heaney in Pittsburgh, the offense gave themselves a day off in Detroit.

“I thought we were very close there to really putting together a couple of big innings,” Boone said of his offense as each delusional answer he provided Meredith Marakovits one-upped his previous one.

That will be a good name for the Boone autobiography about his time as Yankees manager whenever his time in the position ends (if it ever does).

“‘I Thought We Were Very Close:’ My Time as Yankees Manager” by Aaron Boone with Andy Martino, foreword by Brian Cashman.

8. Ben Rice reached base three times (but was also inexplicably picked off third), Aaron Judge had an RBI single and a walk and Paul Goldschmidt had two hits. Those were the offensive highlights. The Yankees had seven hits in the game and one for extra bases. Jazz Chisholm, Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells at 5-6-7 combined to go 1-for-12 with five strikeouts. Cody Bellinger continued his early-season failures with runners on and Oswaldo Cabrera went 0-for-4 after being bench the last two games following his three-hit game on Friday. Jasson Dominguez didn’t play because the only prospect to get to play every day from the moment he reached the league (despite horrific results) in this era has been Volpe.

9. The Yankees’ offense scored one run and the Tigers’ defense gave them another. They were shut down by Mize, and three relievers, with Tommy Kahnle being the last of those three. Sure enough, Kahnle pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the game and striking out two, while successfully mixing his fastball and changeup, after only using his changeup for an extended period of time in October, which ultimately led to the Yankees’ demise in Game 5 of the World Series. A memorable performance on consecutive days for ex-Yankees Heaney, Kahnle, Dennis Santana, Caleb Ferguson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

10. The Yankees couldn’t hit Casey Mize and now they get to face the reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal on Tuesday. Carlos Carrasco will go for the Yankees in what is the biggest discrepancy in starting pitching ability you can have in a matchup this season. Aside from the ninth inning on Sunday, the offense has taken the last two days off. It would be nice if it decides to return to work on Tuesday.

1. On Friday, before the Yankees opened a three-game season in Pittsburgh, I wrote: Anything less than a series win (especially with Paul Skenes not pitching), would be a disappointment. The series wasn’t a disappointment and was successful because the Yankees did win it, but it could have been and (nearly was) so much more if they had completed their three-run, ninth-inning comeback on Sunday and finished the job with a sweep.

2. The Yankees received one strong starting pitching effort in the series and that came from Max Fried on Friday (5.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR). It felt like Fried wasn’t even that good, and yet, he allowed one run over 5 1/3 innings. It’s exciting to think about how good Fried will be when he’s “on” in one of his starts, which he certainly wasn’t on Opening Day and really wasn’t against the Pirates.

Fried was the beneficiary of 20 runs from his offense in the second game of the season, and he got more than enough run support again on Friday in the Yankees’ 9-4 win.

“It’s been incredible, especially the early runs,” Fried said. “It takes a lot off me, where I know that I can be a little more aggressive and go after guys.”

Fried is the last pitcher on the Yankees who needs run support. Marcus Stroman, on the other hand, could use all the help he can get.

3. After being bad against the Brewers last weekend (4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 HR), Stroman was even worse against the Pirates (4 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K). In two starts, he’s pitched 8 2/3 innings, allowing seven earned runs for a nice, tidy 7.27 ERA.

In his start on Saturday, after giving back a two-run lead and then some with four runs against in the fourth, he was saved by a six-run outburst from the offense the following inning. I thought with a four-run lead Aaron Boone would send Stroman back out for the fifth to try to squeeze every last out of him, but instead, he did the right thing and pulled him, preventing further damage and the Yankees were able to coast to a 10-4 win.

I don’t think Boone pulled Stroman because he recognized it as the smart thing to do to win the game. I think he pulled him because the Yankees are going to do everything they can to prevent Stroman’s innings clause for 2026 from kicking in. If Stroman throws 140 innings this season, he is guaranteed $18 million for next season. With 8 2/3 innings through two starts, Stroman is on pace for 139 innings if he were to make 32 starts. For as bad as he has been, there is a very realistic path to him reaching that number even with four- and 4 2/3-innings starts. That means Boone will always have a short leash and an early hook for Stroman this season, and that’s a good thing.

4. Will Warren had himself a Stroman-esque start on Sunday: 4 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 4 R, 1 BB, 5 K. Warren retired the first eight batters of the game before unraveling in the fourth.

“There was a lot of good in there,” Boone said of Warren, “mixed with little spots where he lost it.”

I would say it was a big spot where he lost it: with two outs and no one on in the fourth. From that moment on, Warren went walk, single, double, single, strikeout, groundout, triple, sacrifice fly, single, double, strikeout. I thought Warren was going to be good and then he walked Isiah Kiner-Falefa (who doesn’t walk) with two outs to start the third-inning rally and let Kiner-Falefa crush a first-pitch, RBI double to the gap in the fourth.

Kiner-Falefa wasn’t the only ex-Yankee to have big day against his former team, keeping up with a tradition that seemingly will never end (except for Nestor Cortes in the second game of the season, though Cortes is now on the injured list with the same injury that kept him out for most of September and most of October last season before Boone decided he was the best option to try to get Freddie Freeman out in Game 1 of the World Series). Joining Kiner-Falefa in the series finale was the pitching trio of Andrew Heaney, Dennis Santana and Caleb Ferguson, all former Yankees pitchers who were all designated for assignment by the team. Heaney had a 7.32 ERA in 35 2/3 innings as a Yankee, Santana had a 6.26 in 27 1/3 innings and Ferguson had a 5.13 in 33 1/3 innings. The trio combined to throw nine innings of one-run ball in the Yankees’ 5-4, 11-inning loss on Sunday.

5. The Yankees’ issues with left-handed pitching have been pronounced through nine games as every opposing manager is doing what he can to throw as many lefties as possible against the Yankees. This isn’t a small sample size issue either. When you can’t hit Heaney (who struck out 10 over seven innings) and Ferguson (who pitched around the automatic runner against the heart of the order in the 10th), it’s a big-time problem.

After staging an improbable comeback down three runs in the ninth, the Yankees were set up to take the lead in the 10th with Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm due up. They had used Luke Weaver in the eighth, had him available for a second inning, if needed, and also had Devin Williams available. The extra-inning setup was heavily advantageous for them. And they pissed it away.

With the automatic runner (Paul Goldschmidt) on second to start the 10th, Bellinger got ahead of Ferguson 3-0. If Bellinger were to walk, the Pirates would be forced to pitch to Judge. Bellinger took the 3-0 pitch down the middle and then swung at a slider low, away and in the other batter’s box for strike 2. It was a selfish, undisciplined swing decision from Bellinger. Now at 3-2, he would need to at least put the ball in play to move Goldschmidt to third. He did that, but the Pirates, as expected, sent Judge to first.

Then came Chisholm, who is about the last Yankee you want up in a situational hitting scenario. After putting himself in a hole, Chisholm eventually put the ball in play, but it was a weak flare just past the infield that was easily catchable and too shallow for Goldschmidt to tag up on. Anthony Volpe ended the inning with a groundout.

6. Weaver made quick work of the Pirates in the 10th, but the Yankees couldn’t capitalize on a Pirates error in the 11th with the automatic runner on third and one out. In the bottom of the 11th, the Pirates stole third with one out against Williams, and idiotically Boone let Williams pitch to Tommy Pham, the Pirates one veteran hitter, with first and second base open and Pham hit the ball to left field for the walk-off win.

“It was a little bit of a tough day for us offensively,” Boone said, but what a great rally there in the ninth to get us back into it.”

It was a great rally, ruined by the Yankees’ situational hitting in extras. There’s a reason the Yankees have been one of the league’s worst teams in extra innings since the automatic runner was implemented five years ago: a combination of bad situational hitters and an uninspiring manager. The Pirates stole third with one out in the 11th, knowing they were unlikely to get a hit off of Williams to win the game. The Yankees? They waited around for a hit that never came and wasn’t going to come once Judge was intentionally walked.

7. Williams’ numbers were so good with the Brewers that he had become the best reliever in baseball, at least on paper. But so far, as a Yankee, he has been extremely underwhelming. Maybe that’s because it’s not ideal to have your closer’s best pitch be a changeup. He gets a pass for now, considering his Opening Day debacle was his first appearance with his new team in freezing weather, then he missed time with the birth of his child, and had a long layoff. I expected him to be more unhittable than he has been, and not Tommy Kahnle 2.0.

8. Trent Grisham has been Juan Soto 2.0 through the first week-and-a-half of the season. Grisham is hitting .455/.538/.909 with three home runs, nine RBIs, three walks and only four strikeouts. He homered twice on Saturday and drove in the game-tying runs in the ninth on Sunday. He has already passed Alex Verdugo’s 2024 season in terms of WAR despite this season being only six percent complete and despite Grisham having only started only five of the Yankees’ nine games.

9. After a big first two games as a Yankee, Bellinger is 2-for-19 with six strikeouts sandwiched around missing a couple of games with a stiff back on Friday and Saturday. In the last four games hitting in front of Judge, he’s 2-for-16 with two walks and seven strikeouts. The Yankees are 1-3 in those games. If you’re going to hit in front of Judge, you have to hit, especially since you’re getting pitches to hit.

10. It would be good if Bellinger started hitting in Detroit because the Yankees are going to need him. They are going to need all of the offense they can get (and will continue to need it until Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil return) as they face Casey Mize (5 2/3 shutout innings in his first start this season), Tarik Skubal (reigning Cy Young winner) and Jack Flaherty (typically tough except for Game 5 of the World Series) over the next three frigid afternoons. They will counter with Carlos Rodon (5.48 ERA in 13 career starts against the Tigers), Carlos Carrasco (I don’t think anyone will ever feel good about him starting) and Max Fried (the Yankees’ only trustworthy starter).

The Yankees struggled with Detroit last season and then the Tigers miraculously made the playoffs, knocked off the Astros and took the Guardians to do-or-die Game 5 before their season ended. The Tigers paved the path to the World Series for the Yankees. (Had the Yankees played the Tigers in the ALCS, I think it would have been problematic given their pitching staff.) This is going to be a tough series.

1. Last July, in the middle of their annual midseason free fall, the Yankees were swept at home in a three-game series by the Reds. It was the first time the Yankees were swept at home by a National League team in a series of at least three games in the history of interleague play. (Another nice highlight for Aaron Boone’s managerial résumé.) On Thursday, the Yankees were faced with the possibility of being swept at home by an NL team for the second time in as many seasons after having never been from 1997 through 2023.

“We don’t get swept at home,” Giancarlo Stanton reportedly told the Yankees clubhouse before Thursday’s series (and season) finale against the Diamondbacks (apparently forgetting about last season’s Reds series). And they didn’t. But their manager, his bullpen management and the back end of their bullpen tried their hardest to.

2. The Yankees took a 3-0 lead in the first inning before making an out, thanks to an Aaron Judge three-run home run. The lead was extended to 4-0 in the opening inning after a Jasson Dominguez single and Trent Grisham double.

Carlos Carrasco gave a run back in the second, but the Yankees got that run back and more when Grisham hit a two-run home run to give them a 6-1 lead through three. Carrasco allowed two in the top half of the fourth, but again the Yankees responded in the bottom half of the inning with a Judge RBI single and a Jazz Chisholm two-run home run to make it 9-3. A six-run lead through four with a well-rested bullpen? Not even Boone could screw this up, but he would try.

3. Carrasco was pulled with one out in the sixth and Adam Ottavino got the last two outs of the inning to preserve the 9-3 lead. In the seventh, the game began to unravel.

Ryan Yarbrough relieved Ottavino for the seventh. He began his night by walking the Diamondbacks’ 8 and 9 hitters. Corbin Carroll followed with a base hit to load the bases with no outs. Yarbrough had thrown 15 pitches and only six for strikes. He had loaded the bases with no outs for the heart of the Diamondbacks’ order. He had faced the minimum three batters and could be removed from the game. Boone decided to stick with the pitcher the Yankees signed three days before Opening Day after he opted out of his minor-league deal with the Blue Jays believing Yarbrough was about to find “it” and turn his night around. Yarbrough allowed a grand slam to the next batter, Geraldo Perdomo.

4. The Yankees’ 9-3 lead was now 9-7 with still no one out in the seventh. Boone decided not retiring any of the four batters Yarbrough faced while allowing four runs wasn’t as bad as it was, so he stayed with him until he recorded a couple of outs. Then Boone called on Mark Leiter Jr. to get the last out of the inning.

The Yankees’ six-run lead had been cut to two, but with a more-than-rested Luke Weaver available, certainly Boone would go to his best (available) reliever (with Devin Williams still on paternity leave) for two innings. Six outs from Weaver would be more than doable since Boone passed on using him in a similar situation on Tuesday and because Weaver hadn’t been used in a week since Opening Day last Thursday.

5. When the eighth began, Leiter Jr. was still on the mound and Weaver was still in the bullpen. Was Weaver hurt and the Yankees weren’t announcing it? Was Boone trying to save him for only the ninth like he regrettably had two nights prior? What the fuck was going on?

After Leiter Jr. allowed a two-out base hit to bring the tying run to the plate, Boone called for Weaver. So Boone was willing to go to Weaver for four outs, but not before Leiter Jr. brought the tying run to the plate. If Boone was willing to go to Weaver for four outs (which he did), why didn’t he come into the game after Leiter Jr. got the second out of the inning? Stealing outs, that’s why. In Year 8 of Boone as manager, he’s still managing like he’s making his managerial debut in Toronto eight years ago.

6. Unsurprisingly, Weaver retired pinch-hitter Gabriel Moreno to end the eighth and then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to prevent the Yankees from being swept by the Diamondbacks and from falling to .500. (If only Boone had used Weaver two nights early in a situation that called for Weaver rather than a set inning, the Yankees may be 5-1 right now instead of 4-2.)

7. “We never exhale,” Judge said. “We’ve seen that too many times in this game, where you score early and a team answers right back. That’s been our thing at the beginning of this year: Don’t let off the gas.” Keep scoring until you get that final out.”

Judge knows the team can’t exhale with Boone’s bullpen management. No lead is safe with Boone pushing the buttons. This new mantra from the Yankees must be from what unfolded after they took a 5-0 lead in Game 5 of the World Series.

For any Yankees fan who want to blame Yarbrough for the grand slam rather than Boone for sticking with him after he loaded the bases, you’re a fool. This wasn’t Boone sticking with an elite relief option. This was Boone sticking with a reliever who couldn’t get a major-league offer in the offseason and then became a Yankee at the end of spring training because of the litany of injuries to the pitching staff.

8. To Boone’s credit, he did put together a lineup that generated nine runs, even if four of those runs were driven in by Judge and penciling Judge into the lineup is as automatic as Boone stealing outs late in a close game. But Boone did slot Ben Rice in the leadoff spot and he doubled, walked twice and scored two runs, and he played Grisham and he went 3-for-4 with a double, home run and three RBIs.

9. A year ago to the day (April 3), Merrill Kelly pitched well against the Yankees in Arizona (7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR), but in this one he was atrocious: 3.2 IP, 9 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 3 HR. Carrasco was “fine” for Carrasco (5.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) and pitched about as well as any Yankees fan could ask for at this stage of his career. If he can hold the damage to three runs in five-plus innings per start for as long as he’s here, the team will be OK in games he starts. The next time he will get the ball is on Tuesday in Detroit.

Before then, the Yankees will play three against the Pirates in Pittsburgh as part of their first road trip of the season. Thankfully, they’ll miss Paul Skenes in the series (though they will see Tarik Skubal next week).

10. The Pirates are horrible. They are off to a 2-5 start with a negative-12 run differential and it’s highly likely they never see .500 again this season. Anthony Volpe has as many home runs (4) as the entire Pirates roster and the Yankees scored more runs in eight innings last Saturday (20) than the Pirates have scored in seven games (18). This is the type of team contenders beat up on, which the Yankees believe they are. Actually, this is the type of team every team beats up on, as the also-lowly Marlins took three of four from them to begin the season. Anything less than a series win (especially with Skenes not pitching), would be a disappointment.

1. Yesterday, following Tuesday’s first loss of the season, I wrote:

The Yankees can never just lose. By “just lose” I mean get blown out, shut down, shut out, never have a chance in the game. They either win, blow a game late, bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth, have an abundance of blown opportunities to tie or take the lead, or suffer a painful, excruciating loss. Yes, it keeps every game entertaining and means the Yankees are “in” every game, but at the same time, their losses and the way they lose always seem to be extremely detrimental to the health and wellbeing of their fans.

I finished yesterday’s Thoughts with this:

If the Yankees don’t get back in the win column on Wednesday or Thursday, I’m sure it will come as the result of an agonizing loss. That’s the only way they lose.

The Yankees lost a second straight game on Wednesday, and sure enough, it was the type of loss where they drag you back in in the ninth by bringing the tying run to the plate only to lose anyway.

2. For the first eight-and-a-half innings on Wednesday, the Yankees’ 4-3 loss to the Diamondbacks was shaping up to be a “Get ’em tomorrow” kind of game. Carlos Rodon was brutal in the first two innings, staking the Diamondbacks to a 4-0 lead, and Zac Gallen was masterful for 6 2/3 innings, completely stifling the Yankees’ bats, both standard and torpedo.

It was exactly a year to the day (April 2) that Gallen shut down the 2024 Yankees in Arizona: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K. But he was even better against the 2025 Yankees on Wednesday: 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 13 K. Combine those two lines and you get 12.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 19 K. That is a Cliff Lee-against-the-Yankees line.

“It will be a game we will look back on,” Aaron Boone said. “He was just dialed in. He had both breaking balls going. The changeup was working. He was moving the fastball around.”

So based on that summarization, Gallen was … pitching? Using two two breaking balls?! Throwing an effective changeup?! Moving around the fastball?! He was … doing his job? Something Rodon didn’t do in the game until it was too late.

3. Gallen kept the Yankees’ bats off balance the entire night, consistently getting swings and misses on his curveball and changeup. It was frustrating to watch his dominance as he became the first pitcher in history to strike out 13 Yankees without allowing a walk for a win.

The strikeouts didn’t end with Gallen. In 2 1/3 innings of relief, the Diamondbacks’ bullpen added three more for a game total of 16. Add those 16 to the 13 from the previous night and the Yankees struck out 29 times over the last two nights. Twenty-nine! TWENTY-NINE! Over two games, they struck out the equivalent of a full game of outs plus two more outs. That’s the thing about the torpedo bats: they only work when you make contact.

4. Austin Wells was the only Yankee to not strike out, while Aaron Judge, Jasson Dominguez and Ben Rice all picked up hat tricks at the plate. I wasn’t OK with the Yankees’ offensive effort, especially after they mustered only three non-error-aided runs the night before, but I was OK with them losing the way it seemed like they were going to lose rather than giving fans hope they may stage a late comeback. And then they went and tried to stage a late comeback.

5. After making a three-run lead stand up on Tuesday, A.J. Puk took the mound with a four-run lead on Wednesday. Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge greeted him with singles, but Jazz Chisholm flew out for the first out. Then Anthony Volpe torpedo’d the first pitch he saw just over the wall of the short porch for a three-run home run. Suddenly, the Yankees’ four-run deficit was one.

In that situation I wish Volpe had singled, or walked, or doubled. If Volpe had loaded the bases with one out, or had driven in a run with still two on, I would have liked the Yankees’ chances more. I under statistically that’s wrong, but the math doesn’t account for the human element of Puk having to deal with runners on base and increased pressure. Once Volpe cleared the bases, it allowed a Puk to reset, and he got Wells to pop up and struck out Dominguez to end the game.

6. Never a normal loss. That’s what I wrote after Tuesday’s loss, and it proved true again on Wednesday. The Yankees couldn’t just go down quietly in the ninth. They had to make you momentarily believe they could do to the Diamondbacks what the Diamondbacks had done to them the previous night. They had to make you start playing the “what if” game from the earlier innings. Like what if the Yankees hadn’t stranded runners on second and third with one out in the second? What if Rodon hadn’t thrown 92-mph meatballs in the first two innings? Unfortunately, they did strand those runners, and unfortunately, Rodon was awful in the first two innings.

7. “[Early in the game] maybe it was just a little weather-related, a little cooler and stuff,” Aaron Boone said of Rodon’s performance. “[Rodon] was searching to find the strike zone a little bit there in those first couple of innings, but I thought stuff-wise, once he settled in, he was pretty good.”

YES also talked about Rodon being affected by the weather in the first two innings. Oddly, Gallen didn’t have any issue with the weather. Rodon has spent his career pitching for the White Sox, Giants and Yankees, all teams that are exposed to the elements and all teams that have games at the beginning and end of seasons in poor weather. Gallen has only ever pitched for the Marlins and Diamondbacks, in controlled climates, where weather isn’t a factor.

It’s nice that Boone thought Rodon had “pretty good” stuff “once he settled in.” Once he settled in the Yankees were down four runs against once of the game’s best pitchers. It was the type of performance we have seen from Rodon so many times where he puts the team in an early hole and then figures it out once it’s too late. I guess being able to regrow facial hair wasn’t the key to unlocking the White Sox and Giants version of Rodon.

8. It was a bad night at the plate for everyone other than Wells (single, double, only Yankee to not strike out) and Volpe (three-run home run). I understand Wells hasn’t led off since Opening Day because Boone says the Yankees have faced reverse-split starters since then, but it didn’t seem to matter which hand any of the Yankees used to bat against Gallen on Wednesday. As for Volpe, he has four hits this season and all are home runs. He batted seventh on Opening Day, and then after homering in that game, he has batted fifth since. Being the Golden Boy of the organization is nice.

I could see Wells sitting for the first time of the season on Thursday. I could also see Paul Goldschmidt sitting since Michael Kay said as much on the broadcast, opining, “In all likelihood — he’s played all five games — probably gets tomorrow off,” in regard to Goldschmidt. I’m sure Kay knows something. No Wells and no Goldschmidt would mean the Yankees would need to use a third leadoff hitter for their sixth game of the year.

9. It will be Merrill Kelly against Carlos Carrasco on Wednesday in the series finale. Kelly was good in his first start of the season and was good against the Yankees on April 3 of last year: 7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR. (It’s crazy both Gallen and Kelly will face the Yankees on the same dates in consecutive seasons.)

I don’t have a lot of confidence in Carrasco. He was good enough to win a roster spot on the team in spring training, helped by the excessive injuries to the Yankees’ staff, but he was horrible in two innings of relief against the Brewers. Do you think Carrasco is the guy who pitched well in fake games in March, or the guy who a 5.36 ERA over his last 401 1/3 innings dating back to 2021? I don’t expect much from Carrasco. I don’t expect anything. I expect Carrasco to make Rodon’s performance from Wednesday feel like Gallen’s based on how I think Carrasco is going to fare on Thursday.

10. Carrasco is pitching for his career at this point. He’s already in line to be a DFA candidate once (if) the Yankees’ pitching gets healthy. Maybe that’s enough for him to turn back the clock five-plus years. It wasn’t when he pitched on Saturday. It needs to be on Thursday, or the offense is going to have to show up after taking the last two nights off. Otherwise, all of the runs, all of the home runs, all of the winning from the weekend will be undone and the Yankees will be sitting at .500.

1. The Yankees can never just lose. By “just lose” I mean get blown out, shut down, shut out, never have a chance in the game. They either win, blow a game late, bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth, have an abundance of blown opportunities to tie or take the lead, or suffer a painful, excruciating loss. Yes, it keeps every game entertaining and means the Yankees are “in” every game, but at the same time, their losses and the way they lose always seem to be extremely detrimental to the health and wellbeing of their fans. Sure enough, they couldn’t “just lose” for their first loss of 2025.

2. It would have been easy to stomach Will Warren getting knocked around by a very good Diamondbacks lineup in his first start as officially part of the Yankees’ rotation. It would have been acceptable if the bats went quiet against Corbin Burnes and never had a chance in the game. But no, Warren was solid (5 IP, 2 ER), Burnes gave up a pair of solo home runs to Jasson Dominguez and Anthony Volpe to allow the Yankees to tie the game, and Josh Naylor, of all players, gifted the Yankees a two-run error to give them a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning.

3. Aaron Boone had it easy in the first three games of the season. On Opening Day, he was able to go from starter to middle relief to Luke Weaver to Devin Williams for a win. Things got rocky with Williams, but if he had blown the three-run lead in the ninth, no one would have faulted Boone as the game unfolded easily for him, presenting the blueprint for a win my four-year-old son could have implemented. Then in the second game of the season, the Yankees blasted the Brewers for 20 runs, and in the third game, another 12. Boone didn’t have to manage or make any difficult decisions for the first three games of the year. Then came Tuesday.

4. Once it was announced Devin Williams would be out of the equation for the birth of his child, you knew the back end of the game would have the opportunity to be complicated for Boone, and it was. After Fernando Cruz gave the Yankees two perfect and dominant relief innings with four strikeouts to keep their 4-2 lead from the fourth, Boone went to Tim Hill with the 8-9-1 hitters due up in the eighth. Torey Lovullo had Randal Grichuk (who kills both lefties and the Yankees) on his bench, and once Hill took the mound, Grichuk went in as a pinch hitter, and immediately rocked a leadoff double to left. Geraldo Perdomo followed with a single down the first-base line, and just like that, the Yankees’ lead was down to 4-3 and the Diamondbacks had the tying run on base with no outs.

Hill retired Corbin Carroll for the first out of the game, and then Boone had a decision to make. He could gamble and try to preserve the lead by getting the next out or two with Hill or another middle relief option to save Luke Weaver for the ninth inning, or he could go to Weaver right then with the tying run on second and heart of the Diamondbacks’ order due up. If you didn’t see the game, you already know which choice Boone made.

5. Boone called on Mark Leiter Jr., who was good in the Brewers series, but has been a disaster since becoming a Yankee. In order to preserve the lead, Leiter would have to get the final two outs of the eighth against the Diamondbacks’ 2-3-4 hitters.

Leiter didn’t get the last two outs of the eighth. He got one, and then gave up a go-ahead grand slam to Eugenio Suarez on a 2-2 splitter that split in the strike zone. After taking a fastball down the middle in the second pitch of the at-bat and swinging through a fastball on the fourth pitch of the at-bat, it was obvious Suarez wasn’t sitting on a fastball from Leiter. Paul O’Neill said as much based on Suarez’s takes on YES. But that didn’t stop Leiter (and Austin Wells) from going away from the fastball on the fifth pitch, and the Yankees were on their way to their first loss of the season.

“Just not his sharpest outing,” Boone said of Leiter. “It just wasn’t a good split, obviously, that he threw there.”

6. You have to love Boone essentially saying the loss was on Leiter. Did Leiter insert himself into a high-leverage situation against the heart of an order on Tuesday? If Williams had been with the team, it would have been Weaver in the eighth and Williams in the ninth, and Boone’s job would have been as easy as it had been on Opening Day. But because Weaver became the interim closer for the night he had to pitch the ninth for Boone. I thought baseball had evolved from set innings for relievers when Terry Francona went to Andrew Miller in the middle innings of the 2016 postseason. I thought the idea of having your best reliever pitch against the heart of the order with the game on the line regardless of the inning was more important than having them pitch in a set inning regardless of which part of the order was due up. Just look in the other dugout where Lovullo did just that.

7. “The Diamondbacks’ closer is Kevin Ginkel and he is out with shoulder inflammation, so they are mixing and maxing with Martinez who we saw in the eighth and A.J. Puk,” Michael Kay said on YES. “The better hitters were coming up in the eighth inning and they had Martinez pitch the eighth and he stuck them out.”

Lovullo went to his best reliever in the eighth with Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm due up. All Martinez did was strike out the side and put any hope of a comeback on life support. Puk pitched the ninth and even though Puk typically can’t be trusted, he could be with a three-run lead against the bottom of the order. Puk’s chance at success was vastly improved when the left-handed reliever was given an all-left-handed-batter lane to face in the ninth. How did Puk get that lane? From Boone, of course, who inexplicably pulled Dominguez after his at-bat in the sixth to put Trent Grisham in the game for defensive purposes.

“Taking Dominguez out and bringing in Grisham,” Kay said, “you set up a lane for Lovullo to bring in a lefty and counteract three straight lefties.”

8. Do the Yankees really need Grisham playing one-third of every game for defensive purposes? Do they really think that’s best for the development of Dominguez as an outfielder? All Dominguez did earlier in the game was improve his OPS to .974 on the year with his first home run of the season. (After getting ahead of Puk 1-0, Grisham took three straight strikes to strike out.)

9. Yes, it was just one loss, their first loss. Yes it’s going to happen many more times this season (but hopefully not more than 73 times for my over 88.5 wins wager). Did the Yankees deserve to win? No, it’s hard to win when you score three non-error-aided runs, strike out 14 times and have a manager who continues to be clueless in his eighth season in the position. But the Yankees could have won. They were gifted two runs with a Cy Young-caliber pitcher on the mound and were four outs away from a win.

10. Now it’s up to the two Carloses to prevent undoing everything from the wild opening weekend against the Brewers. If the Yankees don’t get back in the win column on Wednesday or Thursday, I’m sure it will come as the result of an agonizing loss. That’s the only way they lose.

1. I feared Nestor Cortes shutting down the Yankees on Saturday at the Stadium the way so many ex-Yankees have over the years. My fear was all for nothing as Cortes did his best to repay Yankees fans for the Freddie Freeman walk-off grand slam he allowed in Game 1 of the World Series. Cortes will never be able to completely make up that moment to Yankees fans (though the blame is really more on Aaron Boone for using Cortes in that spot after he hadn’t pitched in weeks), but his performance in the second game of the season was a good start.

2. The first three pitches Cortes threw were all hit out of the park. First, it was Paul Goldschmidt, then it was Cody Bellinger, and finally, Aaron Judge. My four-year-old son who was in attendance with me and taking in his second game in the Bronx was stunned. As “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” played again and again and again and the crowd enjoying the 80-degree March weather went wild, my son trying to process what was happening looked at me with an expression of ‘Does this happen at every game?’

Sadly, it doesn’t. But after the back-to-back-to-back home runs had Cortes sitting on an infinite ERA three batters into his season, Austin Wells hit one out three batters after Judge. The next inning, Anthony Volpe did the same. Cortes was removed from the game after facing one batter in the third, and left having allowed eight earned runs, 11 baserunners and five home runs, while recording just six outs.

3. Amazingly, the power barrage didn’t end there. After Cortes was removed for walking Jasson Dominguez, Connor Thomas entered for his major-league debut and allowed a Trent Grisham single then hit Paul Goldschmidt with a pitch. Bellinger singled in Dominguez and Judge followed with a grand slam. Three pitches later with the crowd still celebrating Judge’s slam, Jazz Chisholm drilled a solo homer. The Yankees led 13-3 and had hit seven home runs. It was the third inning.

The next inning, Bellinger drove in another run and Judge hit another home run, his third in as many at-bats. The Yankees led 16-4 and had hit eight home runs. It was the fourth inning.

In the seventh, Oswald Peraza hit the Yankees’ ninth home run of the day, setting a franchise record for a single game.

4. After surviving the ninth inning on Opening Day, the Yankees blasted the Brewers 20-9 on Saturday. In a game that was essentially over in the second inning and had the floodgates blown open in the third inning, it wasn’t a game that lacked criticism for the Yankees. The same type of sloppy defense that we saw throughout 2024 (and have seen throughout the Boone era) was on full display in this one. The Yankees made five errors in the game, had trouble fielding ground balls and throwing to first base. Max Fried wasn’t sharp (4.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K), but he got zero help behind him.

5. During the game, the YES booth went into the Yankees’ use of the “torpedo” bat designed by an MIT physicist and former Yankees employee. They explained how the team had developed new bats based on where their players were most likely to make contact with the ball. For players like Anthony Volpe and Jazz Chisholm who were shown using the bat, that happened to be on the label.

The Yankees’ analytics team has finally used their intelligence for good. After years of creating fictional stats to try to sell on the fans on the notion Gleyber Torres is among the best defensive second basemen in the game, that Joey Gallo is worth trading for and that taking on the $53 million owed to Josh Donaldson would be worth it, the brains behind the scenes did something great with the invention of the torpedo. With it, Volpe (.952 OPS) is a major-league hitter and Chisholm (1.667 OPS) is hitting like the left-handed Judge. Bellinger (1.057 OPS) is using some form of it, as is Goldschmidt (1.250 OPS). I love the torpedo bat.

6. Maybe the Yankees were going to destroy Brewers pitching to open the series no matter what. (It’s not like the trio of Freddy Peralta, Cortes and Aaron Civale is anything special.) And maybe with the weather being what it was on Saturday, feeling like mid-June in late March, the ball was going to fly out of the park with 90-mph middle-middle meatballs being thrown. But I would like to think the torpedo bat is what led to this because I want to be proud of the Yankees’ analytics department.

7. After going 4-for-6 with a double, three home runs and eight RBIs on Saturday, Judge, who isn’t using the torpedo bat, homered in his first at-bat on Sunday, which made the wind in the Bronx less annoying as the weather had turned back into what late-March weather is expected to be.

The two-run shot gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead after Marcus Stroman unsurprisingly allowed a first-inning run. The Yankees added to their lead in the second when Ben Rice hit a solo home run, and added more in the third when Chisholm hit a two-run home run. After homering on Saturday and in the third inning on Sunday, Chisholm, the face of the torpedo bat, hit his third home run of the weekend in the seventh inning, and the Yankees went on to win 12-3. Again, I love the torpedo bat.

8. I’m sure by the end of this week (and maybe by Monday’s games) many players throughout the league will be trying out a version of the torpedo bat. When you hit 15 home runs and score 36 runs in 24 innings at a time of year when pitching is supposed to dominate, people tend to notice.

9. Going into this season-opening series I figured Boone would be able to lean on Luke Weaver and Devin Williams more than he normally would with a day off on Wednesday and Friday and Monday. Williams took himself out of the equation for the rest of the weekend with his Opening Day performance and Judge and the torpedo made it so Weaver wasn’t needed for the rest of the weekend as well.

Aside from Williams’ self-created mess on Thursday, the bullpen (including only real relievers and not Carrasco who threw two innings on Saturday) shut out the Brewers. Weaver, Tim Hill, Mark Leiter Jr., Yoendrys Gomez, Fernando Cruz, Brent Hendrick and Ryan Yarbrough combined for this line: 9.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 14 K. For a bullpen that lost Clay Holmes and Tommy Kahnle and is waiting on Jonathan Loaisiga and Jake Cousins, that will work.

10. I don’t think the Yankees can count on double-digit runs this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night against the Diamondbacks. In the Yankees’ favor is the Diamondbacks having to go from spring training to their indoor home in Arizona to now the freezing Bronx where temperatures are supposed to be postseason-like aside from Thursday. In the Diamondbacks’ favor is the trio of Corbin Burnes, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, who are all scheduled to start. The Yankees plan to counter with Will Warren, Carlos Rodon and Carlos Carrasco. At best, the pitching matchup in the second game of the series is even, otherwise the Diamondbacks have a massive edge on the mound with their three best. But their best has yet to face the torpedo bats.

1. The last nearly five months were long. Sure, the Yankees’ offseason was shorter than every team other than the Dodgers, but it didn’t feel that way.

First, it was the depression of reaching and losing the World Series, and losing it in such embarrassing and humiliating fashion. Then there was losing it to the Dodgers, my wife’s team, her family’s team. The team I have spent the 13 years I have known her chirping her for having never won a “real” World Series in her life and having not won a “real” one since 1988. (Of course that drought ended at the Yankees’ expense.)

The weeks following the World Series were filled with hearing her watching the Freddie Freeman Game 1 grand slam on a seemingly endless loop on the other side of the bed and listening to countless interviews of Dodgers players mocking the Yankees for their fifth-inning meltdown in Game 5.

I have spent some part of every day since thinking about what could have been in the World Series. What could have been if Aaron Boone hadn’t pulled Gerrit Cole early in Game 1 and gone to Nestor Cortes instead of Tim Hill. What could have been if Aaron Judge could catch a fly ball, if Anthony Volpe could make a basic throw to third base and if Cole could have covered first. Twenty years after the Yankees performed the only 3-0 series collapse in baseball history, I still believe they would have pulled it off if not for that fifth inning. My belief was only made stronger when Dave Roberts agreed over the winter, saying his team’s pitching would have been in a bad place if a Game 6 had been forced.

Then came the departure of Juan Soto. Then there was the Yankees’ disregard for signing a healthy, proven starting third baseman. While the offseason was technically the shortest the Yankees have experienced in 15 years, it felt a lot longer. I needed the 2025 season to start. I needed the Yankees to have a new last game that wasn’t the Game 5 of the World Series. I needed Opening Day.

2. I was in complete agreement with the Yankees when they announced Austin Wells would be their leadoff hitter this season (at least against righties). Unlike Yankees’ lineup decisions in the past like making Aaron Hicks the No. 3 hitter in 2021 (and then laughing at the media for questioning it when he started that season 1-for-15 with seven strikeouts, only for him to be removed from the spot two weeks into the season) or making Volpe the leadoff hitter despite being one of the worst everyday hitters in the league or rolling with Alex Verdugo as the cleanup hitter for an extended period despite being the actual worst everyday hitter in the league, putting Wells at leadoff made sense.

“It’s kind of exciting just getting to hit in front of Aaron Judge and trying to get on base for him,” Wells said of hitting leadoff. “I think that’s helped me a little bit mindset-wise, just getting on base any way I can.”

Wells at leadoff makes sense, simply because of his on-base percentage. The Yankees are starved for bats that get on base consistently, and outside of Judge, Wells is the next best on the team at it. Add in his power and the threat of giving the Yankees an early lead and Wells at leadoff works.

It certainly worked on Opening Day when he gave the Yankees that early lead, sending the third pitch of the year from Freddy Peralta into the short porch.

“To go out there and give us an early lead with that swing, we’ve seen it all spring,” Judge said. “He set the tone for the whole day for us.”

It wasn’t just a day of offense for Wells. Behind the plate he called a game that produced 13 strikeouts.

“I thought Wells was great with the pitch calling,” Carlos Rodon said. “He calls the pitches and I just roll. There’s not much decision-making on my part.”

3. If Rodon being able to have facial hair is all he needed to unlock the pitcher he was before he became a Yankee then they should have changed the policy two years ago. Rodon was getting swings and misses from all over the Brewers’ lineup, finishing with seven strikeouts and only one earned run on six baserunners across 5 1/3 innings.

“Really sharp command-wise,” Boone said of Rodon. “Good presence with everything. I thought he was really in command of his motions.”

Not only his motions, but Rodon kept his emotions in check and prevented the patented unraveling that seems to come in all of his starts when things don’t completely go his way from start to finish. Instead of letting a couple of baserunners turn into a crooked number, he kept getting outs.

4. If you thought Boone’s latest contract extension would change him as a manager, there he was sending Rodon back out for the sixth inning to face the 2-3-4 hitters for a third time. With a day off on Friday and one coming on Monday, the Yankees would be able to use their bullpen more than they would at most parts of the season. When Rodon went back out for the sixth, the Yankees held a one-run lead. I thought after he walked Christian Yelich he would be pulled, but he wasn’t. I thought after he retired William Contreras he would pulled, but he wasn’t. Boone then let him face the right-handed Rhys Hoskins, who has the most career plate appearances of any Brewer against Rodon and has had concerning success against him in those plate appearances. Rodon walked Hoskins and then Boone pulled him.

5. The middle relief of the Yankees was outstanding. Tim Hill got the last two outs of the sixth and keep Rodon’s ERA in tact. Mark Leiter Jr. pitched a perfect seventh, striking out two. Luke Weaver pitched around a walk in the eighth and struck out two. And then there was Devin Williams.

I called Williams the best reliever in baseball when the Yankees traded for him this winter. He came to the Yankees with 375 strikeouts and a 1.83 ERA and 1.023 WHIP in 235 2/3 career innings. In his Yankees debut, it felt like I was watching Clay Holmes still. (It was refreshing to see Holmes struggle in his Mets debut as their Opening Day starter in Houston.)

A three-run lead in the cold with the Brewers’ 6-7-8 hitters due up is as optimal as it gets for making your debut with a new team on a new mound in a new uniform in a new stadium. It couldn’t have been a better situation for Williams to ask for to get his feet wet as a Yankee, and he nearly ruined it.

A single, double and walk loaded the bases with no outs for the Brewers. The game had gone from nice, smooth Opening Day win to the tying run being on base and the winning run being at the plate. It’s not an exaggeration to think if the Brewers took the lead against Williams and went on to win that it would end up being the worst loss of the season.

Thankfully, it didn’t come to that. Williams got a sacrifice fly for the first out and then went on to strike out Jackson Chourio and Yelich to end the game, almost as if he was fucking with everyone to that point. After throwing 36 pitches in winter-like weather in the first game of the season, it wouldn’t surprise me if Williams is now down for the rest of this series.

“Love that he didn’t break,” Boone said (as we all know Holmes would have broke last year). “I was getting very uncomfortable to where he was from a pitch count standpoint.”

6. The Volpe we watched in the first two series of 2024 (against Houston and Arizona), and the Volpe we watched in the postseason in October is unlike the Volpe we have seen in roughly 94 percent of his 333 career games. The six-percent Volpe is the Volpe that played on Thursday. He may have only gone 1-for-4, but the one was a home run, and he saw 20 pitches in his four at-bats.

Volpe had an 83 OPS+ in his first two seasons. At 17 percent worse than league average, he is much closer to being a bust at this point than the franchise shortstop the Yankees have made him out to be over the last two years. For Volpe to take that next step, he’s going to need to have a lot more games like he had in Houston and Arizona to open last season and in the postseason and on Thursday.

7. Paul Goldschmidt, wearing No. 48, may as well be the right-handed Anthony Rizzo: a once-great player who became a Yankee in the middle of an obvious decline in abilities. Goldschmidt did his best to honor Rizzo’s 48 in the field by not taking the ball to first himself with Rodon on the mound and at the plate by going for 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in four non-competitive at-bats. Sure, it’s one game, but when you have been in decline for two full seasons as a player and when you have been scarred as a fan by recent organizational belief in Hicks, Josh Donaldson and DJ LeMahieu, it’s hard not to think about Goldschmidt not working out.

8. Goldschmidt wasn’t the only hitless Yankee in the opener. Jazz Chisholm was swinging for the fences like he did in October and Jasson Dominguez went 0-for-3 before being removed for defense late in the game. I understand wanting to get Grisham into games as often as possible to keep him fresh (he picked up a single in his only at at-bat), but is Dominguez going to be removed early in every game the Yankees lead? Based on Cody Bellinger’s comments after the game saying he knew he would be shifting from center to left late, it seems like that is Boone’s plan.

9. Judge and Bellinger both had hits in the game and the duo extended the Yankees’ lead from one to three in the seventh. Ben Rice looked good at the plate (double and walk), Oswaldo Cabrera hit a few balls on the screws and picked up a single. Overall, it was a pleasant first game of the season aside from the first three batters Williams faced in the ninth.

10. It’s annoying there’s no game on Friday for the scheduled day off in the event of an Opening Day rainout. But there’s a game on Saturday and another on Sunday. And another on Tuesday and Wednesday and so on. Yankees baseball is back, and after the way last season ended, the first game of this season and the way it went was needed.

1. Spring training is two weeks away. When the Yankees report to Tampa in a couple of weeks, there will be no Juan Soto. There will be no Gleyber Torres, Anthony Rizzo or Jose Trevino. There will be no Nestor Cortes or Clay Holmes. (If we’re lucky, there will be no Marcus Stroman.) The Yankees will look much different in mid-February than they did at the end of October. That’s a good thing.

The Yankees as currently constructed will be a better team when they show up to Steinbrenner Field than they were when they lost the final game of the 2024 MLB season at Yankee Stadium. Their lineup is longer, their rotation is better and their bullpen is deeper. They still have the same manager who decided to pull Luke Weaver in Game 1 of the World Series only to eventually bring in Cortes to face Freddie Freeman, but unfortunately, he will be here forever.

And with that let’s get to some questions from readers …

2. What’s the likelihood that the roster construction is essentially complete because Hal won’t approve any additional spending? – Mark

It’s not a likelihood, it’s a certainty. Whenever Hal Steinbrenner approves a massive signing, he skimps on some other area of the roster to make up for it. When the Yankees traded for Soto, they went into the season without a third baseman. When they signed Carlos Rodon, they decided not to have a left fielder. The Yankees signed Max Fried, and that means they are going to start the season without a trustworthy option at either second base or third base depending on which position Jazz Chisholm plays.

3. What internal options should be given the longest look at the infield spot Jazz doesn’t play? – Chris

It seemed like Caleb Durbin was in line to be that internal candidate, but he was traded for Devin Williams, so that leaves DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza.

LeMahieu is going to get the first look and the longest look. We know this because owed money is the first place the Yankees go in building their roster. LeMahieu is owed $30 million over 2025 and 2026, so even if Cabrera or Peraza make more sense, it’s going to take a while, and I mean months for LeMahieu to not play the majority of the games. Just look at how much the Yankees used LeMahieu last season when he couldn’t hit the ball in the air for weeks at a time and was 49 percent worse than league average as a hitter.

4. Cabrera deserved to play more than he did in 2024, but that’s the way it has gone for him in his three years in the majors. The Yankees did everything they could to not play Peraza in 2022 and 2023 when they had every opportunity to give him everyday playing time, so I find it hard to believe he will be given the chance to be an everyday player in 2025.

5. How short is DJ LeMahieu’s leash if he is the Opening Day third baseman? – Paul

The Yankees didn’t release LeMahieu last season because of the two years and $30 million owed to him. The same way the Yankees told everyone Aaron Hicks and Josh Donaldson would be fine in 2023 before releasing them both is likely what happens to LeMahieu in 2025. Hicks and Donaldson were easy to root against and extremely hard to root for. LeMahieu is the complete opposite. I desperately want LeMahieu to turn back the clock and be his old self because when he was at his best he was awesome.

6. Sadly, over the last four seasons he has missed 26 percent of the Yankees’ regular-season games and all of their postseason games, posting a .698 OPS in 2,010 plate appearances. LeMahieu is 36 now and will be 37 in July, and I don’t see how he suddenly becomes a player he hasn’t been in five years. I want him to, but I don’t know that it’s possible. The leash is going to be at least three months I would think.

Even without a complete infield for the second straight year (after deciding to not have a complete outfield for multiple consecutive seasons), the Yankees are the best team in the American League. But the goal isn’t to win the American League, it’s to win the World Series.

7. Who do you see as possibilities for left-handed bullpen signings besides Tim Hill? – Gregg

Tanner Scott? Oh wait, he signed with the Dodgers, just like seemingly everyone else.

I’m jealous of the Dodgers, and therefore, I’m jealous of my wife’s fandom as a Dodgers fan. For the entire holiday season, every time I entered the living room, there was a Dodgers World Champions ornament glistening on our Christmas Tree, serving as a daily reminder of the Yankees’ humiliating performance in the World Series.

8. The Yankees used to be the destination for every big-name international star, Japanese or Cuban, but now the Dodgers have cornered the Japanese market. The Yankees spent two decades living in the past, referencing the late-’90s and early-2000s rather than doing everything they could to keep the winning ways going. They have been to two World Series in 21 years and won one. Their payroll in 2017 was less than it was in 2005. After coming within one win of the World Series in 2017, they cut payroll by $50 million for 2018. TV revenue, ticket prices, merchandise and concession costs have grown exponentially, while the Yankees’ payroll has grown depressingly slowly … when it infrequently has increased. The Yankees went to the World Series last year and despite playing 14 postseason and seven home postseason games, they are going to have a lower payroll in 2025 than they had in 2024. I wonder if tickets to the Stadium and beer at the Stadium will cost less in 2025 than it did in 2024.

9. The Dodgers won 98 games last season despite losing Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone to season-ending injuries. Yoshinobu Yamamoto missed half of the season. Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin missed the entire season. They went into October with a bullpen/punt game built into a makeshift rotation and still won it all.

The Dodgers could have done nothing this offseason and still would have gone into 2025 as the odds-on favorite to win the World Series. They could have sat back on their first real championship since 1988 and tried to run it back without adding payroll. Rather than do nothing, they did everything. They gave Blake Snell a five-year deal. They won the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes. They brought back Teoscar Hernandez and replaced Gavin Lux with Hyeseong Kim. They re-signed Blake Treinen, added Scott and signed Michael Conforto for shits and giggles.

10. The Yankees are better to begin 2025 than they were to end 2024, but they’re still playing the parlay game with their roster construction. The same game that caused them to go 15 years between World Series appearances. The same game that led to the light-hitting Trevino being used as a pinch hitter with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees have been trying to cut corners for a long time now and why it’s been more than a decade-and-a-half since a new World Series game could be used as a Yankees Classics game on YES. Needing a handful (or more) things to go right to the best version of the roster possible isn’t ideal, but that’s where the Yankees are again without a complete infield and without a lefty in the bullpen. Maybe the Dodgers will sign Tim Hill as well because why not?

1. I have completed the five stages of grief when it comes to Juan Soto no longer being a Yankee. It took me a couple of weeks to move through the first (denial) and second (anger) steps, but I was only briefly in the third (bargaining) and fourth (depression) steps. Acceptance (the fifth step) is where I am now and where I plan on remaining.

I didn’t know how the Yankees’ roster or I would rebound from the loss of Soto, but the dark place the roster and I were in when the news broke to where the roster and I are now has been quite the turnaround. It has been turned around enough that I’m breaking my promise to walk away from the Yankees and baseball and learn an instrument or language rather than suffer through a Soto-less season. At least for now.

2. I have liked what the Yankees have done this offseason since Soto chose the disgusting orange and blue. If the Yankees had been successful in signing Soto, I believe it’s obvious he would have been their entire offseason. I realize I would have willingly been accepting a less-rounded team to guarantee Soto in the lineup for the next decade and a half.

Two years ago, after the Yankees signed Carlos Rodon, no impact moves were made. Last year, after trading for Soto, no impact moves were made. History would have repeated itself with Hal Steinbrenner looking ways to cut costs after giving Soto $765 million of his inheritance. At best, by re-signing Soto and doing nothing else, the Yankees’ ceiling would have been getting humiliated in the World Series again.

Since Soto left for Queens, the Yankees have made themselves into a better team. That’s not to say losing Soto doesn’t suck or that he would have prevented them from being a better team (the Steinbrenners would have prevented the Yankees from being a better team with Soto because they would have been reluctant to add more to their payroll). But the Yankees now have a deeper rotation with the signing of Max Fried. They have a stronger bullpen with the trade for Devin Williams and re-signing of Jonathan Loaisiga, and they are much better defensively with Aaron Judge back in right field, Cody Bellinger now in either center or left, Paul Goldschmidt at first base and Jazz Chisholm back to second base. The offense has taken a hit because of the loss of Soto, but that was always going to be the case if he left. The only bat that would have come close to replacing his would have been to trade for Kyle Tucker, but after seeing what Soto received in free agency, there was no chance the Yankees would have been able to extend Tucker past 2025.

3. The additions of Fried, Williams, Bellinger and Goldschdmit make the loss of Soto hurt less. It doesn’t make the hurt completely disappear. It makes me sick to see highlights or images of Soto playing for the Yankees knowing that he won’t again. That pain will likely never go away. The only way it goes away is if Soto gains 50 pounds and hits the way he did in 2022 when he posted a .242/.401/.452 slash line with 27 home runs and was only 47 percent better than league average. If Soto puts up a sub-.900 OPS in 2025 or 2026 or any of his “prime” seasons, it’s a disaster. As the highest-paid player in the sport, he now has to be as good as he was in 2024 in each season of his prime.

4. I loved the Fried signing. The rotation before him couldn’t be trusted after Gerrit Cole, and given Cole’s arm and fatigue issues last year, it feels like he’s on borrowed time with each pitch he throws. I don’t care about the money or years given to Fried. If you haven’t come to the realization the Yankees can afford any player at any cost, you never will. If you have been tricked into thinking a $300 million payroll is a lot by the league’s owners, I feel sorry for you. Fried is great. He makes the Yankees better. That’s all that matters. As long he stays healthy and covers first base on ground balls hit to the first baseman, he will do just fine with the Yankees.

5. When you can trade an injured starting pitcher a year away from free agency and a prospect who wasn’t in the Top 30 and no one gave two shits about before the Arizona Fall League for the best reliever in baseball, you’re doing something right. Like Fried, Williams is great. He’s the best reliever in baseball. I enjoyed people bringing up the home run to Pete Alonso in the playoffs as a reason why Williams isn’t great. Emmanuel Clase was a disaster in the ALCS against the Yankees and any fan of any team would take him in a second. Should the Yankees have gotten rid of Mariano Rivera after 1997 for giving up the ALDS-winning home run to Sandy Alomar Jr.? Moronic. Like Fried, as long as Williams stays healthy, he will be great for the Yankees. 

6. Why didn’t the Yankees just sign Bellinger last offseason when all he would have cost was money, and when they could have had another strong left-handed bat in a World Series-bound lineup? I guess it’s because they didn’t want to tie up money they planned on needing to make a run at Soto with. Whoops. But now that the money for Soto is still in Hal’s bank account they’re able to finally make Bellinger a Yankee.

The trade for Bellinger was a good move. A good move that was inevitable. Possibly a year too late, but nevertheless, a move the Yankees had to make to try to balance the lineup. And they still need lineup balance. They are still too right-handed heavy. They removed Anthony Rizzo and added Bellinger. But they removed Soto and added Goldschmidt. That’s two lefties out (even if one sucked) and one in. The Yankees need another left-handed infield bat. I don’t think there is one out there worth signing. Anything of quality will have to come from a trade.

7. Last year, Soto was a 7.9 WAR player. Two years ago, Goldschmidt won the NL MVP with a .317/.404/.578 slash line and 7.7 WAR. Just two years ago, 2022 Goldschmidt was essentially 2024 Soto. Unfortunately, there has been two seasons of baseball since then, and after being 77 percent better than league average in 2022, Goldschmidt was just 20 percent better in 2023 and shockingly 2 percent worse in 2024. 

You can look at the signing of the now-37-year-old Goldschmidt in one of two ways: The Yankees just signed a 37-year-old first baseman coming off the worst season of his 14-year career OR by having the worst season of his 14-year career, the Yankees were able to sign Goldschmidt for only one year and $12.5 million!

Typically, when a player at the advanced baseball age of 36 has the worst season of their career, they settle for a minor-league deal or an invite to spring training. Because typically, the downward slope of their offense doesn’t reverse course. Sadly, the ways to reverse course are no longer a part of the game the way they were in the 80s, 90s or 2000s.

There’s the chance the pinstripes rejuvenate Goldschmidt the way they have for so many others over the years. But for every player like Matt Carpenter, there’s three of players like Anthony Rizzo, Josh Donaldson or Matt Holliday. Hopefully, Goldschmidt has one more full season of offense left in the tank. And if not, hopefully, he will at least take ground balls hit to him to the bag himself.

8. After seven mostly disappointing seasons, Gleyber Torres is no longer a Yankee. Back in 2018 and 2019 when Torres was a force in the lineup (thanks to the juiced baseball) there weren’t many, if any, players in the league the Yankees would have traded him for. Now they let him walk for nothing.

Torres said the Yankees didn’t even reach out to him during the offseason. He was a player they kept through every trade deadline and offseason of his Yankee tenure, a player they made endless excuses and changed the makeup of their infield for multiple times to cater to and a player who was batting leadoff for them in the World Series and the Yankees didn’t even call to check in with his agent on his market over the last two months? What a fall from grace for a player I thought seven years ago was going to be an up-the-middle glove and middle-of-the order bat for the Yankees for the next decade and a half.

9. The Yankees have removed the player with the lowest Baseball IQ in the league from their lineup, but they still desperately need an infielder. Aaron Boone recently said given the current roster, Chisholm will move back to second and DJ LeMahieu and/or Oswaldo Cabrera will play third.

C: Austin Wells
1B: Paul Goldschmidt
2B: Jazz Chisholm
3B: DJ LeMahieu/Oswaldo Cabrera
SS: Anthony Volpe
LF: Cody Bellinger/Jasson Dominguez
CF: Cody Bellinger/Jasson Dominguez
RF: Aaron Judge
DH: Giancarlo Stanton

It’s good. It’s not great, but it’s good and good enough. In today’s AL, good enough works. The Yankees won the AL with Soto, lost Soto and are still favored to win the AL. That’s how weak the entire league is. The Mets added Soto, are going to run a payroll north of $300 million again, and may be the third-best team in their division let alone the entire NL. The NL has become what the AL once was.

That’s fine with me! I love seeing every big-name player traded to or signing with an NL team. It makes it easier for the Yankees, at least until they reach the World Series, which is exactly what happened in 2024: They finished with the best record in the AL despite being .500 since mid-June, steamrolled two AL Central teams in the ALDS and ALCS and then got embarrassed in the World Series by a better all-around team.

10. The Yankees were able to outlast the Orioles for the division because the Orioles couldn’t get out of their own way in the second half. They were able to outlast any threat from the Astros for a first-round bye because the Astros got off to such a bad start. They were able to get past the Royals and Guardians in the ALDS and ALCS because of Soto and Stanton. But once they got to the Dodgers, a complete team was too much for two players to overcome. The Dodgers were the better team. Since losing Soto, the Yankees have taken necessary steps to become a better all-around team than they were last year, when they relied on two players in the regular season (Soto and Judge) and two players in the postseason (Soto and Stanton).

It’s been nine weeks since the World Series ended and the Yankees are a better team today than they were for the last out of last season. There’s six weeks until spring training and plenty of time for them to get even better.

1. Juan Soto wasn’t Plan A for the Yankees this offseason. He was the only plan. And now that he will be a Met for the rest of his career, the Yankees are currently freaking out at the Winter Meetings in Dallas without a plan. At least without a plan worthy of being accepted by the fan base. Because there is no backup plan when you lose out on a generational bat. There is no backup plan when the remaining free-agent options are on the wrong side of 30, have low on-base percentages and hit right-handed.

Soto was always going to go to the highest bidder and he stayed true to his plan. Whichever team gave him $1 more than the other teams was going to get him whether that team was the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Phillies, Mariners, Reds or Tigers, it didn’t matter. Everyone always knew that about Soto from the moment he turned down the Nationals’ money and wouldn’t sign an extension with the Padres.

2. Soto went to the highest bidder, but there may have been other factors at play. No one knows what Soto’s relationship was with Aaron Judge. Judge said just a couple of weeks ago he hadn’t talked to Soto during the offseason, citing “giving him space” as the excuse why. Maybe Soto didn’t like playing for Aaron Boone and couldn’t foresee ever winning a championship with him at the helm. Maybe he didn’t trust Brian Cashman after he went a whole season without attempting to upgrade left field or first base. Maybe he didn’t like that Hal Steinbrenner didn’t care to have a relationship with him until he became a free agent. Maybe after sharing a field with the Yankees’ so-called top prospects (most of whom are similar to age as him but still in the lower and middle levels of the minor leagues) he figured the team’s long-term future was bleak. No one knows what Steve Cohen said to Soto when they met in California last month. No one knows what kind of relationship they formed and what promises were made.

3. I don’t understand Yankees fans who are giving Hal a pass here and saying they are proud of the team’s inherited owner for going toe-to-toe with the sport’s wealthiest owner. The reason the Yankees are in the position of needing to bid $760 million on Soto is because of Hal and his invincible front office headed by Cashman. The organization has made a decade-and-a-half of poor choices, and none poorer than not even meeting with Bryce Harper six years ago when he desperately wanted to be a Yankee and eventually signed for half the average annual salary of Soto. The Yankees’ offseason choices from six-plus years ago led them to where they are today. It’s the Yankees’ own fault for putting themselves in a position where the loss of a single player through free agency could disrupt their entire future because of poor planning and poor roster construction. That’s on ownership and the front office. They don’t get a pass for “being competitive.” They lost. Again.

And that’s the issue with these Yankees. They’re OK with losing. The higher-ups likely feel good about this loss to the Mets because they were “competitive” the same way the manager of the team talks about how he likes his team’s “compete” after avoidable losses. The only person happier than Soto today is Hal who nows gets to keep the $760 million he offered to Soto and is somehow being praised for “trying.”

4. Why do you think seven minutes after Soto’s 15-year, $765 million contract with the Mets was reported, the Yankees’ offer of $760 million over 16 years was also reported? The Yankees wanted to leak their offer to show their fans they didn’t lowball Soto and they offered $5 million less and one year more. In actuality, they offered less money overall and less money per year. Add in the Mets’ willingness to give Soto a $75 million signing bonus, escalators after five years that can bring the contract to $800 million and not a single deferred dollar in the deal, and the Mets’ offer blew the Yankees’ away. Hal wanted to save face after being repeatedly called cheap in recent years, and the best way to do that was to get the Yankees’ offer out there as soon as possible, so the fans would turned on Soto instead of him. It worked. It worked beautifully in Hal’s favor. Since last night, the vast majority of Yankees fans are calling Soto greedy and money hungry, as if they wouldn’t change employers within the same city in their own lives for more money.

The Yankees needed Soto more than he needed them. In fact, he didn’t need them at all, and the Yankees fans who have talked themselves into this being a good thing are fools. They are likely the same people who think Hal isn’t cheap because he offered a contract that wasn’t accepted despite owning the team that generates the most revenue in the sport, but is 18th in revenue-to-payroll ratio. The same fans who think paying $765 million is a bad business decision in a salary-cap-less league.

5. The Yankees have to live in the free-agent market because of their player development issues. It’s always been a problematic realization because the team’s owner has created a salary cap for his team in the salary-cap-less league, and now the problem has been elevated because the Mets just proved they will stop at nothing to get any free agent they covet. And odds are, every free agent the Yankees covet is going to be coveted by the Mets. As I said after every Clay Holmes blown save this season, when you have a closer who relies on balls in play to get outs, bad things can happen. Well, when your only way to build your roster is to rely on an auction process, bad things can happen. And taking Soto off this roster is as bad as it gets.

6. Things are bad. Real bad. This is currently the Yankees’ Opening Day lineup by position.

C: Austin Wells
1B: DJ LeMahieu
2B: Oswaldo Cabrera
SS: Anthony Volpe
3B: Jazz Chisholm
LF: Jasson Dominguez
CF: Trent Grisham
RF: Aaron Judge
DH: Giancarlo Stanton

A second-year catcher who was abysmal for the last month-plus of the season; a middle infielder-turned-first baseman who has been shut down by the end of the season in three of the last four years; a utility player with no set position; a shortstop whose development has stalled; a middle infielder-turned center fielder-turned third baseman; a left fielder who wasn’t deemed good enough to play over the worst everyday bat in the majors in the most important games of the season; a center fielder who was allowed to appear in the same amount of playoff games as me; the reigning AL MVP winner who can’t hit in October and a 35-year-old designated hitter who can only hit in October. If you want to know how the Yankees’ consecutive season wining streak since 1993 comes to an end, there you have it.

7. I can’t imagine that will be the Yankees’ Opening Day lineup on March 27 against the Brewers, but maybe it should be, at least in terms of free agency? The Yankees’ best course of action may be to do nothing in free agency. The only two intriguing free-agent options left on the board are Corbin Burnes and Max Fried, but neither of them are left-handed hitters who are going to hit elite pitching in October. Though we know the Yankees aren’t going to sit idly. Not when their highest-paid stars are in their mid-30s, not when they are coming off a World Series appearance and not when the player responsible for them appearing in that World Series is now playing for the cross-city team that was supposed to always be the little brother.

8. Where do the Yankees go from here? Who knows. Eleven years ago when they lost Robinson Cano in an auction, they pivoted and spent crazily on Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran. They eventually released Ellsbury and filed a grievance against him to not pay him, paid McCann to play for the Astros and help beat them in the 2017 ALCS and traded Beltran to the Rangers.

Next year’s free-agent class is much better. But who’s to say the top names expected in it will still be free agents by the end of the next season? And who’s to say the Mets won’t want the best available free agents next year again and just keep upping their bid for them until the Yankees pull out and then leak their best offer to show they tried?

9. In all likelihood, the Yankees were going to sign Soto and call it an offseason. They would have run back the same team that just proved it wasn’t good enough to win it all against a watered-down version of the Dodgers. If the Yankees’ ceiling as currently constructed with Soto was to get embarrassed by the Dodgers without a rotation in the World Series, what would happen if the Yankees were to reach the World Series again against the Dodgers and have to face some combination of Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyer Glasnow, Blake Snell, Dustin May, Clayton Kershaw and others?

10. Like Boone’s 2003 pennant-winning home run that resulted in the Yankees losing the World Series, the Red Sox retooling that offseason to change the course of the rivalry’s history and Boone eventually being named manager of the Yankees only to have the most disappointing tenure of any person in the position’s history, Soto’s time with the Yankees is eerily similar. The Yankees traded away Michael King along with all of their pitching depth to acquire Soto. He led them to the World Series, which now will keep Boone and Cashman in place forever, only to be humiliated in the World Series, and now he has left them for their cross-city rival, completely changing the landscape for New York baseball moving forward. Was getting a lucky free pass to the World Series against the AL Central only to be destroyed by the Dodgers worth it to now not have King, a depleted farm system, Boone and Cashman forever and the Mets and their fans laughing in Yankees fans’ faces? Not for me it wasn’t.

On top of that, Judge’s reputation and legacy was tarnished with his ALDS, ALCS and World Series performances as was Gerrit Cole’s with him pointing to first base rather than covering it, and the Yankees pitching staff had to pitch an extra month worth of high-stress games only to win nothing, which will now impact their health and stamina for next season. Again, none of it was worth it.

It was only ever going to be worth it if Soto was going to play in New York until at least 40, try to help lead a parade through the Canyon of Heroes and one day wear the interlocking NY in Cooperstown. He’s going to do all that, it’s just going to be for the Mets and not the Yankees.

1. It’s hard to care about the Yankees until Juan Soto is signed, whether it’s with the Yankees or not. The entire elite free-agent market is on hold until Soto comes off the board, and therefore, the 2025 plans for the Yankees and every other team that is in on Soto are on hold until he signs.

There is nothing worse than the MLB Hot Stove. The amount of sourced, rumored and exaggerated reports are annoying and tiresome … every single year. No one knows a fucking thing about where Soto is going to sign outside of Soto, his family and Scott Boras, and it’s possible none of them know and won’t know until the bids start coming in. I’m sure Soto knows where he wants to play and hopes that team is the highest bidder, but there isn’t a reporter or fan who has any idea of what’s going to happen with him or how much he’s actually going to sign for.

And with that let’s get to some questions from readers …

2. I know you feel strongly about re-signing Soto (as in you won’t follow the team anymore if they don’t). But hypothetically if they don’t sign him, what would be the best use of the money they’ll save on him and the others they’ll release based on this years free-agent class? – Chris

I have made my stance clear about the Yankees and Soto: re-sign him or I’m out. I will gladly resell my season tickets on the secondary market if he goes elsewhere. I’m not going to stick around to watch Aaron Boone manage the team for an eighth season with the faces of the franchise being Mr. May, who can’t hit or catch routine fly balls in the World Series, or Big Game Gerrit, who couldn’t have given less of an effort to cover first base in the inning that currently defines both of their careers.

The only way Soto leaves and I stay is if the Yankees pull off blockbuster trades to improve the offense and go to town on the free-agent starting pitching market. But there’s a better chance Soto ends up signing with the Red Sox than there is that that backup plan comes to fruition if Soto leaves.

3. Fourteen years ago, the Yankees were trying to sign Cliff Lee to fortify their rotation after not trading for him that summer because they didn’t want to include Eduardo Nunez in the deal. The same Eduardo Nunez, who, four years later would be released by the team for nothing in spring training, and then four years after that, helped the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the ALDS and win the World Series.

Back then, the Yankees didn’t have a Plan B if Lee signed elsewhere, and he did. He went to Philadelphia and the Yankees filled their rotation with Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia. By the time October came, Colon was hurt and Garcia was fatigued and ineffective. The Yankees went out in the first round. I wrote about the Yankees’ lack of a Plan B back then and I’m writing about their lack of a Plan B for Soto now.

4. The Yankees think they have a Plan B. We saw it begin to unfold at the end of last week when they non-tendered Jon Berti, but gave Trent Grisham $5 million. Why did they make those two moves? Well, not bringing back Berti freed up money for Soto, and bringing back Grisham allows him to potentially be their everyday center fielder if Soto goes elsewhere and Aaron Judge moves back to right. Why do you think Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo were held on to at the deadline? Why do you think Verdugo played over Jasson Dominguez and was never pinch hit for a single time by Dominguez in the playoffs? Because they are part of Plan B and the Yankees didn’t want to sour the relationships.

If Soto goes elsewhere, the money allocated from him will have to spent somehow. And then somehow is a combination of Torres and Verdugo and the Yankees going after free-agent bats like Pete Alonso, Teoscar Hernandez and Christian Walker and free-agent arms like Corbin Burnes, Slake Snell and Max Fried.

In actuality, there is no Plan B for the offense. The only plan this offseason for the offense is to re-sign the generational 26-year-old star and have him anchor the lineup for the better part of the next decade. Anything else is a letdown.

5. I know your posture on Soto, but realistically, if we had a better GM we could spend on better impact players with shorter contracts? – Douglas

I don’t think signing Soto to a 14- or 15-year deal is a bad business decision. Soto is a historic talent who may not have even entered his prime yet. Stocking up on the game’s best players increases your odds of wining. The first three hitters in the Dodgers’ lineup are all current and former MVPs. Two of them have exceedingly long contracts. That’s the price of doing business with top talent.

The Yankees’ trio of Soto, Judge and Giancarlo Stanton couldn’t hang with the Dodgers’ trio because Judge was such a zero, but remove Soto from the trio and you have a soon-to-be, 33-year-old Judge and a 35-year-old Stanton. Who becomes the third member of the trio? Alonso? Please, no. Anthony Volpe? Please hold your laughter. Austin Wells? Doubtful.

As of right now, the Yankees’ 2025 Opening Day position players will be Wells at catcher, either DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera or Ben Rice at first base, either LeMahieu, Cabrera, Jazz Chisholm or Caleb Durbin at second base, either Chisholm, LeMahieu or Cabrera at third base, Volpe at shortstop, Dominguez in left field, Grisham in center field and Judge in right field with Stanton as the designated hitter. I don’t know that a lineup featuring only those names keeps the Yankees’ consecutive season winning streak going.

6. We know what the Yankees are without Soto: a postseason-less team. We saw that in the last season without Soto in 2023. Without Soto in 2024, they certainly don’t win the division, and maybe aren’t a postseason team for the second straight year? It was Soto and Stanton who carried the Yankees in the ALDS and ALCS. It was Soto who had a 1.373 OPS against the Guardians and a 1.084 OPS against the Dodgers in the World Series. While Mr. May was striking out every at-bat, Soto hit the way he hit all year. He hit the way he has hit his entire career. Because there is no difference between regular-season Soto and postseason Soto. For the truly great ones, which he is, there is never a difference between their regular-season numbers and their postseason numbers.

Even more so, Soto cares deeply about winning, even for someone who has already won. It was Soto sitting in the dugout by himself staring out at the field watching the Dodgers celebrate their World Series win, while the rest of the Yankees had retreated to the clubhouse to listen to their manager (who still has never won anything as a player or manager) tell them how proud he is that they were embarrassed in the World Series, producing the single-worst defensive inning in the history of the Fall Classic.

7. How much is Cohen going to pay Soto? In my opinion, let him go and use the money to make a more rounded team. – Mike

To me, Soto is either going to sign with the Yankees or the Mets.

Last week, Hal said, “I’ve got ears. I know what’s expected of me.” I don’t know that Hal actually knows what’s expected of him, but we’re going to find out. The Yankees generate more revenue than any other team, and yet, they aren’t even in the top half of the league in terms of revenue-to-payroll ratio.

If the Yankees offer X and the Mets also offer X and Soto signs with the Mets, well there’s nothing you can do about it. (In that event, I wouldn’t walk away from the Yankees.) If the money is equal and Soto leaves, so be it, what can do you do? But if the Mets outbid the Yankees then that’s unacceptable. If you’re not going to go out of your way to sign Soto, who are you going to go out of your way to sign?

8. How did Boone manage to garner a second-place vote for AL Manager of the year? – Floyd

Knowing that the Yankees’ lack of ability to situationally hit and poor fundamentals keep getting exposed, what is being done to address the one defines that are the clearest weakness of this franchise? – Mark

Let’s lump these two together since they both have to do with the manager.

The first one is easy: Someone who never watches the Yankees play or is lazy or a combination of both voted for Boone.

As for the second one: Nothing is being done. It’s about accountability, which is a concept Boone doesn’t believe in.

Do you know why the Yankees love Boone and love “playing for him?” Because there is no accountability. Who doesn’t love a boss who doesn’t care about performance, production or results? Boone is the boss everyone in every job in every industry dreams of.

Boone doesn’t hold his players accountable because he isn’t held accountable by Brian Cashman, who isn’t held accountable by Hal, who doesn’t hold anyone accountable because the Yankees aren’t something he purchased because he achieved extraordinary wealth after a lifetime of hard work and smart business decisions.

After 2023, Steinbrenner said the season was “unacceptable” and then didn’t fire a single employee. Cashman has blown through more than $3 billion of payroll over the last 15 years while producing one embarrassing World Series appearance. Boone has a litany of performance-related excuses for his players after every single game and those players spend all season talking about tomorrow until there are no more tomorrows and then they talk about next year. Boone mentioned already looking forward to next year in his statement after his option was picked up. Hal said last week he is looking to talk about an extension with Boone. Why? Because the Yankees beat up on the AL Central in the postseason and reached the World Series before getting beat up themselves by a non-AL Central team? What does it say about accountability that the entire Boone era has been a collective disappointment and the owner is ready to extend him and go against the no-extension policy within the organization?

Can you imagine the Yankees running back a Boone-led team, but without Soto in 2025? It’s not only dangerously close to happening, it’s more likely to happen than it is to not because free agency is crazy and all it takes is one team out of nowhere to come in with some absurd offer and Soto is gone.

9. Soto is the last player of his caliber to ever reach free agency. Every young player is taking the double-digit year deals for the nine-figure payouts years before they can reach free agency. In the summer of 2022, Soto turned down a $440 million offer from the Nationals. Sure, he’s going to blow past that number now, but it’s hard to think anyone else would be willing to turn down nearly half a billion dollars.

It would be one thing if the Yankees could produce great everyday talent or recognize the right free agents to sign. That would make missing out on Soto hurt much less and even acceptable. But look around the field and aside from Judge, the rest of the non-Soto players were signed as free agents, acquired through trades, are busts or unknowns. The Yankees’ two top prospects right now are Dominguez, who they didn’t want to play over Verdugo in the playoffs, and Spencer Jones who is a month younger than Volpe and couldn’t even muster an .800 OPS in Double-A this year. Soto just spent a year with the Yankees and is familiar with their young talent, and it’s why he likely questioned player development when the Yankees visited him in California.

10. Everyone expects Soto to make a decision during the Winter Meetings which begin two weeks from today. I wish he would do it earlier than that. I just want to know where he’s going, so I can know where I’m going. I don’t want to walk away from the Yankees and baseball, but without Soto I don’t see another option, knowing Cashman and Boone aren’t going anywhere.

Is Soto going to spend the rest of his career in the Bronx or elsewhere? Am I going to spend six-plus months a year watching and writing about the Yankees or is it time to learn a language or an instrument? As of now, I can’t help but feel like when the Yankees open against the Brewers on March 27 at Yankee Stadium I’ll be spending the afternoon playing the saxophone and speaking Italian.

1. I’m still not over what happened in Games 1 and 5 of the World Series, and I don’t think I will ever be. The Yankees could have had a 3-2 series lead going back to Los Angeles for Game 6. At worst, they should have been down 3-2 going back to Los Angeles for Game 6 with a chance to do to the Dodgers what was done to them 20 years ago in the ALCS.

A lot has come out over the last nearly two weeks from the Dodgers’ side suggesting they may have completed the collapse given their fatigued pitching staff and the momentum the Yankees would have boarded their cross-country flight with. At the same time, a lot has come out over the last nearly two weeks from the Dodgers’ side suggesting they knew exactly how to beat the Yankees and avoid every losing to them: play hard and execute fundamentally. Two simple ideas that should be givens for any major-league player and any major-league team, yet two simple concepts that are foreign to the Yankees.

2. The Yankees thought they were talented enough to win on talent alone against a team equally as talented as them. They were sloppy in both the ALDS and ALCS, but their talent won out and they went a combined 7-2 in those two series because of the great disparity in talent. As soon as they faced an opponent of equal or better talent than them in every fact of the game, they were exposed as the fundamental disaster that they were for most of the 2024 season.

3. “We had a struggle with our baserunnning this year. We were a bad defensive team, without a doubt, at times this year,” Brian Cashman said last week. “But we also, when you add it all together, we were a really good baseball team that earned the right to win the American League and get all the way to the World Series.”

That quote from Cashman is everything that is wrong with these Yankees. While admitting the team’s glaring weaknesses, he turns around and tells you how good the 2024 team was. A team that needed an AL Central-only path to reach their first World Series in 15 years and then got the shit beat out of them once they got there. A year ago, Cashman was unhinged in telling the media the 2023 Yankees “were pretty fucking good” despite going 82-80 and missing the playoffs. So why wouldn’t he think a team that got their ass kicked in the World Series isn’t “really good.”

With those words, Cashman confirmed my suspicion that the Yankees’ front office was overjoyed with simply reaching the World Series and getting that weight off their shoulders. Everyone associated with the Yankees was just happy to be there. Everyone except Juan Soto, who was the last Yankee sitting in the dugout staring out at the field watching the Dodgers celebrate, while his teammates had already retreated to the clubhouse to listen to their manager tell them how proud he was of them losing the World Series.

4. The moment the Yankees clinched the ALDS over the Royals, Aaron Boone was officially coming back, and I believe even if the Yankees had lost their first-round series to the Royals, he would have been back. The man was brought back after 2023 when the team posted the franchise’s worst record in more than 30 years. Did you really think ownership and the front office was going to decline his option for 2025 after the team reached the World Series, especially since reaching the World Series was clearly the equivalent to winning the World Series for ownership and the front office.

On the same day Cashman told you how good the 2024 Yankees were, he also said, “I’m a big Aaron Boone fan. I think he’s a great manager and we’ve been luck to have him.” A few days later the Yankees announced Boone would be back. The pennant guaranteed Boone would have his option exercised, and exercised it was.

5. “The manager’s job is so impossible,” Cashman said last week. “It’s a very hard job to do. It gets harder in the postseason, because ultimately whatever you do either works or doesn’t.”

Poor, Boone. What a hard job he has. There were tens of thousands of people on social media in real time saying Luke Weaver should pitch the 10th inning of Game 1 of the World Series after going five up, five down on 19 pitches the previous inning and after having not pitched in six days. The same amount of people in real time questioned why Tommy Kahnle got the eighth inning in Game 5 if Boone was willing to go to Weaver in that inning anyway. I thought an impossible, hard job was being a brain surgeon. I don’t think the same tens of thousands of armchair major-league managers who know more than the actual major-league manager of their team could in real time make more sensible decisions than someone about to remove a brain tumor. Now that I know how hard and impossible Boone’s job of putting his players in the best possible position to succeed is I think I will cut back on my criticism of him.

6. “Aaron is a steadying presence in our clubhouse and possesses a profound ability to connect with and foster relationships with his players,” Cashman said after exercising the option.

Do you know why the Yankees love Boone and love “playing for him?” Because there is no accountability. Who doesn’t love a boss who doesn’t care about performance, production or results? Boone is the boss everyone in every job in every industry dreams of.

Boone doesn’t hold his players accountable because he isn’t held accountable by Cashman, who isn’t held accountable by Hal Steinbrenner, who doesn’t hold anyone accountable because the Yankees aren’t something he purchased because he achieved extraordinary wealth after a lifetime of hard work and smart business decisions.

After 2023, Steinbrenner said the season was “unacceptable” and then didn’t fire a single employee. Cashman has blown through more than $3 billion of payroll over the last 15 years while producing one embarrassing World Series appearance. Boone has a litany of performance-related excuses for his players after every single game and those players spend all season talking about tomorrow until there are no more tomorrows and then they talk about next year. Boone mentioned already looking forward to next year in his statement after being retained.

6. “I think he’s a really, really good manager,” Cashman said. “I think we’re lucky to have him.”

If I had a dollar for every sarcastic congratulatory text I received from friends who are fans of rival teams when Boone’s 2025 option was exercised, I could buy the Yankees from the Steinbrenners and re-sign Soto myself. That’s the first indication you know you aren’t “lucky” to have the manager you have of your favorite team: when everyone who isn’t a fan of your team is happy he’s still the manager.

7. All of those same friends have also chimed in to let me know Soto would be signing with their team, whether it’s the Dodgers, Mets or Phillies. They all think the best hitter in the world will be wearing their team’s uniform in 2025. There’s nothing for me to say to rebut them since I think they are right. When I watched Soto sitting in his pinstripes in the dugout looking at out the Dodgers, I think that was the last time I will see him wearing a Yankees uniform.

Since the moment the Yankees traded for Soto I have repeatedly written how I will walk away from the Yankees and baseball if he is not a Yankee for 2025 and beyond, and I’m holding to that. If Soto isn’t a Yankee for 2025 and beyond, I won’t be around to watch. I will learn an instrument or a new language or do whatever people who don’t watch baseball daily from late-March through October do. If the team that makes more than any other team can’t sign the player who is expected to make more money than any other player, then what’s the point?

We know what the Yankees are without Soto. They are the 2023 Yankees. An 82-80, postseason-less team. Without Soto, the Yankees are nothing. The guy just hit .327/.469/1.102 in the playoffs with more walks (14) than strikeouts (9). Nine strikeouts in 14 games against the game’s best pitchers. Aaron Judge had that many strikeouts by Game 2 of the ALDS.

8. Watching Soto this season has been like sitting in first class on an international flight with a cabin, personal bathroom and all-you-can-eat-and-drink options. I don’t want to go back to sitting in the last row of economy in a middle seat next to the bathroom. That’s where Yankees fans were while being forced to watch Jake Bauers, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Billy McKinney, Willie Calhoun, Aaron Hicks, Franchy Cordero and Greg Allen as outfielders in 2023 before the trade for Soto. I’m not going back to that.

If Soto leaves, so will I. It was a good three-decade-plus run as a Yankees fan. But I’m not about to sit around and listen to Steinbrenner and Cashman tell us how they made a competitive offer as Soto holds a press conference at some other stadium in some other city. I’m not going to sit around and watch Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo and Clay Holmes be re-signed and settle for a wrong-side-of-30 Pete Alonso. Because that’s what’s going to happen if Soto isn’t re-signed. The money allocated for him is going to have to be spent somewhere.

9. The Yankees just proved they’re not good enough to win a championship with the roster they had, including Soto. They aren’t re-signing Soto away from winning it all. They are Soto and more away from doing so. And with Boone coming back, they are Soto and a lot more away from negating the detrimental impact Boone has on winning.

10. There’s an expectation Soto will sign during the Winter Meetings a month from now. I don’t know if it will happen that early, but I hope it does. I just want it over with. I want to know if he’s going to be a Yankee for the rest of his career or if I just freed up three-plus hours a night from late March through October every year for the rest of my life. I want to know if I need to worry about what other pieces they are going to sign or trade for to end their championship drought or if I need to choose between Spanish or Italian and the guitar or drums.

1. The Yankees spent a little more than seven months showing who they truly were and everyone brushed it aside. It didn’t matter that they went 44-46 from June 15 on. It didn’t matter that they lucked into the easiest path to a pennant any team has ever had. They were in the World Series and everyone seemed to be so overjoyed by that fact they assumed the Yankees could hide their flaws over a seven-game series against the best team in baseball.

These flaws were on display against the Royals in the ALDS and the Guardians in the ALCS, but the talent disparity and lack of offense was too much for either of those two teams make the Yankees pay. Then came the Dodgers.

Stacked with three consecutive MVP bats at the top of their lineup, a true cleanup hitter, lineup balance and the deepest 5 through 9 in the majors, the Yankees would need to play a way they hadn’t with any consistency from Opening Day through the ALCS: flawlessly. They didn’t, and they lost the World Series in five games.

“They were the better team in this series,” Aaron Boone said.

They weren’t the better team in this series, they were the better team all season. They have been the better team for the last decade. The Dodgers have reached the postseason every year since 2013. They have reached the World Series four times in the last eight years, have won it twice and now have a full-season title to replace their shortened-season one.

2. The Dodgers lost Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow and Dustin May to season-ending injuries. They lost their replacements to season-ending injuries. They lost their replacements’ replacements to season-ending injuries. They had every reason to accept this wasn’t their year, but they never did. They never made excuses and they never blamed an endless list of injuries to their pitching staff when they easily could have. Can you imagine the amount of excuses the Yankees would have conjured up if they had the same injury fate as the Dodgers? The Yankees weren’t missing a single everyday position player or rotation member or bullpen arm in the World Series (unless you count Jonathan Loaisiga who last pitched on April 3) and they still couldn’t win.

3. The Yankees played all of the hits in the World Series: sloppy defense, bad fundamentals, awful baserunning, illogical managing, questionable lineups and poor situational hitting. To the Yankees’ credit, they showed up for the World Series the same team they were in the 171 games prior to the series. They never changed their identity. They conducted the worst defensive inning in World Series history and watched their season end with who else other than Alex Verdugo striking out. How can you not be romantic about baseball?

4. Gerrit Cole had a no-hitter going and a 5-0 lead to work with when the fifth inning of Game 5 began. The Yankees hadn’t blown a five-run lead all season, had their ace on the mound and were 15 outs from becoming the first team in World Series history to force a Game 6 after being down 3-0. They were about to shift all of the pressure in the series to the Dodgers by sending the series back to Los Angeles after staving off elimination for two straight nights. Instead, an unbelievable collapse erased their lead, and eventually ended their season.

“I think falling short in the World Series will stick with me until I die, probably,” Aaron Judge said.

I know why Judge took his eye off the line drive as it approached his glove to check on the runner at first. He thought Kike Hernandez was dumb enough to get caught on the bases trying to advance on an out because the Yankees assume players on other teams are as dumb and as poorly coached and have as low of Baseball IQs as they do.

I know why Anthony Volpe didn’t make a better throw to third to cut down the lead runner. Because Volpe tends to botch big plays in big moments. Who could forget the late-inning error in Arizona back in April or the one in Baltimore in the final game before the All-Star break. Sure, it was a somewhat unusual play with the shortstop throwing to third to cut down the lead runner, and it was a play Jazz Chisholm had maybe experienced two times since becoming a third baseman three months ago. But when you trade for a shortstop turned center fielder and have him play third base for the first time in his life things like that can happen. Only the Yankees would make their right fielder an everyday center fielder. Only the Yankees would play someone at first base in the postseason that has never played first base. Only the Yankees would call up their top prospect who’s not a left fielder and play him in left field and when he’s not perfect playing that position then not play him at all in the playoffs.

I know why Anthony Rizzo didn’t charge the ground ball hit at him and then take it himself to the bag to end the inning. Because he did it all season. I wrote about that same exact play countless times this year where Rizzo favored flipping the ball to the pitcher covering rather than taking it himself and each time it ended poorly. Cole shouldn’t have assumed anything and should have raced to the bag even if Mookie Betts was going to beat him.

5. “I think from a PFP standpoint we’re pretty good,” Boone said on a night when a Pitcher’s Fielding Practice play cost them the season. 

That quote is why the Yankees do the things they do. It’s why they run the bases “like they’re drunk” as John Sterling analogized this postseason. There’s no accountability. Cole failed in an unimaginable way to conduct an easy cover of first and Boone had the balls to say his team “is pretty good” at such plays. The night before in Game 4, Boone called Volpe a “great baserunner” after he only advanced to third from second on a double, which came before he later tried to stretch a single into a double and was only safe because his head dislodged the ball on his slide. It’s quotes like that which make Verdugo jogging to first base all season OK and why Gleyber Torres pimps fly balls that don’t go over the wall. It’s why Rizzo felt it was acceptable for him to stop running from first to second earlier in the series.

There isn’t a single Yankee that would have run as hard to first like Betts did when Cole failed to cover. There isn’t a Yankee that would have run to third as hard as Hernandez did to cause a bad throw by Volpe. There isn’t a Dodger that would have let the cutoff throw evade them like Torres did in Game 1. The Yankees played the World Series as if they were going to win simply because they reached the World Series. The Dodgers played like a team that knows what it takes to win because they have actually won before.

The talent gap between the Yankees and Dodgers isn’t much if there’s any at all. But the Yankees don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone. They don’t do any of the little things right. They drop balls and boot grounders. They don’t cover bases and don’t catch cutoff throws. In Game 5, they dropped a line drive, threw away a grounder, failed to cover first on a ground ball, picked up a catcher’s interference and even had three disengagements leading to a balk. That would be a bad week in the regular season. The Yankees did all of that between the fifth and ninth innings of a World Series elimination game. After losing Game 1 of the World Series when they had an 89 precent win probability, they one-upped themselves by blowing a 96 percent win probability in Game 5.

“We didn’t take care of the ball enough,” Boone said stating the obvious.

6. The praise for Cole’s performance is a little over the top. Boone called him “awesome” and everywhere you look he’s getting celebrated like he’s Madison Bumgarner. Did he pitch well? Yes. Was he part of the meltdown? Yes. He didn’t cover first on the potential inning-ending play. He was also the one who put a 1-2 fastball in the same spot to Freddie Freeman that Nestor Cortes did in Game 1 to plate two runs, and it was Cole who let Teoscar Hernandez tattoo a hanging slider in a 1-2 count to tie the game. Cole pitched well and was able to give the Yankees two more innings after the fifth-inning mess, but let’s not act like he was a hero. There were no heroes wearing pinstripes in Game 5. Not on the field playing, and certainly not in the dugout managing.

7. “I haven’t had that feeling of celebrating and going home,” Boone said. “I’m 51. I’ve poured my life into that. When you get that close it’s heartbreaking.”

It’s hard to envision the Yankees ever winning under Boone. We just saw what he was capable of in the biggest games he has ever managed and it was a shitshow centered around not knowing how to properly utilize his best bullpen asset in Luke Weaver.

In Game 1, Boone didn’t go back to Weaver for the 10th inning with a one-run lead despite Weaver having gone five up and five down on 19 pitches and having not pitched in six days. The next day Boone said it was a move he would have liked to do differently. In Game 3, he let the Dodgers see Weaver in a game the Yankees trailed by four runs in the ninth. Then Boone saved his best act of the season for last in deciding he would use Weaver for two innings in the game, but not before he tried to steal an innings worth of outs from Tommy Kahnle. If Boone was willing to get six outs from Weaver, why didn’t he start the eighth inning when the Yankees held a one-run lead. By the time he was allowed to remove Kahnle, the changeup-only righty had loaded the base with not outs.

8. “I let my team down,” Kahnle said.

Yes, you did, Tommy. Kahnle didn’t throw a fastball in the World Series. He threw only changeups in every appearance and when you only throw changeups, they are no longer changeups since they don’t “change up” from anything. And when you can’t throw one for a strike and the opposition stops chasing them outside of the zone, you get the type of inning Kahnle provided in Game 5: three batters faced and none retired.

9. “The ending is cruel,” Boone said.

He should know. Seven years as manager and none have ended happily. Boone has overseen a postseason-less season, a wild-card game loss, two ALDS losses, two ALCS losses and now a World Series loss. The only type of loss he has yet to manage is the three-season-old, best-of-3 wild-card series. Maybe he will gift Yankees fans that type of loss in 2025 to complete the list.

I don’t think the season was over for even 15 seconds before Andy Martino put out a sourced report Boone will be back for 2025. No shit, Andy. The guy was given a new contract after the 2021 season when the team was the odds-on favorite to win the World Series and instead finished third in their division and fifth in the AL. He was retained after last season when the team missed the postseason entirely and posted the franchise’s worst record in three decades. Getting to the World Series is like winning the World Series for ownership and the front office. Not even a week ago Brian Cashman once again brought up how he still believes the Yankees were the AL champions in 2017 even though they didn’t win the ALCS.

10. The Dodgers used their bullpen in the postseason like no team ever had before and it was clear in the final innings of Game 5 when they were willing to possibly let Blake Treinen destroy his elbow and rotator cuff that they were running out of options for the series. I have no idea how the Dodgers planned to piece together 27 outs in Game 6 and again if the series got to Game 7. The Yankees would have had momentum, no pressure and an immense advantage pitching-wise if the series went back to Los Angeles. They would have had a real chance of pulling off the historic 3-0 comeback. But the series isn’t going back to Los Angeles. The series is over and the season is over because the Yankees couldn’t hold a five-run lead in the fifth inning.

1. When I left Yankee Stadium on Monday after Game 3, I had come to terms with the Yankees’ season ending in a World Series loss to the Dodgers. The realization began when Freddie Freeman hit the two-run home run in the first inning and continued with the Yankees’ offense being retired with ease inning after inning. I woke up on Tuesday accepting of the fact that my wife and her family would be holding a Dodgers’ championship at the expense of the Yankees over me for all of time.

2. I decided to watch Game 4 from home instead of at the Stadium. If the Yankees’ season were to end on on Tuesday, at least I could turn off the TV and walk to bed to begin the five-month layoff until the next meaningful baseball game. If they were to win, great, I would get to watch at least one more game of Juan Soto as a Yankee on Wednesday.

3. They did win. And while the final score makes it look like a lopsided rout, it really wasn’t.

“It was a good ballgame,” Dave Roberts said, “until it wasn’t.”

The Yankees trailed early, made an egregious baserunning error, and then finally got the big hit they have been waiting for all series from the player who made the egregious baserunning error. That player was Anthony Volpe and the big hit was his third-inning grand slam to give the Yankees their first lead since the 10th inning of Game 1.

“I think I pretty much blacked out,” Volpe said, “as soon as I saw it go over the fence.”

4. Volpe’s blunder on the bases on Austin Wells’ double off the right-center wall was ridiculous. It’s no less ridiculous because he hit a grand slam the following inning, it just made the pain and the potential disaster of it in an elimination game go away. Later in the game, Volpe again made a baserunning mistake when he went for two and was initially thrown out by Teoscar Hernandez at second base before his head dislodged the ball on his slide. This from a player Boone called “a really good baserunner” during his in-game interview immediately after Volpe’s mistake on Wells’ double.

The Golden Boy had himself a night and it ended with David Ortiz taking a picture of Volpe and Derek Jeter together on the field after Volpe did a postgame interview with those two and Alex Rodriguez. Three men who were all part of the only 3-0 comeback in baseball history.

“We’ve been through so much the whole year,” Volpe said. “We’re not going to go down easy at all.”

5. Aaron Judge reached base three times (hit by pitch, walk and single) and drove in his first run of the series. Gleyber Torres homered and had three RBIs, Wells had a pair of extra-base hits (double and home run), Soto doubled and even Alex Verdugo had two RBIs. Every Yankee except for Anthony Rizzo reached base.

“We just wanted to go 1-0 today and win today,” Volpe said, “and see where it took us.”

6. The 11-run outburst was enjoyable as it was the Yankees’ first laugher in the postseason. Prior to Game 4, their first 12 postseason games this October were all decided by three or fewer runs. After scoring seven runs in the first three games and 28 innings of the World Series they scored five runs in the eighth inning alone. I don’t expect a similar outburst in Game 5, but the Yankees don’t need an outburst like that to win.

7. In the past, when the Yankees were on the verge of being swept in four, like they were in the 2012 ALCS or 2022 ALCS, they just rolled over and went to the offseason, so I expected a similar ending in this series, especially after the Freeman home run in the first inning. I didn’t expect a win and because I had accepted the season was essentially over, Game 4 presented an odd feeling: I was relaxed watching it. I wasn’t upset when Freeman hit another first-inning home run. I wasn’t angry when Volpe ran the bases like “he was drunk” which is how John Sterling has described the Yankees’ baserunning. I didn’t get overly excited when Volpe hit his slam or when the offense put up a 5-spot in the eighth. I wasn’t worried when the Dodgers turned a three-run deficit into a one-run deficit in the middle innings. I didn’t celebrate when they closed out the win.

That will change on Wednesday in Game 5. Now that they showed some life and some fight and some offense, it’s hard to not look at the Gerrit Cole-Jack Flaherty matchup in Game 5 and feel like this series should get to a Game 6.

8. In order to get to a Game 6 on Friday at Dodger Stadium, Cole needs to be an ace in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium. I don’t trust Cole to go out and shut down the Dodgers because I don’t think he’s completely healthy (why else would he be removed after 88 pitches in Game 1?) and because he hasn’t been the type of sure-thing he should be in games like this in his career. But I have no choice. The only way the Yankees extend their season is with Cole pitching like he’s supposed to in these moments and the offense building off their Game 4 performance and not reverting back to their Games 1, 2 and 3 performances.

9. The formula in Game 5 needs to be Cole for seven and then Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver for the eighth and ninth. That’s the cleanest path to victory. I doubt it will be that easy. These Yankees never seem to make anything easy.

10. “Why not us?”

That was the moniker of the 2004 Red Sox when they began their historic comeback against the Yankees. The Yankees and Yankees fans aren’t there. Not yet. But if the Yankees are able to win Game 5, save their season for a second straight day and send the series back to Los Angeles? Then the “Why not us?” talk can begin.

The Dodgers are going back to Los Angeles after Game 5 no matter the result. I’m cautiously optimistic the Yankees will be going with them.

Nine down, Three to go.

1. Pathetic.

Needing to win Game 3 to avoid going down 3-0 in the World Series, the Yankees’ offense put together a disgraceful performance against a starting pitcher that every team has gotten to this season. The Yankees were no-hit into the fourth inning and were held scoreless by Dodgers pitching through 8 2/3 innings. Their only two runs in the loss came on a meaningless two-run home run by Alex Verdugo in the ninth that he admired as if he were Freddie Freeman hitting an actual timely home run. They got another shit start from a starting pitcher — the one facet of the game they had a distinct advantage in entering the series — picked up another infield error and had their moronic third-base coach create yet another out at home plate in a season full of them. Once again, the bullpen did its job to keep the Dodgers at bay for a lengthy amount of time to give the offense a chance to come back, but the offense never came back, taking fastball after fastball down the middle, while continuing to chase breaking balls off the plate.

2. After Game 2, I wrote:

The first inning of Game 3 is the most important inning of Clarke Schmidt’s life. Yankee Stadium is going to be loud. It’s going to be raucous. It’s going to be full of believers who think this series isn’t over (including yours truly). He has to put up a zero. He can’t let Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandes get to him. Not in the first inning. If they get to him later, so be it. He has to give the bats a chance to get on the board first. He has to give the crowd a reason to stay loud and stay involved. He can’t go out and have a Rodon-like inning and allow a crooked number. Don’t allow any number.

So much for that. Schmidt walked Shohei Ohtani on four pitches to begin the game and two batters later fell behind Freeman 2-0 and then threw the future Hall of Famer a fastball he crushed into right-field seats for an early 2-0 lead. Freeman has now homered in every game of this series and for the player who was supposedly playing on one leg entering the World Series, he’s now in line to be the unanimous MVP of the series.

Schmidt was bad, just like Rodon was in Game 2, and now after 12 postseason games, the Yankees have received three good starts (ALDS Game 4, ALCS Game 1 and World Series Game 1). Their starting pitching has failed them just like their offense has.

3. The always-delusional Nestor Cortes put it best in how the Yankees will spin the series: “This series, stuff hasn’t gone our way.”

The Yankees internally likely feel the same way as an organization as Cortes. They don’t look across the field and see a team that is doing everything better than the Yankees. They look across the field and think the Dodgers have gotten all the breaks. That they’re luckier. That they’re better at playing craps. Since the postseason is just a crapshoot, right?

Aaron Boone not using Luke Weaver in the 10th inning in Game 1 wasn’t a bad break. The offense having one hit through eight innings in Game 2 and Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe destroying the ninth-inning rally wasn’t unlucky. The offense taking the night off in the first World Series game at Yankee Stadium in 15 years wasn’t the result of bad bounces. In the World Series, the Yankees haven’t played like the championship-caliber team Boone, Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner will tell us they are once they lose one more game. They have played like the team that went 11-23 from the middle of June until the end of July.

4. After watching the team’s listless offensive performance in Games 1 and 2, Boone decided he would change his lineup for Game 3. Except he only made one change. He removed the struggling Austin Wells for in favor of Jose Trevino. Wells has been bad for more than a month, but at least there’s the threat of him running into a fastball, no matter how small that threat is. There’s no threat for the opposition with Trevino at the plate. The only threat is toward his own team that he will hit the ball on the ground and make two outs instead of one. And for as bad as Wells has been, at least he’s capable of holding the running game in check.

5. Boone’s intelligent move to jumpstart his offense was to put the worst bat of the 13 position players on the roster in the starting lineup, completely disregarding the additional righty-righty matchup he was creating — the type of matchup he lives to avoid. But with the Yankees trailing late in the game, he decided Wells gave him a better chance to produce offense and had him pinch hit for Trevino. A genius at work. Never change, Boone, you idiot, never change.

The Boone Yankees are 6-18 in the postseason against non-AL Central teams with no series wins. 

6. “I know how good this team is,” Alex Verdugo said, “and if that team can win three in a row, why can’t we win three in a row?”

That team’s star players are hitting like stars and their role players are playing their roles. The Yankees’ offense is being propped up by Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto and no one else is doing anything, especially Judge.

7. “Don’t listen to the outside noise, because it’s just noise,” Judge said. “We’ve got a job to do on the field.”

The outside noise was all positive for Judge on Monday. Yankee Stadium erupted when his name was called during player introductions before the game. The Stadium gave him standing ovations for each of his four miserable plate appearances. And he repaid the pity cheers and embarrassingly soft display by the fan base by going hitless once again. After going 0-for-3 (with a meaningless walk in the eighth inning) in Game 3, Mr. May is now 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the World Series. He has completely devalued his regular season with his postseason, striking out in 20 of 43 at-bats.

8. “We’re trying to get a game tomorrow, OK?” an annoyed Boone said. “Hopefully we can go be this amazing story and shock the world.”

What time do you think the viewing party is in the Yankees clubhouse of the 2004 ALCS video Boone showed the team two years ago? 3:30? 4:30? Maybe Boone can have the Stadium video screen operator show Dave Roberts’ Game 4 stolen base and David Ortiz’s walk-off home run off of Paul Quantrill in between innings on Tuesday? Maybe Boone can ask those two to address his team prior to Game 4 since they will both be at the Stadium?

Since the comedic comparisons of this team in the 2024 World Series to the 1996 and 2001 Yankees are no longer valid, I’m sure there will be plenty of talk on Tuesday about how this Yankees team compares to the 2004 Red Sox. Spoiler: they don’t.

9. I want nothing more than for the Yankees to win on Tuesday and Wednesday in The Bronx, and then win on Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles to become the second team ever to erase a 3-0 deficit in MLB history. But it’s hard to believe in this Yankees team when there’s a better chance they are getting no-hit into the fifth inning or being shut out into the eighth inning of Game 4 than there seems to be that they can win Game 4.

10. For the first time this postseason, the Yankees will play a game facing elimination in Game 4. If the Yankees lose Game 4, their season is over. There won’t be another Yankees game in 2024 and there may never be another game with Juan Soto as a Yankee. Their last two postseason appearances will have ended in four-game sweeps to two teams that are actually championship-caliber and not in the way the Yankees talk about being since you have to actually win a championship to be considered such.

1. It’s a good thing Aaron Boone didn’t go back to Luke Weaver in the 10th inning of Game 1 of the World Series, considering he wasn’t needed in Game 2. The decision to not use Weaver after the righty went five up and five down on just 19 pitches is the single biggest reason the World Series isn’t going back to New York tied at 1.

2. The second biggest reason is Aaron Judge. Judge was atrocious once again in Game 2, as he continues to hit like a 6-foot-7 version of Anthony Volpe. After going 1-for-5 with three strikeouts in Game 1, Judge followed it up with a nice 0-for-4 with three more strikeouts. Back-to-back hat tricks from the AL MVP in the World Series with the championship on the line — the same championship he relentlessly refers to needing to win.

3. Judge certainly has a funny way of showing how important winning is to him. His strikeout rate and chase rates are through the roof in October compared to March through September. If Giancarlo Stanton is the second coming of Mr. October then Judge is the second coming of Mr. May. When Joe Davis exclaimed, “Gibby, meet Freddie!” following Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam, the image of Judge standing next to Dave Winfield on the Dodger Stadium field before Game 2 made me think, “Winnie, meet Judgey!”

4. Before Game 2, I wrote about how big of a problem Judge has been and he went out and added to his problematic resume. After breaking the AL home run record with 62 in 2022, he went 1-for-16 with a single in the ALCS. After producing one of the greatest offensive seasons in the history of baseball this season, he’s 1-for-9 with six strikeouts in the World Series (after going 5-for-31 with 13 strikeouts in the ALDS and ALCS).

This is a legacy series for Judge. He can’t be considered among the all-time Yankees greats without a championship. It would be different if he were playing with the putrid players Don Mattingly was surrounded with during his career, but Judge has been surrounded by elite talent, superstars and one of the Top 3 payrolls in the league in his career. It would be different if he were having an all-time postseason and the rest of the lineup was doing nothing, but he’s the one doing nothing. He is the one holding the Yankees back.

5. You would think this can’t possibly continue, but I thought that during the ALDS and it continued in the ALCS. After the Yankees won the pennant, I thought it wouldn’t continue in the World Series but it has. Judge isn’t just missing pitches or hitting into bad luck. He’s taking fastballs down the middle and swinging at curveballs in the dirt and splitters on the verge of hitting him. He’s a mess. It’s hard to believe a switch can just be turned on and he can be the real version of himself in Game 3 after having not been that version of himself in a month now.

6. If you remove the idiotic decisions from Boone in Game 1, the Yankees were an out away from winning that game. Despite the offense producing one hit over the first eight innings of Game 2, they were a base hit away from tying the game in the ninth and an extra-base hit away from taking the lead. That’s how close these games have been and Judge has been the difference. The Dodgers are doing everything they can to not let Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton beat them since no one else is capable of it, and Soto and Stanton are nearly beating them. If Judge were his regular-season self right now, the Yankees may be heading home up 2-0 in the series. Instead their backs are against the wall and in desperate need of a win in Game 3.

7. Judge and the offense as a whole aren’t entirely to blame for the Game 2 loss. Carlos Rodon wasn’t any good, of course, because Rodon isn’t very good. Another regular-season hero, Rodon was praised for pitching to 3.96 ERA this year while making roughly $800,000 per start. No one shuts down a team with nothing to play midseason while racking up double-digit strikeouts like Rodon, the way no one will smash five home runs in five games against teams playing out the string like Judge. After Rodon’s Game 2 stinker, he now has a 5.60 ERA in four starts this October and a 6.64 ERA for his postseason career. The Royals, Guardians and Dodgers have an .820 OPS against him in the postseason. He may have only walked one in 17 2/3 innings, but that doesn’t matter when you’re giving up home runs at the rate Rodon has in the playoffs. If the Yankees are going to come back and win the series, Rodon will get another start. I wouldn’t expect a different kind of performance.

8. Going into the series I wrote the only advantage the Dodgers had over the Yankees was at 5 through 9 in the lineup and that has held true. While the Dodgers are getting production from career league-average- and below-league-average hitters, the Yankees continue to not. A player like Tommy Edman is the definition of league average for his career with a 100 OPS+, and yet he won NLCS MVP against the Mets, and in the World Series, he’s 4-for-8 with two doubles and a home run and some great infield defense. Meanwhile, the Yankees’ career league-average- and below-league-average hitters all suck whether it’s Volpe, Alex Verdugo or Austin Wells. There’s no belief any of them will ever come through in a big moment, and that was never more true than when Volpe struck out in the ninth inning in Game 2. Every time you think Volpe has figured it out and is about to emerge as a star he reminds you why he has an 83 OPS+ in 1,290 career plate appearances.

9. The first inning of Game 3 is the most important inning of Clarke Schmidt’s life. Yankee Stadium is going to be loud. It’s going to be raucous. It’s going to be full of believers who think this series isn’t over (including yours truly). He has to put up a zero. He can’t let Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandes get to him. Not in the first inning. If they get to him later, so be it. He has to give the bats a chance to get on the board first. He has to give the crowd a reason to stay loud and stay involved. He can’t go out and have a Rodon-like inning and allow a crooked number. Don’t allow any number.

10. I don’t want to hear about what the Yankees did in 1996 when trailing 2-0 or how the 2001 Yankees returned home down 2-0 before winning three straight in the Bronx. Unless youthful and prime and peak Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Paul O’Neill, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte are going to be playing and pitching for the Yankees over the next few nights, it’s meaningless. This Yankees group has never done anything. They have never won anything. This is their first time in the World Series and they have yet to win a game in it. Until they do it, there should be no comparisons to the dynastic teams and players that went to the World Series in six of eight years and won four of them. Let’s start with one win and that win has to come in Game 3. Otherwise, I hope Boone still has the 2004 ALCS highlights video lying around that he used to motivate his team in the 2022 ALCS when they were down 3-0.

1. Cortes delivers …

Freeman hits a ball to right field …

SHE IS GONE! …

GIBBY, MEET FREDDIE! … GAME 1 OF THE WORLD SERIES!

For many Yankees fans, they probably only heard Joe Davis’ call of Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam once. They probably heard it in real time, turned off the TV and went to bed. Not me. I heard it a second time. And a third time and fourth time. I heard it for nearly an hour after the game had ended from the other room as my wife — a Dodgers fan — watched the historic moment on an endless loop.

I’ll never get over Game 1. I’ll never get over the litany of bad decisions that started with Gerrit Cole being removed in the seventh inning and ended with Nestor Cortes being asked to get Shoehei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman out.

2. When these Yankees lose, they don’t just lose. They lose in the excruciating, heartbreaking, kick-you-in-the-nuts-then-punch-you-in-the-face-when-you-go-to-grab-your-nuts fashion. They don’t lose games 7-2 or 5-0. They lose games like Game 1 of the World Series or Game 4 of the ALCS, which is how these Yankees always lose in the playoffs. The Dodgers lost two games to the Padres by scores of 10-2 and 6-5. They lost two games to the Mets by scores of 7-3 and 8-0. Normal, easy-to-accept losses. The Yankees? They carry high-’90s win probabilities into the final inning and come within an out or a strike of a winning before suffering an unbelievable loss.

Game 1 didn’t have to be an unbelievable loss. It should have been a statement win, letting the Dodgers know they aren’t playing the Padres or Mets anymore. Instead, the Dodgers let the Yankees know they aren’t playing the AL Central anymore. (The Yankees have not won a postseason series against a team outside of the AL Central since the 2012 ALDS against Baltimore.) The game was a perfect summarization of the Aarons era with Aaron Boone managing his team to a loss and Aaron Judge doing absolutely nothing at at the plate to prevent it.

3. Boone desperately wants to be known as some kind of baseball genius or managerial savant. It’s why he interjects himself into games in the oddest ways, even when he doesn’t have to. His father — a 19-year veteran, World Series champion and seven-time Gold Glove winner — and brother — a 14-year veteran, four-time Gold Glove winner and two-time Silver Slugger winner who led the league in RBIs one season — had careers that overshadowed Boone’s 92 OPS+ in the majors. (Maybe that’s why he’s so infatuated with giving endless chances to below-league-average hitters he manages.) Managing the Yankees was going to be his way of stepping of that shadow.

Boone was selected as the manager of the most prestigious organization in major sports following the young, exciting core coming within a win of the World Series despite having no managerial or coaching experience at any level. His lack of experience showed in his first spring training when he called on Dellin Betances to enter a game even though Betances had yet to warm up. The umpiring crew gave him a mulligan and let Betances warm up anyway. In the first series of his first regular season in Toronto, he managed the Yankees to a late-inning loss with his bullpen choices and from that moment on he has never evolved.

4. His longing to be the smartest baseball mind in a major-league dugout is why he makes the moves he makes. He didn’t need to remove Cole from the game. Not after 88 pitches. He didn’t need to show the Dodgers all of the Yankees’ elite relievers in Game 1 of the series. He didn’t need to use Clay Holmes in relief of Cole. He didn’t need to try to steal outs with Tommy Kahnle. He didn’t need to pinch run Jasson Dominguez for Gleyber Torres with two outs, but he wanted Judge to single in Dominguez, so talking heads would praise him for the awareness to use Dominguez in that spot. He didn’t need to go to Jake Cousins in relief of Luke Weaver with the Yankees three outs from a win in the 10th and Weaver having thrown only 19 pitches. He didn’t need to use Cortes over Tim Hill, but he wanted to try to turn one of his starters into a shutdown postseason reliever like his friend, rival and much more heralded and respected Alex Cora did in 2018.

5. Boone had his worst night as Yankees manager in the biggest game he has ever managed. It was the type of managerial performance I have feared from him for seven years. It was a performance he foreshadowed to us all over the last seven years.

“I just like the matchup,” Boone said of using Cortes in the 10th. “The reality is, Cortes has been throwing the ball really well the last few weeks as he’s gotten ready for this.”

What are you talking about? What reality? Cortes facing Jahmai Jones in live batting practice in an empty Yankee Stadium isn’t reality. That’s a controlled environment. Reality is pitching in Game 1 of the World Series with a former MVP at the plate and the bases loaded.

“I knew with one out there, it would be tough to double up Shohei if Tim Hill gets him on the ground,” Boone said. “Then Mookie behind him is a tough spot matchup there. So I felt convicted with Nestor in that spot.”

Whenever Boone lays out the thought process he uses to make decisions, we all get a look inside the brain of a confused idiot. If Hill gets Ohtani on the ground, he doesn’t need a double play. There were runners on first and second with one out. Ohtani goes on the ground and there are two outs. Cortes didn’t face Betts, so Hill wouldn’t have either. If the bases are loaded and Hill gets Freeman on the ground, guess what? Game over.

6. I don’t blame Cortes for the missed location to Freeman. Once the bases were intentionally loaded, he had to throw strikes. Freeman knew this and was ready for a fastball in the zone. Even if Cortes hits his intended location, Freeman likely still gets a hit and ends the game. It’s Freddie Fucking Freeman, not Josh Naylor. But no, it’s not Cortes’ fault. He last pitched in a game on September 18. He didn’t put himself on the World Series roster after missing five weeks and being on the brink of Tommy John surgery and he didn’t put himself in that spot.

7. Boone doesn’t believe the Yankees’ Game 1 loss is on him. In his mind he pressed all of the right buttons and his players didn’t perform. The idea of putting your players in the best possible position to succeed isn’t a concept Boone comprehends. The ironic part about Boone is that he is always managing with tomorrow on mind. It’s why he pulled Weaver after going five up and five down on 19 pitches, rather than using Weaver in the 10th and securing a win. But while Boone always manages for tomorrow, he never manages a game thinking the game may go to extra innings, and when it does the Yankees are ill-equipped to win. Do you think it’s just a coincidence the Yankees have lost every extra-inning game in the postseason with Boone as manager?

The bigger the game, the worse Boone is at his job. Just like his superstar, $40-million-per-year MVP.

8. Giancarlo Stanton is everything that Judge isn’t. He’s a big-game performer who saves his best for the playoffs and has become the second coming of Mr. October. Judge is Mr. May. No one destroys back-of-the-rotation starters and middle relievers like Judge does in the spring and summer.

Everyone thought Judge had moved past his postseason failures when he hit the home run off Emmanuel Clase in Game 3 of the ALCS. But since his home run off Clase (that came in the Yankees’ only loss of that series), Judge is 2-for-14 with a pair of singles and 10 strikeouts. He has struck out 16 times in 36 at-bats this October.

If Judge just sucked and wasn’t abysmal, the Yankees’ offense wouldn’t be in such a dire position. But he has been impossibly bad, culminating in his three-strikeout performance in Game 1 of the World Series, a game in which he looked blindfolded swinging at Jack Flaherty breaking balls. Late on fastballs and unable to hit curveballs. That’s Mr. May.

9. Judge’s absence has turned the Yankees into a two-batter lineup. Opposing pitchers can fear Juan Soto and Stanton and no one else. The threat of slug in the lineup dies after Stanton bats. Sure, Jazz Chisholm and Austin Wells each hit solo home runs in this postseason, but no one is threatened by the idea of them doing that consistently. Anthony Rizzo is a slap singles hitter and Anthony Volpe is the same. Alex Verdugo has trouble getting the ball in the air past infielders, so the thought of him hitting one over the fence is far-fetched. When Wells makes contact it’s a miracle, so no one is expecting him to drive the ball with any authority. When the bat gets taken out of Soto’s hands through an intentional walk and Stanton’s at-bat doesn’t end with a home run, the Yankees don’t score. Unless the Dodgers are going to start walking in runs like the Royals did or throwing wild pitches and dropping popups like the Guardians, the Yankees are going to have a tough time scoring without Judge being himself.

10. At this point, I have no expectation he will be himself. The last time he looked like himself was exactly a month ago today when he finished a streak of five straight games with a home run at the end of September. Since the calendar turned to October he has performed his annual disappearing act while the two batters he is sandwiched between in the lineup have carried him and the team. The Dodgers are too good to let Soto and Stanton alone carry the Yankees to another series win.

The narrative after the ALDS was that the Yankees were able to advance without Judge hitting, so just wait until he starts hitting! Then the ALCS came and he went 3-for-18 with eight strikeouts and the narrative remained the same: The Yankees were able to advance to the World Series without Judge hitting, so just wait until he starts hitting! Well, the World Series is here. It’s a game in and Judge looked worse at the plate than he did at any other time in the playoffs. There are some star players who can’t handle the postseason with any consistency, and to this point in his career, Judge is one of them.

1. Eighty-eighty pitches. That’s how many pitches Gerrit Cole had thrown in Game 1 of the World Series when Aaron Boone emerged from the Yankees dugout for a slow walk to the mound.

Cole had mostly dominated the Dodgers’ offense through six innings, allowing one run on four hits with that one run coming as the result of a misplayed fly ball in right field by Juan Soto. It was the seventh inning now, and after Teoscar Hernandez won his eight-pitch battle against Cole with a line-drive single, Boone decided to pull the plug on his ace’s night.

It’s not as if Boone was opting to replace Cole with Tommy Kahnle or Luke Weaver. He was going to go with Clay Holmes who has spent the last seven months doing everything he can on the mound to say STOP PITCHING ME IN HIGH-LEVERAGE SITUATIONS! Boone ignored all of the warnings during the regular season and has continued to ignore them in the postseason. Despite removing Holmes from the closer role during the regular season and despite Holmes allowing a walk-off loss to the Guardians in the ALCS, it hasn’t mattered. There’s no level of disappointment Holmes can provide that will make Boone stop using him in big spots.

2. For Boone, the decision to turn to Holmes in the seventh inning was his second poor decision of the night following the choice to not run Gleyber Torres on a 3-2 count with Juan Soto up in the third inning. But the move to go to Holmes was the move that sent the Yankees on a downward spiral to their eventual 6-3 walk-off loss.

Holmes immediately proved to be a disaster. His first pitch was in the dirt, his second pitch was high and inside and his third pitch drilled Max Muncy in the foot. Boone had brought Holmes in specifically to induce a ground ball in an effort to get a double play, and instead, Holmes pushed his inherited runner into scoring position.

Fortunately, for Boone, his counterpart, Dave Roberts, is every bit as bad at managing as Boone is, and he had Kike Hernandez give himself up with a sacrifice bunt. A free out for a pitcher who can’t handle pressure in the most pressurized situation of his career. After Holmes got a popup, he had faced the required three batters and was removed from the game for Tommy Kahnle. The Yankees would get out of the inning unscathed, but it came at a cost. Boone had pulled his ace and burned through two relievers in a single inning.

3. I wanted Boone to use Cole for at least the seventh and then a well-rested Luke Weaver for the eighth and ninth. Boone still had the option to use Weaver for six outs and with a one-run lead in the eighth, it made sense to. He declined, choosing to stick with Kahnle in the eighth.

Kahnle had thrown 48 straight changeups entering Game 1 and stayed with the pitch to get the last out of the seventh and the first out of the eighth. It’s one thing to throw the same pitch that many times in a row to the Royals and Guardians and the bottom of the Dodgers’ order, but not to the best hitter in the world. To think you’re going to retire Ohtani with a single pitch like you’re Mariano Rivera is irresponsible, but Kahnle and Austin Wells tried anyway. Ohtani banged a double off the wall.

Soto threw the ball into second and Torres failed to get in front of the short hop and the ball trickled to the middle of the infield as Ohtani raced to third to give the Dodgers a runner on third with one out. Then Boone went to Weaver, but it was too late, as a Mookie Betts sacrifice fly tied the game. Not even one full game into the World Series and the combination of sloppy play by the Yankees’ defense and the attempt to steal outs by the Yankees manager had given the Dodgers both of their runs.

4. Boone had been willing to use Holmes in the seventh, but not until there was a runner on. He was willing to go to Weaver in the eighth, but not until the tying run was at third with one out. Giving relievers clean innings isn’t something Boone is capable of. And after watching the way he managed in the biggest game of his career, it’s terrifying to see what he’s capable of on baseball’s grandest stage.

Weaver got the final two outs of the eighth and pitched the ninth: five up, five down for the Yankees’ best reliever, who should have been in to start the eighth, and the Yankees wouldn’t be trailing in the series right now.

5. The Yankees managed to take the lead in the 10th after Jazz Chisholm singled, stole second and third and scored on an Anthony Volpe ground ball. Boone had another chance to redeem himself by sending Weaver back out for the 10th. He had only thrown 19 pitches to get five outs and hadn’t pitched in six days. He was more than rested. Boone declined, choosing to go with Jake Cousins.

Cousins retired Will Smith to begin the 10th, but with the Yankees two outs away from a Game 1 win, Cousins inexplicably walked the 8-hitter Gavin Lux. Tommy Edman followed with a ground ball to second that Oswaldo Cabrera dove for, but couldn’t come up with. It’s a ball that Torres would have handled had he been at second, but he was removed from the game in the ninth for a pinch runner even though there had been two outs in that inning. Another Boone gem.

6. In the pivotal Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS, Boone’s starting pitcher didn’t know the start time of the game. The next night, facing elimination, he let his starting pitcher face the entire Red Sox’ lineup a second time because he said he liked the matchup of his starter against their No. 9 hitter. In the 2019 ALCS, with a 1-0 series lead, he let J.A. Happ pitch in relief until the Astros finally walked him off. In Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS, he tried to outsmart Kevin Cash by using Deivi Garcia as a one-out opener before going to Happ. After the wild-card game loss in 2021, he said “The league has closed the gap” on his team, a team that had never won anything. In Game 1 of the 2022 ALCS, he opted to not go with his best relievers in the sixth inning of a tie game in an eventual loss, and when his team lost again the next night, he blamed the Houston roof being open as the reason. Down 3-0 in that ALCS he used video from the 2004 ALCS as motivation for his players, players who were members of the same franchise that endured that historic loss in the 2004 ALCS. In 2023, he spent the summer telling everyone how “capable the guys in the room are” as they posted the franchise’s worst record in three decades and missed the playoffs. Now in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, in the biggest game of his managerial career, he tried to steal outs in both the seventh and eighth innings.

Even with all of these “highlight” ill-advised choices and impossibly bad decisions over seven years and his shortcomings as a sound baseball mind despite being a third-generation major-leaguer, nothing he has done as Yankees manager will ever be as bad as what he would do next in Game 1.

7. After choosing to not pitch Weaver in the 10th, Boone’s decision to use Cousins had created a shitstorm. The Dodgers had the tying run on second and the winning run on first with Ohtani up. It was the perfect opportunity for the left-handed ground-ball specialist Tim Hill, who had dominated in the ALDS and ALCS. Boone declined, choosing to go with Nestor Cortes, who last pitched in a game on September 18, more than five weeks ago. Unless the Yankees come back to win the series, it will be the decision that defines Boone as a manager.

Cortes retied Ohtani when Alex Verdugo fell into the stands to make an outstanding catch in foul territory. With Betts due up, Boone called for an intentional walk to bring up the supposedly-hobbled Freddie Freeman. Cortes threw a first-pitch, 93-mph fastball down the middle and Freeman destroyed it for the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history.

A day ago, the Yankees were waiting on Cortes to say how he felt and recovered from throwing live batting practice before putting him on the World Series roster. He went from facing Cabrera and Austin Wells in a controlled environment to a couple of days later facing Ohtani and Freeman with a World Series game on the line, while admittedly being less than 100 percent, as the Yankees’ left-handed specialist sat on his thumb in the bullpen. It’s a move so egregious I’m still stunned by it hours later. After seven seasons of watching every move Boone has made I thought the possibility of being stunned by him no longer existed. I was wrong.

8. Boone is here to stay. The ALDS win locked it up and winning the pennant threw away the key. He will be here forever. The Yankees could get humiliated in the next three games and get swept out of the Fall Classic because of similar moves by him and he’s not going anywhere.

9. The Yankees lost a game in which they outhit and outwalked the Dodgers. They lost a game in which their ace started and gave them six-plus innings of one-run ball. They lost a game in which they used their best reliever for multiple innings. They lost. agame in which they got to the Dodgers starter and got to Dodgers bullpen early. They lost a game in which they had a one-run lead with five outs to go and then a one-run lead in extra innings with the bottom of the Dodgers’ lineup due up.

This doesn’t feel like a it’s-a-long-series loss or a just-win-one-game-on-the-road loss. This feels like a series-changing, series-defining loss. The Yankees had the opportunity to be up 1-0 in the series, needing to just play .500 baseball over the next six games to be champions. Instead, they wound up on the wrong end of a devastating defeat and now need to go 4-2 against the best team in baseball to be champions.

10. Game 1 wasn’t just one loss in a seven-game series. It was a demoralizing defeat. The kind of defeat that could end this series much quicker than the six- or seven-game series everyone seems to think it will be. That’s not me being dramatic as I can hear my wife from the other room replaying the Freeman grand slam over and over, that’s me being a realist.

There are no moral victories in postseason losses, especially in the World Series. There is nothing good and nothing positive to take away from Game 1. They lost. They let a winnable game slip away twice thanks to their sloppy play, the disappearing act from their MVP and unfathomable managerial decisions: the trio of issues that has always doomed this core.

1. It feels like it’s been a month since the Yankees last played, and with still one more day to go until Game 1 of the World Series, it feels like it will be another month until they play again.

When the Yankees last won the pennant, they clinched on Sunday night and Game 1 of the World Series was Wednesday. The Yankees will have had six full days off between eliminating the Guardians in Game 5 and playing the Dodgers in Game 1.

2. The only good thing to come of the extra time is that the baseball season is extended and the offseason is shortened. For teams that didn’t reach the postseason, this Sunday will already be four weeks since they last played. By the time the World Series ends, it will have been nearly five weeks since the majority of the league played. Thankfully, the Yankees are still playing.

3. The hype and anticipation for this series has been unlike any other World Series, and the ticket prices are there to prove it. You could pay for a year of college, put a down a payment on a house, buy a boat or … sit in the 100 level at Yankee Stadium for Game 3 of the World Series.

4. There has been talk of the possibility of Shohei Ohtani pitching in this series after missing the whole season as pitcher following Tommy John surgery. Please let this happen. Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo and Alex Verdugo have all faced Ohtani and are 7-for-20 with two home runs and three doubles against him. That was against Ohtani as a star pitcher. Ohtani coming off surgery with no rehab outings? Again, please let this happen.

5. For now, I’m happy for Aaron Boone. At this moment, I even like him. With four more wins, I will even respect him! But if he tries to steal outs in this series, pinch runs for Stanton too early, bats a lefty between Judge and Stanton or gets Tim Mayza and/or Marcus Stroman up in the bullpen, all goodwill will be lost.

And with that let’s get to some questions from readers …

6. Nestor in place of Stroman? – John

It looks like Nestor Cortes will be on the World Series roster. I don’t know if it will be in place of Stroman, but it will be in place of someone.

Cortes last pitched six shutout innings in Seattle on September 18 before going on the injured list and looking like he will need Tommy John surgery.

“We have weighed the consequences that this can lead up to,” Cortes said, “but if I have a ring and then a year off of baseball, then so be it.”

Cortes threw 28 pitches in a simulated game at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, facing Oswaldo Cabrera, Jose Trevino and Austin Wells to simulate the left-right-left lane he will likely be asked to face.

“Coming out of the bullpen, I’ll be restricted to throwing 20 to 30 pitches, so they’re not going to bring me in face three righties,” Cortes said. “I know those are the guys I’m going to face. It’s a tough task, but I know I’m able to do it.”

If he appears in a World Series game, it will be more than five weeks since he last pitched in a game. Even not at 100 percent, Cortes gives the Yankees another viable option in relief. It moves Stroman and Mayza (and Mark Leiter Jr.) down a peg on the option-to-pitch chart. Tim Hill will likely get the Ohtani-Mookie Betters-Freddie Freeman lane the first time a reliever is needed, but then Cortes would get it the second time?

7. Who has the advantage in this series? Is it the Yankees’ pitching health and bullpen? Or the Dodgers offense through this playoffs? – Manny

Give me the Yankees’ rotation health. If injuries didn’t exist, yes, the Dodgers would have the better team because it would mean they would have Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May as rotation options. Instead they are going to try to win it all using their bullpen more than any team has ever used their bullpen before.

The only way the Yankees’ advantage of an actual rotation becomes a disadvantage is if Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon suck, which is possible. Cole was bad in ALDS Game 1, very good in ALDS Game 4 and then bad again in ALCS Game 2. Rodon was bad in ALDS Game 2, very good gin ALDS Game 1 and then so-so in ALCS Game 5. The Yankees have played nine games this postseason and have gotten strong starts in two of the nine (ALDS Game 4 and ALCS Game 1). Outside of that, they haven’t received a single quality start and getting their starters to get outs in the fifth inning has seemed like the equivalent of throwing complete games.

The Dodgers are going to be looking for their bullpen to get at least 15 outs in games when they use a traditional starter and then all 27 outs during bullpen games. The Yankees will see their relievers multiple times in a short amount of time. The Yankees just destroyed the Guardians’ “Four Horsemen” in the ALCS and they will do the same to the Dodgers’ relievers after multiple looks as well.

If Cole and Rodon pitch to the best of their abilities, the Yankees will win it all.

8. What’s your confidence level (1-10 scale) in this World Series matchup? – Osvaldo

My wife is from Los Angeles. Her family are Dodgers season ticket holders. She has never seen the Dodgers win a World Series in a non-shortened season, not held at a neutral site in a season in which they only had to play the NL West and AL West without fans in the stands. She can’t see them do it now. It’s imperative the Yankees win this series for their own history and the legacies of their managers and star players and to end their championship drought. But for me personally, it’s imperative for my own well-being.

This morning I asked my wife the same question of on a scale of 1-10 how confident she is about the World Series. She responded, “7.5.” It was higher than I thought it would be, and it was higher than any Dodgers fan should be. I’m a 9. Yes, a 9. I’m extremely confident about this series. Too confident.

The Dodgers have a good team, but this is probably the worst roster they have had during Dave Roberts’ tenure. Their rotation is in shambles. Freddie Freeman is playing on one leg. Sure, they have Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez, but I’m not scared of Max Muncy, Will Smith (who is having a miserable postseason), Tommy Edman and Kike Hernandez or Andy Pages and Chris Taylor. The Yankees just ripped out the hearts and destroyed the confidence of Emmanuel Clase, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith, do you think I’m going to be up at night worrying about Michael Kopech, Blake Treinen, Ryan Brasier or Anthony Banda, who faced 10 batters as a Yankee two years ago and eight of them reached base (0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 6 K, 1 HBP, 1 WP).

The Yankees can lose this series. That’s baseball, Suzyn. But I would be surprised if they did. They are the better team. They have an actual rotation. They have actual starting pitchers. They have the better 1-2 punch. They have Playoff Stanton. And there are only a few matchups in the league where this holds true, but the Yankees even have the managerial advantage.

9. Is it time to give Cabrera a shot in place of Jazz? Maybe give Jazz another game or two and if he doesn’t produce, try Oswaldo? – John

There’s a better chance John (who asked this question) will be given playing time over Jazz Chisholm than Cabrera.

The Yankees had endless opportunities this season to make Cabrera a starter in place of injured players and they never did, despite him hitting whenever he played. He did an outstanding job at first base in the ALDS, and even still, they sat him at time for Jon Berti and then sat him entirely for Rizzo in the ALCS. The Yankees seem to think he’s most valuable as a bench player, who can be inserted into the lineup as pinch runner or pinch hitter or defensive replacement.

As for Chisholm, he can’t suck as bad as he did in the ALDS and ALCS in the World Series. When he’s right, he can be a star, but he hasn’t looked right in the postseason. For someone who called the Royals “lucky” for winning Game 2 of the ALDS and then said the Yankees are going to win the World Series during the ALCS, he sure hasn’t done anything to help them. Chisholm is 5-for-34 with 11 strikeouts in the postseason. He’s going to continue to hit in the middle of the order, so it’s time he started hitting like someone who hits in the middle of the order.

10. Do you think the Yankees winning the World Series would have any influence at all on Soto staying with the Yankees, and/or the Yankees’ eagerness to keep him? Or do you feel winning the World Series might make Hal & Cash feel that they’d now have some currency with the fans & could let Soto walk, which I hope like hell wouldn’t be the case.  – Rich

With each win in October, the Yankees have guaranteed themselves another game of Soto being a Yankee. Now we’re at the point where we have somewhere between four and seven games guaranteed with Soto. It’s depressing to think about, but it’s hard not to think about. I think about it each time he comes to the plate, as I have for each of his plate appearances this season. I never wanted to take his being a Yankee for granted.

In terms of Soto re-signing with the Yankees, I don’t think it would have mattered if they finished in last place or missed the playoffs or lost to the Royals or were eliminated by the Guardians, and I don’t think it matters if they win or lose the World Series. Soto is going to the highest bidder whether it’s the Yankees or Mets or Giants or Mariners or Angels or anyone else.

Yankees fans seem to think there’s no way Soto will sign elsewhere. Mets fans seem to think there’s no way Steve Cohen will be outbid for him. I think there’s a number Hal Steinbrenner won’t exceed for Soto, even with the absurd amount of money coming off the Yankees’ books following this season. If the Yankees don’t win the World Series and Steinbrenner is outbid, he can say, “Well, we couldn’t win with Soto.” If the Yankees win the World Series, he would justify not re-signing him by believing he got a championship out of him, somewhere between six and seven extra games at the Stadium, postseason revenue from TV, merchandise and concessions and thinking he will have a grace period with fans now that the championship drought is over.

The Yankees make more money than any of the other 29 teams, and yet, they are middle of the pack in terms of payroll to revenue ratio. Don’t ever believe for one second the Yankees can’t afford to pay Soto whatever the asking price ends up being. There’s no market smaller than San Diego and in the last six years years, the Padres gave $340 million to Fernando Tatis, $300 million to Manny Machado, $100 million to Jose Musgrove, traded for Yu Darvish’s $21 million average annual salary and tried to give Trea Turner $342 million, and Judge $400 million after 2022 and then gave Xander Bogaerts for $280 million. If the Padres of all teams can spend the way they do, it’s disturbing to think what the Yankees could truly afford to spend compared to what they actually spend.

If Soto isn’t a Yankee in 2025, that will be it for me as a Yankees and baseball fan. If the team that generates more revenue than any other team can’t sign the player who will command more money than any other player, then what’s the point? I don’t care about Hal Steinbrenner’s bank account or financial statements, which are what they are because he inherited the biggest ATM machine in sports by being luckily born to the right parents. He didn’t do anything to become owner of the Yankees, and he has done very little since becoming the head of the franchise, a franchise he didn’t want to manage and his father didn’t want him or his siblings to run. If the Yankees win the World Series, and Soto leaves, at least I will being going out as best I can.

1. “Pay Juan Soto!” Jazz Chisholm emphatically yelled into Meredith Marakovits’ microphone as champagne and beer showered the duo in the Yankees’ clubhouse.

“I’d ask you how much, but we’ll leave that for another day,” Marakovits jokingly responded, not expecting an answer.

“$700 million!” Chisholm shouted back.

For all of the talking Chisholm has done this postseason, I finally agree with him.

Whether the Yankees end their championship drought after having now ended their World Series appearance drought or not, this can’t be it for Soto as a Yankee. There can’t only be between four and seven games left of him in pinstripes.

Like I have written many times in these Thoughts this season, if he’s not a Yankee in 2025, I will have to retire from the game. A clean break. It’s been a good three-plus decades. If he’s not a Yankee in 2025 and beyond though, I won’t be around to watch. I will learn an instrument or a new language or do whatever people who don’t watch baseball daily from late-March through October do.

Watching Soto this season has been like sitting in first class on an international flight with a cabin, personal bathroom and all-you-can-eat-and-drink options. I don’t want to go back to sitting in the last row of economy in a middle seat next to the bathroom. That’s where Yankees fans were while being forced to watch Jake Bauers, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Billy McKinney, Willie Calhoun, Aaron Hicks, Franchy Cordero and Greg Allen as outfielders last season before the trade for Soto. I’m not going back to that. I will retire as a Yankees fan and baseball fan if I have to go back to that. If the team that generates the most revenue in the sport can’t sign the best available free agent in the sport, then what are we even doing?

“We need him to stay,” Giancarlo Stanton said. “He’s going to stay. We need to bring it home and then we’ll bring him home also.”

2. Soto’s 10th inning at-bat against Hunter Gaddis that ended with a three-run home run over the right-center wall was a perfect summation of Soto as a hitter. He fell behind 1-2, never panicked, fouled off three straight pitches and then on the first fastball of the seven-pitch at-bat, he sent it 402 feet to send the Yankees to the World Series.

“I’d already faced him a couple of times this series,” Soto said. “I knew everything he had, so I was just waiting for the mistake and trying to do damage.”

Jeff Francoeur on the broadcast said Stephen Vogt should walk Soto and have Gaddis face Aaron Judge in the 10th, even though it meant loading the bases. Earlier in the game, Francoeur said Vogt should walk Stanton and pitch to Chisholm. Had Francoeur been managing the Guardians in Game 5, the Yankees likely would have been shut out.

3. Because like Soto, Stanton also hit yet another clutch, mammoth home run in the sixth inning with a runner on and two outs. And to that point in the game the Yankees offense had done nothing. Nothing except have Gleyber Torres inexplicably sent home with no outs (and Judge and Stanton due up) and thrown out at the plate. Tanner Bibee had shut the Yankees out for 5 2/3 innings and had already struck Stanton out twice. Vogt figured Bibee could do it again, and when Bibee got ahead 0-2 from Stanton taking two swings as if he were blindfolded, it looked like Bibee would hand Stanton a hat trick. Instead, Stanton took a slider, curveball and changeup, and then at 3-2, crushed a hanging slider 446 feet.

“That guy’s gotten booed so many times, at the Stadium, road, everything,” Judge said. “He’s been battling some tough injuries along the way, but the guy always shows up when we need him.”

Stanton finished the ALCS with four hits in five games, all home runs. He homered in Games 1, 3, 4 and 5 leading to him being named ALCS MVP.

“This ain’t the trophy I want,” Stanton said holding his series MVP award. “I want the next one.”

4. In order to get the next one, the Yankees are going to have to clean up some things between now and Friday, starting with the baserunning gaffes that plagued them in both the ALDS and ALCS (after being an issue all year in the regular season). Whether the Yankees face the Dodgers or the Mets, they are both a far cry from the Royals and Guardians, and running into outs on the bases is something that can’t happen in the next round.

5. They’re also going to need better starts from their rotation, as they have received two quality starts in nine outings in October. Here are the starting pitching lines from the ALDS and ALCS.

ALDS Game 1 (Gerrit Cole): 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR
ALDS Game 2 (Carlos Rodon): 3.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 1 HR
ALDS Game 3 (Clarke Schmidt): 4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
ALDS Game 4 (Cole): 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 K
ALCS Game 1 (Rodon): 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 1 HR
ALCS Game 2 (Cole): 4.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K
ALCS Game 3 (Schmidt): 4.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R , 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
ALCS Game 4 (Luis Gil): 4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
ALCS Game 5 (Rodon): 4.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K

On paper, the Yankees will have the rotation advantage against both potential World Series opponents. They need to make ensure that advantage happens in actuality. We just saw what happens when your starters fail to give you length in a postseason series: it exhausts the bullpen and forces pitchers like Mark Leiter Jr. and Tim Mayza into games. It also makes the elite relievers lose their eliteness by pitching nearly every day and facing the same hitters repeatedly in a short span. The rotation has to be better.

6. The offense will also have to start coming through with runners in scoring position. The lineups of the Dodgers and Mets are vastly superior to that of the Royals and Guardians. Relying on two- and three-run home runs nightly to cover up offensive issues likely won’t be enough. Leadoff doubles need to score. Runners on third with less than two outs need to score.

7. Boone will have to be wiser. No stealing outs. No early pinch running for important bats only to not attempt to steal. No not starting runners with double play candidates at the plate. Only using Leiter Jr. Mayza and Marcus Stroman in emergency and desperate situations. Remembering that Clay Holmes is an untrustworthy risk. Not needing to bat a lefty between Judge and Stanton. These are all very simple changes.

8. When it comes to Boone, I’m happy he finally got a team to the World Series and with four more wins he can stay as long he wants (as if he isn’t already going to be able to stay as long he wants just for getting to the World Series). It doesn’t mean I won’t be critical of him in the future even if the Yankees win the World Series and it doesn’t rewrite history and change what happened from 2018 through 2022 under his watch, but I will finally respect him if he makes logical choices in the World Series and the Yankees win it all.

9. After the final out of the 2017 ALCS, I wasn’t upset. I wasn’t angry, mad or disappointed. The Yankees weren’t expected to make the playoffs that season and instead they came within a win of the World Series. That surprising, memorable October run saw them overcome a three-run deficit in the wild-card game and an 0-2 series deficit in the ALDS, and they nearly overcome an 0-2 series deficit in the ALCS. They had a young, talented core with budding stars and were less than two months away from acquiring Stanton. I wasn’t sad because it seemed like getting to the World Series was about to become the norm again after an eight-year hiatus.

It never happened.

The core got older, underachieved, became oft-injured and failed miserably. They lost both home games in the 2018 ALDS, hit .214/.289/.383 in the 2019 ALCS, scored one run in Game 5 of the 2020 ALDS, got run out of Fenway Park in the 2021 wild-card game, were swept in the 2022 ALCS after scoring nine total runs and then missed the postseason entirely in 2023 with the franchise’s worst record in three decades.

Seven years after that Game 7 loss in Houston when I thought going to the World Series would happen as frequently as it once did, the Yankees have finally reached it. Fifteen years after winning Game 6 over the Phillies, the Yankees are back in the World Series.

10. Getting to the World Series isn’t enough. After taking for granted the appearances from 1996-2003, I learned my lesson from 2004-2008. The last 15 years have been a painfully excruciating lesson in the realization of how hard it is to get there. Once you’re there you better win because you don’t know when you’ll be back.

Seven down, four to go.

1. A four-run lead over the 2024 Guardians should be an automatic win. Their offense isn’t any good, finishing seventh-best in the American League. They were shut out in two of five games against the Tigers in the ALDS. They scored five runs total in the first two games of this ALCS. They have no depth, two of the worst regular bats in the league in their lineup and feature one true star. They are built around making contact, putting the ball in play, bloop and infield hits, stealing bases and their league-best bullpen. And when you get to that league-best bullpen and have a 6-2 lead with 12 outs to go, that should be more than enough to secure a win.

It wasn’t.

“No lead is safe,” Giancarlo Stanton said after Game 4. Well, some leads should be. The Yankees’ lead in Game 4 should have been, if not for their manager.

2. A day after the Yankees got to the best reliever in the game for three runs, they got to the best setup man in the game for three more. In a game in which Aaron Boone managed like it was a getaway day game at the end of a long road trip in August, Stephen Vogt managed like he had never managed a game before. With runners on second and third and one out and Stanton due up against Cade Smith in the sixth, Vogt decided to let Smith face Stanton. The alternative was to intentionally walk Stanton and bring in the dominant left-handed Tim Herrin to face Anthony Rizzo with the bases loaded. Vogt let Smith pitch to Stanton and Stanton made him pay, hitting a mammoth three-run home run to left-center field to extend the Yankees lead from 3-2 to 6-2, passing Babe Ruth in home runs per postseason at-bats in the process. After the home run, Vogt went to Herrin, and he struck out Rizzo.

It was a foolish mistake. A mistake that can’t happen in October. But it was a mistake made by the Guardians manager. I don’t care about the Guardians. I care about the Yankees, and the Yankees manager made enough mistakes in Game 4.

3. Boone’s litany of mistakes began with removing Luis Gil after four innings. When you know you have limited options in the bullpen and that your elite relief options are exhausted, you can’t only get four innings from your starting pitcher. How are they going to get 15 outs? I thought after Gil was removed.

“We had a long way to go to the finish line, and frankly, I wasn’t quite sure how we were going to get there,” Boone said.

Oh, you weren’t sure where you were getting five innings of outs from your bullpen from? You had me fooled!

In a vacuum, removing Gil when he did made sense because the top of the order was due up for a third time and the top of the order had plated both Guardians runs the first two times they faced Gil. But the postseason isn’t operated in vacuum, and by removing Gil and asking the bullpen to get five innings worth of outs, the path to victory would be littered with obstacles.

The first arm out of the bullpen was Tim Hill for the fifth to preserve a one-run lead. Fine move. Hill has become at worst the Yankees’ fourth-best reliever. He got through the top of the order on 17 pitches.

I would have gone back to Hill for the sixth given the supposed limited resources available, but Boone decided to go with Jake Cousins. OK. Cousins was good for the Yankees all season and had only appeared in one postseason game to date. He’s rested and when he’s on, he’s great. By the time Cousins entered, Stanton had hit the home run off of Smith, so Cousins wasn’t going into the high-leverage situation Hill was faced with — preserving a one-run lead against the top of the order — as he would be facing 5-6-7 with a four-run lead. Cousins pitched around two baserunners to keep it a four-run game. Nine outs to go.

How would Boone get those nine outs? You would have to think both Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver would be unavailable after having pitched in every postseason game to date and after having been lit up the night before. You would think Tommy Kahnle would be asked to pitch at least the ninth, and if only given the ninth, who would get the other six outs?

Boone sent Cousins back out for the seventh and it was immediately first and third with no outs. A jam, sure, but with a four-run lead, the lead couldn’t be blown with one swing of the bat. With two on, no one out and the Guardians’ 2-3-4 hitters due up, Boone called on Holmes.

4. Why Holmes against the heart of the order? It must have been because Weaver was unavailable. Except he wasn’t. Weaver ended up warming up in the ninth. So if Weaver was actually available, why not Weaver or Kahnle in that spot against 2-3-4 than Holmes?

Aside from Holmes’ strong ALDS and his appearances in Games 1 and 2 of the ALCS, he had been a disaster for months, culminating in his removal from the closer role right before Labor Day. He had unraveled just over 24 hours earlier when he took the loss in Game 3, throwing middle-middle sinkers, whether because of the reversion to his regular-season self or exhaustion from his postseason workload. Cousins had thrown 27 pitches in the game, typically a lot for a three-to-four-out reliever, but he also had pitched once in three weeks. He would never be more rested.

Again, in a vacuum, it made sense to take Cousins out, but a vacuum doesn’t account for the options remaining: an exhausted Holmes and Weaver, a pitcher who wasn’t on the ALDS roster and was just added to the postseason roster that morning in Mark Leiter Jr. and a pitcher who also wasn’t on the ALDS roster and hasn’t been good since May in Marcus Stroman. And those seemed to be the only options because Boone was married to Kahnle in the ninth, idiotically managing for set innings rather than the situation at hand. This is why Gil should have stayed and/or Hill should have thrown more than one inning.

If Boone was willing to use Holmes in the seventh, why didn’t he just start the seventh, clean with no one on? Was Boone trying to steal outs yet again? You bet he was. He said as much after the game, saying he wanted to see if he could “steal a couple of outs” with Cousins. We’re in the seventh year of Boone managing this way.

Holmes looked every bit as bad as he did the night before and really since mid-May. He allowed back-to-back doubles to Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor and walked Lane Thomas. He faced four batters and three reached. He allowed both of his inherited runners from Cousins to score and gave up a run of his own. A truly remarkable performance. When he left the mound, the 6-2 lead had become a 6-5 lead.

Leiter Jr. relieved Holmes. Brian Cashman’s prized pitching deadline pickup pitched to a 4.98 ERA in 21 appearances with the Yankees, allowing six home runs and 39 baserunners in 21 2/3 innings. He was left off of both the ALDS and ALCS rosters, and had just been added hours earlier due to a calf injury for Ian Hamilton.

Leiter Jr. entered with the Yankees clinging to a one-run lead with runners on first and second and one out and Game 3 hero Jhonkensy Noel due up. Noel hit a ball off Leiter Jr. that the camera led you to believe was going to clear Progressive Field and Lake Erie and land in Canada. Instead, it was caught at the wall by Alex Verdugo. Leiter Jr. got the two remaining outs of the inning to hold the lead at 6-5.

The lead was still 6-5 when Boone sent Leiter Jr. back out for the eighth. After a leadoff double to the light-hitting Bo Naylor, Leiter Jr. got two outs before allowing the tying run to score on a defensive disaster between he and Rizzo on a ball back to the mound.

5. At the time, the game felt over. The Guardians were going to pitch Emmanuel Clase in the ninth, and likely the 10th as well and the Yankees had no one left to turn to except for Kahnle. How would they prevent the Guardians from scoring for multiple innings until Clase was removed because certainly after his Game 3 meltdown, there was no way he was going to be anything other than unhittable like he was for six months.

As expected, Vogt went to Clase, and Rizzo, one of the goats from the eighth-inning defensive miscue, greeted him with a single. Jon Berti pinch ran for Rizzo and raced to third on a line-drive single by Anthony Volpe. (Volpe also had a big hit off Clase in Cleveland in April. Volpe has a knack for getting hits off some of the game’s best relievers. In this postseason, he has looked as good as he did for the first two weeks of the regular season before becoming an automatic out for the next six months. Where has this version of Volpe been since the second week of April?) Berti scored on a Guardians-like infield roller from Verdugo and Volpe scored after Gleyber Torres lined another base hit off of Clase. The Yankees had gotten to Clase on back-to-back nights and had built a two-run lead off of him. But they still needed to get three outs.

6. Boone went to Kahnle for the ninth. Kahnle had finished his work in Game 2 of the series with four straight changeups. In Game 3, he threw 26 pitches, all changeups. He had thrown 30 straight changeups to Guardians hitters and they had nothing to show for it. They would be hunting the pitch in the ninth inning of Game 4.

Kahnle got a favorable strike 3 call to sit down Thomas on six straight changeups, but walked Noel on six more changeups. Andres Gimenez floated the second straight changeup he saw from Kahnle into the outfield to put runners on and first and second with one out. Bo Naylor flew out on the first pitch — a changeup — he saw and Kahnle got Brayan Rocchio to hit a ground ball to second on the third pitch of his at-bat (which featured only changeups). Berti, now playing second, booted the ball initially, but recovered to throw out Rocchio and end the game. Kahnle threw 18 pitches, all changeups. Adding to his Games 2 and 3 totals, he has now thrown 44 straight changeups to the Guardians and they have failed to score.

7. “Obviously last night was a really though loss,” Boone said. “Whatever happened today — win, lose or draw — there’s no doubt in my mind we’d come out ready to roll.”

(Boone does know you can’t “draw” in baseball, right? What are you talking about?)

The Yankees came out ready to roll thanks to Juan Soto who gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead before an out was recorded with a first-inning home run. Each win this postseason means another game of Soto in pinstripes. I’m not ready for his time as a Yankee to end. I never want it to end. Like I have written many times in these Thoughts this season, if he’s not a Yankee in 2025, I will have to retire from the game. A clean break. It’s been a good three-plus decades. If he’s not a Yankee in 2025 and beyond though, I won’t be around to watch. I will learn an instrument or a new language or do whatever people who don’t watch baseball daily from late-March through October do.

8. The Yankees are one win away from the World Series. It’s the furthest any team during Boone’s tenure has gone, surpassing their previous-best of being two wins away in the 2019 ALCS.

“As far as I’m concerned, we haven’t done nothing,” Stanton said. “We’ve got to get it done tomorrow and on to the next.”

Stanton has always said the right thing as a Yankee. His Yankees career has been frustrating due to the unbelievable amount of injuries and missed games, only made more frustrating by seeing what he’s capable of when healthy, like we have seen this October. He’s right, the Yankees haven’t done anything. Being up 3-1 doesn’t guarantee you anything. Just ask Ramirez, whose Guardians were up 3-1 in the 2016 World Series and held a lead in Game 5 before losing that game and the next two and the World Series.

Stanton needs to be batting cleanup for the rest of the postseason. I don’t care who is starting for the opposition and what arm they throw with. Stop forcing lefties into the lineup to separate Judge and Stanton. It was bad enough when Boone was doing it for years with Brett Gardner and Aaron Hicks, and it was equally bad when he stuck with Wells in that spot for all of September and the first seven postseason games. It’s inexplicable that now Jazz Chisholm is there.

9. Carlos Rodon needs to be great in Game 5, the way he was in Game 1. End the series in five and get five days off. Don’t send it to a Game 6 and don’t send it back to New York. A Game 6 takes Gerrit Cole out of the equation for Game 1 of the World Series on Friday.

I don’t know what Boone’s plan is for the non-Rodon outs in Game 5. Weaver is the only non-Stroman reliever not named Tim Mayza who didn’t pitch in Game 4. I would think he would be available for six outs, especially if the Yankees lead and a win allows them five days off. I think at best Rodon can give six innings since he has pitched seven innings once (July 22) since mid-June. Maybe he will surprise us. Maybe he will earn some more of that $162 million and go seven and hand it off to Weaver for the last two.

10. “This team always bounces back and answers the right way,” Judge said. “This was definitely a big win.”

Of course it was a big win. It’s the difference between now needing to win one of three games to go to the World Series or having Rodon start with the possibility of trailing in the series with a Game 5 loss. As for Judge’s comment about the team “always bouncing back,” umm, do you not remember mid-June to early September?

With one more win, we can all forget about mid-June to early September. With five more wins, we can all finally heal from the Boone era. We can somewhat forgive Boone for the last six years of ineptitude and Cashman for the billions of dollars and thousands of games and hours wasted over the last 15 years.

Six down, five to go.

The Yankees dropped their first game of the ALCS in a 7-5, 10-inning loss to the Guardians.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. One out away. One out away from a 3-0 series lead in the ALCS. That’s what the Yankees were until they weren’t.

After staging an improbable comeback off the so-called best closer in baseball with an Aaron Judge two-run home run, the Yankees then took the lead off that closer when Giancarlo Stanton followed with a home run of his own. The Yankees were six outs away from being a win away from the World Series.

Those six outs became one when Luke Weaver turned a 1-4-3 double play in the ninth. But after a long double high off the tall left-center wall from Lane Thomas, the 23-year-old pinch-hitting rookie Jhonkensy Noel destroyed a 1-0 changeup, sending it deep into the Cleveland night to tie the game. Up two with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the ninth turned into a tie game.

It was a stunning moment. A true moment of disbelief. But the Yankees still had a chance to put the Guardians on the brink of elimination. They would just have to do something they have never done in the Aaron Boone era: win an extra-inning postseason game.

2. They had their chance. They put two on in the 10th, but stranded them both. And once that happened every Yankees fan knew they were in trouble. The only arms left in the bullpen were Clay Holmes, Jake Cousins and Marcus Stroman. And if the bullpen was able to send it to the 11th, Alex Verdugo and Austin Wells would be due up. After failing to win in the 10th, the Yankees’ next best chance of winning would be if the game would last until a 12th inning.

It didn’t.

Holmes got the ball for the 10th and allowed a leadoff single. After retiring the next two batters he threw a sinker that sunk in the middle of the strike zone and David Fry hit it a mile for a two-run, walk-off home run. Like Weaver, Holmes had been so good in the postseason. But unfortunately for the duo, the clock struck midnight on their impressive run over the last two weeks.

“A loss is a loss,” Stanton said. “An L is an L. By one, two, eight, whatever.”

3. Game 3 was a game of reversion. Weaver reverted into the guy from late June to mid-August who was bitten by the long ball. Holmes reverted into the guy who led the league in blown saves and spent the summer creating spectacular meltdowns. Wells continued his reversion into the early-season version of himself striking out on high fastballs yet again in his only two plate appearances. Anthony Volpe, who has looked so shockingly good this October, reverted back into his regular-season self in his 10th-inning plate appearance, chasing pitches out of the zone (something he hadn’t done all postseason until then) with a chance to give the Yankees an extra-inning lead. Anthony Rizzo reverted back into the untrustworthy glove he was from Opening Day through mid-June when he got hurt. Clarke Schmidt reverted back into the pitcher who can’t get lefties out and can’t provide any length. Aaron Judge reverted back into his MVP self with his two-run home run off Clase. Stanton reverted back into his old self by hitting that home run off Clase and by being able to foul off 100-mph fastballs to extend the at-bat to hit the home run. And for all the praise Boone has received this postseason for “pushing the right buttons,” he managed the game like it was the 13th game in 13 day in the middle of June, reverting back into the manager we have grown to know over seven years.

4. To an outsider, Boone’s bullpen decisions were as stunning as Noel’s home run. To Yankees fans who have watched his every move since Opening Day 2018, they were the norm. Going to Tim Mayza in the sixth inning of a one-run game in the postseason? Alarming, but not shocking. Staying with for a second inning after he allowed a run to score? Appalling, but unsurprising. Allowing Mayza to put the leadoff guy on in that second before going to Tommy Kahnle? Irresponsible, but expected. If Boone was willing to use Kahnle in the seventh inning, why didn’t he just let him start the inning clean? Why did he try to steal an out and steal it with Mayza of all pitchers? Thankfully, Kahnle did his job and then some, getting five outs across the seventh and eighth innings by throwing 26 pitches, all of which were changeups.

5. At some point Weaver and Holmes were going to get dinged up. The duo has appeared in all seven postseason games. It’s unsustainable and also unfair to ask them to get stressful, high-leverage outs every single game against the same most feared bats of a series opponent over and over. At some point the Yankees need to win a game that doesn’t have everyone on the edge of their seat up until the final out. But with the offense being so inconsistent and so top heavy and so incapable of hitting with runners in scoring position, there won’t be any easy wins.

6. The Yankees don’t make anything easy with their baserunning either. After taking an early 1-0 lead in the second inning in Game 3 on an unlikely RBI single from Jose Trevino, Trevino’s big hit was undone by his foolish mistake of getting picked off of first base. It didn’t even take two full innings for the Yankees’ idiotic baserunning to rear its ugly head. I think I’ll let the call from John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on the play take it from here:

John: “The throw … and they picked off the runner. How do you like that?

Suzyn: “Again.”

John: “Shortstop runs him back … first baseman makes the tag … Where was Trevino going? I’m amazed. I said they had to play a clean game, already it’s dirty.”

Suzyn: “This has been a problem for the Yankees. Someone’s just not paying attention.”

John: “Oh that’s awful and also because Trevino is really slow. Where is he running to?”

No one makes outs on the bases like the Yankees. In the ninth, Volpe was on first and Alex Verdugo hit a ball into the second-base hole. Volpe rounded second thinking he was going to go first to third with ease, but not thinking that the Gold Glover Andres Gimenez was playing second. Gimenez had kept the ball in the infield and the Guardians had Volpe in a rundown between second and third. Fortunately, Jose Ramirez dropped the ball in the rundown when trying to tag Volpe at third and he ended up being safe. Verdugo was able to reach second on the play and Gleyber Torres followed by sacrifice flying Volpe in to give the Yankees a much-needed insurance run. Or so we thought.

7. The Yankees are going to need more than relying on late-game home run heroics to win. If they are going to be so sloppy on the bases and so sloppy on defense then they are going to need to start getting hits with runners in scoring position. In Game 3, they were another abysmal 1-for-8.

So far in October, the Yankees’ wins have been aided by bases-loaded walks (ALDS Game 1), Stanton heroics (ALDS Game 3), the Kansas City wind (ALDS Game 4), wild pitches (ALCS Game 1) and errors (ALCS Game 2). When their crappy AL Central opponents aren’t booting balls, throwing 57-foot pitches and the Midwest wind isn’t swirling, it hasn’t been enough. The offense hasn’t been good and the starting rotation has been a debacle with just two good starts (ALDS Game 4 and ALCS Game 1) through seven games.

The Yankees still control the series. They are still in a much better place than the Guardians. They have the series lead. They have the better offense. They have the better rotation. If Weaver is compromised then so is Clase. The Yankees have the starting pitching advantage in Game 4.

8. Luis Gil hasn’t started since September 28. He has pitched 11 innings since September 17. Hopefully, the layoff has given him time to rest and improve on the fatigue he was experiencing down the stretch. But on the other end of that hope is the fact that Gil hasn’t done well when pitching after extended layoffs. There’s also the fear he will be so amped up to make his postseason debut that he will overthrow early, miss his spots and issue free passes the way Luis Severino did in the 2017 wild-card game. Even still, Gil is a much better Game 4 option than the Guardians’ Gavin Williams, who also hasn’t pitched since September 22 and has thrown 10 2/3 innings since September 17.

9. The Yankees had created their moment in Game 3 and it slipped away. The type of moment that propels a team to a pennant. The last time the Yankees won the pennant, they had that moment in Game 2 of the ALDS when Alex Rodriguez tied the game in the bottom of the ninth against Joe Nathan before winning on a Mark Teixeira walk-off home run in the 11th. They had a second moment in Game 2 of that season’s ALCS when Rodriguez again came through, hitting a game-tying home run off Brian Fuentes. Let’s hope their moment ends up being Game 4 and that Game 3 doesn’t end up being the Guardians’ moment.

“Thankfully, this wasn’t Game 7,” Rizzo said. “This is a series.”

10. The Yankees can put an end to the Guardians’ and city of Cleveland’s season-saving celebration that is taking place as you’re reading this and will continue all the way until the first pitch of Game 4. The celebration needs to end before the series is tied. Game 4 is the difference between putting the Guardians on the brink and turning the ALCS into a best-of-3. It’s the difference between needing to win one of three to advance to the World Series and needing Carlos Rodon to come up big to avoid leaving Cleveland trailing in the series.

The Yankees were oh so close to being six down with five to go. Instead, it’s still five down with six to go.

1. The same situation. That’s what the Yankees had and Aaron Judge faced in the first inning of Game 2 of the ALCS. Gleyber Torres on second, Juan Soto on first and no outs. A chance to break open a game as soon as it started.

The same situation took place in Game 1 of the ALDS, Game 2 of the ALDS and Game 1 of the ALCS and each time the Yankees failed to capitalize. Between Judge, Austin Wells and Giancarlo Stanton, Torres and Soto were stranded all three times. In Game 2 of the ALCS, Judge failed to get the job done again, but Gold Glove finalist Brayan Rocchio did it for him.

2. Judge popped up the second pitch he saw from Tanner Bibee and as I looked up in the Bronx sky to track it, it was so high it looked like it may leave the atmosphere. I glanced back to the field to watch Rocchio try to position himself to catch it, battling the wind and shuffling his feet toward second base. The crowd’s roar began to ascend as the ball began to descend and after what felt like minutes of hang time, the ball hit the side of Rocchio’s glove and Torres raced home, Soto ran to second and Judge stood on first. The Yankees had a 1-0 lead, still had two on with no outs and Bibee had already thrown 11 pitches.

Would this be the game the Yankees broke the game open in the first inning and coasted to their first lopsided victory of the postseason? It would not. Wells struck out and Stanton flew out to right.

Leaving baserunners on has become a staple of the Yankees’ postseason. They seemingly have multiple baserunners in every inning of every game and fail to cash in unless runs are walked in or there are wild pitches and errors. They’re still waiting for that big hit. That big hit that can create separation on the scoreboard and take some of the pressure off of their starting pitcher.

3. The Yankees didn’t necessarily get the big hit for Gerrit Cole in Game 2, but they did stake him to a 3-0 lead and he couldn’t make it through the fifth inning. Cole unraveled in the fifth inning, loaded the bases without recording an out, allowed a run on a sacrifice fly and reloaded the bases. Four of the five batters he reached in the fifth reached as he allowed 10 baserunners in 4 1/3 innings.

“I lost a little bit of the zone,” Cole said, “a few too many walks again.”

It was a putrid performance from the Yankees’ “ace” and his second performance like that in the postseason. A three-run lead against the Guardians offense should be enough for Cole to give his team at least six innings. Leaving in the fifth after being unable to get an out in the sixth in Game 1 of the ALDS doesn’t exactly exude confidence in Cole if the Yankees reach the World Series to face the Dodgers’ or Mets’ offense. Thankfully, for Cole, that Kyle Isbel ball died on the track in the seventh inning of Game 4 of the ALDS in Kansas City, or the Yankees may not still be playing and the conversation around being unable to perform in the playoffs would be focused on Cole and not Judge.

4. Judge finally hit a ball over the wall in his sixth game of the 2024 playoffs, sending a two-run shot to Monument Park in the seventh inning off of Pedro Avila.

“I was excited it went out,” Judge said. “You never know on these windy, chilly nights what the ball is going to do when you hit it to center here. The ghosts were pulling it out there to Monument Park, that’s for sure.”

The two runs were two much-needed insurance runs as the Yankees’ lead had dwindled from three to one and back up to two before that home run.

“It’s always a matter of time with Aaron,” said Boone. “It’s definitely good to see him put one in the seats and really give us a cushion there.”

It was the first “game-opening” hit of the postseason for the Yankees as it put them up four with six outs to go.

5. Those six outs came from Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver. Kahnle got seven outs in the game in relief of Tim Hill, who got five. Hill was the unsung hero of the game, getting his five crucial outs across the sixth and seventh innings. When he entered the game, the Guardians had cut their deficit to one run and Hill kept it right there, allowing the Yankees to increase that deficit to two in the sixth and four in the seventh. The White Sox release the 34-year-old, left-handed Hill on June 18 and the Yankees signed him on June 20. He pitched to a 2.05 ERA across 35 games in the regular season for the Yankees and has gotten nine big outs in the playoffs so far.

6. The bullpen as a whole has been outstanding in October, especially Clay Holmes, and obviously, Luke Weaver. Holmes has been pitching like the guy Aaron Boone and the Yankees didn’t want to remove from the closer role all season despite the mounting blown saves. Weaver has pitched like Mariano Rivera 2.0. The only blemish from either has been the solo home run that Jose Ramirez hit off of Weaver in the ninth inning in Game 2, which served as a harmless, meaningless run. Well, unless that’s the swing Ramirez needed to get going. But if it is, hopefully Judge’s home run was the swing needed to get him going, which would negate Ramirez starting hit like he’s capable of.

7. Jazz Chisholm picked up his first hit since his “lucky” comments following Game 2 of the ALDS. Anthony Volpe added a pair of hits and also walked as he has looked like the player of the first two weeks of the regular season that then disappeared for the rest of the regular season. Torres had three hits, Anthony Rizzo had two and Alex Verdugo had an RBI double. Only two Yankees failed to get a hit: Stanton, who is more than excused, and Wells, who again, needs to be removed from the cleanup spot.

8. I understand Aaron Boone is superstitious in not wanting to change the batting order while the team is winning, but Wells batting cleanup isn’t why they are winning. Hopefully, Wells is moved down in the lineup in Game 3 (if he plays) and until further notice, considering he has been abysmal since the end of August.

9. Clarke Schmidt gets the ball in Game 3 against veteran left-hander Matthew Boyd. Boyd didn’t allow a run in 6 2/3 innings over two starts against the Tigers in the ALDS and racked up 10 strikeouts. But that was the Tigers. Judge has a home run off Boyd in six plate appearances, Soto has one off of him in two and Volpe has a double off of him in two plate appearances, so the Yankees have had success against him in limited opportunities.

10. “We’ll got there and try to play like we didn’t do anything here,” Torres said, “just the same mentality.”

The Yankees have yet to play to the best of their abilities in the postseason, and they’re 5-1. They haven’t been hitting the ball out of the park with any frequency, leave nearly every baserunner on, have gotten two good starts from the rotation in six games and are running into outs on the bases. It would be welcoming to see what they’re capable of when they’re hitting with runners on, getting strong starting pitching and not making foolish baserunning mistakes.

After living through and attending the 2004 ALCS, I would never say a win in Game 3 in Cleveland would mean the series is over, but the 2024 Guardians aren’t the 2004 Red Sox, and a win in Game 3 would put the Yankees one win away from winning the pennant. The last time they were that close to winning the pennant was in 2017. The last time they won the pennant was 2009. Two down, two to go in the ALCS. Five down, six to go overall.

1. The Yankees gave Carlos Rodon a six-year, $162 million deal to pitch the way he did in Game 1 of the ALCS. (They also gave him all of that money to pitch well in the ALDS, but we can forget about that for now.) Rodon completely stifled the Guardians for five innings and left the game after allowing just one run on three hits over six innings.

“The goal was to just stay in control of what I can do, physically and emotionally,” Rodon said. “I thought I executed that well tonight.”

Rodon sounded like a completely different person from the pitcher who last week talked about his upcoming Yankees postseason debut and how he will control his emotions by saying, “It can propel me to very high highs and super low lows” and then followed that comment by acting maniacal on the mound.

Game 1 of the ALCS was the kind of performance every Yankees fan hoped to see in Rodon’s start in Game 2 of the ALDS, but Rodon was so emotionally, physically and mentally unstable in that outing that he let his stuff he described as “electric” fade once the slightest bit of adversity hit. In Game 1 of the ALCS, he kept his composure, didn’t walk around the infield after each strikeout with the demeanor and attitude of a professional wrestler, got 25 swings and misses and pitched the Yankees to a 1-0 series lead.

“He was very aware of what the last outing ended up being, how the emotions got away from him early,” Matt Blake said. “You could tell he was trying to stay steady and be neutral about it and just keep collecting outs.”

2. Rodon collected 18 outs and the Yankees’ offense clogged the base paths to score three of their five runs. No one loves traffic more than Aaron Boone and the Yankees’ offense made the bases look like the West Side Highway at 5:00 on a Friday against Alex Cobb and the Guardians’ bullpen. The Yankees put two on in the first, two on in the second, five on in the third and two on in the fourth. But the same way the Yankees failed to hit with runners in scoring position in the ALDS (and the same way they have failed to hit with runners in scoring position in every postseason of the last 15 years), they failed to do so again in Game 1.

Thank God for Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton and wild pitches. Soto gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead with a solo home run to lead off the third. It was the most predictable home run of all time as Soto entered the game 7-for-11 in his career against Cobb and then proceeded to single and homer off the righty.

“I was just locked in on that pitch,” Soto said of his home run. “He showed me the pitch three times, so I thought he wanted to get that pitch and land it, and I was ready for it.”

The Yankees managed to score two runs on wild pitches in the third as well, plated a fourth run on an Aaron Judge sacrifice fly in the fourth and added a fifth when Stanton hit a long home run off the back wall of the Guardians’ bullpen in the seventh.

Through five postseason games, the Yankees are still searching for that big hit that blows open a game. In Game 1 of the ALDS, they used bases-loaded walks to beat the Royals, lost Game 2 when they left a small village on base, won Game 3 on the back of Stanton and won Game 4 with only three runs. On Monday, they needed two wild pitches in the same inning to increase their one-run lead to three. I don’t know how much longer they can rely on odd and unusual ways to score runs and win games and I don’t want to find out.

3. Game 1 never felt in doubt. Not when Judge, Austin Wells and Stanton left Gleyber Torres and Soto on in the first. Not when the Yankees stranded two more in the second. Certainly not after the Yankees jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third, made it 4-0 in the fourth and 5-1 after seven. But after all of the missed opportunities throughout the game (the Yankees were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position), there was something in the back of my mind telling me they may regret it. Because through seven innings, it felt easy. A little too easy.

4. Boone made sure it wouldn’t be easy. After Rodon gave him six innings of one-run ball and Clay Holmes mowed down the middle of the order on 14 pitches in the seventh, the pitching formula and plan was unfolding exactly as desired: Rodon for six then Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver each for one. Unfortunately, Boone deviated from the plan.

With a four-run lead and six outs to go, Boone decided to not go to Kahnle for the eighth, opting instead for Tim Hill. Why? I wish I knew. Actually, I’m glad I don’t know since I don’t want to know what goes on in the head of Boone when he makes decisions like that. It could have been because the Yankees had a four-run lead instead of a three-run lead. It could have been because Boone wanted to try to steal outs with Hill in Game 1, so he could have an even-more-rested Kahnle in Game 2. Whatever the reason, it was foolish, and for the first time all night, the Guardians had life.

5. Hill allowed three consecutive one-out singles and a run to score before being pulled. When he left the mound, the Guardians had runners at first and third and one out. They would have the chance to cut their now three-run deficit even more, and barring a double play, would have two cracks at tying the game with one swing with one of those cracks going to Jose Ramirez.

Boone’s plan blew up because he couldn’t then go to Kahnle to relieve Hill. Not with the Guardians threatening with the tying run at the plate. Now he had to go to his best arm in Weaver to get six outs instead of the planned three. Weaver stranded the two baserunners, retired Ramirez and pitched around a leadoff walk in the ninth to close out the game and save Boone from what could have been a disastrous loss to open the series. Boone needs to be better. He was able to get away with that decision because it’s the Guardians. If the Yankees are to advance, a decision like that against the Dodgers or Mets could be the season. Boone needs to change his thinking quickly.

6. He also needs to change the lineup for Game 2. Austin Wells can’t bat cleanup anymore. Wells was awesome from the end of April through the end of August, but he hasn’t been a cleanup-worthy hitter for six weeks now. He can’t serve as Judge’s protection. He can’t keep coming up in important spots and not coming through. He’s likely tired from his first first full major-league season and the fact he played nearly every day once Jose Trevino went down during the season and then had to play nearly every day once Trevino returned because the Yankees were battling the Orioles in September for the division. Take some of the pressure off of him, let him focus on catching and move him down. Move Stanton to fourth, Jazz Chisholm to fifth and Wells to sixth. It’s time. It’s more than time.

7. It’s also time for Chisholm to start hitting. Chisholm has reached base once (via a walk) since his “lucky” comments after Game 2 of the ALDS. He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in Game 1.

8. Anthony Rizzo looked better than expected at the plate in his return and postseason debut (singling in his first at-bat and later walking), however, his misplay of a ground ball in the eighth inning can’t happen. (Oswaldo Cabrera and Jon Berti make that play.) Rizzo was oddly pulled from the game for the ninth with Cabrera taking over first base. Boone said Rizzo was “physically and emotionally spent,” but I have no idea what that means. How is Boone measuring someone being emotionally spent? Did Rizzo ask to come out of the game? Were his fingers bothering him? Boone said Rizzo is expected to start Game 2, but who knows. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Rizzo out of the lineup given Boone’s history of saying one thing and having the complete opposite thing happen the following day.

9. With the Game 1 win, the Yankees need to just play at least .500 baseball over the six remaining games of the series against a team they’re 5-2 against this season to advance to the World Series for the first time since 2009. It’s hard not to get excited about that realization and think ahead, but the Guardians have been a pesky problem in the past. The Yankees needed a full series of games to eliminate them in 2022 despite being the superior team then as well. And in that 2022 ALDS matchup, the Yankees won Game 1 with similar ease and had an early lead in Game 2 before dropping that game and Game 3. For as easy as Game 1 felt, I doubt the Guardians will make it that easy each game.

10. “There’s still three to get,” Stanton said. “We know this is good, but in our eyes, we haven’t done nothing yet.”

They’re three wins away from doing something, something this group has never done and with Gerrit Cole pitching at home in Game 2 on Tuesday, they’re in a great position to be two wins away.

Four down, seven to go.

1. I had an uneasy feeling going into Game 4. I feared the Yankees offense may not show up or Gerrit Cole would lay an egg or Bobby Witt would finally start hitting and Aaron Judge wouldn’t or regular-season Clay Holmes would his rear his ugly head at the most inopportune time, or some combination of all. A loss in Game 4 would mean a winner-take-all Game 5 on Saturday in the Bronx with Carlos Rodon starting against strikeout lead Cole Ragans. Thankfully, that game won’t take place.

It won’t take place because Gleyber Torres doubled on the first pitch of the game from Michael Wacha, Juan Soto singled him in two pitches later, the Yankees took a 1-0 lead and never looked back.

2. I haven’t liked Michael Wacha since he was a 22-year-old rookie pitching in the 2013 World Series for the Cardinals. That postseason, after allowing one earned runs in 21 innings across three starts in the NLDS and NLCS, he pooped his pants against the Red Sox in the World Series and essentially served as the commissioner in handing them the Commissioner’s Trophy. Wacha got blasted for nine baserunners and six runs in 3 2/3 innings in the clinching Game 6. I will never forgive him for that performance and because of that, clinching the ALDS against the Royals with him taking the loss made it that much sweeter.

3. Like Wacha against the Red Sox in that World Series, I pooped my pants a little in the seventh inning when Kyle Isbel sent that 1-0 pitch from Cole to the right-field wall in what resulted in the third out of the inning rather than a game-tying home run. The ball would have been out on just about any other night in Kansas City if not for the wind, and it would have been out in 24 parks in the league. At Yankee Stadium, that ball is in the second deck into Section 205.

For such an important postseason game with the opportunity to clinch and advance on the line, once the Yankees got that early lead, the remainder of the game seemed like a formality. Cole was dialed in, the offense did just enough (their motto) and the combination of Holmes and the unhittable Luke Weaver was perfect in the eighth and ninth innings. Outside of that one swing from Isbel, the Royals were never really in it, as they only had two runners reach second base all game.

4. The Yankees did just enough to beat the Royals in four games. They got one great start (Game 4) and three lousy ones from their rotation. After Game 1, they never scored more than three runs in a game. They hit three home runs in the entire series. Their two superstars finished with OPS of .746 and .620. They drew 27 walks in four games and barely did anything with them. It was as if the Yankees knew they could coast in a class they were overqualified for and do just enough to get by and pass and advance to the next grade.

“Even though we didn’t score a ton of runs, I felt like we had a lot of tough, heavy at-bats that we like to have,” Aaron Boone said. “Hopefully we break through with some more runs next series.”

The same type of performance may have worked against the Royals and may work against the Guardians or Tigers in the ALCS since the Guardians and Tigers are no better than the Royals, but if the Yankees want to do something this group never has, at some point they are going to have to play to their best of their abilities. At some point, Judge is going to have to hit like the player that spent the year being compared to Barry Bonds, Soto is going to have to start hitting the ball out of the park the way he did for the Nationals and Padres in the postseason, Austin Wells is going to have to stop hitting like Jose Trevino, Jazz Chisholm is going to have to get back on track and the rotation is going to have to do much better than turning in a strong effort once every four games.

5. As for the bottom of the lineup, they did their job in the series. Alex Verdugo was the MVP of the Game 1 win (before immediately reverting back to his usual self with a groundout to right side in nearly every at-bat since), Anthony Volpe reached base in seven of 16 plate appearances, Oswaldo Cabrera played a fine first base for being not a first baseman and reached base in four of eight plate appearances and Jon Berti looked like a natural first baseman in playing the position for the first time ever and also reached base in three of eight plate appearances.

6. The bullpen also did its job.

Yankees rotation in ALDS: 20.1 IP, 24 H, 11 R, 10 ER, 3 BB, 19 K, 2 HR, 4.43 ERA, 1.328 WHIP.
Yankees bullpen in ALDS: 15.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 15 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.766 WHIP.

7. Chisholm was wrong in his assertion that the Royals “got lucky” in their Game 2 win. They weren’t lucky, they just weren’t good enough. They were as sloppy as the Yankees in Game 1 and scored three runs total between Games 3 and 4. It’s a good thing the Yankees eliminated the Royals because having another foolish trash talk thrown back in the Yankees’ and their fans’ faces forever would have been tough to stomach. If anyone is “lucky” it’s Chisholm who did nothing offensively to help eliminate the Royals following his comments as he went 0-for-7 with a walk in Games 3 and 4.

8. Boone had a pretty good series. There were only three decisions he made or didn’t make that I had issues with: He shouldn’t have let Cole start the sixth inning in Game 1, he should have challenged the play at first with Volpe to lead off the third inning in Game 3, he shouldn’t have pinch run for Giancarlo Stanton with two outs in Game 4. Outside of that, the decisions Boone made worked out, especially starting Verdugo in left field (at least for Game 1) and using Holmes as his second most important reliever in the series.

9. The next choice Boone will have to make on Monday when he fills out the ALCS Game 1 lineup card will be what to do at the cleanup spot. I think Boone will keep Wells in that spot because he seems to be superstitious about the lineup when the Yankees win, even if Wells has been extremely bad since the start of September. Wells did come through with a huge walk and a game-tying hit in Game 1, but since then he has been an automatic out (and even an automatic two outs like he was in Game 4 with a double play). It will depend on if the Yankees play the Guardians or the Tigers and if a lefty or righty starts, but if Wells remains between Judge and Stanton, he will be expected to hit.

10. Expectations haven’t worked out well for these Yankees. Ever since their unexpected run to Game 7 of the ALCS when they were expected to miss out on the postseason, they haven’t lived up to expectations over the last six seasons. After their 3-1 win over the Royals in Game 4 of the ALDS, for the first time in a long time they met an expectation: reach the ALCS.

Advancing to the ALCS was the minimum requirement for the 2024 Yankees. An ALDS loss may have led to wholesale changes within the organization in the offseason (but likely not since no one lost their job when the team missed out on the postseason completely in 2023). That minimum requirement was elevated to winning the AL pennant for the first time in 15 years once the Astros and Orioles went out in the wild-card round.

The Yankees are now four wins away from reaching the World Series. Four wins against an AL Central team from reaching the World Series. It’s something this Yankees core under this Yankees manager has never done. It’s something they may never have a better path and opportunity to accomplish. Three down, eight to go.

1. The Yankees blew their opportunity to take a commanding lead thanks to a disastrous start and a lackluster offensive effort. They can’t afford to have either of those on Wednesday. If they do, they’ll be playing for their season on Thursday.

That’s what I wrote prior to Game 3 of the ALDS. Somehow, the Yankees had both a third straight disastrous start and a lackluster offensive effort, and yet, they won and are one win away from advancing to the ALCS.

2. Clarke Schmidt was good until he wasn’t, similar to Carlos Rodon’s performance in Game 2. I wrote after Game 2 that I didn’t trust Schmidt because I don’t trust any Yankees starter and Schmidt proved my lack of trust to be warranted: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K.

Three starters and three stinkers from Yankees starters in the series. Gerrit Cole couldn’t get an out in the sixth inning in Game 1, Rodon couldn’t get through the fourth inning in Game 2 and Schmidt unraveled and was pulled in the fifth inning in Game 3. If not for all of the scheduled off days in this series, with the way the Yankees’ elite relievers have been used, I’m not sure where the Yankees would be.

Cole, Rodon and Schmidt this series: 13.1 IP, 18 H, 10 R, 9 ER, 3 BB, 15 K, 2 HR.
Yankees bullpen this series: 13.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 12 K.

It’s never good when your bullpen has recorded more outs than your starters in a postseason series, and again, if not for the days off, all of this, and the Yankees 2-1 series lead may not be possible.

3. The Yankees’ offense was also putrid for the third straight game in the series. The eight Yankees not named Giancarlo Stanton went 1-for-25. Thankfully, Stanton went 3-for-5 with an RBI double and a go-ahead solo home run in the eighth inning. Not only that, but the slow-footed (to put it kindly) Stanton stole his first base in four years.

The Stanton home run off Kris Bubic that gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead came on a third consecutive slider from the Royals’ left-hander. Bubic started the seventh and with two lefties (Austin Wells and Jazz Chisholm) sandwiched around Stanton, and the need to pitch to three batters, Royals manager Matt Quatraro decided he would rather have a lefty face Stanton than a righty face the struggling Wells and the he’s-not-Stanton Chisholm. Whoops.

The home run was the first Yankees go-ahead home run in the eighth inning or later in the postseason since Raul Ibanez’s walk-off home run in Game 3 of the 2012 ALDS. One, that was such a memorable, fun night at the Stadium back in 2012. Two, that’s ridiculous. That’s a span of 12 years and nine postseason appearances. Now you know why the Yankees haven’t reached the World Series in 15 years.

4. Prior to Game 3, I wrote that I would sit Stanton in favor of Jasson Dominguez to start the game because of Seth Lugo’s ability to keep the ball in park. (Lugo faced the most batters of any pitcher in the league this season and only 1.9 percent of them hit home runs.) I was partially right in that Lugo didn’t allow a Yankee to homer (he held the Yankees homer-less for 19 innings this year), but wrong since Stanton did pick up two hits against Lugo, including an RBI double to open the scoring in the fourth. I never thought Aaron Boone would actually not play Stanton in a playoff game, but his performance in Game 3 confirmed that. (The same way Alex Verdugo’s performance in Game 1 will now keep him in the starting lineup for the rest of the postseason despite him reverting back to his usual self.)

5. “When it’s the playoffs, he takes it to another level,” Schmidt said of Stanton. “I think there’s something to be said about players that can do that.”

I agree, Clarke. I think there is something to be said about players that can do that … and players that can’t. A lot of the Yankees lineup can’t.

If not for Stanton, the Yankees would be playing for their season in Game 4. The rest of the lineup’s 1-for-25 was disturbing, and to make matters worse, they racked up nine walks and only one of them scored (Juan Soto on the Stanton RBI double). The Yankees have 22 walks in the three games played so far and somehow they have won two one-run games and lost the other, scoring two runs in that loss. Twenty-two walks in three games! That should equate to double-digit run outputs every game and blowouts. Not nail-biting, eked-out wins.

6. It was another miserable night for Aaron Judge who went 0-for-4 with a walk. He’s now 1-for-11 with three walks and five strikeouts in the series. A nice, shiny 2-for-27 since the start of the 2022 ALCS. Austin Wells has barely been better than Judge at 2-for-12 with two walks and five strikeouts. At least Wells had the game-tying hit in Game 1 that he can hang his hat on. I’m not sure how the Yankees plan on continuing to win this month with their 3- and 4-hitters being their two worst hitters, but I guess we’re going to find out.

7. The combination of Anthony Volpe and Oswaldo Cabrera in the 7- and 8-spots had a big night. The duo went 1-for-3 with five walks. Volpe at-bats have been better than anyone could have expected in the series, and he has been on base in six of his 12 plate appearances. Cabrera bats at the bottom of the order, hasn’t even played in every game of the series, and he has as many hits (1) and as many walks (3) as Judge does in the series. (And one more extra-base hit, since Judge doesn’t have any.)

8. It was a rough night for Chisholm, who famously called the Royals “lucky” after their Game 2 win. Chisholm went 0-for-4 with a strikeout in the game. If you’re going to openly trash talk, please back it up. Yankees fans have had to endure enough backfired trash talk during the Boone era. Here’s to Chisholm having a big Game 4 and helping eliminate the Royals on their own field, so “They just got lucky” doesn’t become the 2024 version of Judge blaring “New York, New York” from a boom box at Fenway Park in 2018, which became the Red Sox’ victory song for their World Series run.

9. I thought it was a mistake for Boone to not challenge the play at first on Volpe’s groundout to lead off the third. I think it may have been overturned and the Yankees could have had the leadoff man on in that inning against Lugo. I also think the Yankees got screwed on the Gleyber Torres ball down the right-field line that was called foul, and stood as called after a challenge. It sure look like it hit part of the line.

10. “We need to wrap it up [Thursday],” Stanton said. “No wiggle room. We’ve got to get it done.”

Cole gets the ball in Game 4 with a chance to redeem himself from Game 1. I would have started Luis Gil in Game 4. If Gil starts and the Yankees win, Cole would be able to start Game 1 of the ALCS. If Gil starts and the Yankees lose, Cole would be ready to go for Game 5. Instead, if the Yankees advance, Cole will be starting Game 2 of the ALCS, and if the Yankees lose, they will be playing for their season on Saturday with Rodon starting. Please don’t let it get to that. Listen to Stanton: Wrap it up in Game 4.

1. Two years ago the Yankees were in this position. They had won Game 1 of the ALDS over the Guardians at the Stadium then after an off day and a rainout, they lost to the Guardians three days later in 10 innings. They went on the road for Game 3 with the ALDS tied at 1.

In Game 3 in Cleveland, the Yankees held a 5-3 lead entering the ninth. Aaron Boone made Clay Holmes unavailable despite Homes telling the media after the game he had told Boone before the game he was available, so Boone let Wandy Peralta begin the ninth after having pitched in the seventh and eighth.

Peralta allowed a one-out double followed by a single and Boone called on Clarke Schmidt to get the final two outs. Schmidt allowed back-to-back singles, which brought the Guardians within a run before getting a huge three-pitch strikeout for the second out. Schmidt got ahead of Oscar Gonzalez 1-2 and was a strike away from giving the Yankees a 2-1 series lead, but instead allowed his third single of the inning, a two-run, walk-off single and the Yankees lost.

2. It was Schmidt’s second career postseason appearance. His first had been the day before in Game 2 when he relieved Jameson Taillon after Taillon gave up the go-ahead run in the 10th. In typical Boone fashion, Schmidt was below Taillon in the manager’s level of trust rankings for Game 2, but then surpassed him for Game 3 and was used to close out a game he failed to close out.

Schmidt is a different pitcher in 2024 than he was in 2022. In 2022, he made only three starts, and through 2022, he had only five career starts to his name. Schmidt became part of the rotation for 2023 and everything clicked for him in the middle of May that season.

Schmidt is a good starting pitcher. He will likely need to be better than “good” in Game 3 with Seth Lugo going for the Royals. He can’t have the type of start Gerrit Cole or Carlos Rodon turned in in Games 1 and 2, as that many runs will unlikely be overcome.

3. Do I trust Schmidt? No, not really. But I don’t trust any Yankees starter. How could you? Neither of their two supposed best starters could get an out in the sixth inning in Games 1 or 2 and their No. 2 starter couldn’t get through four innings. The Yankees already gave the Royals their supposed best and the Royals had no problem creating traffic on the bases and scoring runs.

Despite my lack of trust in Schmidt, I do think he will be fine. His last start of the season in Game 161 against the Pirates was the first time in 16 starts in 2024 he allowed more than three earned runs in a game. It was just the third time in 40 starts he allowed more than three runs in a game. If the Yankees are to lose Game 3 of the ALDS like they did two years ago, I doubt it will be because of Schmidt.

4. If the Yankees lose Game 3, it will be because of the offense. Every October with these Yankees I go in thinking it’s going to be different, and every October it’s not. I want to be optimistic about the offense each postseason, thinking there’s no way they can no-show again, and yet each postseason they no-show again. Through two games they’re running it back and playing all of the old hits: poor situational hitting, a lack of power, running into outs on the bases and failing to hit with runners in scoring position. Every fear I had about these Yankees for the postseason is coming to fruition.

5. Aaron Judge is getting all of the attention for the Yankees’ offensive shortcomings and he should. He’s the highest-paid player on the team. He’s the captain of the team. He’s the one who broke the AL home run record in 2022 and won MVP only to go 1-for-16 with a single in the sweep by the Astros in that season’s ALCS. He’s the one whose name was said in the same breath as Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds this season when he outperformed his own 2022 MVP season, nearly won the Triple Crown and will win the 2024 AL MVP. But he’s the one who came up in Game 1 with runners on second and third and no outs and struck out. He’s the one who came up in Game 2 with runners on first and second and no outs and struck out. He’s the one who is 1-for-7 with an infield single through two games in this series.

6. Going back to that miserable performance of his in the 2022 ALCS, Judge is now 2-for-23 with three walks and eight strikeouts. Unsurprisingly, the Yankees are 1-5 in those games.

If you want to call 23 at-bats and 26 plate appearances a small sample size, go ahead. But that’s what the postseason is: short series and small sample sizes. And for his postseason career, a sample size that is now 207 plate appearances, Judge has a .760 OPS, a number that is 250 points below his career regular-season OPS of 1.010.

7. Prior to the start of the postseason, I wrote:

The dynastic Yankees of the late-‘90s and 2000s won in the postseason because their stars remained stars in October. When the 163rd game came, there was no drop-off in production despite only facing the top teams and elite pitching each game. Look at these regular season vs. postseason career numbers.

Derek Jeter regular season: .310/.377/.440
Derek Jeter postseason: .308/.374/.465

Bernie Williams regular season: .297/.381/.477
Bernie Williams postseason: .275/.371/.480

Paul O’Neill regular season: .288/.363/.470
Paul O’Neill postseason: .284/.363/.465

That hasn’t happened with this Yankees core. When October comes, these Yankees have always disappeared, and Aaron Judge has been as big of a problem as anyone.

Aaron Judge regular season: .288/.406/.604
Aaron Judge postseason: .211/.310/.462

Judge’s postseason slash line has grown worse, now at .208/.311/.449.

The Yankees offense goes as Judge goes. In Yankees wins this season, Judge hit .402/.527/.887 for a 1.415 OPS. In Yankees losses this season, Judge hit .208/.356/.46 for a .793 OPS. When Judge hits, the Yankees win. When Judge doesn’t hit the Yankees lose.

8. As expected the rest of the Yankees aren’t really doing their part to not make it all about Judge, and no one more than Giancarlo Stanton.

I would sit Stanton in Game 3. Stanton is 1-for-8 with a walk in the series and has cost the Yankees two runs with his jogging (at best) on the bases. After Game 1, I wrote about why Stanton’s supposed postseason greatness isn’t so great (unless you remove from the fans from the stands and play the games at a neutral site). The only reason to play him is because you think he can get into a mistake and hit it over the fence. The problem is the level of pitcher he is seeing each at-bat isn’t making mistakes. Stanton assumes every 2-0 or 3-1 pitch is going to be a fastball down the middle and swings like it. That hasn’t happened for him this postseason and likely won’t with Lugo on the mound.

9. Lugo didn’t allow a home run in 14 innings against the Yankees this season. He only allowed 16 for the year, including just one to the 105 batters he faced in September. He faced a league-high 836 batters for the season and gave up 16 home runs, equating to 1.9 percent of the batters he faced hit a home run.

It’s extremely unlikely Lugo is going to allow a home run at Kauffman Stadium in Game 3. (He’s only allowed two home runs there since July.) And because Stanton’s only value to the team is to hit home runs, there’s no reason to use him as the designated hitter. Start Jasson Dominguez there. At least if Dominguez gets on base, he’s capable of stealing a base, running harder than a light jog and isn’t a risk to ruin a rally.

10. Joe Torre always called Game 2 of any series the most important game. In Game 2 you have the opportunity to take a commanding lead or an opportunity to tie the series up. (It’s why Andy Pettitte was always tabbed with starting Game 2 during the glory days.) The Yankees blew their opportunity to take a commanding lead thanks to a disastrous start and a lackluster offensive effort. They can’t afford to have either of those on Wednesday. If they do, they’ll be playing for their season on Thursday.

1. I knew the Yankees were potentially in trouble for Game 2 long before it began on Monday night. I knew as much because Carlos Rodon said as much when discussing his emotions leading into his first Yankees postseason start: “It can propel me to very high highs and super low lows.”

The last thing any fan wants is the starting pitcher of their favorite baseball team having the mindset of a touring member of Guns N’ Roses during their heyday. You’re hoping your team’s starting pitcher is composed and of a sound mind. You want to be confident he’s going to keep it together and not wear his emotions on his sleeve with each pitch in such a pressurized, high-stakes environment. A Joba Chamberlain 360 twirl into a fist pump after stranding a pair in a big spot? Sure. But going wild after striking out the leadoff hitter of the game? Walking around the infield yelling after striking out the second batter of the game? Roaring like a lion marking his pride’s territory after retiring the side in order IN THE FIRST INNING?

Rodon was maniacal on the mound in the first inning on Monday night. He was experiencing the “very high high” he spoke about before the start. The Stadium was buzzing, he was locating his fastball and everyone was biting on his slider. He was experiencing the moment he dreamed he would get to experience when he signed a $162 million contract with the Yankees. The moment he talked about when he got hurt in spring training last year and said: “I’m not here to pitch until the All-Star break. I’m here to pitch well into October. If this was down the stretch, yeah, I would be going for sure. If it’s October 5 or the ALDS, I’m taking the ball.”

2. The “very high high” slowly wore off. While Rodon kept the Royals off the board in the second and third, he couldn’t produce a shutdown inning in the fourth after the Yankees opened the scoring. Instead, he got beat by Salvador Perez, unraveled and never recovered, falling into the “super low low” stupor he warned could take place. The kind of stupor Yankees fans have grown accustomed to their so-called “No. 2” starter having when the slightest adversity hits him. The kind of adversity that led to him blowing a kiss to heckling fans in Anaheim last year. The kind of adversity that led to him turning his back on his pitching coach during a mound visit at the end of last season. The kind of adversity that led to him crying in the dugout this season. The kind of meltdown that led to him allowing eight earned runs without recording an out against these Royals in his final start of last season.

After Perez homered to tie the game, Rodon couldn’t put Yuli Gurriel (who is still hitting against the Yankees in the postseason like he did as an Astro) away with two strikes and allowed a single. He threw a wild pitch with Gurriel on first and allowed an RBI single to Tommy Pham on a 1-2 pitch. He followed that by giving up an RBI single to Garrett Hampson (owner of a career 72 OPS+) and eventually got charged with a fourth earned run when Ian Hamilton allowed Hampson to score. Rodon took his clean slate for the postseason and took a dump on it. Rather than rewrite his Yankees tenure with a dominant postseason, he crumbled under the pressure of the postseason. His final line: 3.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 1 HR.

3. “It’s just unfortunate,” Rodon said. “I wanted to be better than that.”

But he wasn’t. Rodon couldn’t get out of the fourth inning. It was progress from his only other postseason start, when as a White Sox in 2022 he couldn’t get out of the third inning (2.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K). The Yankees signed the guy capable of striking out the Royals’ 1-2-3 hitters on 12 pitches in the first. They feared the guy who allowed the bottom of the order put the game out of reach could show up. And he did. Following Gerrit Cole’s miserable effort in Game 1, Rodon’s postseason debut as a Yankee was a disaster.

4. It was a disaster made worse by an offense that is conducting its annual October disappearing act. (Well, annual minus last October when they couldn’t make the postseason in a six-team format.) The Yankees failed to produce an extra-base hit in the game until Jazz Chisholm’s home run in the ninth inning. The Yankees’ 1-2-3 hitters combined for an infield single by Aaron Judge, who has decided to bring fuel to the fire to combat the argument he can’t hit in the postseason. Giancarlo Stanton continues to run like he has two torn hamstrings and unless the Royals are going to walk in runs like they did in Game 1, it seems like the Yankees are never going to score. The Yankees went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position in Game 1. In Game 2, they went 1-for-6. They’re now 3-for-19 in the series.

5. “That’s playoff baseball,” Aaron Boone said. “The heat is turned up, and you’ve got to be able to slow it things down.”

The Boone Yankees have never been able to “slow things down” with “the heat turned up.” The performance you have seen from the 2024 Yankees through two postseason games is the performance the 2018-2022 Yankees produced in the postseason.

6. “We had a lot of opportunities tonight,” Chisholm said. “They just got lucky.”

Chisholm’s comments were so delusional I thought Boone or Nestor Cortes said them. Chisholm’s comments were every bit as foolish as Rodon acting like he was three outs away from pitching the Yankees to a championship in the first inning only to be removed in the fourth. Every bit as foolish as Judge walking through Fenway Park blaring “New York, New York” on a boom box after the team’s Game 2 win in the 2018 ALDS only to then lose the next two games of the series at home by a combined score of 20-4. Every bit as foolish as Boone saying, “The league has closed the gap” on the Yankees after the team’s 2021 wild-card game loss. Every bit as foolish as Luis Severino saying Alex Bregman “got lucky” because he hit his game-winning home run only 91 mph in Game 2 of the 2022 ALCS. Every bit as foolish as Boone admitting he used video from the 2004 ALCS to motivate his team in the 2022 ALCS. Every bit as foolish as Harrison Bader saying, “No concern,” when asked about being 4 1/2 games out of a playoff spot in 2023. If the Yankees don’t win two of the next three games, Chisholm’s comments will be the latest in a long list of delusional line coming from this era’s clubhouse.

The Royals didn’t get lucky. They were the better team. They drove in runs, got extra-base hits, stifled Juan Soto and enhanced the idea that Judge is Mr. May. The Yankees lost a game started by a lefty that gladly walked the top of the order and challenged the rest of the order to beat him, and they couldn’t. Then the left-handed relievers of the Royals did the same. The Royals weren’t lucky. They were smart and they executed their game plan.

7. “If I’m not hitting 1.000,” Judge said, “I’m not feeling good.”

How about you start with hitting .250? Something you haven’t done since the 2019 ALDS.

“I just gotta keep getting on base for the guys behind me.”

Well, that’s not working.

“If they get on [in front of me],” Judge said, “I gotta drive them in.”

They are getting on in front of you. In both Games 1 and 2, you came up with runners on first and second and no outs in the first inning and struck out both times.

“We haven’t been able to come through,” Judge said. “We’ll do it next time.”

Just like you did in the other seven postseasons you have been a part of?

8. The only truly bright spot for the Yankees in the first two games has been the bullpen, which has had to get 28 of 54 outs.

Cole and Rodon this series: 8.2 IP, 14 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 11 K , 2 HR.
Yankees bullpen this series: 9.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 11 K.

Other than that, everything I feared about this Yankees team in the postseason is coming to fruition. All of their flaws I worried about showing up in October have. The offense has been putrid led by Judge, their big-name starting pitching has been abysmal, the infield defense has been shaky and their manager hasn’t done anything to elevate their chances.

9. Now the supposed inferior Royals (who clinched a postseason berth in Game 161) control the series. They have Seth Lugo going in Game 3. The same Seth Lugo who turned in seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts against the Yankees four weeks ago in the Bronx. The Yankees will counter with Clarke Schmidt, a starter they didn’t feel confident in announcing until the day of Game 2. A starter who has never made a postseason start and whose three career postseason appearances in 2022 (in relief) were horrendous. I think Schmidt will be fine. I’m worried about what the offense will or won’t do against Lugo.

10. Things can change so quickly in the best-of-5 division series. A day ago, Yankees fans were harping on the fact the Yankees played like shit, but still came away with an ugly Game 1 win. After Game 2, the mood is different.

The Royals’ win in Game 2 guaranteed Cole a second start in this series to redeem himself. It made possible the petrifying idea Rodon could go again in a winner-take-all Game 5 at the Stadium on Saturday night. If the high-paid and overpaid names on the Yankees play and pitch to their abilities it won’t get to that terrifying Game 5 scenario. If the offense would show up for the first time in this core’s history it won’t get to that. I pray it doesn’t get to that. But if the Yankees lose Game 3 in Kansas City, I will be praying it gets to that.

1. “Tear down the empire from the inside out.” That’s what Bob Costas said as he read a promo for the HBO show The Penguin as the third inning of Game 1 began on Saturday night. At the time, the promotional ad read for that show sounded like a good idea for the empire that is the Yankees.

Because at the time, Gerrit Cole was coming up small in a big game once again and the Yankees’ offense looked like every postseason version of itself since their last World Series appearance 15 years ago.

2. After a 1-2-3 first in which Cole allowed three rockets to the top of the Royals’ order, the Yankees began their offensive postseason with second and third and no outs after Gleyber Torres walked and Juan Soto doubled. With Aaron Judge, Austin Wells and Giancarlo Stanton coming up, the Yankees would have a chance to put up a crooked number and potentially end the game in the first inning. They didn’t. They didn’t score a single run.

Judge struck out, which is all he seems to do in the postseason. Wells hit a first-pitch grounder to first and with the Yankees idiotically having the contact play on (a staple of the Aaron Boone Yankees), Torres ran home and was thrown out by 10 feet. Stanton followed with a strikeout of his own and the Yankees wasted their second-and-third-with-no-outs situation.

Immediately after that, Cole allowed allow a single, walk, single and sacrifice fly and the Royals had a 1-0 lead. It would have likely been more if not for Salvador Perez inexplicably being sent home with no outs, resulting in Juan Soto throwing him out. Suddenly, the first game of the 2024 postseason was playing out like a game from every other postseason of the Boone era.

Cole was horrible. He pitched four-plus innings, needed 80 pitches to get 12 outs, allowed nine baserunners and three earned runs. Of his 80 pitches, he recorded only six swings-and-misses. Forty-three percent of the 21 batters he faced reached base and 11 of those 21 batters produced a “hard-hit ball” (an exit velocity of at least 95 mph), a season-high for the 2023 Cy Young winner.

For as good as Cole was over his final 10 starts, I didn’t expect him to pitch well in this one because I never expect him to pitch well in big games. I gave up on those expectations a long time ago.

After the game on YES, Michael Kay believed the layoff to be the reason why Cole wasn’t any good. There’s always some excuse for Cole. A layoff, a delayed start, a national anthem rendition running too long, a ceremonial first pitch not being on time. It’s never on Cole. Kay opined that Cole would be better the next time out. Will he? If the series goes to Game 4, he will be pitching on five days rest. If he’s not needed until Game 1 of the ALCS, he will be pitching on eight days rest, which is another extended layoff. How about he just pitches well in the postseason and the excuses stop? There was no excuse in Game 1. He sucked.

3. The other star of this Yankees core also sucked. After going 1-for-16 with a single in the last postseason series the Yankees played in the 2022 ALCS, Aaron Judge went 0-for-4 with a walk and three strikeouts in Game 1.

On Friday, I wrote: I am worried about Judge. For being as worried about Judge as I am, I do expect him to finally have that big postseason and carry the Yankees to the World Series. If not now, when?

My concern for Judge flopping in October again was warranted and after watching him leave runners on second and third with no outs in the first inning and fail to put the ball in play the entire night, those concerns are now heightened with Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo starting Games 2 and 3 for the Royals. At some point Judge has to do something, right? Right?!

4. Also on Friday, I wrote: I’m not worried about Soto. He has proven capable of handling October in his two postseason appearances, especially in 2019 when as a 20-year-old he hit three home runs and posted a 1.178 OPS against the Astros in the World Series.

Soto shined in his first postseason game as a Yankee the way he shined for the entire regular season. He went 3-for-5 in the series opener and threw Perez out at home in the second inning. Soto was his usual awesome self in the postseason and the win extends his time in pinstripes by at least one more game.

5. Austin Wells reverted back to being the awesome version of himself that he was from the end of April through the end of August. Wells went 1-for-3 with two walks. The first of his two walks forced in a run to tie the game at 3 in the fifth. His hit tied the game at 5 in the sixth. But for as awesome as Soto and Wells were, it was Alex Verdugo, yes Alex Verdugo, who was the best of all.

6. I don’t like Alex Verdugo. I think anyone who reads these thoughts with regularity knows that. I was against the trade for him and was against him continuing to receive everyday playing time all season as arguably the worst everyday offensive player in the league. But everyone gets a clean slate for the postseason, even Verdugo, and through one game, he is making the most of it.

“You can make up for a lot of things in the playoffs,” Verdugo said after the Game 1 win.

Verdugo walked in his first plate appearance and scored on Torres’ two-run home run. In the fourth, he made a sliding catch down the left-field line to end the inning and prevent a blooper from falling in and causing more damage on the scoreboard. In his third plate appearance, he drew a walk to lead off the sixth and scored the tying run on Wells’ RBI single. In the seventh, he singled to left field to drive in Jazz Chisholm, giving the Yankees a 6-5 lead, a lead they would hold on to for the Game 1 win.

Verdugo was the hero of Game 1. An unlikely hero, but a hero nonetheless. He was the type of hero that is born in October: a regular-season poor performer or afterthought who gets hot at the right time for a couple of weeks. The Yankees need a hero like that, especially because of the letdown performances from so many others.

7. Like Cole and Judge, Giancarlo Stanton was a zero in the game. He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and a walk. On that walk, any other player in the league would have been able to score when Oswaldo Cabrera doubled to center field, but not Stanton. Later in the game, Stanton was also thrown out on a ball to third that most players also would have been able to beat out. Stanton’s lack of speed on the bases was nearly a huge factor in deciding the game. He provides no value when he isn’t hitting home runs. And he doesn’t hit them frequently enough.

There’s this narrative that Stanton is some legendary postseason player. I don’t know how that started. Maybe because he hit six home runs in seven games in the 2020 playoffs … when there were no fans in the stands? Here are his other postseason home runs:

2018 Wild-Card Game: Solo home run with the Yankees up four in the bottom of the eighth.
2019 ALCS Game 1: Solo home run with the Yankees up two in the top of the sixth.
2021 Wild-Card Game: Solo home run with the Yankees down five in the top of the ninth.
2022 ALDS Game 2: Two-run home run with 0-0 score in the bottom of the first.
2022 ALDS Game 5: Three-run home run with 0-0 score in the bottom of the first.

The two home runs against the Guardians in the 2022 ALDS were important. The rest? Not so much.

Stanton is going to play. At least the next game with the left-handed Ragans starting. It would be nice if he could contribute in some way with the bat (and not assume every 2-0 and 3-1 pitch he gets is going to be a middle-middle fastball) since he doesn’t contribute in the field or on the bases.

8. Anthony Volpe was able to contribute a bases-loaded walk in the fifth, and thankfully he was able to at least provide that because the rest of his game was abysmal. The Golden Boy went 0-for-3 with that walk, struck out on a pitch in the other batter’s box with Chisholm running in the seventh and also made a disastrous error in the sixth that gave the Royals a lead. The Yankees had nine hits, eight walks and 11 strikeouts. Judge, Stanton and Volpe combined for no hits, three walks and six strikeouts. That needs to be cleaned up.

9. I wish I could say the in-game managerial decisions need to be cleaned up as well, but now in a sixth postseason of watching Boone, I think it’s safe to say it’s never going to be cleaned up.

It was a bad night for Aaron Boone fans who thought the manager would manage differently in October than he did from March through September. In the very first game of this postseason, Boone tried to steal outs with Cole in the fifth inning, when it was clear Cole was finished long before then, and when Boone had Clay Holmes warming and ready to go the inning before for Cole. Boone’s decision to let Cole start the fifth backfired as he allowed a ball off the left-field wall to begin the inning and the Royals eventually scored two runs when Volpe couldn’t make a throw to second base and when Boone called the infield in. The Yankees had a week off and have Sunday off and Boone managed as if he had a tired bullpen.

Holmes eventually did come in and got five important outs, followed by Tommy Kahnle getting two outs and Luke Weaver recording the four-out save. The bullpen was outstanding and for one night put to rest the fears most Yankees fans had about the relievers going into the playoffs.

10. Cole was bad, Judge and Stanton no-showed, the Gold Glove shortstop’s defense was sloppy and the Yankees still won. That’s both promising and frightening. But a win is a win, and for now, the “teardown of the empire from the inside out” can be put on hold. One win down and 10 to go.

1. The Astros went 12-5 against the Yankees in the 2017, 2019 and 2022 ALCS. They’re out. The Orioles went 8-5 against the Yankees in the regular season this year. They’re out. The Tigers and Royals did the job I feared the Yankees may not be able to do if they faced the Astros or Orioles this October. Now they don’t have to.

Three teams from the AL Central remain. Again, that’s three teams from the AL Central standing between the Yankees and their first pennant in 15 years.

The Yankees destroyed the AL Central in the regular season. They won the AL East and avoided the dangerous best-of-3 series because of the number they did on the AL Central in the regular season, including going 12-6 against the three Central teams remaining.

They went 4-2 against the Guardians. Both losses were in extra innings.

They went 4-2 against the Royals. One loss was a Clay Holmes blown save.

They went 4-2 against the Tigers. One loss was another Holmes blown save.

None of those three have any offense. They finished sixth, seventh and eighth in the AL in runs scored. Their entire success centers around their pitching and the Yankees’ bats will have to get to some combination of Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Tarik Skubal, Tanner Bibee and other quality starters to end their AL pennant drought.

2. Those bats producing in October is what keeps me up at night. No matter what happens during the regular season, the entirety of the Yankees’ season each year hinges on whether or not the bats will be there in October. The bats haven’t shown up in a long time.

The dynastic Yankees of the late-‘90s and 2000s won in the postseason because their stars remained stars in October. When the 163rd game came, there was no drop-off in production despite only facing the top teams and elite pitching each game. Look at these regular season vs. postseason career numbers.

Derek Jeter regular season: .310/.377/.440
Derek Jeter postseason: .308/.374/.465

Bernie Williams regular season: .297/.381/.477
Bernie Williams postseason: .275/.371/.480

Paul O’Neill regular season: .288/.363/.470
Paul O’Neill postseason: .284/.363/.465

That hasn’t happened with this Yankees core. When October comes, these Yankees have always disappeared, and Aaron Judge has been as big of a problem as anyone.

Aaron Judge regular season: .288/.406/.604
Aaron Judge postseason: .211/.310/.462

3. Judge hasn’t had a postseason series OPS above .738 since the 2019 ALDS when the Yankees beat the shit out of the Twins. Since then he’s posted OPS of .681, .717, .637,. 500, .738 and .180 across a wild-card game, a wild-card series, two ALDS and two ALCS. He’s supposed to be the best hitter in the game, but he hasn’t even been the best hitter on the Yankees in a postseason series since the 2017 ALCS.

Judge has the home run record. He has the captaincy. He has the long-term contract and life-changing, generational wealth. The only thing missing is a championship, and this is his best chance to date to win one, and he may never get a chance as good as this again.

4. The Yankees have far and away the best roster of the remaining four AL teams. It’s not even close. And for as concerend as I am with the Yankees’ offense, their offense is in another stratosphere compared to the light-hitting Royals, Guardians and Tigers. But like the other three teams, the Yankees’ bottom of their order won’t do them any favors.

Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto, Judge, Austin Wells, Giancarlo Stanton and Jazz Chisholm are going to be the 1 through 6 hitters. After that’s, it’s likely to be Anthony Volpe, Alex Verdugo and Ben Rice in some order.

Volpe has been an offensive disappointment since his first major-league plate appearance. Verdugo was benched over the last two weeks of the season for being arguably the worst everyday hitter in the majors for six months and is only going to be playing because Jasson Dominguez can’t be trusted to catch fly balls. Rice was sent to the minors at the end of August after posting a .624 OPS over two months and is only on the team because the Yankees’ first and second options at first base (Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu are both injured). It’s bleak at 7 through 9.

One-third of the Yankees lineup is as close to being three automatic outs as there are in the postseason. So either the trio is going to have to provide some unexpected offense or a few big hits with runners on, or the top two-thirds of the lineup is going to have to carry all of the weight with the Yankees essentially giving away three innings worth of outs each game.

5. If the Yankees are going to willingly give away three innings worth of outs each game, Judge and Juan Soto are going to have to hit like they did in the regular season when they were being mentioned alongside Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth daily. I’m not worried about Soto. He has proven capable of handling October in his two postseason appearances, especially in 2019 when as a 20-year-old he hit three home runs and posted a 1.178 OPS against the Astros in the World Series. I am worried about Judge. For being as worried about Judge as I am, I do expect him to finally have that big postseason and carry the Yankees to the World Series. If not now, when?

6. When is centered around the future, and if the Yankees can’t get to the World Series against this field, I don’t know that there will be a future for Aaron Boone with the Yankees. Even though he was able to retain his position after the Yankees missed the postseason last year and finished with the club’s worst record in three decades, falling short with this team against those teams would have to mean the end for him, given that his contract expires this season.

With each previous failed postseason run, Boone has always talked about how close his teams have been and how sweet it will be once they finally win, only to never get close and never finally win. That has to change this October.

7. In-game management in close games isn’t exactly Boone’s forte. Well, neither is being transparent about injuries or accurate in player evaluations. Then again, communication — the trait he was sold to Yankees fans on — is a problem as well. OK, I don’t really know what Boone’s strong suit is. He’s a nice guy? That must be it. He’s a nice guy, loyal and someone you would want to grab some beers with. When it comes to being a capable, major-league manager though, to put it nicely, he has been a disaster to this point.

8. Boone has been exceptionally bad in the bad postseason. In his first postseason in 2018, in the pivotal Game 3 at home, his starting pitcher didn’t know the start time of the game. In that same game, he let that starting pitcher go back out for a third inning despite giving up piss missiles all over the place in the first two innings. By the time he decided to make a pitching change, the Yankees were down 3-0 and the bases were loaded with no outs. Despite having a stable of strikeout arms in his bullpen, he went to a starter with mediocre strikeout ability at the time and it ended in the Yankees suffering their most lopsided home postseason loss in franchise history.

The following night, facing elimination, he let CC Sabathia face the entire Red Sox lineup a second time because he liked the matchup of Sabathia against Jackie Bradley Jr., who was batting ninth. The Yankees were eliminated.

The next October, he used JA Happ in relief in extra innings in Game 2 of the ALCS. Carlos Correa walked off the Yankees and the Yankees went 1-4 over the final five games of the series.

In 2020, there was the Deivi Garcia-Happ debacle in the ALDS. In 2021, he led the odds-on favorite in the AL to a third-place finish in the division and a fifth-place finish in the AL. Their postseason lasted nine innings (and really just a half-inning of those nine thanks to Gerrit Cole).

In 2022, he changed his starting shortstop daily, somehow made Clarke Schmidt the first guy out of the bullpen in Game 1 of the ALCS, kept batting Josh Donaldson fifth and eventually used video from the 2004 Yankees’ ALCS collapse to motivate his own Yankees team.

9. The Boone Yankees are 14-17 in the postseason. A lot of it is because of the offense’s annual disappearing act, but Boone hasn’t done anything to elevate the game or the chances of his previous five postseason teams. If anything, he has been detrimental to their success.

I like to say that the Yankees need to outhit their own manager to win games to prevent him from having an impact on close games. That’s not possible in the playoffs where games are low scoring and close. Every decision Boone makes from the moment he starts to fill out his lineup card until the final out of each postseason game is crucial, and he has been incapable of handling the pressure that comes with making correct decision after correct decision, which is what it takes in October.

I want nothing more than for the Yankees to win and for Boone to win. I don’t want to sit through another end-of-the-season press conference with him telling everyone how close the team is and how sweet it’s going to be once they do win it all.

10. Boone’s decision-making shouldn’t be able to deter the Yankees from winning the AL this year. It shouldn’t matter in the AL playoffs if Verdugo plays or Dominguez plays. It shouldn’t matter if Wells bats cleanup or Chisholm does. It shouldn’t matter if Schmidt starts Game 3 or Luis Gil does. The Yankees are that much better than the three remaining AL opponents. The 50/50 choices and decisions around the margins shouldn’t be the difference between this team advancing or being shockingly eliminated. The Yankees were the best team in the AL in the regular season and are the best team remaining in the AL postseason. It’s time they played like it in October.

1. Aaron Boone was right. He knew back in July when he regurgitated (for a third straight season) his popular phrase “It’s right in front of us” in regards to the Yankees’ postseason and division chances. He knew playing .500 baseball for the final three months of the season would lead the Yankees to an AL East title.

2. The season goals are to reach the postseason, win the division, receive a bye to the ALDS, win home-field advantage through the ALCS, win the ALDS, win the ALCS and win the World Series. The first three have been accomplished. Next up is to win home-field advantage through the ALCS.

3. “We’d love to get it,” Boone said. “That said, I’m going to make sure I get guys a day here. I feel like we gotta do it, but we’ll be playing to win.”

I believe being the 1-seed in the AL playoffs is important. The Yankees don’t. They never have. Boone said as much on Thursday. The Yankees have always operated under the idea of “just get in” and that hasn’t exactly worked out for them. They haven’t been the 1-seed in any of Boone’s six previous years managing the team. That could change in the seventh.

The Yankees currently have a one-game lead over the Guardians for the 1-seed. Because the Yankees won the head-to-head season series (4-2), finishing with the same record as the Guardians is all they need. The odds are in their favor.

4. But no matter what happens this weekend, the Yankees returned home on Sunday, got to sleep in their own beds for the Orioles series, will sleep in their own beds this weekend, get to sleep in their own beds all of next week and won’t need to travel until after Game 2 of the ALDS, which is scheduled for October 7. They will have been able to be in their own homes, playing in their own stadium and not traveling for 16 days from when they returned from Oakland until they have to leave for Game 3 of the ALDS.

5. That’s just one of the many advantages the Yankees have heading into the postseason. On top of that, they will be able to set their rotation as they please and open their postseason playing in front of what will be a raucous Stadium crowd on a Saturday night in the Bronx.

6. “I feel like we’ve been through a lot as a team already this year,” Boone said. “So I’d like to think we’re battle-tested for what’s ahead.”

The Yankees haven’t been through that much. Most of what they have been through was self-inflicted. But hey, if coming up with a fictional narrative is what Boone needs to motivate his team in the postseason, I’m all for it. It’s better than using video from the 2004 ALCS as motivation like he did the last time the Yankees were in the playoffs two years ago.

7. “We’re going to celebrate tonight,” Judge said, “and then look forward to October.”

I’m confident about the Yankees heading into the postseason. I know it can all change in an instant. A loss in Game 1 of the ALDS can make it feel like the season is ending. I know the bats can just not show up in a way they haven’t in October for a while now. I know the most trusted arms in the rotation could lay eggs, the bullpen could implode or Boone could manage his team to elimination.

8. Every fan knows their own teams flaws, watching them unfold nearly daily for six months. But for as critical as I am of the Yankees (and rightfully so given their performance and internal decisions over the last 14 years), they boast the best roster of any of the six AL teams that will be in the field.

9. “We’re in a good spot,” Stanton said, “but there’s a lot of work to do.”

Everything is in their favor heading into this October in a way it hasn’t been in a long, long time. There is no dominant team in the field. If anything they are the team to beat in the field. Their rotation is healthy (outside of Nestor Cortes, but he may not have been part of the rotation anyway) and they have the best two hitters in the league in the same lineup. The only potential AL opponent that scares me is the Astros, but that’s more about the past than the present, as this Astros team isn’t the 2017, 2019 or 2022 teams. (Thankfully, as long as the Yankees win the 1-seed they won’t have to face the Astros until the best-of-7 ALCS format.) If the Yankees can’t win the World Series with the setup they have this year, I don’t know when they will.

10. This weekend will now be relaxing and stress-free. Next week will be the same. But come next Saturday when Yankees fans wake up, the second season begins. The good and bad of the previous 162 games is erased. Every Yankee gets a clean slate full of opportunity. No opportunity greater than the chance to be a part of something no Yankees team has been a part of in 15 years.

1. 0-for-2. That’s what the Yankees are in opportunities to clinch and win the AL East. Add two more missed opportunities and it will read like an Alex Verdugo batting line. But if the Yankees miss two more opportunities they could possibly be in a world of shit.

One Yankees win or one Orioles loss over the next four days will give the Yankees the division. It would be nice if they could get it out of the way with a win on Thursday, rendering the three remaining games of the regular season against the Pirates rather meaningless. But given the way the Yankees have played in the first two games of this three-game series against the Orioles, it wouldn’t surprise me (and shouldn’t surprise anyone) if the division is not over by the end of play on Thursday.

2. Prior to Wednesday’s 9-7 loss to the Orioles (to drop the Yankees to 4-8 on the season against the Orioles), Nestor Cortes was placed on the 15-day injured list, taking him out of the equation for the ALDS. In his place, Marcus Stroman made his first start in 15 days and second in 21 days. The Yankees have done everything they can to avoid giving Stroman the ball in September and rightfully so.

Stroman was awful once again, needing 66 pitches to get 10 outs, while giving up six earned runs on 10 hits. Since July 4, Stroman has started 64 innings and only nine of them have been 1-2-3 innings, which is outrageous. Every seven-plus innings Stroman will give you a clean frame. He didn’t have one on Wednesday.

3. “It’s frustrating,” Stroman said. “I didn’t execute and do my job out there to keep my team in position to win.”

The last pitch Stroman threw should be the last pitch he throws in 2024 outside of maybe some innings eating this weekend against the Pirates (as long as the division is wrapped up). Stroman can’t be trusted to nibble in October and he can’t be trusted out of the bullpen either without swing-and-miss stuff. Balls in play (even ones on the ground) lead to bad things (just ask Clay Holmes) and Stroman relies on balls in play more than anyone in baseball.

4. In a game in which Juan Soto and Aaron Judge both hit multi-run home runs and the Yankees scored seven runs, they lost. That’s how bad Stroman was and then how bad Clayton Beeter was in relief of Stroman (1.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K).

Soto and Judge combined to go 4-for-8 with three runs, two home runs, six RBIs and two walks. The rest of the lineup went 6-for-28 with no extra-base hits. It was the type of offensive performance the Yankees have to have in October to succeed since no one in the lineup outside of those two can be trusted with any regularity. Despite Gleyber Torres’ last month, he’s only now a league-average hitter for the season. Austin Wells has a .410 OPS in September and looks like the April version of himself. Giancarlo Stanton is either extremely hot or extremely cold with no in between and there’s no knowing what he will be in October. Jazz Chisholm has a .446 OPS over the last three weeks. Any plate appearance for Anthony Rizzo or Anthony Volpe resulting in them getting on base is a magnificent surprise. Alex Verdugo is a lost cause and Jasson Dominguez plays too infrequently to get into an extended groove.

5. Dominguez was back in the lineup after an unnecessary day off on Tuesday. He misplayed a ball in left field in the first inning that looked to be tailing away from him in the corner and then came back into the field of play.

“I have no excuse,” Dominguez said. “That ball needs to be caught, 100 percent of the time.”

Almost 100 percent of the time since it had a catch probability of 95 percent.

6. “He’s missed some plays that he should make,” Aaron Boone said of Dominguez. I can count on one hand (I may need a finger or two from my other hand) to count the times Boone has been somewhat critical of one of his players in seven seasons and this is one of those instances. Boone defended Torres’ game-altering baserunning gaffe just 24 hours earlier (when Torres himself couldn’t defend it), but there was Boone not having the same type of defense for Dominguez, who is playing a position he has little experience playing. Dominguez has played 20 total games in left field this season between the majors and minors.

“I haven’t played a ton of games in left field,” Dominguez said, “but I feel I can do it.”

Unfortunately, for Dominguez, the Yankees only have four games remaining, so there’s not much time to learn in actual games. Boone wants to play Verdugo over Dominguez and Dominguez is giving him a reason to.

7. “You try to take it all in, what gives you the best chance to win on a given night,” Boone said of his ongoing left-field competition. “We’re trying to give a good look to Jasson here down the stretch.”

That second part is telling. “We’re trying” is Boone foreshadowing him telling the media “they tried” when Dominguez is on the bench or not on the postseason roster next Saturday night at Yankee Stadium.

On Wednesday, Dominguez hit balls 109.3 mph, 106.5 mph and 109.2 mph. Verdugo has hit one ball over 100 mph in the last two weeks. It doesn’t matter to the Yankees that Dominguez is the far superior hitter to Verdugo. Boone wants to play Verdugo and Dominguez’s defense is going to be what Boone uses to play one of his favorites.

8. I fear Verdugo will be the Yankees’ starting left fielder to begin the postseason. Then if the team is having trouble scoring in the postseason the way they do every October, they will insert Dominguez into the lineup in place of Verdugo to try to get a jolt out of his bat after he has been sitting cold and not playing. When that doesn’t work out, everyone will say Dominguez sucks. It’s almost too easy to predict.

9. I pray that doesn’t happen. I pray if Verdugo plays over Dominguez that he hits, and that if it’s Dominguez over Verdugo that he catches fly balls. You can’t afford to play with automatic outs in the lineup (like Verdugo) in October and the Yankees will already be playing Rizzo and Volpe since they are immune to losing playing time for their lack of offense. And you can’t afford to be misplaying easy outs and giving the opposition extra outs to work with in October either.

10. For now, the Yankees need to worry about getting to October with a bye. That can be resolved with one more win. It wasn’t resolved on Tuesday or Wednesday. Thursday will be their third chance at it. I don’t want to have to write about them going for it for a fourth time tomorrow.

1. The Yankees entered Tuesday’s series opener against the Orioles with a magic number of 1 to clinch the division. Win one of the remaining six games and the goal of winning the AL East would be complete. Their first crack at it was unsuccessful.

Aaron Boone decided he would try to clinch the division title in the first of six possible attempts without the best possible lineup. There was Alex Verdugo, some way, somehow starting over Jasson Dominguez on Tuesday.

“It’s still declaring itself,” Boone recently said of the starting left field role. Tuesday was Game 157 of the season. Wednesday is Game 158. In all likelihood (barring a monumental collapse over the five remaining games), the Yankees will be playing a postseason game next Saturday night at Yankee Stadium. There’s no time for left field to still be declaring itself. IT’S DECLARED ITSELF! We have a full season of Verdugo being one of the very worst everyday players in the league. The Yankees can’t go into the postseason with a daily lineup shuffle the way they did two years ago. That’s not going to work. Play the best available nine players. This isn’t hard.

2. But for Boone it is hard. It’s hard for him to not play veterans and players and pitchers he has relationships with. It’s why Verdugo is still playing. It’s why Clay Holmes is still pitching in high-leverage and save situations. It’s why Brett Gardner was batting third in the 2019 ALCS. It’s why CC Sabathia was allowed to face the Red Sox’ lineup a second time in Game 4 of the 2018 ALDS. It’s why Boone couldn’t completely pull the plug on Isiah Kiner-Falefa as the team’s shortstop in the 2022 postseason and why he kept batting Josh Donaldson fifth and sixth that same postseason despite him having no better chance than a fan from the stands at putting the ball in play.

3. Nothing will stop Boone from playing Verdugo at this point. He would rather lose with his favorites playing than win without them. He so desperately wants Verdugo to be the team’s starting left fielder and small “wins” like Verdugo reaching first via an infield single that had a .180 expected batting average are the types of nonsense Boone will refer to when telling the media Verdugo has been “swinging the bat well lately.”

4. Verdugo has one extra-base hit in September. Dominguez has three times as many in 17 less plate appearances. Verdugo has two home runs since July 6. Dominguez has two home runs in the last six days. Since being called up, Dominguez has more walks, steals, doubles and home runs, and a higher on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS than Verdugo.

If you want to talk about Dominguez’s outfield mishaps in left field in Seattle, well, other veteran outfielders had trouble with the sun in those games as well, not to mention Dominguez still adjusting and learning left field. At least he has an excuse. Verdugo overthrew the cutoff man over the weekend. And no one should ever forget his play to end the games against the Orioles in the last game before the All-Star break.

5. With the Yankees trailing 2-1 in the fifth on Wednesday, Anthony Rizzo and Anthony Volpe drew back-to-back walks to begin the inning, bringing Verdugo to the plate. He hit into a double play to destroy the rally. Representing the tying run at the plate with two outs in the ninth, he made the final out of a game he shouldn’t be playing in, a game the Yankees could clinch the division in. How can you not be romantic about baseball? Verdugo is now for 1-for-his last-17 with the one being the slow roller to the right side that he beat out on Tuesday. Keep playing him!

The Yankees have five games over the next five days to get it right, play Dominguez every day and get him as acclimated as he can be to the Yankee Stadium outfield before they begin to play for all the marbles next Saturday. Every inning Dominguez spends on the bench and Verdugo spends in the field is detrimental to the Yankees’ chances at winning the division and then winning in October.

6. The Yankees’ best chance to tie or take the lead in a game they never led in came in the same inning as Verdugo’s monster 82-mph infield single that traveled three feet in the air. Trailing 4-1 with runners on first and third with two outs in the seventh, Gleyber Torres hit a ground-rule double to right field to make it 4-2. Juan Soto followed with a single to pull the Yankees within a run. Anthony Santander threw home on Soto’s single to try to prevent the run from scoring and as the ball traveled toward the plate, Soto took off for the second, barely beating the throw. Torres had initially held up on the base hit, but when Adley Rutschman threw down to second to try to get Soto, Torres inexplicably broke for home, ended up in a rundown and was eventually tagged out.

“I think he thought Soto was going to be out,” is the nonsensical, bullshit reasoning Boone gave to defend Torres’ decision.

When told Torres leads the majors in outs at home plate, Boone barked back at the questioner, “I mean do you have the context on all of the outs at home plate?” as if Torres has a history of smart decisions on the basepaths.

You’re right, Boone. Torres is an intelligent baseball player with good baserunning instincts, who has a seven-year career full of aggressive, smart baserunning choices. Everyone else is just wrong and dumb.

Jack Curry on YES called Torres’ decision “inexplicable” and “reckless.” Aaron Judge said, “Stuff like that can’t happen.” Even Torres himself said, “If I’m going to make that decision, go straight for the run.” Everyone including the baserunner realized it was a losing mistake. Everyone except the manager who couldn’t just flat-out say it was a foolish error.

7. Playing Verdugo and Torres’ baserunning gaffe weren’t the only reasons the Yankees lost. Clarke Schmidt needed 100 pitches to get 16 outs and gave up three earned run in 5 1/3 innings and Boone’s choices to relieve Schmidt in a close game following an off day were Tim Mayza and Mark Leiter Jr. The duo got five outs, but not before allowing five baserunners and a run to score.

8. The loss dropped the Yankees to 4-7 on the season against their division rival. The head-to-head record won’t mean anything if the Yankees can win one of their five remaining games or if the Orioles lose one of their five remaining games, but it doesn’t make me feel comfortable or confident about the Yankees’ chances against the Orioles if the two teams meet in the ALDS. And as of Wednesday morning, the Yankees will face the winner of a potential Orioles-Tigers best-of-3.

9. The Yankees released some bad news on Wednesday morning, announcing Nestor Cortes would not make his scheduled start in the second game of this series and instead would have an MRI on his left elbow. Cortes has allowed just one earned run in his previous 15 1/3 innings since calling out the Yankees for sending him to the bullpen in Chicago and has pitched to a 1.58 ERA over his last 40 innings. He is/was likely to be in the postseason rotation, and if not, would have been a left-handed weapon out of the bullpen, but now could have his season cut short (and possibly miss all of next season as an impending free agent). Rarely does a pitcher in need of a throwing elbow MRI receive good news. And even if they do, rarely is it a few days without throwing before returning to action. It’s hard to envision Cortes being a part of the postseason.

10. John Sterling will be a part of the postseason. The 86-year-old legend returned to the broadcast booth on Tuesday and it was like he never left. It’s almost as if the last five-plus months didn’t happen. As a Sterling fan, it was hard to not be able to listen to him anymore when he retired in April. While I’m elated he’s back for the remainder of the regular season and the postseason, overall, it’s just a tease, knowing we will have to say goodbye all again. Hopefully, the last out of the season and of his career he calls isn’t the same as the last out of the last 14 seasons he has had to call: with the Yankees’ season ending without a championship. The next Yankees win (or Orioles loss) will increase the Yankees’ odds at preventing a 15th straight disappointing final out call from Sterling. It would be enjoyable if that win came on Wednesday night to get it out of the way.

1. Aaron Boone was willing to go to Luke Weaver in the eighth inning on Wednesday night against the Mariners, but first he wanted to find the answer to the question of how many outs he could steal with Clay Holmes. The answer: one.

One out is what Holmes recorded in the eighth inning before giving up a game-tying home run to Justin Turner. Why was Holmes in a one-run game to begin with? Why was he once again pitching in a high-leverage situation after being removed from the closer role and demoted in the bullpen pecking order just two weeks ago? And why wasn’t a better, more trusted reliever not pitching after the Yankees had Monday off and won a nine-run blowout on Tuesday in which they didn’t use any of their best relievers?

But there was Holmes getting the call for the third out of the seventh inning in relief of Tommy Kahnle with the tying run on base and and the go-ahead run at the plate. (It took him 12 pitches to get the last out of the seventh.) And there he was again going back out to the mound to begin the eighth. Not only was Boone willing to use his least trusted reliever for multiple innings in a one-run game, he had decided the lane for his least trusted reliever was the Marniners’ 1- and 2- hitters in the seventh and then the heart of the order in the eighth.

2. The home run allowed to Turner resulted in Holmes’ 13th blown save of the season, five more than anyone else. On a night when a Yankees win would clinch them a postseason berth, Boone did everything he could to prevent it from happening.

If you’re upset with Holmes following the Turner home run and his latest blown save, you’re upset with the wrong person. Holmes sucks. Everyone knows he sucks except for his manager. I’m not upset with Holmes. He didn’t make himself a Yankee. He didn’t make himself the closer. He didn’t keep himself in the closer role until his 11th blown save earlier this month. He didn’t put himself in a position to blow his 12th save last week or his 13th on Wednesday.

Boone so desperately wants Holmes to be his closer that he will stop at nothing to continue to give him opportunities in crucial spots. After being removed as the closer following his blown save in Texas two-and-a-half weeks, it took one scoreless outing in his next appearance for Holmes to then be given a one-run lead to protect the following outing: he blew that lead. Then after getting four outs without allowing a run across two games over the weekend, he was thrust right back into a one-run spot on Wednesday, and of course, he blew it.

Boone would rather have Holmes standing on the mound as Jose Altuve races home as the pennant-winning run next month or have Yordan Alvarez trotting around the bases with Holmes hanging his head as a response to the team’s elimination than ruin his friendship or relationship with Holmes by removing him completely from high-leverage situations. Boone is willing to risk it all and ruin the Yankees’ season on the right arm of Holmes. We saw it all season when he wouldn’t remove him from the closer’s role until that 11th blown save, and we have seen it continue over the last two weeks as he allowed him to blow two more.

3. The only way to ensure Boone doesn’t use Holmes in the postseason is to exclude him from the roster, which we know isn’t going to happen. Boone will use anyone and everyone at his disposal on the postseason roster. It’s how you get Neil Walker hitting instead of Miguel Andujar in the ninth inning of an elimination game in Game 4 of the 2018 ALDS. It’s how you get JA Happ pitching in relief in Game 2 of the 2019 ALCS. It’s how you get Happ being used a bulk reliever in Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS, or how you get Mike Ford pinch hitting in 2020 playoff games after he wasn’t good enough to be on the roster in the weeks leading up to the playoffs. It’s how you get Aaron Hicks starting games in the 2022 postseason and Boone’s shortstop shuffle between Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza that same year. If you’re on the postseason roster, Boone will find playing time for you. Holmes will pitch in a high-leverage situation in October and the Yankees will either blow a lead or lose a game (or both) because of it.

4. Holmes’ work on Wednesday erased the impressive six shutout innings Nestor Cortes provided. Since being removed from the rotation and being inexplicably passed over for a start instead of Marcus Stroman and voicing his opinion on the matter, Cortes has been dominant: 15.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 7 BB, 18K. If anything, Cortes was a little too comfortable taking the ball every five days as a Yankee, tweeting delusional thoughts about how great the team has been and turning in crap performances most starts. The brief demotion has certainly motivated him to be better than he had been for stretches this season.

5. Weaver should have been the pitcher relieving Kahnle in the seventh with the lineup turning over, and if not, then Jake Cousins. Allowing Holmes to face the 1 through 4 hitters was irresponsible. That should always be Weaver’s “lane” in any late-game situation. The best reliever should be facing the best hitters. Weaver blew away the Mariners, retiring five of the six batters he faced and striking out four of them. His line since Boone’s admission through usage that Weaver is the best reliever in the team: 7.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 16 K and a .083/.185/.083 slash line against.

6. My current bullpen trust rankings are as follows:

Luke Weaver
Ian Hamilton
Jake Cousins
Tommy Kahnle

Hamilton was outstanding again on Wednesday against the Mariners, but the gap, for me, between Weaver and Hamilton remains massive. Overall, trust falls off completely after Kahnle. No one other than those four should be getting big outs next month unless Clarke Schmidt or Luis Gil joins them in the bullpen.

7. It’s a relief the Yankees are back in the postseason in a format that accepts 40 percent of the league. When the league moved to this format for the 2022 season, I figured the Yankees would never miss the postseason again. I didn’t envision them missing it in the second year of the format. Being in the Top 40 percent of the league with the Yankees’ resources should be a given, and yet, just a year ago they finished in eighth in the AL and were seven games out from being in sixtth.

It’s comical now to hear Boone say last year’s team wasn’t good (which he has now said twice in the last few days), considering last summer he kept telling everyone how the Yankees had the guys in the room capable of turning the season around and getting the job done. They didn’t and never did. Now they are back in the postseason for the first time in two years, and because of the way the 2022 postseason ended (in humiliating fashion against the Astros), it feels like they haven’t been in the postseason in a much longer time. Now that they’re headed back, the season will hinge on the offense not performing its annual October disappearing act. I’m not worried about the pitching. Pitching hasn’t eliminated the Yankees from the postseason since Joe Torre was manager. The offense is what has prevented the Yankees from reaching and winning the World Series over the last 14 years.

8. The offense was essentially a no-show for the first nine innings on Wednesday, picking up just two hits and striking out 15 times. Home plate umpire Jim Wolf didn’t do them any favors with one of the worst strike zones we have seen all season, but it was an ugly offensive effort. The lone run the Yankees scored before getting the automatic runner in in the 10th was when Jasson Dominguez walked in the second, stole second and moved to third on an error, and then scored on an Anthony Rizzo single.

Rizzo drove in both Yankees runs and prevented the bottom third of the order from being a complete non-factor as Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo combined to go 0-for-8. Volpe was particularly awful in this one as he hit into an inning-ending double play first time up, struck out in his next two at-bats and then popped up a first-pitch sacrifice bunt for an easy out in the 10th with Rizzo on second and no outs. For as bad as Volpe was last year (and he was extremely bad), his OPS this year in now seven points worse.

9. Giancarlo Stanton was held out of the lineup for a second straight game, supposedly due to the matchup and not an injury. On Tuesday, the Yankees faced the hard-throwing righty Bryan Woo, and then on Wednesday, the Yankees faced the hard-throwing righty Bryce Miller and Stanton sat for both games. On Thursday, the Yankees will face the hard-throwing righty Logan Gilbert, who is the best of three, and yet, Stanton has been told he will play against Gilbert. Holding out Stanton against hard-throwing righties, but saying he will be playing in October doesn’t add up since all October has is hard-throwing righties. When Stanton sits, it moves Judge to designated hitter, and forces Verdugo in the lineup. How about waiting until the division is clinched before continuing that lineup construction so often?

10. The magic number to clinch the division is down to 6. Any combination of Yankees wins and Orioles losses totaling 6 and the AL East is the Yankees’ for just the third time in Boone’s tenure. The Yankees also have a two-game loss column lead on being the 1-seed in the American League playoffs, something they have never been during Boone’s tenure. By clinching a postseason berth, the Yankees have completed the first goal in doing something else they haven’t done during Boone’s tenure. If Boone stops using Holmes in high-leverage situations he just may accomplish that goal in his seventh year.

1. That’s how a late-night West Coast game should go. The Yankees scored two in the first inning, two in the second, two in the fourth, one in the fifth, three in the sixth and one in the ninth. They led 2-0 after one, 4-1 after two, 6-1 after four, 7-1 after five and 10-1 after six. Eleven runs on 12 hits, including six for extra bases. That will do.

2. Three batters into the game the Yankees had a 2-0 lead after Gleyber Torres singled and Juan Soto and Aaron Judge hit back-to-back doubles. When Soto and Judge hit, the Yankees win, and it’s no surprise the Yankees have been winning a lot lately (8-3 since September 6) because the duo has been hitting.

Soto went 2-for-2 with a double, home run, two walks, three runs and two RBIs. Judge went 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, a run and four RBIs. The home run for Soto was his 40th of the season as the two became just the third pair of Yankees teammates to both hit 40-plus home runs in a season, joining Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig (1927, 1930, 1931) and Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris (1961).

3. Soto’s home run was his 200th career home run. Having 200 home runs at age 25 is ridiculous. (Judge hit his 200th home run during his MVP season in 2022 at age 30.) It was the last active stadium he needed to homer in to have homered in every stadium.

“What a great way to go into free agency,” Soto said, “with all 30 ballparks checked on my list.”

What a quote from Soto. It’s obvious he’s going to the highest bidder this winter whether it’s the Yankees or Mets or Giants or some crappy last-place team looking to make a splash. He’s not going to leave a dollar on the table, and the dollars he does accept better come from the Yankees.

4. The Yankees are so top heavy and reliant on Soto and Judge that the offense can’t function without both. We saw what happened last year with only Judge as the Yankees missed the playoffs and we saw what happened when he was out for an extended period of time following the Dodger Stadium injury: their season collapsed. With only Judge, the Yankees haven’t been able to reach the World Series. With Soto and Judge, their ceiling is a championship. Remove Soto from the equation and their best-case scenario falls back to being embarrassed by the Astros every October.

5. “In a lot of ways, he’s not necessarily even entered his prime,” Aaron Boone said of Soto. “Maybe he’s entering it now.”

The idea Soto is this good and hasn’t entered his prime is what makes signing him a must. This isn’t paying a 30-something-year-old star for what he already accomplished knowing you may get one or two seasons of their prime and then will be living with an albatross contract until it expires. This is paying for a soon-to-be-26-year-old generational star to get the entirety of their prime, like what the Yankees missed out on with Bryce Harper. They can’t make that mistake again.

The Yankees had a young, inexpensive core when they decided to not even meet with Harper, let alone sign him, and they have a similar setup now. Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez make nothing and Jazz Chisholm is under contract at inexpensive rates for the next two years. If you add in potentially Ben Rice at first base for next season and either Oswald Peraza, Oswaldo Cabrera or Caleb Durbin at second base, and operate under the idea Soto will be re-signed, the Yankees will have a player 26 or under at catcher, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, left field and right field. The only outliers would be Judge in center or a corner spot and Giancarlo Stanton at designated hitter. That’s an extremely young everyday lineup. Everyone in the lineup would be making seven figures or less except for Judge, Soto and Stanton. But that lineup and plan only works if Soto is re-signed.

6. As of now, the Yankees have 11 guaranteed games with Soto remaining. Once they clinch a postseason berth, they will get at least two more games with him (if they are a wild-card team) or at least three more games (if they win the division). Every win from Game 163 on will guarantee them another game with Soto in pinstripes.

I’m not ready for Soto’s time in pinstripes to be over. Watching him this season has been like sitting in first class on an international flight with a cabin, personal bathroom and all-you-can-eat-and-drink options. I don’t want to go back to sitting in the last row of economy in a middle seat next to the bathroom. That’s where Yankees fans were while being forced to watch Jake Bauers, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Billy McKinney, Willie Calhoun, Aaron Hicks, Franchy Cordero and Greg Allen as outfielders last season before the trade for Soto. I’m not going back to that. I will retire as a Yankees fan and baseball fan if I have to go back to that.

7. Soto wasn’t the only Yankee to homer on Tuesday night. Dominguez hit his first home run of the season and finished the game reaching base in two of five plate appearances. Dominguez is starting to get on track. In his last four games, he has as many strikeouts (4) as walks, a .412 OBP and .873 OPS. Verdugo has one extra-base hit in 12 September games, presents no speed on the basepaths and is playing a questionable left field. The season is 151 games old. I’m running out of ways and stats to say he sucks.

8. Oswaldo Cabrera got the start at short over Volpe and picked up two hits. For comparison, Volpe has one multi-hit game in September. Cabrera is hitting .303 with a .361 on-base percentage over the last month. The power hasn’t been there (just one extra-base in that time), but at least he’s getting on base. Volpe hasn’t homered since August 3, has one double since August 22 and one walk since August 30. Give me more Cabrera, whether it’s in place of Volpe or Anthony Rizzo, who went 0-for-5 with a strikeout on Tuesday and has a .484 OPS since returning on September 1.

9. The Yankees’ early 2-0 lead was nearly erased in the bottom of the first when the Mariners loaded the bases with two outs. Luis Gil was in trouble and behind Justin Turner with a 3-0 count. One pitch away from walking in a row or potentially allowing multiple runs, Gil was saved when Victor Robles inexplicably tried to steal home and was easily thrown out. It was possibly the dumbest thing I have seen in a game, surpassing Nick Swisher sacrifice bunting a runner from second to third with already one out in an inning. It made the Yankees’ decision to intentionally walk Rafael Devers on Saturday look brilliant. It looked like something Gleyber Torres or Alex Verdugo would do. After that Gil settled in and gave the Yankees five innings and one-run ball yet again without his best stuff. It seems like Gil is either lights out with his best stuff or gives the Yankees five innings of one-run ball without it. He’s been awesome.

10. The Yankees can clinch a postseason berth with a win on Wednesday night in Seattle.

“That’s what we came into the season to do, get into the postseason and give ourselves an opportunity to go out there and win a World Series,” Judge said. “So that will be step one, but we’ve got to get there first.”

The Yankees’ division lead is up to four games with 11 to play. The goal should be to keep it to at least four games going into the series with the Orioles next week, so even if they were to shockingly get swept, they would still be in first with three to go. Or they can keep winning all the way until that series and make the series that meaningless. That would be preferable.

The Yankees extended their division lead to three games and essentially ended the Red Sox’ season by taking three out of four from their rival.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees have a three-game lead with 12 games to play. Their magic number to clinch a postseason berth is 3, but the goal is to win the division and avoid the best-of-3, wild-card series, which likely won’t be decided until next week against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium. It may not be decided until after that series when the two teams will each have three games remaining.

The four-game series win over the Red Sox has increased the Yankees’ odds of winning the division to 88.1 percent. (They currently have the highest odds of winning the World Series at 18 percent. It’s been a long time since they were the league leader for that math.)

The four-game series win over the Red Sox also essentially ended the Red Sox’ season, dropping their odds of reaching the playoffs to 2.5 percent. That’s too bad.

2. After eking out a 2-1 win in the series opener thanks to a Juan Soto walk-off single, the Yankees won the second game on an Aaron Judge grand slam. It had been a few weeks of Judge not doing much, but he seems to be back on track. Since September 6, Judge is hitting .303/.452/.546 and has as many walks (9) as strikeouts.

Judge’s entire season will be evaluated and remembered based on what he does in October and not what his home run total finishes at after these 12 remaining games. Judge needs to have a postseason similar to his regular season. He has to have it. Two years ago, he set the single-season home run record in the American League and then went 1-for-16 with a single in the ALCS against the Astros and the Yankees were swept. I expect Juan Soto to be his usual self in October because he was that for the Nationals and Padres in postseasons past. Judge has to join him. The rest of the Yankees offense is too bad, too weak, too untrustworthy to not have both Judge and Soto hitting in the playoffs.

3. Giancarlo Stanton is quietly coming out of his latest funk, as he reached base in half of his plate appearances (12) against the Red Sox. Austin Wells had his first bad series in months (1-for-11 with four strikeouts), which I’m more than OK with. Gleyber Torres hit a couple of Yankee Stadium home runs and is extremely close to getting his OPS (.697) above .700.

Anthony Volpe went 1-for-the Red Sox series and struck out three times in the series finale and left about 92 runners on base. Volpe has looked bad offensively for the entirety of his two-year career and this current slump he’s in is the worst he has looked overall. (I guess it’s not really a “slump” since he’s just always bad?) Volpe hasn’t homered since August 3. He has one double since August 22. He has one walk since August 30. In September, he’s hitting .163/.177/.163. A .177 on-base percentage! A .163 slugging percentage! A .340 OPS! These are horrific numbers. Unplayable numbers. But because he’s the Golden Boy, he will continue to play every day for the rest of the regular season and every game in the postseason. I have come to accept there is no level of offensive production that is bad enough for the Yankees to not play him. Unfortunately, Volpe isn’t the only automatic out in the lineup.

Anthony Rizzo returned on September 1 and is hitting .191/.277/.262 since then. He’s been every bit as bad as he was from Opening Day until he got hut in mid-June. He’s as washed as washed gets, and yet, he will be playing every day through the Yankees’ final game of the season, whenever that may be.

Alex Verdugo had a hit in one of the two games he played in, but of course negated the hit by getting thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double. Jasson Dominguez had a pair of hits in the three games he played in, drew three walks, scored two runs, produced lengthy at-bats and looked comfortable in the box.

4. Here is what Aaron Boone said about Dominguez on September 1:

“When he comes up here, you’re going to want to play him every day.”

Here is how Dominguez’s call-up has gone:

September 9: Played
September 10: Played
September 11: Bench
September 12: Played
September 13: Bench
September 14: Played
September 15: Played

Seven games on the team, five starts. That’s not being an everyday player.

Dominguez has always played every day. He needs to play every day. He’s not an every-other-day player. Look at Wells. When he was getting 50 percent (at best) of the playing time at catcher he wasn’t hitting. When he became the “everyday” catcher (or as everyday as a catcher can be), he took off, becoming the best-hitting catcher in the league, outside of maybe Salvador Perez. The Yankees have taken this foolish approach with every prospect to get called up except for Volpe, who has been given two years of everyday playing time and has done nothing to prove he deserves it. Maybe if Dominguez was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey a Yankees fan, and if the team had passed over every available star free agent at Dominguez’s position he would be playing every day in actuality and not in just some fictional world Boone speaks of.

5. After winning the first two games of the series, the Yankees led the third game 1-0 in the top of the fourth with one out, no one on base and Rafael Devers coming to the plate against Gerrit Cole. Devers stepped in the box and Cole threw up four fingers on the mound, signaling an intentional walk.

It was a foolish move, a dumb decision and a cowardly choice by Cole. He’s the reigning AL Cy Young winner, a likely future Hall of Famer. He’s not Marcus Stroman. And even if he were, I wouldn’t want Stroman walking Devers in that spot either. Can you imagine Roger Clemens or David Cone or Justin Verlander or any true “ace” putting up four fingers on their own there? Cole and the Yankees got what they deserved for trying to outsmart and outthink the opposition. Devers stole second and Cole mentally was gone, allowing seven runs to score after the walk between the fourth and fifth innings. Unless he pitches lights-out in the playoffs and finally leads this team to a championship in his fifth season, the lasting image of his season will be him holding up those four fingers.

6. While the walk was ill-advised, it was the unfolding of the walk that I have a problem with, as it was yet another communication breakdown on Boone’s watch.

Cole said the decision to walk Devers in the game had been discussed with Boone and Matt Blake.

“I think that I bought into the plan going into it,” Cole said, “but afterward, it was the wrong move.”

“Once we scored the run, my preference would have been, ‘Let’s attack him,'” Boone said. “But obviously, I didn’t communicate that well enough. I think Gerrit was a little indecisive out there and rolled with it.”

Obviously.

“We were in the tunnel before the inning and had discussed that if Duran was retired, were we going to stick to it aggressively and intentionally walk him?” Cole said. “That was the plan.”

“I was not in that conversation,” Wells said. “I didn’t know that was in the plans.”

“During the inning, I looked to the dugout and stuck to the plan,” Cole said. “If i make the pitches after that and I continue to execute at a high level, then the plan works. Evidently, the plan didn’t work.”

Evidently.

The plan was idiotic and none of the Yankees’ versions of what transpired adding up goes to show how disastrous it was.

7. Boone was hired, and likely solely hired, because of his so-called great communication skills. The issue with that is Boone was hired with no coaching or managerial experience at any level anywhere, so there were no recommendations or references for the Yankees to refer to in the interview process. There was no body of work for them to base the idea of Boone being a great communicator off of. The Yankees executives in the room who hired Boone based the theory that he’s a great communicator off of whatever he said to them in the interview room and nothing else. Unfortunately, the body of work Boone has created in now nearly seven seasons as a major league manager suggest otherwise.

Not even a month into the job in his first spring training he tried to bring Dellin Betances into a game even though he hadn’t yet called on Betances to warm up yet. That year in the postseason, with the ALDS tied at 1, his starting pitcher didn’t know what time Game 3 started. He didn’t let JA Happ know about the decision to use Deivi Garcia as a secret opener in the 2020 ALDS. He never told Gary Sanchez he wasn’t going to play every day during his final two seasons with the Yankees. He said he didn’t think Domingo German needed to apologize to the team to begin 2021, but after Zack Britton voiced a different opinion to the media about German, Boone had him apologize. After the Yankees lost Game 3 of the 2022 ALDS following an odd decision to not use Clay Holmes in relief, Boone said Holmes wasn’t available. When Holmes was asked about his availability after the loss, he said he told Boone he was available and “good to go” prior to the game. When the Yankees went down 3-0 in the ALCS, Boone used video from the Yankees’ 2004 ALCS loss to motivate his team. When Rizzo suffered a concussion in May of 2023, he continued to play. When Rizzo told Boone about his symptoms in a series in Baltimore, he then went on to play that entire series and two games after it before being shut down for the season. There have been endless lies about injuries, the extent of injuries and timetables for injuries. There has been disinformation about the intended use and playing time of every prospect other than Volpe. There have been countless exaggerations of performance and production. There has been widespread delusion about washed-up players turning their seasons and careers around only for those players to be designated for assignment, released or placed on the injured list.

8. Over the last two years, rarely does a week go by without a bizarre story emerging from the Yankees clubhouse. Whether it’s injury-related nonsense (like recently saying the results of DJ LeMahieu’s supposed hip MRI were unclear), the crazy timeline of the game from 2023 when German wasn’t able to start then pitched in relief then showed up drunk to the Stadium, saying Dominguez would only be called up if he is to play every day and then calling him up and not playing him every day or the conversations that led to the intentional walk of Devers, there’s always something with the Boone Yankees.

Joe Girardi had his faults and many of them were bullpen related. But there wasn’t this level of internal chaos with any of Girardi’s teams outside of the 2011 situation between he and Jorge Posada during a Red Sox series, and from 2013-2016, Girardi had four poorly constructed rosters that should have created internal chaos and losing records and never did.

9. Boone can’t properly fill out a lineup card. He doesn’t put his players in the best possible position to succeed. He rarely makes a correct in-game decision and infrequently gives his relievers clean innings to work with. He’s never upfront about injuries or the severity of them and is never honest in evaluating his players. Each year, the teams he manage make unacceptable outs on the bases, mental mistakes in the field and go into lengthy and sometimes irreversible slides. The one thing that was supposed to separate him from others was his communication skills, and yet, I was able to write an inordinate amount of words just now of communication breakdowns of his off the top of my head from memory, likely forgetting some egregious ones from the last nearly seven years.. Boone is not a good communicator. He’s a horrible one.

10. Luckily for Boone, and for players like Volpe, Rizzo, Verdugo, Cole, Holmes, Carlos Rodon and others, the postseason is just two weeks away. Then everyone gets a clean slate. The poor production of the last six months is thrown out the window and every wrong can be righted with a championship. But for now, it’s off to the West Coast for one last time in 2024 for six games against the Mariners and A’s.

A night after walking off the Royals, the Yankees walked off the Red Sox with a 2-1 win in 10 innings.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Juan Soto ended his recent slump on Wednesday with a dramatic, much-needed, two-run home run. On Thursday, he confirmed the end of his slump with a walk-off single in the 10th inning.

“We never give up,” Soto said about the Yankees’ 2-1 win. “We keep going. We keep our heads up and try to finish the game.”

2. Soto has a .729 OPS over the last month as his once-1.052 OPS dipped below the 1.000 mark this week and sits at .996, which is still second-best in the majors. But he’s not the only Yankee that has been struggling. Aaron Judge hasn’t homered since August 25, Giancarlo Stanton is in a 2-for-29 slide, Jazz Chisholm has cooled off since his David Justice-like start to his Yankees career, Anthony Rizzo has a .517 OPS since coming off the injured list, Anthony Volpe hasn’t had an extra-base hit in three weeks and Jasson Dominguez has only been up for three games. If not for Austin Wells, and shockingly, Gleyber Torres of late, who knows where the Yankees would be in the standings.

3. I wrote this about Oswaldo Cabrera on Tuesday:

I wish we would see more of Oswaldo Cabrera, who is now the backup for both Volpe at shortstop and Rizzo at first base, but we all know that’s not going to happen. Volpe hasn’t been benched since his first day in the majors and Rizzo is being paid $17 million, so he’s going to play whether he can still hit (which he apparently can’t) or pick a ball out of the dirt (which he apparently can’t) or not.

Unfortunately, Cabrera wasn’t in the lineup on Thursday, and even with another poor showing from Volpe and Rizzo, Cabrera is no closer to taking playing time from either.

4. Volpe left eight runners on base in his first three at-bats on Thursday. It’s stunning when Rizzo hits a ball on a line. The two of them are a blackhole in the lineup, hitting back-to-back at the bottom of the order. I don’t see how Volpe is going to suddenly figure out the majors over the next 15 games after not having figured it out over his first 305 games, and I don’t know how anyone can expect Rizzo to tap into even an ounce of being the player he once was. After these next 15 games, the Yankees are only going to see front-end starters and elite relievers. I can’t imagine either of those two having success in October, and when you’re playing with two automatic outs in the lineup and also Stanton whose entire success is based around unpredictable hot streaks, the other six hitters can’t afford to be cold or off, as they need to carry those three.

5. “We haven’t had a lot offense the last few nights,” Aaron Boone said. “But we’re doing enough.”

The Yankees haven’t had offense for the last week outside of the first game of the Royals series. In their other six most recent games, they have scored 10 runs total. The last two nights have been fun, and thankfully, the starting pitching was as good as it was from Luis Gil and Nestor Cortes, and amazingly, the bullpen outside of Clay Holmes on Wednesday has been outstanding, but they can’t survive like this for the rest of the month.

6. I wish I could say I couldn’t believe Holmes was warming up in the eighth inning of a 1-1 game on Thursday night, but I wasn’t. And I wish I could say I was shocked when he entered in the ninth inning of a 1-1 game, but I wasn’t. After blowing his league-leading 12th save the night before, there was Holmes once again coming into a high-leverage situation as if nothing he had done this season had happened.

7. Boone desperately wants Holmes to be his closer. He feels like he owes it to Boone to be his closer. The same way he feels the need to play Volpe every day and kept batting Alex Verdugo cleanup for a large part of the season even though Verdugo was proving to be one of the worst hitters in the league, if not the worst hitter. It took one clean inning in Chicago for Holmes to regain Boone’s trust after his disaster in Texas, and even though he blew the save on Wednesday, he still went to him the very next game.

8. “Really, when I’m on the field,” Holmes said, “I want to do my best for those guys.”

Thanks, Holmes. Before that insightful comment, I thought you wanted to do you worst for your career and your team.

9. Over the last two games, the only blemish from the bullpen has been from the former closer. Over the last two nights, Tim Hill, Tommy Kahnle, Jake Cousins, Luke Weaver and Ian Hamilton combined for this line: 9.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 10 K. Hamilton was filthy on Thursday, getting five outs and striking out three. (I still would never trust him in a postseason spot, but I may not have a choice.)

10. Even with another lackluster offensive effort against the starter in the majors who gets less swings and misses than any other starter in the majors, it was a good night. The Yankees increased their division lead a half-game from 1 1/2 to 2 with 15 to play. The idea of the Yankees increasing their odds of winning the division, while also ruining the Red Sox’ season this weekend is off to a good start.

The Yankees beat the Royals 4-3 in 11 innings on Wednesday to win the series with Juan Soto breaking out of his slump.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. After the Yankees’ offensive performance on Tuesday looked like an October foreshadowing, the first five-plus innings on Wednesday looked the same.

On Tuesday, the Yankees went 3-for-30 with 14 strikeouts and didn’t have a single runner reach second base. On Wednesday, through the first 5 1/3 innings, the Yankees were 2-for-17 with six strikeouts and a walk. They still hadn’t had a runner reach second base. No runner in scoring position for 14 1/3 innings.

After Gleyber Torres put the bat on his shoulder for an entire six-pitch walk (including taking back-to-back curves on 2-2 and 3-2), Juan Soto came to the plate.

Soto fouled off a 2-2 pitch into his ankle and hobbled around before needing to stay on the ground for a couple of minutes. It was a scary moment with visions of Soto missing the rest of the season playing out in my head. Thankfully, Soto was able to walk it off and get back in the box, fouling away another pitch after the scare. Two pitches after looking like he may be seriously hurt, Soto sat back on a hanging curve from the league leader in strikeouts per nine innings Cole Ragans and crushed it into the right-field bleachers to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. (Why Ragans went changeup-curve after Soto fouled a slider off into his ankle, I don’t know, but I’m grateful he did.)

2. “Sometimes when you hit yourself like that, you go away a little bit,” Soto said. “I tried to just focus, take my time and go in there and make good contact.”

On Wednesday, I wrote: I thought Soto would be immune to the Yankees’ annual late-season offensive swoon, but it’s contagious enough that it’s impacting the 25-year-old superstar. The two-run home run was the kind of at-bat and moment I envisioned from Soto when the Yankees traded for him. When the rest of the team is slumping and not performing, I figured he would carry them. When the rest of the offense disappears in October, I know he will be there given his postseason success with the Nationals and Padres.

The runs were the first the Yankees had scored since Monday. After not homering in the entire series at Wrigley Field and being shut out on Tuesday, it was just the second of the last six games the Yankees hit a home run in.

3. The lead didn’t last long. The very next inning Aaron Boone went to Clay Holmes, knowing very well he would have to face the top of the Royals’ lineup. A single, single, lineup and sacrifice fly later, and the Royals had tied the game and Holmes had his 12th blown save of the season.

Using Holmes in the seventh inning of a one-run game against the top of the Royals’ order is the same as using him as the closer. Boone still hasn’t learned his lesson despite eight of Holmes’ 12 blown saves turning into losses for the team. One of those losses came against these same Royals back on June 13. It was that loss in Kansas City that sent the Yankees’ season into a free fall. If Holmes only half-sucked and only four of those eight had turned into losses, the Yankees would have a six-game loss-column lead on the Orioles. He has single-handedly put the Yankees in the current standings battle they are in to avoid playing in the best-of-3, wild-card series.

But like I have written and said many times, I’m never mad at the player or pitcher in a situation like this, and I’m not mad at Holmes. He didn’t let himself stay in the closer role after blowing 11 saves. He doesn’t keep deciding to bring himself into games. And he didn’t bring himself into a one-run game on Wednesday. You would think a “closer” with a 5.14 ERA over three-and-a-half months would need more than one clean inning in a loss to the Cubs after being demoted before being thrown back into high-leverage situations. Not for Boone. Holmes had five days off after his disastrous performance in Texas, threw a 1-2-3, 12-pitch inning in Chicago, and Boone decided he was ready to get back into a crucial role. The Yankees used five relievers in the game and all of them did their job except for Holmes.

4. The Yankees had a chance to take the lead back in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Anthony Volpe singled and Anthony Rizzo walked, bringing up Jose Trevino. If you were going to have a draft for the worst hitter in the majors to be up with runners on first and second and one out and the threat of a double play looming, Trevino would be the first overall pick. He’s slow, he makes weak contact, and typically hits the ball on the ground right to the shortstop. He has hit into 11 double plays this season in just 68 games. Trevino is better at hitting double plays than anything else.

Knowing that and knowing that Trevino is a miserable hitter aside from his knack for rally-ruining double plays and knowing he’s hitting .083 with a .366 OPS since coming off the injured list in mid-August, he’s not just the last player on the Yankees you want up in that spot, he may be the last player in the entire sport.

5. Fortunately, Boone had options. With a lefty on the mound, he could take his chances with the left-handed Austin Wells, or if he wanted to stick with the righty vs. lefty matchup, he could use the switch-hitting Jasson Dominguez or the switch-hitting Oswaldo Cabrera or Jon Berti. Any of those four options would have been better a choice than Trevino. Unfortunately, Boone didn’t do anything.

Instead, Boone used Cabrera as a pinch runner at first for Rizzo and then let Trevino bat for himself. Trevino hit the ball on the ground to first, was tagged out running to first, and Volpe idiotically tried to score from second on the ground ball and was tagged out at home. An unconventional double play to end the inning.

To compound Boone’s stupidity, when Trevino’s spot in the order came up with the tying run on third and one out in the 10th inning, he used Wells as a pinch hitter … against a lefty! So he was willing to use the left-handed Wells against a lefty with the tying run on third and one out in the 10th, but he wasn’t willing to use the left-handed Wells against a lefty with the go-ahead run on second and one out in the seventh. Please make it make sense.

6. Between the decision to use Holmes in a one-run game and against the top of the Royals’ order, and the decision to let Trevino hit for himself with four better pinch-hit options available, Boone had quite the seventh inning. The atmosphere and intensity of the game was playoff-like with a division pennant and first-round bye hanging in the balance, and Boone was at his worst. The bigger the game and the closer the score, every decision Boone makes will have an enormous impact on the outcome and how this season ends, and once again, he seems incapable of making logical in-game choices.

7. So much for Dominguez playing every day. Two days after arriving, he was on the bench so Verdugo could play. Rather than let the switch-hitting Dominguez start against a lefty, Boone went with the left-handed Verdugo against the left. Verdugo hit two ground balls to the right side in the game, and with that, he tied the record for the most groundouts to the right side in a single season with 111 in the Statcast Era (since 2015). Verdugo has 16 games remaining to break the record and once he does, I think it’s a record that will last forever, like Wayne Gretzky’s points record or Cy Young’s wins record. Because no one that bad and hitting that many ground balls to the right side would be given as many plate appearances as Verdugo has been given this season.

8. Luis Gil didn’t have his best stuff and still only allowed one run (a solo home run) over five innings. There have been so many games this season Gil didn’t have his best stuff and still put together a performance like he did on Wednesday. He should be the Yankees’ Game 2 starter in the postseason, but we all know it’s going to be Carlos Rodon. Owed money always wins over actual performance.

9. I can never believe Giancarlo Stanton’s batting average when the graphic displays it with him at the plate. He’s hitting .230 this season, which may as well be .330 since I feel like he’s hitting .130. In his last seven games, Stanton is 1-for-26 with 10 strikeouts.

10. Soto came out of his slump, and maybe Judge is close to coming out of his? He had a line-drive single and two walks in the game. It would be glorious if Judge got his power stroke back in time for this four-game Red Sox series. It would go a long way to helping the Yankees win the division and a long way to keeping the Red Sox out of the postseason for the fifth time in six years.

The Yankees lost to the Royals 5-0 and no Yankee reached scoring position in the game.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. I finished Tuesday’s Thoughts with this:

I can’t see Boone giving Giancarlo Stanton a second consecutive day off. If he doesn’t, someone has to sit. We’re about to see just how much Dominguez is going to play and if Verdugo isn’t.

We found out the answer to the question of will Jasson Dominguez really take away playing time from Alex Verdugo when Tuesday’s lineup was posted and Dominguez was in it batting seventh and Verdugo was on the bench.

2. “He and I spoke, yeah,” Aaron Boone said about talking with Verdugo about losing his everyday spot. “That role is a little bit fluid. Certainly, Jasson being here impacts him some.”

Dominguez being in the majors doesn’t just impact Verdugo “some” it turns him from an everyday player into a bench player. Boone said when Aaron Judge is playing the outfield, he will play center field, and when Judge is playing center field, Dominguez will play left field. That’s a very complicated way of saying Verdugo isn’t playing anymore. With Giancarlo Stanton as the designated hitter, Judge has to play the outfield. And if Boone says when Judge is in the outfield, he will play center field and Dominguez will play left field, well that’s every game that Stanton plays. And with only 17 games remaining and the division on the line, Stanton is going to be playing a lot. And in the rare instance when he doesn’t play, I’m assuming Judge will be the DH, Dominguez will play center and Verdugo will play left.

3. For Tuesday’s game, Boone put together the best possible lineup he is capable of putting together with the current roster.

Gleyber Torres, 2B
Juan Soto, RF
Aaron Judge, CF
Austin Wells, C
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Jazz Chisholm, 3B
Jasson Dominguez, LF
Anthony Rizzo, 1B
Anthony Volpe, SS

(I say the best possible he is capable of putting together since I would move Torres from first to after Chisholm and move Soto, Judge, Wells, Stanton and Chisholm all up one spot.)

Unfortunately, the best, most optimized version of the Yankees offense couldn’t do anything against Seth Lugo for seven innings (7 IP, 10 K), Kris Bubic for an inning (1 IP, 2 K) or John Schreiber for an inning (1 IP, 2 K). The Yankees went 3-for-30 with 14 strikeouts. They didn’t draw a walk and no one reached second base. It was the first game in Yankees history in which they had the combination of no walks, no extra-base hits and struck out at least 14 times. Add another line to the impressive managerial resume of Boone as there’s yet another embarrassing historical performance he has overseen.

4. “That was probably as good a performance [as there’s been] against us this year,” Boone said. “We were silent.”

It may have been the best starting effort and total-game effort against the Yankees in 2024, but it’s not like similar performances from the offense are rare. They scored one run on Sunday at Wrigley Field and six runs total in three games against the Cubs, and didn’t hit a home run in that entire series. Last month, they struggled mightily to score against the Tigers and Nationals. In July, they had trouble scoring against everyone until the final days of that month.

The type of “effort” the Yankees bats gave on Tuesday is what worries me every Yankees season, envisioning yet another no-show in October. A lack of offense is why the Boone Yankees have always bowed out of October early. In the 2018 ALDS, they scored four runs in Games 3 and 4, lost both and went home. In the 2019 ALCS, they scored 14 runs from Games 2 through 6, went 1-4 in those games and were eliminated. In the 2020 ALDS, they were held to one run (on three hits) in the decisive Game 5 and lost. In the 2021 wild-card game, they were shut out for the first five innings, scored two runs in the game and their season ended. In the 2022 ALCS, they scored nine runs in four games (and five of those runs came in one game) and they were embarrassingly swept. Last season, of course, they missed the postseason because their offense was so bad for the entirety of the regular season.

5. Lugo is the exact type of pitcher the Yankees will face every game in October and he had his way with them by getting ahead in counts, throwing strikes and changing speeds. The Yankees were swinging through high-80s and low-90s pitches like Mason Miller was on the mound because of Lugo’s impeccable control and wide array of pitches.

“That was a pitching clinic,” Royals manager Matt Quataro said of Lugo’s outing.

At one point, Lugo retired 17 straight. It was, and it was the exact type of start that keeps me up at night. It was the exact type of game this Yankees lineup is prone to.

“The playoffs are different animal,” Torres said. “We face [Lugo] again, we for sure have to have a different plan.”

6. The troubling postseason past of Judge is well known (.211/.310/.462 in 44 games) and his most recent postseason performance in the 2022 ALCS sweep by the Astros (1-for-16 with a single) after setting the American League home run record during the regular season is still bothersome. Over the last two weeks, Judge is hitting .196/.339/.255 without a home run and with 20 strikeouts in 61 plate appearances. Unsurprisingly, the Yankees are 6-8 during that stretch.

It’s also unsurprising the Yankees have struggled over the last two weeks against the Nationals, Cardinals, Rangers, Cubs and now Royals because Juan Soto is also not hitting. The Yankees offense goes as those two go, and Soto is hitting .212/.339/.327 over the last two weeks. I thought he would be immune to the Yankees’ annual late-season offensive swoon, but it’s contagious enough that it’s impacting the 25-year-old superstar.

The Yankees are good enough to deal with one of the two being cold, but they can’t overcome both of them not hitting. The rest of the lineup relies on them to get on base and to drive the rest of the lineup in in the rare moments other members of the lineup are on base. If those two hit this way (which is not at all) for even two days in a row in October, the season will end disappointingly.

7. With the Dominguez-Verdugo situation, the emergence of Austin Wells, the demotion of Clay Holmes, Nestor Cortes voicing his opinions on the way the Yankees handled his demotion and Judge and Soto not hitting, there has been enough going on that it taken the attention away from the fact that Anthony Volpe is hitting as poorly as he ever has and that Anthony Rizzo has been a complete dud (as expected) since returning.

After homering in back-to-back games on August 2 and August 3 to get his OPS back above .700, Volpe is hitting .210/.256/.261 over the last five weeks. In September, he has a .394 OPS and 13 strikeouts in 31 plate appearances. He hasn’t homered since August 3 and has walked once in the last three weeks. But he keeps on playing, keeps on starting at shortstop every day.

Rizzo was atrocious before getting hurt in mid-June (.630 OPS) and has been atrocious since (.452 OPS). I would love for this to be Rizzo getting back to playing every day and knocking the rust off, but it’s not like he’s coming back during a season in which he was playing well and had a great season interrupted by an injury. He was bad before the injury and has been worse since coming back from the injury.

I wish we would see more of Oswaldo Cabrera, who is now the backup for both Volpe at shortstop and Rizzo at first base, but we all know that’s not going to happen. Volpe hasn’t been benched since his first day in the majors and Rizzo is being paid $17 million, so he’s going to play whether he can still hit (which he apparently can’t) or pick a ball out of the dirt (which he apparently can’t) or not.

8. Cortes openly voiced his opinion on the Yankees’ decision to remove him from the rotation over the weekend. It’s hard to feel sorry for Cortes after he got beat up by the Cardinals over Labor Day Weekend, couldn’t get through five innings against the Angels in August and let the Rays knock him around in back-to-back starts in mid-July after his wildly delusional tweet about everyone wanting to be the Yankees and how they are contenders every year, even though they missed the playoffs entirely last year. It’s easier to feel sorry for him when you realize he was removed from the rotation instead of Marcus Stroman.

Unfortunately, for Cortes, he’s only on the books for $3.95 million this season, while Stroman is making $18.5 million, is owed $18.5 million next season and has an $18 million option for 2026 that will kick in if he throws 140 innings in 2025. Stroman isn’t better than Cortes, but owed money is the initial deciding factor in roster decisions and playing time with the Yankees. With Cortes’ name swirling around trade rumors in July and with him being a free agent at the end of next season, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him traded during this offseason. But for now, the Yankees need to win games and he gives them a better chance to than Stroman.

9. Stroman was once against awful on Tuesday against the Royals. It didn’t matter that he was bad since the game could still be being played at this moment and the Yankees still wouldn’t have scored, but Stroman was painful to watch yet again: nine baserunners in 5 1/3 innings. Since July 4, Stroman has started 57 innings and only nine of them have been 1-2-3 innings, which is outrageous. Every six-plus innings Stroman will give you a clean frame. He didn’t have one on Tuesday, so he’s due for one in his next start!

If Stroman is to make his next start, it will come on Sunday against the Red Sox. Stroman has made two starts against the Red Sox this season, and in 8 1/3 innings, he has allowed 21 baserunners. I don’t know how you could possibly let him face them again, but I’m excited to see the bullshit the Yankees tell us about why they are going to let him face them.

10. Before the Yankees get to their four-game series against the Red Sox this week, they still have one more game against the Royals. Another rubber match. It will be the 10th time in the Yankees’ last 11 series they have played a rubber match. It will come against the left-handed Cole Ragans. The All-Star is a lefty, which the Yankees can’t seem to hit, and he has ridiculous strikeouts numbers with 204 in 167 1/3 innings this season as he leads the league in strikeouts per nine innings (11.1). Lugo doesn’t even average eight strikeouts per nine innings and he struck out 10 in seven innings on Tuesday. If the Yankees are to win the game, win the series and avoid possibly being tied with the Orioles in the loss column again, the offense is going to need to show up. After their night off on Tuesday, they should be well rested.

The Yankees’ offense came alive for the first time in four games in a 10-4 win over the Royals on the day Jasson Dominguez was called up.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Four days ago, Brian Cashman said Alex Verdugo gave the Yankees the “best chance to win” as the team’s everyday left fielder instead of their top-ranked, untouchable-in-trades prospect Jasson Dominguez. Three days after making that wildly idiotic assertion, Dominguez had a locker in the Yankee Stadium clubhouse to begin a three-game series with the Royals.

“Jasson’s going to play a lot,” Aaron Boone said before Monday’s game.

In 72 hours, Dominguez went from not having “a lane” to everyday playing time on the Yankees to batting sixth in their lineup — three places higher in the batting order than the player who was said to give the Yankees a better chance to win with than Dominguez.

2. “Like I said on September 1, when we didn’t initially recall Jasson, he’s [been] in the conversation every single day,” Boone said. “As much as anything, it’s just continuing to build the momentum he’s built here over the last few weeks.”

Nothing changed for Dominguez since September 1. He was destroying Triple-A pitching then and was as recently as his last Triple-A game. He didn’t magically go from not being ready for the majors to being ready to hit in the middle of the lineup in eight days.

“We feel like [he’s been] stringing together some of his best baseball here over the last couple of weeks,” Boone said, “and has earned this opportunity.”

And nothing changed for Verdugo over that time either. He had a .654 OPS on September 1 and a .651 OPS at the end of play on September 8. He has sucked all season and he has sucked just as bad since rosters expanded.

3. In order for a roster spot to open to play Dominguez, the Yankees had to designate someone for assignment or put someone on the injured list. They went with the injured list and that someone was DJ LeMahieu.

Rather than move on from LeMahieu and pay him more than $30 million to not play baseball for them through 2026, they decided to put him on the IL with a made-up injury. LeMahieu has no more of a hip impingement than you or I do. Boone said LeMahieu has been dealing with “it” for a “few weeks.” So either the Yankees are putting LeMahieu on the IL with a made-up injury or they have been playing an injured 36-year-old with a .527 OPS for a few weeks. I pray it’s the former, but knowing the Yankees, it’s very possible it’s the latter.

4. LeMahieu’s 2021 season ended early due to injury and he missed the one-game playoff. His 2022 season ended early due to injury and he missed the postseason. Last season, he made it to the end of the year, but there was no postseason for the Yankees. This season, he’ll miss the postseason again.

“I don’t know,” Boone said about LeMahieu returning this year. “We’ll see.”

That’s the same kind of “We’ll see” I tell my kids (ages 2 and 4) when they ask if they can stay up all night. LeMahieu isn’t coming back this year. He will be back in spring training with a chance to redeem himself and avoid being paid by the Yankees to not play for the Yankees.

5. In his first game at Yankee Stadium this season and with the Yankees trailing 2-0 in the fourth inning, Dominguez singled, stole third and scored on an error when the throw from Salvador Perez to get him went into the outfield. It was more production than Verdugo had provided in more than two months with the team. That same inning, with a runner on, Verdugo hit a go-ahead, two-run home run to right field. It’s almost as if tying playing time to production and consequences motivates players to perform better. I’m sure the Verdugo home run put a smile on the faces of Cashman and Boone. You know those two want Verdugo to outplay Dominguez over the final 18 games of the season.

6. “He’s gonna play, Verdugo said of Dominguez. “Whatever that means, that means, right? If I lose a little bit of playing time, I lose a little bit of playing time. At the end of the day, I want to win. The only thing that matters is getting to the playoffs and winning there.”

I was surprised with those comments from Verdugo. He said exactly what someone in his position should say. He didn’t respond like Gleyber Torres, who said “I play second” after the team traded for Jazz Chisholm. He didn’t respond like Nestor Cortes did on Saturday.:

7. “Obviously, I was upset,” Cortes said of being removed from the rotation. “I feel like amongst all the starters, I’ve been the workhorse here,” Cortes said. “Once [Gerrit] Cole went down, they picked me to be the Opening Day starter, not necessarily the No. 1, but the Opening Day starter. I had to switch my routine there, and now they do this.”

Of course, Cortes is delusional to think he has had a better season than he has. After each one of his crappy starts, his manager talks about how well he pitched and how “good” his stuff was, and Cortes, himself, says the same. However, to Cortes’ credit, he shouldn’t be the one out of the rotation, Marcus Stroman should be.

8. While Dominguez’s arrival was the story before the game and through the the top of the seventh with the Yankees then trailing 4-3 and the Orioles on their way to a loss, Austin Wells stole the spotlight with a mammoth, go-ahead three-run home run.

“He’s been a middle-of-the-order hitter for two to three months now,” Boone said. “We’ve all seen that, witnessed that.”

It’s been more than two or three months. It’s been more than four months. Wells has an .837 OPS since April 24. He has become the best all-around catcher in the majors and should be the favorite to win American League Rookie of the Year, considering he leads AL catchers in wRC+ at 121 and is statistically the second-best defensive catcher in the AL as well.

9. Carlos Rodon pitched good enough to win (6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 2 HR), but left the game on the hook for the loss thanks to some more sloppy defense with Chisholm bouncing a throw to first, Anthony Rizzo being unable to pick that throw and Torres dropping a popup. As of now, the four postseason starters seem to be Rodon, Cole, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt in some order. (My order would be Cole, Gil, Schmidt, Rodon, but we all know owed money outranks performance.)

10. Stroman, thankfully, won’t be part of the rotation. I don’t even know how you would put him on the postseason roster since he can’t be trusted out of the bullpen with his stuff. Unfortunately, Stroman goes for the Yankees on Tuesday against the tough Seth Lugo. Even though Lugo is a second straight hard-throwing, sinker-focused righty, I can’t see Boone giving Giancarlo Stanton a second consecutive day off. If he doesn’t, someone has to sit. We’re about to see just how much Dominguez is going to play and if Verdugo isn’t.