1. For most of Friday’s game against the Braves, it felt like an inevitable loss. The Yankees once again couldn’t score and could barely “muster” (an Aaron Boone buzzword) any offense. It felt like only a matter of time until the Braves broke through with a home run and they eventually did in the eighth and again in the ninth. Trailing 2-0, when Raisel Iglesias struck out Spencer Jones to begin the ninth, another Yankees loss was on its way.

Not just any loss either. With the Red Sox having won already, a Yankees loss would mean the Red Sox would pass the Yankees in the standings, a feat that seemed impossible when they trailed by 15 games at the end of June. Not only that, but the Rays were working on closing out the Mariners in the ninth in Seattle. The Yankees were going to fall farther behind the Rays, get passed by the Red Sox and finish the night in third place in the AL East.

2. George Lombard Jr. was able to beat out a slow roller in the infield that Iglesias picked up and launched well past first base, allowing Lombard Jr. to move to third. The tying run was on base with two cracks at potentially tying the game, the only problem was that the two cracks belonged to Ryan McMahon and Austin Wells.

Having yet to strike out in the game, McMahon made sure to do so in the ninth for the second out of the inning, leaving the final out of the game in the hands of Wells — the worst offensive player in all of baseball. Somehow, Wells managed to double to right field to score Lombard Jr. and extend the game. The only problem was that the game was being extended for Amed Rosario.

The improbability of the inning continued when Rosario worked an eight-pitch walk against Iglesias. Now the Yankees really had something with Ben Rice coming to the plate. Rice came through with the biggest hit of the season to date, drilling the ball off the base of the wall in right field to score Wells and tie the game. Because nothing has been going the Yankees’ way the past two months, the ball couldn’t have gone over the wall to end the game or bounced away from Ronald Acuna to end the game. Instead, the ball stayed in and Acuna played it perfectly to hold Rosario at third, and eventually the game moved to extra innings.

3. The Yankees are the worst road extra-inning team since the implementation of the automatic runner, but they’re also the best home team during the same time. David Bednar pitched around the automatic runner in the 10th to set up a scenario in which the Yankees could walk off the Braves without recording a hit.

Easier said than done for the clown show that is the Yankees when it comes to baseball fundamentals. With Luis Garcia serving as the automatic runner, Jose Caballero stepped up to the plate with a myriad of options available to him to handle his at-bat. Caballero attempted to bunt the first pitch of the at-bat in what was one of the worst bunt attempts anyone has ever seen. Behind 0-1 in the count, Caballero then decided to swing away at the next pitch, a pitch that was at least a foot off the plate and he swung through it wildly to push the count to 0-2. Prior to the third pitch of the bat, Caballero showed bunt, but it was obviously only going to be for show to try to throw off Braves relier Tyler Kinley. Or not. Caballero did indeed try to bunt with two strikes and fouled the pitch away for an out. With the strikeout on a foul bunt, given the process of the at-bat, the situation and the magnitude of the game, Caballero officially clinched worst plate appearance of the season for the Yankees. It won’t be topped. It can’t be topped.

4. The Braves then did the Yankees a favor by walking Jones to put runners on first and second with one out. No, Jones’ run didn’t mean anything other than to set up a potentially double play and let Kinley face the right-handed rookie Lombard Jr. But if Kinley was going to strike anyone out in the inning, it was going to be Jones, and the Braves foolishly put him on. Lombard Jr. followed with a walk to load the bases and McMahon followed with a walk-off sacrifice fly for a 3-2 win.

5. Rice’s game-tying hit was the biggest moment of the game, until Luis Garcia made an over-the-shoulder-catch in right field with his back to the infield to keep the game tied at 2 in the 10th. Without that play, the Braves take a lead in extra innings and who knows how the bottom of the inning plays out. Actually, I think we all know how it plays out if the Yankees fall behind.

6. “It’s good to come out on top,” McMahon said. “We’ve got to get going a little more. It’s not from a lack of work or effort.”

No, it’s not from a lack of work or effort. It’s from a lack of talent. The Yankees have a lack of offensive talent, but they knew that last season and ran it back with the same offense this season. The below-league-average hitters like McMahon (and Wells and Caballero) are living up to their career track records. Goldschmidt was always going to fade as the season wore on, just like he did last year. Grisham was never going to replicate his 2025 season, and Chisholm being the head case he is, was always going to crumble under the pressure of being an impending free agent, just like he has crumbled in his two postseasons as a Yankee. Every offensive problem the Yankees have isn’t a surprise. It was to be expected. Add in injuries and you get the kind of disgraceful offensive performances the team provides on a daily basis.

7. It was another hitless game for leadoff-hitter-no-matter-what Trent Grisham. Grisham is down to 6-for-55 with nine walks leading off a game. I don’t see a need for a lineup change. Having a leadoff hitter who has started 40 of 55 games with an out is exactly what you want.

Rice was only 1-for-5 with three strikeouts, but the one was enormous. Jazz Chisholm went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts before he was pulled for a pinch hitter and then showed up back in the dugout in a T-shirt, as did Grisham. Paul O’Neill was quick to call them out for it. It wouldn’t surprise me if O’Neill is suddenly not on the broadcast this weekend. When Michael Kay said he had people in the Yankees tell him Anthony Volpe refused to play second base in the minors back in May, Kay did an about-face a day later and said it was not true. How dare O’Neill question how Boone manages his team, clubhouse and dugout. If Chisholm wants to pout after being removed from a game and wear a T-shirt in the dugout, so be it. When you’re nine percent worse than league average, you can do whatever you want: suck on lollipops in the field or in the batter’s box, make unhinged and emotional challenges on called strikes, get ejected from games, get tagged up on infield pop-ups, say your teammates told you you’re the greatest player in the world. Do whatever you want!

8. Fernando Cruz and Tim Hill both gave up solo home runs in the game as both have fallen far in terms of trustworthiness in recent weeks. Cruz has allowed 16 baserunners and three home runs in his last nine innings over the last three weeks. Hill has allowed six home runs and has a 5.84 ERA over the last month (12 1/3 innings).

Here is my current order of trust in the bullpen with gaps in between:

David Bednar
…
Brent Headrick
…
…
…
Paul Blackburn
…
…
…
…
…
Fernando Cruz
…
Tim Hill (much higher on the list if he’s entering with two outs in an inning and a lefty up)
…
…
…
Ryan Yarbrough

That’s not great for a team that didn’t trade for a single reliever at the deadline.

9. Max Fried was really good (6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K) because Max Fried is really good. I expect greatness out of him every time he takes the ball. And for the most part, as a Yankee, he has delivered. (Outside of the biggest start of his Yankees career in Game 2 of the ALDS.)

10. Not allowing the Red Sox to officially pass the Yankees in the standings is important. There’s something to be said for the Red Sox going 32-5 in their last 37 games only to tie the Yankees in the loss column. All of that work hasn’t even gotten them past the Yankees. Maybe that happens on Saturday. The Red Sox are paying the embarrassing Athletics, while the Yankees are facing Chris Sale. But at least there’s still the possibility now that it doesn’t happen and never happens.

If the Red Sox do end up passing the Yankees, I think the Yankees won’t recover in the standings and will end up as the second wild card. That can’t happen. It’s Gerrit Cole’s job to make sure it doesn’t happen on Saturday. He’s going to need some help from an offense that hasn’t been able to hit Colin Rea or Andre Pallante or Tyler Mahle of late, so I don’t know how they plan on scoring against the future Hall of Famer in Sale ,who is experiencing the highest average fastball velocity of his career at age 37.

1. The Yankees scored one run on Wednesday and lost 3-1, losing a three-game home series to the under-.500, going nowhere Cardinals. The offense turned in its latest pathetic effort, going 4-for-30 with 10 strikeouts against five different pitchers, and Will Warren failed to build on his last start against the Cubs, allowing eight baserunners and three earned runs in 5 1/3 innings.

2. Trent Grisham put together his latest 0-for at the plate, going 0-for-5 with a strikeout. Offering Grisham the $22 million qualifying offer was a horrible decision in real time. This isn’t second-guessing after 379 miserable plate appearances for someone hitting eight percent worse than league average.

These are Grisham’s OPS+ by season since becoming a full-time player in 2021:

2021: 106
2022: 81
2023: 84
2024 (only a part-time player): 91
2025: 123

Which of those numbers is unlike the others? Last season, of course, when Grisham hit 34 home runs, 17 more than he had hit in any other season. Sure enough, his OPS+ is down to 92 this season and he has 12 home runs. He’s hitting the ball out once every 32 plate appearances. Last season, it was once every 17. He’s hitting .211/.310/.379, and yet, he continues to lead off for the Yankees. He’s 6-for-54 with a .111/.238/.204 slash line as the first hitter of the game. He has a .588 OPS when he leads off any inning. How is it that after 115 games of this he’s still batting first? And the answer isn’t because Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger are hurt because none of them bats first. It’s unacceptable and irresponsible that Grisham is still leading off and if he’s doing so again on Friday night in the series opener against the Braves, I may openly root against the Yankees. If they don’t care to provide the best possible lineup then why should I care if they win?

3. Ben Rice went hitless, but did provide three walks. Rice has homered once in the last two weeks, and when he isn’t hitting the ball over the wall, he’s not doing much else. He’s 6-for-50 with 19 strikeouts and a .474 OPS over the last two weeks.

Luis Garcia also went hitless as did Spencer Jones. The Yankees sent Jasson Dominguez down in favor of Jones, and with Judge and Bellinger out, Jones is getting everyday playing time and not doing much with it. His last hit came last Saturday at Wrigley Field.

Jazz Chisholm and Ryan McMahon also went hitless, but I think that’s a given from those two at this point. They did draw walks, but put either of those two up in a big spot with runners on and the chance to tie or take a lead in the game, and they will fail, just like they did on Wednesday.

4. It would seem to be a problem that George Lombard Jr., who has two days of being a major leaguer to his name, provides the most competitive plate appearances on the team. Lombard Jr. had a seven-pitch groundout and singled after falling behind 0-2 before striking out in his final two at-bats. Not only is it a problem that Lombard Jr. provides the best quality plate appearances, but it’s also a problem that the team needs him to be much more than a recently-called-up rookie because all of the veterans on the team suck.

5. No one sucks more than Austin Wells. The Yankees’ failure to get another catcher at the trade deadline is deplorable. They knew Wells and J.C. Escarra weren’t a worthy tandem last year then ran it back with them this year, eventually admitting Escarra can’t hit major-league pitching (despite Aaron Boone saying he would start on most teams in the majors) and replacing him with Ali Sanchez, who also can’t hit. The Yankees would be better off taking an automatic out at the catcher position, or at least having their catchers not go to the plate with a bat. The first option prevents them from hitting into rally-ending double plays, which is a Wells staple, and the second option allows them to potentially be walked or hit by a pitch. Wells should be in Triple-A with his best friend Anthony Volpe and he should be (and should have already been) removed from the future plans for the team like his best friend.

6. We’re at the point where it’s going to be hard to win the division unless the Rays collapse. The Rays could play .500 baseball from here on out and they would finish with 92 wins. For the Yankees to get to 92 wins, they have to go 28-19. There’s nothing to suggest the Rays are going to play .500 baseball for the remaining 30 percent of the season. And similarly, there’s nothing to suggest the Yankees are going play .596 baseball.

Sure, the Yankees still have four-game series left with the Rays and Red Sox, but does anyone think the Yankees will do anything more than split both of those series at best? The Rays and Red Sox also have a three-game series left against each other, so the Yankees will lose ground on one team no matter what with any loss during those three games. It’s getting late early for the Yankees.

7. Not in terms of making the playoffs. That’s a given since the AL is a joke and the final wild card currently belongs to the under-.500 Rangers, and it’s possible an under-.500 team will reach the postseason. It’s getting late early in terms of having any advantage in the postseason. The first-round bye and being able to set your rotation and have home-field advantage in the ALDS is unlikely (FanGraphs gives the Yankees a 20 percent chance to win the division). Having home-field advantage for all three games of the best-of-3 Wild Card Series is also fading. The Yankees had a 15-game lead in the loss column over the Red Sox at the end of June. They are now tied in the loss column.

8. The Red Sox are on a seven-game winning streak and are 31-5 in their last 36 games. Guess who started the 31-5 run for them? Your 2026 Yankees, when they got swept in four games at Fenway Park to end June. The Yankees scored nine runs in those four games and one of the nine was an automatic runner, so they scored eight runs in four games in the most hitter-friendly environment in the world. The Red Sox’ next six opponents are the Athletics, Blue Jays, Pirates, Diamondbacks, Giants and Marlins. The only potentially postseason team in the group is the Diamondbacks, who currently hold the third-and-final wild-card berth in the NL. That’s 19 games against teams that are .500 or worse. Teams that are going nowhere, have little to play for and are counting down the days until the offseason.

What the Red Sox are doing is the actual Impossible Dream season. Forget 1967. Winning 31 of 36 with the roster they have is truly absurd. They were left for dead when the Yankees arrived at Fenway to close out June, but then the defense fell apart behind Schlittler as Amed Rosario gave the Red Sox season-saving CPR and they haven’t looked back. Willson Contreras is having the best season of his career at age 34, Caleb Durbin is batting fucking cleanup and Masataka Yoshida is hitting like Hideki Matsui. Everything they are doing defies logic, math, physics, you name it.

9. Prior to Wednesday’s loss I wrote that the offense’s ceiling for the game was likely three runs and they scored once. Three runs for this team feels like 13. In reverse chronological order, they have scored 1, 2, 7, 2, 2, 2, 1, 5 and 3 runs dating back to July 28. The 7 came in the game in a game they lost after overcoming a six-run deficit. The 5 came in an extra-inning game, in which one run was an automatic runner — a game in which they had Cam Schlittler on the mound in the seventh inning with a four-run lead and lost. The Yankees have one way to win at the moment: get an outstanding pitching performance and score two runs. That’s it. A quality start isn’t good enough to give them a chance to win. They need near perfection. They need something like six scoreless innings to have a chance.

10. That’s not a recipe for success in Major League Baseball. It may work from time to time against the White Sox or Cardinals, but it’s not going to work against the Braves who arrive in the Bronx this weekend riding an eight-game winning streak and are 25 games over .500. While the Yankees are battling the Braves, the Rays will be playing the fraudulent Mariners and the Red Sox will be playing the second-worst AL team in the Athletics. The Yankees will very likely be in third place in the AL East by this weekend.

1. Cam Schlittler’s performance in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against the Red Sox last October. That’s the last time I felt as good watching a Yankees game as I did on Tuesday night for George Lombard Jr.’s debut. It was so much more than just another game or another win (a much-needed win with both the Rays and Red Sox winning). It signified change at a position that has been a failure over the last four seasons. It signified the promise that for the foreseeable future you won’t have to question who’s playing shortstop for the Yankees on a daily basis.

2. Yes, it was just one game, but Lombard Jr. checked every box. The defense prowess lived up to the hype. The plate discipline did too. He nearly beat out a slow roller in his first plate appearance, homered in his second and walked in his third. And in between his offensive opportunities, he made routine plays in the field look routine and made difficult plays look easy. I can only assume the result of LASIK eye surgery feels like watching Lombard Jr. throw a ball to first base after watching Anthony Volpe throw a ball to first base for four years.

3. Lombard Jr. didn’t just act the part in his first major-league game on the field, he did so in his pregame media session as well, speaking like a seasoned veteran instead of a 21-year-old kid being asked to somewhat help save this slog of a season and help the Yankees do something they haven’t done in going on 17 years. He looked the part with a 6-foot-2 build, immaculate defensive footwork, a strong arm and a plan at the plate. If you could create a shortstop’s build it would be Lombard Jr. He looks straight out of central casting manning shortstop in the Yankees’ infield.

4. Down in Scranton, Volpe must have felt like Ron Burgundy watching Veronica Corningstone do his job. The Stadium crowd went crazy every time Lombard Jr. had a putout or walked to the plate and lost its minds when he homered in a way it never did for Volpe. There was Lombard Jr. turning double plays with Jazz Chisholm and batting in front of Volpe’s best friend in Austin Wells. (I like to think Wells swung at the first pitch and grounded out following Lombard Jr.’s home run to ruin the moment and prevent the curtain call the Stadium crowd was asking for.)

5. As I recently wrote, if Volpe played second base and batted ninth for the Yankees, the perception of him would be completely different. And maybe that’s how he gets back to the Yankees, as a second baseman. Because it’s clear he won’t be playing shortstop again for the Yankees. Lombard Jr. was everything I wanted him to be and needed him to be and I look forward to watching him play shortstop for the Yankees again on Wednesday and on Friday and on Saturday and hopefully every game for the next 15-plus years.

6. Ryan Weathers turned in his third straight gem with six scoreless innings and has allowed just one earned run over his last three starts. The Yankees needed another masterful performance from their starting pitcher because the offense consisted of the Lombard Jr. solo home run and a Chisholm solo home run, while going 5-for-28 with three walks and five strikeouts. They had first and third with no outs in the fourth and failed to score, had first and second with one out in the seventh and failed to score, and also had the leadoff hitter on base in two other innings and did nothing. Heliot Ramos’ Yankees debut was overshadowed by Lombard Jr. mania as the newest Yankee went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

7. Fernando Cruz and Brent Headrick were shaky, but the overused duo along with David Bednar combined to throw three scoreless innings around four baserunners to preserve the lead and close out the win. Bednar struck out the side in the ninth.

8. How about a 10-run blowout on Wednesday before Thursday’s day off to give the bullpen a rest? The Yankees have won one game by more than three runs since July 9, and in that game, they won by four runs and the White Sox had the tying run in the on-deck circle in the ninth inning. The Yankees either win a nail-biter or lose. It’s unsustainable and it’s completely on the offense. At some point they need to start scoring more than two or three runs per game.

9. It will be Will Warren against Andre Pallante in the series finale on Wednesday. Warren is coming off his best start of the season with 6 2/3 scoreless innings at Wrigley Field. Unfortunately, when it comes to Warren, one start has no bearing on the next. He’s consistently inconsistent and could throw seven scoreless innings against the Cardinals or be pulled in the first inning. I would expect to see the same lineup for the Yankees on Wednesday against another right-hander. Pallante is a good starter, and considering the Yankees’ best offensive attribute is making mediocre-to-good starters look unhittable, I wouldn’t expect anything more than a ceiling of three runs for the offense.

10. It’s a home rubber game against an average team going nowhere and it’s a game the Yankees need to win. The Rays seemingly never lose and the Red Sox actually never lose. The Yankees have gone 14-8 over the last three weeks ago and haven’t gained anything on the Rays in the standings and have lost nearly everything to the Red Sox in the standings. If those two are going to win every day, the Yankees have to do the same. With Garcia essentially replacing Goldschmidt, Ramos replacing Dominguez and Lombard Jr. replacing Volpe and the best rotation in baseball, they have the ability to.

1. The Yankees’ season was supposed to change by 6 p.m. on August 3. Even without Aaron Judge (due to a rib injury), Giancarlo Stanton (due to a ridiculous calf injury that is in its fourth month) and Cody Bellinger (due to a hamstring injury), August 3 was going to be the day the Yankees got a new catcher, added to their bullpen and got a right-handed bat. For weeks, the Yankees were connected to Tarik Skubal and Adley Rutschman, and even the great Mason Miller. But when 6 p.m. came on Monday, the Yankees had added only a right-handed bat (with poor defense) and a left-handed bat (with poor defense). The right-handed bat (Heliot Ramos) crushes left-handed pitching, but can’t hit right-handed pitching, and the left-handed bat (Luis Garcia) crushes right-handed pitching, but can’t hit left-handed pitching, and neither has a position.

2. There was no new catcher when the clock struck 6. The Rays — the team the Yankees have been chasing for essentially three months — got a new catcher. The Red Sox — the team that the Yankees once led by 15 games in the loss column and now lead by one game — got a new catcher.

There was no bullpen help. Despite an abundance of high-end relievers being dealt, the Yankees didn’t add a single arm to their overworked, top-heavy bullpen.

3. The Yankees needed a right-handed bat because Judge is out indefinitely and Stanton heals at a glacial pace. They needed a right-handed bat because Anthony Volpe is no longer a major leaguer and neither is Jasson Dominguez. They needed a right-handed bat because they believed Paul Goldschmidt could withstand a six-month season. They needed a right-handed bat because Amed Rosario isn’t hitting lefties. They needed a right-handed bat because they designated Randal Grichuk for assignment in April after very little playing time. (Grichuk started 0-for-13 as a Yankee then went 6-for-18 with four doubles before being DFA’d. He has an .880 OPS since.) So the Yankees traded their No. 5 and No. 13 prospects for Ramos.

The Yankees didn’t need another left-handed bat, but what they did need was offense, any semblance of major-league offense after scoring 32 runs during their 10-game road trip. You may think 32 runs in 10 games and abysmal, but it’s actually worse than it looks. Nine of the 32 runs came in one game and one of the runs was an automatic runner in extra innings. Not only that, but the Yankees played four extra innings on the trip and scored the automatic runner once. So the Yankees traded for Garcia to give them a quality major-league hitter not named Ben Rice in their current lineup.

Off the field, the deadline was a disaster for the Yankees. On the field, it was worse.

4. After walking 26 batters in 23 starts this season, Cam Schlittler walked five Cardinals in three innings on Monday. He walked the first batter of the game on four pitches and gave up a one-out, two-run home run. He then walked the fourth batter of the game and gave up a line-drive single before getting out of the inning with a double play.

In the second, Schlittler walked the leadoff hitter again and then gave up a run-scoring double on an 0-2 pitch. He walked another hitter, sandwiched between striking out the side.

In the third, Schlittler walked the leadoff hitter for the third straight inning and allowed that run to score on a two-out single. After three innings, nine baserunners and 81 pitches, Schlittler was removed from the game.

The Yankees trailed 6-0 after four innings. Four earned runs against Schlittler and another two from Tim Hill after Hill allowed his latest home run. But the Yankees fought back in the fifth with back-to-back home runs: a two-run home run from Austin Wells and a solo home run from Trent Grisham to make it 6-3.

5. Still trailing 6-3 in the seventh, Ryan McMahon and Jose Caballero went back-to-back to lead off the inning and make it 6-5. Grisham hit a one-out double and Garcia brought him in with a two-run home run to give the Yankees a 7-6 lead. After last year’s post-deadline debacle in Miami, the Yankees were going to have a memorable deadline day performance on the field to make up for the shortcomings in the front office off it.

Except they weren’t. Aaron Boone had Ryan Yarbrough get the final two outs of the seventh when the game was still 6-3. It made sense to pitch Yarbrough with a three-run deficit and let him eat up the final innings if the score remained the same. But when the Yankees took the lead and were six outs away from a win in a game in which they had trailed by six runs, sending Yarbrough out for the eighth to protect the one-run lead should have never been an option. But it was for Boone. In Game 113 with the Rays having already won on the day, Boone tried to steal outs with Yarbrough. Sure enough, Yarbrough allowed a leadoff triple to begin the eighth.

6. Due to recent workloads, even though neither Fernando Cruz, Paul Blackburn, Brent Headrick nor David Bednar had pitched on back-to-back days, Boone stayed away from all of them. The Yankees’ rule that relievers can’t pitch three straight days remains idiotic and unscientific as a way of preventing injuries, but in this instance, Boone wasn’t even following that rule, he was simply not going to his best relievers because he felt they had thrown too much lately. In a winnable game against an inferior opponent, Boone was willing to lose instead of use two of his best four arms. And lose they did. Angel Chivilli relieved Yarbrough and allowed three home runs in the eighth. The Cardinals entered the inning trailing 7-6 and left it leading 13-7. Chivilli was sent down after the game. Good enough to pitch in high leverage at 10:30 p.m. Not good enough to be a Yankee at 11:30 p.m. Just like Max Schuemann was good enough to bat LEADOFF for the Yankees multiple times in the last week and then wasn’t good enough to be a Yankee after the trade for Garcia. Chivilli wasn’t the only one sent down. Volpe was sent down along with Dominguez.

7. It was a bad start for Schlittler, but it was going to end up being a good win against a bad team. Instead, it was undone by a bad manager. Everything about the day was so perfectly the Cashman/Boone Yankees. Cashman didn’t just fail to get any game-changing talent at the deadline, he failed to fulfill the few needs the Yankees absolutely had to address. Needs that exist because of moves he has made. Boone was willing to lose a winnable game and play for tomorrow to protect the arms of impending free agents when it’s unknown if they will even be needed to protect small leads in the coming days.

8. Ben Rice went 0-for-4 and is 4-for-29 with 10 strikeouts since the start of Chicago week. Jazz Chisholm went 0-for-4 and is 4-for-31 with 15 strikeouts since the start of the 10-game road trip. Maybe Chisholm just needs his teammates to remind him again that he’s “the best player in the world.” He only has 49 games remaining to hit 34 home runs and steal 20 bases.

9. The Yankees went 6-4 on the 10-game road trip to Philadelphia and Chicago. I wrote that I would have signed up for 5-5 before the trip started, but once the trip started 3-1, going 5-5 was a disappointment. The Yankees had extra-inning leads in two of the games against the White Sox and had a seventh-inning lead on Saturday against the Cubs and they lost all three games. It could have been an 8-2 or even 9-1 road trip. But much like everything with these Yankees, it was a disappointment. A disappointing road trip, followed by a disappointing deadline, followed by a disappointing game on Monday in what is becoming a disappointing season now that they are four games behind the Rays in the loss column again and just one game up on the Red Sox in the loss column. They had a 15-game lead in the loss column over the Red Sox in late June.

10. It will be Ryan Weathers against Hunter Dobbins on Tuesday. Weathers was outstanding against the Phillies and White Sox. Dobbins is the former Red Sox, who said he hated the Yankees and that his dad was drafted by them, even though his dad wasn’t drafted. The Cardinals are a bad team headed nowhere other than to the offseason after Game 162. They sold at the deadline and have no business winning a series against the Yankees in the Bronx with the Yankees in the middle of a pennant race. But if you haven’t learned by now, and if the road trip, deadline and Monday’s loss weren’t reminders, always be prepared to be disappointed by these Yankees.