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?