The Yankees’ nine-game West Coast road trip started out with two wins over the Padres, but has been followed by losses to the Padres and last-place Angels.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Last July 17 when the Yankees really sucked, they faced Griffin Canning and the Angels in the Bronx. Canning entered that start with a 4.62 ERA and 5.03 FIP. Over 5 2/3 innings against the Yankees, he struck out a career-high 12. The Yankees put nine runners on base against him, but could never seem to get the big hit, losing 4-3.

On Tuesday night in Anaheim, Canning was on the mound to face the Yankees for the first time since that start. Like that start, he entered Tuesday with a 5.08 ERA and 5.35 FIP. Like that start, the Yankees put 12 runners on base against him in five innings. And like that start, the Yankees could never get the big hit, losing 4-3.

2. After being held to one run by Joe Musgrove and his 6.14 ERA and 5.81 FIP on Sunday in San Diego 4-1 loss, the Yankees’ offense minus Juan Soto hit like the Yankees’ offense minus Juan Soto on Tuesday in Anaheim. Michael Kay and Paul O’Neill will tell you how “explosive the offense has been,” but has it? The Yankees have scored nine runs in their last three games and 36 in their last eight, and to no surprise they’re 4-4 over that span.

3. The loss to the Angels was frustrating because the Yankees had a one-run lead with four outs to go and couldn’t hold the lead. They couldn’t hold the lead because of Anthony Rizzo who booted an inning-ending grounder, giving the Angels a fourth out to work with, and with that fourth out they hit a two-run double to take the lead.

“That play needs to be made,” Rizzo said.

Yeah, no shit, Anthony.

“The first couple of weeks were pretty brutal, but overall the last five or six weeks, I would say pretty normal,” Rizzo said about his defense this season. “A play like today’s, I’ve got to make it.”

Rizzo’s defense has been atrocious all season. He has bobbled and booted many routine plays and has scooped and picked balls like he’s blindfolded.

“He’s still great over there,” Aaron Boone said. “Just a couple of hiccups here lately.”

Except he isn’t great over there and it’s not just a couple of hiccups.

4. You could live with Rizzo’s horrific defense if he were hitting, but he isn’t. And you could live with his lack of offense if he are still playing Gold Glove defense, but he isn’t. He isn’t doing anything to help the team, just hurt it.

Rizzo hasn’t homered in 17 game. He doesn’t have an extra-base hit in the last 16 games. He has three walks in the last three weeks. His slash line is down to .245/.310/.370. He has been awful all season.

5. What’s startling is he’s not even the worst everyday player on the Yankees. That title goes to Gleyber Torres.

If you like Torres then you don’t like the Yankees because Torres is detrimental to the team’s success at the plate, in the field and on the bases. His two-week “hot streak” has his OPS out of the .500s, now at .631, but while his bat has been better of late, everything else about his game remains as sloppy as ever. On Sunday, Torres was picked off at first and later made the late-inning error that led to the Padres taking the lead in their eventual comeback win. On Tuesday, Luis Rojas inexplicably sent Torres home on an Austin Wells double, but of course it was Torres of all runners getting thrown out at the plate. When disaster strikes, Torres is always in the middle of it.

6. Boone is also in the middle of it. If you didn’t notice, all four of the Yankees losses in their last eight games are by three runs or fewer. Only one of the four wins was by three runs or fewer. The Yankees win when they hit and take Boone out of the equation. When they don’t hit and let Boone get his hands on the game, well, you get games like the last two. The more close games the Yankees are forced to play, the more they will lose with Boone having to make important bullpen decisions.

Last week against the Mariners, the Yankees nearly overcame a late-game deficit after being stifled by Bryan Woo, but Boone made sure it wasn’t possible. Trailing by two runs, Boone let Dennis Santana double the deficit. Then after the Yankees cut the deficit from four to one, he used Clayton Andrews to push the deficit back to two. (Immediately after the game, Andrews was sent to the minors. Good enough to pitch in the seventh inning of a one-run game, but not good enough to be a major leaguer after the ninth inning.)

On Sunday, Boone used Victor Gonzalez as the first guy out of the bullpen with a one-run lead and the tying run on base. Gonzalez let that run score and then another two, and the Yankees lost.

On Tuesday, after Rizzo’s error, Boone removed Luke Weaver in favor of Clay Holmes. (Ever since Boone pissed away the game in Milwaukee last month, he has been using Holmes for multi-inning save opportunities.) I don’t trust Holmes with clean innings, let alone with two runners on, considering it usually takes him a few pitches to gain his control and command, and sure enough, the first pitch was an elevated sinker that got crushed for a go-ahead, two-run double.

“I had to make a pitch, and I think he just put a good swing on that sinker there,” Holmes said. “He put it in the air, which doesn’t happen very often.”

8. The bullpen being untrustworthy and not very good isn’t all on Boone. While he rarely puts his players in the best possible position to succeed, he didn’t build the bullpen he’s working with. The Dodgers didn’t give away Gonzalez and Caleb Ferguson because they thought they would help them win the World Series. They’re the Dodgers. It’s not the Pirates giving up on and giving away Holmes. Nick Burdi wasn’t available as a free-agent signing because he’s often healthy and has a history of impeccable control. Dennis Santana isn’t on his fourth team in four years because he’s really good.

The only trustworthy relievers the Yankees boast at the moment are Holmes, Weaver and Tommy Kahnle, and I don’t trust Holmes with anything less than a four-run lead, a month ago I figured Weaver would be pitching in an independent league by Independence Day and Kahnle has thrown 19 pitches this season. If the Yankees don’t have a big lead, the bullpen will either blow it or come as close as possible to blowing it, and Boone will see to it.

8. I got a good laugh out of Boone batting DJ LeMahieu ninth in his season debut on Tuesday. LeMahieu hit behind Rizzo (.680 OPS), Torres (.631 OPS) and Austin Wells (.591 OPS). It wasn’t the “HAHA THAT’S HILARIOUS!” type of laugh, it was a “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS GUY IS THE MANAGER OF THE YANKEES STILL” type of laugh.

LeMahieu looks like himself at the plate. He drove the first pitch he saw to right field, which is where you want LeMahieu to be driving the ball) at 99.5 mph. He drew a walk in his second plate appearance, hit a 99.5 mph flyout in his third and a 101.7 mph flyout in his fourth (a ball that had a .680 expected batting average, but was caught).

When LeMahieu is healthy and going right, he should be hitting no lower than fifth in the lineup. I would hit him first, but Boone’s love for Anthony Volpe will outweigh what’s best for the team. And because Boone has to alternate righty-lefty throughout the lineup, a lefty will always hit fourth, and because Rizzo flat out sucks, Alex Verdugo is the only option there.

9. Well, he’s the only option until Jasson Dominguez is ready. Once Dominguez is ready, he should be an everyday Yankee. Will he be? Of course not. That would make too much sense. Veteran status, reputation and money owed will always trump talent and ability with the Yankees, so when Dominguez is ready to be activated, expect him to go to Triple-A.

10. The Yankees will try to end their two-game slide in which they blew late one-run leads in both games on Wednesday night in Anaheim as this 10-day, nine-game road trip continues. They will have to do it against the solid left-hander Tyler Anderson. I expect Rizzo to be on the bench for this one. Lefty starter or not, he deserves to be.

The Yankees suffered their worst loss of the season on Monday, losing 5-4 after blowing a three-run lead to the Mariners with one out and no one on in the ninth inning.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. When Jon Berti ended the fourth inning by hitting into a double play with the bases loaded, and when Giancarlo Stanton hit into an inning-ending double play in the fifth inning with runners on the corners, and when Stanton again ended the seventh inning with a double play with the bases loaded, I figured those three enormous missed opportunities would come back to haunt the Yankees later in the game. But after the Yankees were able to extend their 3-1 lead to 4-1 going into the ninth, I brushed those fears aside. There was no way the anemic Mariners offense was going to score three runs with three outs left to play with.

I was wrong. They scored four.

2. With one out and no one on, the Mariners soft contacted Clay Holmes all the way to a blown save and then a loss. It started with a Julio Rodriguez swinging bunt in front of home after Holmes couldn’t put him away with two strikes. Then it was Cal Raleigh drawing a walk after Holmes couldn’t put him away with two strikes either. Luke Riley hit a slow roller to second that Gleyber Torres sloppily threw away as Anthony Rizzo gave the least amount of effort possible to keep the ball from getting by him. Mitch Haniger blooped a single into no man’s land between Aaron Judge and Juan Soto and Dylan Moore drew a walk after being behind 0-2 in the count. Dominic Canzone tied the game with a sacrifice fly to the wall in right and Ty France gave the Mariners the lead with a single up the middle. Holmes faced eight batters, retired one, walked two, gave up four hits and four runs.

“That one’s on me,” Holmes said.

3. The loss felt very much like the Yankees loss to the Reds at the Stadium on July 12, 2022 when Holmes entered in the ninth with a 3-0 lead, faced five batters, hit two of them, walked another and gave up two hits. He didn’t record an out, allowed four runs and the Yankees’ 3-0 ninth-inning lead became a 4-3 loss.

“My stuff, I thought it was good enough tonight,” Holmes said. “I just didn’t make the pitch when I needed to.”

4. Anyone who has watched every Holmes appearance this season knows he hasn’t been as good as his 0.00 ERA (entering last night) suggested. He needed Soto to throw out a runner at the plate in his very first appearance on Opening Day to prevent a blown save. He has been on the fortunate end of line drives being hit right at Yankees infielders to double off runners. He has been lucky to have as many ground balls hit at fielders as he has had. The luck wore off on Monday, and the result was a disastrous loss. The Yankees have only lost 16 games this season, but this one to the Mariners was easily the worst.

5. It’s hard to be overly upset (except if you had the Yankees’ money line like I did), considering the team’s record and Holmes’ overall performance through this point in the season. Winners of seven straight, the Yankees weren’t going to win every game for the rest of the season, but it would have been nice if their next loss was because their starting pitcher laid an egg or their offense no-showed and not an excruciating, painful ninth-inning loss in which they had a three-run lead with two outs to go and no one on.

6. The loss was a reminder of what it’s like to have a closer who relies on ground balls and not strikeouts to generate outs. If you allow the ball to be put in play, bad things can happen. There have been a lot of soft contact hits against Holmes this year, though, prior to Monday, he always found a way to get out of the inning before the game was ruined, either by making pitches or getting lucky. Against the Mariners, he couldn’t make pitches, couldn’t put away three hitters with two strikes and couldn’t get lucky.

“I was ahead on a couple of guys there 0-2, 1-2, and put them on base,” Holmes said. “They could hav been big outs.”

I’m not upset that ground balls found holes, Rodriguez reached on a swinging bunt or Haniger blooped a ball perfectly between two fielders. I’m upset that Holmes walked two batters with a three-run lead.

7. Because the Mariners rely on their pitching and lack offense, it’s likely all four games in this series will be close. Holmes pitched on Sunday, so him pitching on Monday meant by the idiotic Yankees rules, he wasn’t going to pitch on Tuesday no matter what. Because he threw 31 pitches, he probably won’t be available on Wednesday either. Not only did Holmes ruin Monday’s game, but the Yankees lost and now don’t have their closer for at least the next two games.

The Yankees will have Luke Weaver available though, and somehow Weaver went from barely being a major leaguer to now being the Yankees’ latest version of Jonathan Loaisiga or Michael King. This is Weaver’s line over his last 11 appearances: 18 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 24 K. He’s throwing strikes, missing bats, not walking anyone and hasn’t allowed a run for the equivalent of two games.

8. “To be honest, it’s baseball,” Marcus Stroman said. “It was very weak contact. Essentially, if they hit the ball harder on some of those plays, we probably wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Stroman is right, and he said all the rights things even after having to watch his 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball disappear in the ninth. It was the longest Stroman has pitched into a game this season through 10 starts.

“He was dealing,” Aaron Boone said. “He had it all going.”

9. When disaster strikes the Yankees on the field, Torres is usually involved, and he was again in the ninth inning of this one. After fielding a slow roller that should have been put in his back pocket, Torres threw off balance to the left of Rizzo, whose picking ability has evaded him this season. It was a losing play by a losing play in what was a horrible loss. Torres did make up for it at the plate by going 0-for-3 with a walk.

10. The Yankees left 13 runners on in the game (the Mariners only left five). They hit into three double plays (two from Stanton and one from Berti) and were caught stealing on both of their steal attempts (one by Anthony Volpe and one by Berti). The offense was sloppy and Holmes’ meltdown was the cherry on top of a wildly frustrating night.

“A loss is a loss,” Judge said. “You’ve got one of the best closers in the game, and stuff like that is bound to happen at some point.”

Holmes 0.00 ERA is gone. The Yankees’ perfect record of 28-0 when leading after eight innings is over. The seven-game winning streak is no more. Start a new one on Tuesday.

The Yankees haven’t lost in more than a week.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. That’s how it’s supposed to go if you’re a true championship contender: play a historically bad team and beat the crap out of them.

On Friday, I wrote: 

At the absolute minimum, I expect the Yankees to win the weekend series, and will be disappointed if the Yankees aren’t riding a seven-game winning streak at the end of play on Sunday.

The Yankees have that seven-game winning streak after sweeping the White Sox, outscoring them 17-5.

2. Aaron Judge got the series started with a bang, homering in the first inning of the first game of the series, continuing his return to his normal self. In the last week (starting last Sunday in Tampa), Judge went 12-for-24 with five doubles, four home runs, seven RBIs and eight walks (with just six strikeouts). A comical .500/.625/1.208 slash line and 1.833 OPS.

“When Aaron’s swinging it like he is right now, the guys definitely get a jolt out of that,” Aaron Boone said. “And we’ve seen a lot of that in the last week.”

Nestor Cortes didn’t allow an earned run over seven innings (7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K) and Clay Holmes slammed the door on the worst team in baseball. It was a nice, tidy 4-2 win over a team on pace to lose 114 games.

3. On Saturday, Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez threw out the first pitch on a day Luis Gil started. A three-time champion with the Yankees, Hernandez entered Saturday still holding the Yankees’ rookie record for strikeouts in a game (13), but after nearly 26 years (Aug. 13, 1998), Gil now holds the record.

Like Don Larsen and Yogi Berra throwing out the first pitch to commemorate Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series on the same day David Cone would throw a perfect game of his own, Gil went on to strike out 14 White Sox on Saturday to pass Hernandez.

“I was very happy to meet him today and establish a connection,” Gil said of meeting Hernandez.

Yes, it was the White Sox Gil broke the record against, but 14 strikeouts are 14 strikeouts. Cortes didn’t strike out 14 White Sox on Friday. Carlos Rodon didn’t strike out 14 White Sox on Sunday.

4. Gil leads the league in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (4.8), has struck out 62 in 49 innings and has only given up three home runs on the season (a 12-home run pace projected out over 200 innings). Of Gil’s nine starts, the only time he gave up more than three earned runs was in Milwaukee, and the only time he really had no command was after the Yankees idiotically gave him eight days off between starts. He hasn’t just filled in for Gerrit Cole, he has been Gerrit Cole.

If the Yankees had to play one game for their season right now, I don’t know how you don’t pick Gil to start it. Certainly, he may be a little too amped (think Luis Severino in the 2017 wild-card game) and may have trouble commanding his fastball (which he tends to do regularly), but if he’s on, he’s as good as any starting pitcher in baseball.

5. Someone is leaving the rotation when Cole returns. I don’t envision the Yankees going with a six-man rotation, but maybe they will surprise us. If all five members of the current rotation are heathy, given the combination of production and money owed, I’m not sure who the odd man out will be. Usually these things have a way of taking care of themselves (injuries, lack of production, etc.) and Cole isn’t coming back any time soon, and maybe by the time he does, the Yankees will be in dire need of rotation help (knock on all of the wood). All I know is right now, Gil can’t lose his spot. He has been the team’s best starter.

Gil is only getting better too. He shut out the Orioles for 6 1/3 innings in Baltimore to lead the Yankees to their only win in that four-game series. Then in his next start, he allowed one hit over six innings to the Astros. He followed up that up by shutting out the Rays over six innings in Tampa (a magnificent start I got to watch in person), and then there was Sunday’s 14-strikeout performance.

6. “It was fun,” Juan Soto said of Gil’s dominance of the 6-1 win over the White Sox. “I mean, I was just standing out there.”

Soto had the luxury of standing out in right field smiling as Gil racked up strikeouts and because of his own destruction of the White Sox. Soto rebounded from his first Yankees slump with a 5-for-11 series, hitting a double and two home runs.

“I’ve been working my swing, working with my hitting coaches, watching videos,” Soto said. “I think we are in a good spot.”

Soto’s slash line is back up to a ridiculous .311/.411/.552.

7. On Sunday, with a chance to sweep the White Sox, Rodon took the ball and put the Yankees in an early two-run hole. He rebounded to have a solid start and his line from the day (6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 1 HR) looks nice, but allowing a home run, walk, triple sequence to Corey Jules, Korey Lee and Zach Remillard is worrisome. Rodon had to pitch around a two-on, no-out situation in the fourth, but after that it was smooth sailing and a chance to pitch to the scoreboard with Jon Berti opening the game with a three-run home run in the eventual 7-2 win.

“My goal is to go out there and think about getting 18 outs every time I come to the field,” Rodon said. “The goal is to start with 18 outs, and we’ll go from there.”

Last season, in 14 starts, Rodon got 18 outs three times. This season, he’s already accomplished it six times in 10 starts, including his last three starts and five of his last six.

8. Even with his shiny 3.27 ERA, Rodon hasn’t really dominated this year outside of a seven-inning, one-hit shutout of the A’s (the third-worst offense in the American League). I still don’t trust him. After last season’s antics of being out of shape, oft-injured, blowing a kiss to heckling fans in Anaheim and turning his back on Matt Blake during a mound visit that went undisciplined by his friend-first manager, it’s going to take a lot more than Rodon simply doing the job he’s grossly overpaid to do for one-third of a season.

“I sit down in the dugout now and look around, and I feel pretty comfortable in this stadium,” Rodon said. “I’m looking around and I’m like, ‘This does’t feel overwhelming anymore. This feels like home.'”

I want Rodon to do well, and I’m glad he mostly is. I also don’t forget the past and am not willing to easily move on from what he did (or didn’t do) last season. Ten starts doesn’t change that.

9. During the Yankees’ seven-game winning streak, they have outscored opponents 41-12 and their starters have an ERA of 0.80. They have built a two-game lead in the AL East and trail the Phillies by one game for the best record in baseball. They are playing as good as they have in two years with a winning percentage of an 111-win team. (Their preseason over/under win total was 90.5.)

10. There are still four games left on the current homestand before the Yankees head West for a 10-day, nine-game West Coast trip to play the Padres, Angels and Giants. The Yankees will host the AL West’s first-place Mariners (they would be 7 1/2 games out in the AL East) for the next four days. The Mariners are AL West good (25-22 with a plus-1 run differential), which means not very good, but they do have excellent starting pitching. It will be a good test for the Yankees’ offense.

After sweeping the Tigers and winning series against the Astros and Rays, the Yankees swept the Twins over the last three days. Winners of 10 of their last 12, the Yankees sit atop the American League.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. After beating up on the Tigers and Astros at home last week, the Yankees took care of business at Tropicana Field over the weekend with yours truly in attendance for the Sunday series finale. Winners of seven of their last nine, the Yankees put their recent run on the line against the hottest team in baseball over the last three-plus weeks and didn’t disappoint.

On Tuesday night in the series opener against the Twins, when Ryan Jeffers greeted Carlos Rodon with a leadoff home run to immediately put the Yankees in a one-run hole, I thought Here we go again! But after Jeffers crossed home plate at the end of his home run trot no other Twin crossed the plate for the remainder of the series. The Yankees went on to sweep the Twins, outscoring their 23-year-old doormat 14-1.

2. Rodon gave them a nice performance on Tuesday (6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 1 HR) and Marcus Stroman turned in his best start in five weeks on Wednesday (6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 K), but the star of the rotation in Minnesota was Clarke Schmidt, who put together the best outing of his career on Thursday: 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K.

“I’ve learned so much on the mental side of this game, how to navigate lineups and how to manage an outing throughout the past year and a half,” Schmidt said. “So it’s been really good to see that progression and continue to put some work in.”

Nine times through the rotation now and Schmidt leads Yankees starters in wins (5), ERA (2.49), FIP (3.41), strikeouts (55) and is second in innings pitched (50.2). The rotation has been so good that Nestor Cortes has the worst ERA of the group, and it’s not even bad at 4.02.

3. “His pitches are taking that next step all around,” Austin Wells said of Schmidt. “I think that’s just given him so many options to attack different hitters and different lineups.”

In the past Schmidt has had immense trouble with left-handed hitters and going through a lineup a third time. He overcame his lefty issues and of late he is having success going through lineups that vaunted third time. He has been the Yankees’ best and most consistent starter through more than a quarter of the season, and is as big of a reason as any for the Yankees sitting atop the American League.

4. Aside from winning (which is always the most important thing even if the organization forgets that at times), since the start of the Tigers series, Aaron Judge has returned to being Aaron Judge. Over the last 12 games, he’s hitting an absurd .452/.566/1.024 with nine doubles, five home runs, 11 RBIs, 10 walks and just eight strikeouts. Every ball Judge has to put into play for nearly two weeks seems to either go over the fence, hit it or bounce up against it.

“I’ve seen him obviously do a lot of great things the last six, seven years,” Aaron Boone said, “this trip alone … just seeing it and not missing when they do make a pitch to him.”

With Judge getting hot, Juan Soto has cooled off and is experiencing his first slump as a Yankee. Soto is hitting .111/.219/.148 over the last seven games. Soto carried the Yankees for the first six weeks of the season and Judge has carried them for the last two. One day they will both be at their best at the same. One day.

5. Even with the recent one-week slump, Soto is still hitting .302/.403/.517 on the season, which is a reminder of how great he has been in his first seven-plus weeks as a Yankee. Hal Steinbrenner told Jack Curry what every Yankees fan expects and that’s for Soto to be a Yankee “for the rest of his career.”

“I think it’s worth doing at some point,” Steinbrenner said of discussing an in-season extension. “I wanted to give Juan time to really settle in, have a conversation with him at some point.”

Oh, you think it’s worth talking to Soto and Scott Boras at some point about a contract extension before the best hitter on the planet reaches free agency at age 25 and every team has a chance to sign him? Good to know, Hal!

“They know the phone number and everything,” Soto said when asked about negotiating in season. “They know where to call.”

“We all know he’s generational, right?” Steinbrenner said.

Yes, we all know that, Hal.

“He’s the complete package. I had no doubts he would perform here under pressure; zero doubts with that … He’s fun to watch.”

6. As I have written many times since Soto became a Yankee, if he isn’t a Yankee for 2025 and beyond, it may be time to walk away from the team and the game. If the team that possesses more financial resources than any other and generates more revenue than any other isn’t going to do whatever it takes to sign a 25-year-old Soto then who will they do whatever it takes for?

To think about where the team would be without Soto when Judge was struggling through the first five-plus weeks of the season is scary. Without Soto, the 2024 Yankees are the second-half 2022 Yankees and 2023 Yankees. Without Soto in 2025, they will revert back to that.

7. Soto’s presence makes it so that Judge doesn’t have to be the offense, when you can’t count on for Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo for health reasons, or Gleyber Torres for consistency reasons. Torres only had one hit in the three games in Tampa, but it was a big one: a three-run home run to extend the Yankees lead after Boone and his bullpen nearly blew a six-run lead. Torres then went on pick up a pair of multi-hit games in Minnesota, going 5-for-12 in the series with two doubles. His slash line is still an embarrassing .223/.301/.295 with his OPS sub-.600 at .596, but he needs to start somewhere and maybe that three-run home run on Sunday at the Trop was that somewhere.

“It’s really good to see Gleyber starting to swing like we all know’s he’s capable of,” Boone said, “because he all of a sudden gets it going like that, then we got that real length going in our lineup.”

8. After struggling for a month, Anthony Volpe has gotten hot again as well, hitting .361/.385./.611 over the last eight games. With Judge being in an impossible out, Volpe and Torres getting hot and Jose Trevino hitting like Jorge Posada, Soto has been able to slump and Rizzo and Stanton have been able to remain unreliable without the team racking up losses. This is how a lineup is supposed to work. It’s been so long since the Yankees weren’t reliant on one batter to carry them that I forgot how a real lineup worked.

9. Am I going to harp on Boone’s mismanagement of the bullpen in the first game of the Brewers series back on April 19 all season? Why yes I am. Boone cost the Yankees a win by not going to Clay Holmes in that game, and since, Holmes has appeared in five games in the last 20 days and was only needed in a save situation in four of those games. Holmes has thrown six pitches in the last week and just five innings in May. This should serve as a reminder to Boone and all that you should worry about the game at hand and not about some potential scenario that may never play out. The Baseball Gods don’t like that.

10. Baseball is fun when your team is hitting home runs, getting timely hits and getting the kind of pitching the Yankees are. It likely won’t last forever since it rarely does (outside of 1998), but when things are going right it sure is fun.

I do expect it to last this weekend at the Stadium with the horrendous White Sox visiting. At 14-30 with a negative-87 run differential, they are the worst team in the AL and have had nothing to play for since the first week of the season. At the absolute minimum, I expect the Yankees to win the weekend series, and will be disappointed if the Yankees aren’t riding a seven-game winning streak at the end of play on Sunday.

The Yankees followed up their three-game sweep of the Tigers with a series win over the Astros. The season series with the Astros is now over with the Yankees having won six of seven.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees did their job against the Astros, taking two of three, winning the series and pushing the Astros another game under .500. The offense showed up on Tuesday (10 runs) and Wednesday (nine runs) and then left a whole bunch of baserunners on (eight) on Thursday.

The Yankees finished the season series 6-1 against the Astros. I would have gladly signed up for 4-3 and would have even taken 3-4. But 6-1? Maybe the rivalry that has been one-sided in favor of the Astros for seven years is flipping to the other side?

After sweeping the Tigers, the Yankees went 5-1 at the Stadium, and now have an AL-best .684 winning percentage at home.

2. Juan Soto hit .348/.423/.522 on the homestand and drove in eight runs and it feels like he was just OK in terms of his standard. Soto is so good that him having a .945 OPS against the type of pitching the Yankees faced from Detroit and Houston is just OK.

“It’s just the relentless nature of his at-bats,” Aaron Boone said of Soto. “He doesn’t give a pitch away.”

I think I think he was just OK this week because I expect him to be great, and he is. He’s so good that when he doesn’t come through in a big spot it’s shocking. He has met and exceeded all expectations as a Yankee, and this is a reminder that if he isn’t a Yankee in 2025 and for the rest of his career, I will have no choice but to walk away from the team.

3. “I think before Juan got here, that’s who we always have wanted to be as an offense,” Boone said. “I do think there’s been at least a subtle movement of the needle, because of his presence.”

I wish the other eight Yankees would or could emulate Soto and have the same mentality and presence at the plate that Boone thinks they “subtly” do, but they don’t. Boone can think what he wants, but the other eight hitters are all playing to the back of their baseball cards with Aaron Judge now showing up for the season after five weeks. Judge is who he is when he’s on (which is awesome), Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo are who they are, Alex Verdugo hasn’t changed, Gleyber Torres has been an outright disaster and after impressive starts to the season Anthony Volpe and Oswaldo Cabrera are back to their 2023 ways. (I will exclude the catching tandem since I don’t expect them to contribute offensively, and they rarely have.)

4. Volpe hit a pair of home runs in the Astros series after hitting one home run over the last month. But even with those long balls off of Justin Verlander and Ronel Blanco, Volpe’s hitting .224/.311/.343 since the sixth game of the year. Last year, he was a .209/.283/.383 hitter, so not much has changed.

When Volpe is ahead in the count (65 plate appearances), he’s a .311/.523/.533 hitter.

When Volpe is even in the count (43 plate appearances), he’s a .325/.342/.475 hitter.

When Volpe is behind in the count (63 plate appearances), he’s a .175/.175/.270 hitter.

Certainly, nearly every major-league hitter is going to be a better hitter when even or ahead in the count than when behind, but the disparity for Volpe when ahead or behind is startling. When he’s ahead in the count (1.056 OPS), he hits like he’s Mookie Betts. When he’s behind in the count (.445 OPS), he hits like he’s on his way to playing in an independent league.

I really thought after the first five games of the season Volpe’s approach and plan at the plate was here to stay. I was wrong. It doesn’t mean it won’t come back, it’s just not who he is or has been since those first five games.

5. After going 1-for-the Orioles series over four games, Judge looked like his old self on the six-game homestand against the Tigers and Astros. The Yankees faced five very good to Hall of Fame starting pitchers … and Spencer Arrighetti, who reminds me of the kind of arm the Yankees would call up in the mid-2000s for spot starts in what would be the only major-league appearances of their career. Arrighetti has an 8.44 ERA and has allowed 44 baserunners in 21 1/3 innings.

In the six games, Judge went 10-for-22 with four doubles, three home runs, seven RBIs, four walks and six strikeouts. He only grounded into one double play (he stills leads the league with 11) and even stole a base. A .455/.539/1.046 slash line and 1.584 OPS will do.

Judgey’s special, man. Judgey’s special,” Marcus Stroman said. “He’s not even hot yet.”

Let’s hope this is Judge “getting hot” and staying hot for an extended period of time to make up for whatever went on with him in the first five weeks of the season. It would be nice if Stroman could get hot as well.

6. Stroman put the Yankees in an early hole on Thursday, giving up three runs on two first-inning home runs. He managed to go 5 2/3 innings, but allowed four earned runs and 11 baserunners.

Stroman likes to live on the edges, get ground balls and get soft contact, but he’s been walking too many and not getting enough ground balls, having allowed seven home runs this season. He hasn’t pitch six innings in a start since his second start back on April 5 and has put 55 baserunners on in his last 30 3/2 innings, pitching to a 5.28 ERA with a .925 OPS against.

7. Carlos Rodon made up for the egg he laid in Baltimore (4 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 3 HR) with a strong performance against the Astros (6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB 7 K, 1 HR). He still has a long way to go for me to trust him or respect him (if I ever do) after last season, but he’s making progress.

8. The bullpen and bench are going to get help soon with Tommy Kahnle, Nick Burdi and Oswald Peraza all having started rehab assignments. DJ LeMahieu has resumed “baseball activities” (as opposed to hockey activities or basketball activities) though there is no timetable for his return after the Yankees completely botched his last one and allowed him to begin playing without imaging his injury to see if it had healed.

When LeMahieu comes back, the plan will be for him to be the everyday third baseman (or as close to “everyday” as a 35-year-old with season-ending injuries the last three years can be). That means Torres is safe as the everyday second base … unless … Peraza can hit consistently in the majors. If Peraza joins the team and hits, the Yankees will have no choice but to finally start sitting Torres with regularity.

After going 1-for-the Astros series with four walks, Torres’ OPS is at .565 on the season. Going back to September of last season, Torres has one home run in 60 games and 256 plate appearances. He’s already been demoted twice in the lineup and when you play defense and run the bases like he does, when you’re not hitting there’s nothing to fall back. A bloop single every few days isn’t going to cut it.

9. Remember when Boone said he didn’t go to Clay Holmes for a second inning in that eventual Friday night loss in Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago because of Holmes’ appearance pace? At the time, Holmes was on pace to appear in 75 games even though Boone said it was 80 games. And while 75 is a perfectly acceptable number, Boone chose to pitch Michael Tonkin and lose rather than close out a game in which the Yankees led. Tonkin has appeared in three games since, all in mop-up duty. Holmes has also appeared in three games since. Three games in 13 days. If Holmes doesn’t get into Friday’s game against the Rays, it will be three appearances for him in two weeks. His pace now is 66 games. Good call back in Milwaukee, Boone.

10. Now it’s off to Tampa for a three-game weekend series against the .500 Rays. Despite taking two of three from the Rays three weekends ago in the Bronx, the Yankees struggled to score in that series. The Aaron Boone Yankees have never played the Rays particularly well overall, especially at Tropicana Field. The Boone Yankees have been able to overcome their Astros issues (at least in the regular season), and it would be satisfying if they could do the same with their Rays issues.