1. On Thursday, I wrote the following:

This weekend will show us a lot of about what to think of the Yankees. If their June swoon has ended and their annual midsummer poor play is done, they will take care of the A’s. If the Yankees can’t beat up on the AL West’s worst at home in the middle of the A’s nine game road trip then we will know this recent two-and-a-half-week slide is much more than the “That’s baseball” the Yankees tell us it is.

The Yankees beat the A’s 3-0 on Friday, were routed 7-0 on Saturday and did the routing on Sunday with a 12-5 win to win the series. I’m much closer to believing the last few weeks were “That’s baseball” than thinking the summer the rest of the season is going to be what we have seen in June, but we will really know after the next week-plus against the Blue Jays, Mets and Cubs.

2. The Yankees did just enough to get to reliever-turned-starter Mitch Spence on Friday with three runs in five innings before being shut out for the final three innings by journeyman (and a not very good journeyman at that) Sean Newcomb. But three runs was enough because Will Warren went five scoreless and Tim Hill, Fernando Cruz, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams all pitched scoreless innings as well.

“A baseball season is full of ups and downs,” Cody Bellinger said after the win. “But we’ve handled both well. I really like where we’re at.”

3. Aaron Boone was asked how we would grade the first half of the season and he said, “Incomplete,” but also said the Yankees “are a team to be reckoned with.” Nothing like talking about how great you are after beating the last-place A’s and winning for just the eighth time in 17 games. Then again, this is a man who said the “the league has closed the gap” on the Yankees after losing the 2021 one-game playoff despite having never won a championship prior to or since that loss.

4. On Saturday, Clarke Schmidt’s scoreless inning streak came to an end as the A’s got to him for four runs with a pair of home runs over six innings. Allan Winans gave up a couple of more in relief, though it didn’t matter since the Yankees couldn’t score. The offense was stifled by former Yankee JP Sears (5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) again as he allowed one earned run in 11 1/3 innings against his former team this season. Sears has a 0.79 ERA against the Yankees in two starts this season and a 5.74 ERA in his other 15 starts. The Law of Ex-Yankees playing against the Yankees never fails.

5. With one day left in June, here is the OPS for each Yankee in what has been an abysmal offensive month:

Jazz Chisholm: .979
Aaron Judge: .975
J.C. Escarra: .867
Cody Bellinger: .845
DJ LeMahieu: .742
Trent Grisham: .683
Ben Rice: .671
Anthony Volpe: .661
Austin Wells: .647
Jasson Dominguez: .627
Giancarlo Stanton: .580
Paul Goldschmidt: .464
Oswald Peraza: .387

(Judge’s OPS looks much better than it has been after his two home runs on Sunday with the Yankees leading by five runs both times he went deep.)

6. Chisholm has been the Yankees’ best hitter since coming off the injured list on June 3. It was his solo home run that got the Yankees on the board on Friday and his bases-clearing triple that opened up Sunday’s game. When Chisholm went on the injured list on April 29, he was hitting .181/.304/.410. Since coming off the IL, he’s hitting .318/.379/.600.

7. After getting rocked by the Yankees in May (4 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 2 K), Luis Severino was lit up by his former team once again on Sunday: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 2 HR. Severino had issues with pitch tipping with the Yankees, and with the Yankees aware of them, they had to have been on something or some things to get to him for 14 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings over two starts.

8. When Marcus Stroman went on the IL in April, I figured we wouldn’t see him throw another pitcher as a Yankee. I prayed we wouldn’t see him throw another pitch for the Yankees. On Friday, Boone said the Yankees wanted to see Stroman throw his latest bullpen session before deciding on if he would start Sunday, since a bullpen session is more than important than the actual on-field results Stroman has provided for the last calendar year. Sure enough, Stroman got the start on Sunday. Not because of his bullpen, but because the Yankees are paying him $18 million and it will be impossible at this point for him to reach his innings clause to guarantee his 2026 salary.

Stroman only allowed one earned run over five innings, which was better than Schmidt provided on Saturday, even if it was only against the A’s, who went 13-31 between Yankees series. The Yankees are going to keep Stroman in the rotation because of the money owed, though with days off and the All-Star break soon, they won’t need to use him that often if they don’t want to. (They shouldn’t want to.) As of now, Stroman is scheduled to pitch on Friday at Citi Field. That’s about as guaranteed as a loss gets in the majors even with how bad the Mets have been for weeks now. If Stroman does start that game, it will likely be the last big game of his career. Maybe he goes out and gives it all he has one last time and surprises everyone.

9. Before the Yankees get to the second half of the 2025 Subway Series they have an enormous four-game series in Toronto with the Blue Jays, who are only three games behind the Yankees. I’m much less worried about the Blue Jays than I am the Rays, but as long as they are this close, I’m worried. If the standings were based on expected wins and losses from run differential, the Yankees would have a 12-game lead on the Blue Jays. But in reality, the Yankees have played five games worse than their expected record suggests and the Blue Jays have played four games better.

10. There isn’t a Blue Jays starter that should scare me (the Yankees will see Max Scherzer, Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios and Chris Bassitt), but with the inconsistent offense the Yankees have provided throughout the season, everyone scares me right now. If Sears can shut down the Yankees like he did on Saturday, any of those four names could duplicate that type of performance and all four have much more talent and ability than Sears to do so.

I trust the Yankees’ starting pitching. I expect strong starts from everyone in the rotation, so I’m not worried about the pitching not showing up this week in Toronto. I’m only really worried about the offense. Will we get the offense that blasted Gausman in April or that the offense couldn’t hit Kyle Hendricks at home two weeks ago? It better be the former.

1. The 16-games-in-16-days stretch is over. The Yankees finished their longest off-day-less part of 2025 with a 7-9 record. None of the five teams they played (Royals, Red Sox, Angels, Orioles and Reds) currently holds a playoff spot.

It was a disappointing two-plus weeks. The Yankees were supposed to stack wins during this time, and instead, they stacked losses. When the stretch began they had a seven-game lead in the loss column over the Rays. That lead is down to one game.

2. At least the Yankees ended the stretch with a win. After being unable to score following the first inning on Monday, the Yankees blew a three-run lead late on Tuesday. That loss helped them increase their league lead for most losses (five) when leading by multiple runs at the start of the seventh inning and increased their league lead for worst road extra-inning record in automatic runner history. (Stats from Katie Sharp.) (The Yankees have scored two of 11 automatic runners this season and one of those two scored on a wild pitch). On Wednesday, they won behind Max Fried for the 13th time in 17 games, finally beating the Reds 7-1.

3. The Yankees are 13-4 when Fried starts and the only one of his 17 starts that should have been a loss was when he blew a three-run lead to the Dodgers at the end of May. The Yankees are 33-30 in games not started by Fried, which is a problem.

“I told him again today, ‘Just watching you more and more, I would not have wanted to hit off you,’” Aaron Boone said of Fried.

Boone was six percent worse than league average as a hitter in his career. I’m not sure there was anyone he wanted to hit off of.

4. The only run the Reds scored was unearned thanks to a throwing error from Jazz Chisholm. He has been shaky at third of late, but that’s to be expected when you’re being asked to play out of position. In his career, Chisholm has gone from shortstop to center field to second base to third base.

Chisholm is an exceptional talent. Since the start of the last season, he is one of five players with 50-plus steals and 35-plus home runs. The other four players are Elly De La Cruz, Shohei Ohtani, Jose Ramirez and Bobby Witt Jr. (Stat from Katie Sharp). In 96 games as a Yankee (regular season only), he has hit .257/.332/.483 with 22 home runs and 53 RBIs and has stolen 28 bases in 32 attempts. Again, he’s an exceptional talent. But it would be nice if he could stop talking all of the time.

5. On Tuesday, Chisholm had a 2-0 pitch called a strike that was clearly a ball. Instead of the count being 3-0 it was 2-1 and Chisholm eventually struck out swinging. Did the umpire force him to strike out swinging? No. But once the 2-0 pitch was called a strike he couldn’t compose himself and let the bad call ruin his at-bat. Eventually it ruined his game as he was ejected because he the extra long leash he was given to argue his point wasn’t enough.

On Wednesday, Chisholm hit a mammoth two-run home run, further proving how talented he is.

“After what happened last night, it felt great to get a hold of one, Chisholm said.

After what happened last night? YOU created what happened last night and your ejection. YOU couldn’t get over one missed call. (On Wednesday, a blatant strike was called a ball against Chisholm, but he didn’t have anything to say about that.)

After Wednesday’s win, Chisholm participated in the postgame, on-field interview and said, “I feel like we got a great team and I feel like we’re going to make the World Series again.” Even if you believe that why are saying that on June 25 after you just managed to salvage a game against the crappy Reds, have lost eight of 12 and have watched your seven-game lead in the loss column over the Rays drop to one?

I like Chisholm. I want to like him more, but he makes it so hard.

6. Trent Grisham and Jasson Dominguez each had four hits in the win. Because Cody Bellinger sat on Wednesday (despite being 2-for-2 with two home runs in his career against Brady Singer) he won’t be sitting on Friday. That means either Grisham or Dominguez will sit coming off a four-hit game. (It’s going to be Dominguez as they continue to stunt his development.)

“The more games that you play, the more if helps your confidence,” said Dominguez who will be benched for at least one of the three games this weekend.

7. It was another ho-hum hitless night for Anthony Volpe. He went 1-for-11 with six strikeouts in the series, but he did have the fake triple in the second game that he, his manager and the front office will be able to live off of for a while. He’s 4-for-37 in his last 12 games. Those four: an infield single, a bloop single, a home run off the short porch foul pole and a single turned into a triple. He’s down to .230/.418/.723 on the season. Fortunately for him, the Yankees’ roster construction allows him to keep playing every day.

8. Fernando Cruz struck out all three batters he faced in a scoreless eighth. It was the second time in three outings Cruz struck out all three batters he faced. He has 53 strikeouts in 32 innings and hasn’t allowed a hit in his last seven appearances. 

9. The Athletics come to the Bronx this weekend for a three-game series. The last time the Yankees played them in the second week of May, the A’s were 20-18. Now they’re 33-49 with a game against the AL-best Tigers on Thursday. The A’s are 13-31 since the start of their last series with the Yankees.

10. This weekend will show us a lot of about what to think of the Yankees. If their June swoon has ended and their annual midsummer poor play is done, they will take care of the A’s. If the Yankees can’t beat up on the AL West’s worst at home in the middle of the A’s nine game road trip then we will know this recent two-and-a-half-week slide is much more than the “That’s baseball” the Yankees tell us it is.

1. If you thought the Yankees’ 9-0 blowout win over the Orioles on Saturday and their 3-2 comeback win over the Orioles on Sunday would put an end to their annual midsummer swoon, you thought wrong. The Yankees followed up back-to-back wins over the Orioles with a 6-1 loss to the Reds in Cincinnati on Monday. Aaron Judge hit a first-inning home run and the offense followed with 8 1/3 scoreless innings.

2. The Yankees went 8-for-36 with one walk and 13 strikeouts. They stranded nine baserunners, going 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position. It was the type of offensive performance Yankees fans have come to expect this month from Aaron Boone calls “one of the best offenses in baseball.”

“We didn’t put the ball in play with runners out there when we had opportunities,” Boone said, stating the obvious.

3. Paul Goldschmidt went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts. Jazz Chisholm went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Anthony Volpe went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. DJ LeMahieu went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. Giancarlo Stanton went 1-for-4 with three strikeouts. (Jasson Dominguez went 2-for-4 and will probably be benched on Tuesday.)

“I think it’s just going back to guys having intent, going up there with a plan and trying to execute,” Judge said. “You’re not always going to drive the guy in or move him over, but as long as we continue to have good at-bats, I like our chances.”

4. The Yankees placed Ryan Yarbrough on the 10-day injured list with an oblique strain that bothered him for two starts. They called up the 29-year-old Allan Winans with 40 career innings in the majors to take his place in the rotation. Winans faced the minimum over the first three innings on Monday in his Yankees debut, but then unraveled after the Reds’ lineup saw him for a second time.

“He’s not overpowering with his stuff,” Boone said, “so his mix has got to be good and his command has got to be right.”

Winans through the third inning: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Winans after the third inning: 1.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 1 HR, 2 HBP

“I feel like there’s another gear I could hit, probably,” Winans said. “A couple of missed execution pitches, a couple of fastballs I’d like back.”

5. Winans had a golden opportunity to pitch well and keep a rotation spot while Yarbrough is out and possibly keep one for a while if he were to continue to pitch well and someone else were to go down. If he does have another gear, he should have gone to it on Monday as now he’ll likely be replaced in the rotation by Marcus Stroman.

6. After not starting on Sunday, Anthony Volpe returned to the lineup and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and misplayed a ball for good measure. Volpe went nearly a week without getting a hit, then had a three-hit game on Saturday (his three hits were an infield single, a home run off the short porch foul pole and a bloop single), walked as a pinch hitter on Sunday and then had his fifth 0-for-4 in eight days on Monday. His OPS+ dipped below 100 after Friday, making him once again worse than league average, but went back above 100 after Saturday. It now sits at 101. Please turn out to be great, George Lombard Jr.

7. The Yankees will face Chase Burns in his major-league debut on Tuesday. In 66 innings this season across High-A, Double-A and Triple-A, the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft has struck out 89 and allowed only 38 hits. The Yankees struck out 13 times on Monday and it wouldn’t surprise me if that number is surpassed on Tuesday.

8. With the right-hander starting, I’m sure Boone will go back to hitting Trent Griffey and Ben Bonds at the top of the lineup and will give us something like this:

Trent Grisham CF/Ben Rice 1B
Ben Rice 1B/Trent Grisham CF
Aaron Judge DH
Cody Bellinger RF
Jazz Chisholm 3B
Jasson Dominguez LF
Austin Wells C
Anthony Volpe SS
DJ LeMahieu/Oswald Peraza 2B

9. The Yankees started out June with four wins in five games. Then they lost two to the Red Sox, swept the Royals, were swept by the Red Sox, lost three of four to the Angels, won a home series against the Orioles and were shut down by the Reds. They have lost eight of 11 and are now 10-11 in June. The 16-games-in-16-days stretch was supposed to be an opportunity for the Yankees to stack wins against some mediocre teams in the Royals, Red Sox, Angels, Orioles and Reds, and instead, they’re 6-8 against them.

10. There are two games left in the stretch before the Yankees’ first day off since June 9. (Poor Yankees, 16 games in 16 days!) Carlos Rodon gets the ball in the first of the two looking for his first great start in three weeks, as the offense looks to do to Burns what a major-league offense is supposed to do to a rookie starter in their debut. The Yankees need to get back in the win column as their lead in the loss column is down to two games.

1. I thought Sunday would be the low point of the season. The Yankees were shut out at Fenway Park and swept by the Red Sox, falling to 1-5 against their storied rival on the season. They finished the weekend having scored just three runs in 28 innings for their worst offensive showing at the hitter-friendly park in more than 100 years. But then Monday happened.

I thought Monday’s loss to the Angels would be the low point of the season. The Yankees left 12 runners on base, couldn’t score in multiple leadoff-runner-in-scoring-position situations and lost in 11 innings to the lowly Angels. But then Tuesday happened.

On Tuesday, the Yankees were shut out again and again by the Angels, tying a franchise record with three consecutive shutouts against. They didn’t face a capable starter like they had on Sunday or Monday, instead they faced Kyle Hendricks, who entered the game with a 5.20 ERA, good enough for second worst in the majors. Hendricks had averaged 5.6 strikeouts per nine innings with his mid-80s repertoire this season, but he struck out nine Yankees over six innings, his most strikeouts in a single game in nearly five years.

The Yankees haven’t scored a run in their last 29 innings. They have scored five runs in their last 63 innings. They have scored in five of their last 69 innings.

2. Cody Bellinger called the Yankees’ offensive performance over the last six games “a little rut” after Tuesday’s loss. On Monday, Boone had called it a “few-game tough stretch.” Six games isn’t “little” and it’s certainly more than a “few.” If it weren’t such a big deal then why did the Yankees need to hold a team meeting after being blanked by the-hanging-on-to-a-career Hendricks to “remember who they are” like they’re Mufasa talking down from heaven to Simba.

3. On Tuesday, Boone attributed the Yankees’ embarrassing six-game run to “baseball” and with a straight face said, “We are one of the best offenses in the league.”

“Hendricks, I thought, was good,” Boone said, “rocking us back and forth.”

You want to tip your cap to Garrett Crochet? Sure, he’s one of the best in the game. Jose Soriano? OK. Hendricks? No. Absolutely not. Tipping your cap ends with Hendricks.

“We gotta go up and really focus on having quality at-bats,” Boone said. “And that will happen and hopefully tomorrow’s the day.”

“Hopefully!” That’s where the state of the offense is now: relying on hope.

4. Aaron Judge went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. After the Yankees’ win last Wednesday, Judge had homered four times in four games and was hitting .394/.490/.779 on the season. Aaron Boone didn’t start him for the first time in 2025 the next day, and since then, Judge is 2-for-20 with 13 strikeouts and two walks. He has lost 22 points on his batting average, 21 points on his on-base percentage and 39 points on his slugging percentage.

5. Paul Goldschmidt went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Goldschmidt is hitting .161/.230/.232 over the last three weeks. He has one multi-hit game in June and two extra-base hits in the month.

6. Austin Wells went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Despite his impressive three-run home runs against Crochet and Noah Cameron over the last two weeks, Wells has a .680 OPS over the last five weeks. He has struck out multiple times in three of his last four games and has struck out 31 times in his last 90 plate appearances.

7. Anthony Volpe went 0-for-3. The Golden Boy was finally moved all the way to eighth in the batting order ahead of the only hitter worse than him in the “everyday” lineup. Volpe’s slash line is down to .238/.311/.426. His OPS+ has fallen to 106+. The faction of fans that defend him with the argument that he has been above league average this season are watching their argument dissolve with each game. Volpe is another week like this past one from being right where he has been since his debut: below league average.

8. DJ LeMahieu went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. A few days ago he couldn’t go first to third on an obvious first-to-third base hit because of his legs. On Monday, he couldn’t get a bunt down that would have possibly led to a Yankees win and instead struck out because of his abilities. On Tuesday, he couldn’t keep a ground ball to second from reaching the outfield and it led to the Angels’ first run because of his age. LeMahieu is down to .244/.333/.341 with a 92 OPS+. He’s 2-for-17 over the last week. He has no power, no legs, no range.

LeMahieu has become the Yankees’ family dog who wanders around aimlessly and goes to the bathroom all over the place and lies around and sleeps all day. You try to pretend like the end isn’t near and you try to remember the good times to get through the bad times. Once in a while the dog will do something to remind you of what it used to be, but it’s just a momentary tease.

LeMahieu is being paid $15 million this season and next. He’s going to continue to get opportunities because of that. And there will be days a ground ball of his finds a hole or he inside-outs a pitch to right field. But those will be the momentary teases. I will remember his 2019 and 2020 seasons. I will always defend him for how good he was in trying to single-handedly bring the Yankees to the 2019 World Series while the rest of the team no-showed like it does every October. But he’s as washed up as it gets for someone still being given playing time.

9. Boone moved Volpe down and benched Trent Grisham and Ben Rice, while batting Jasson Dominguez leadoff. I liked it. I would do it again on Wednesday. I have seen enough Grisham and Rice over the last month to think Grisham is anything more than a fourth outfielder and it’s hard to keep harping on Rice’s all-red Statcast metrics when it’s not translating into actual results. Keep Dominguez at the top of the lineup for an extended period and see what he gives you there. On Tuesday, he provided a base hit and a stolen base, which is a lot more than anyone else is doing.

10. The Yankees’ franchise record for consecutive shutouts against is three (stat from Katie Sharp), so they are one away from the record. The franchise record for consecutive scoreless innings by the offense is 37 (stat from Katie Sharp), so they are eight scoreless innings away from that record. The Yankees could break both records on Wednesday night. Will Michael Kay exclaim, “History with an exclamation point!” if they do?

1. The Yankees were shut out by the Angels for 11 innings on Monday at Yankee Stadium. They were shut out by the Red Sox on Sunday. They were held to two runs by the Red Sox on Saturday. They scored one run against the Red Sox in 10 innings on Friday. They scored one run against the Royals on Thursday. They scored one run over the last seven innings against the Royals on Wednesday. The Yankees haven’t scored a run in their last 21 innings. They have scored five runs in their last 54 innings. They have scored in five of their last 60 innings.

2. “Going through a few-day tough stretch here of producing some offense,” Aaron Boone said.

I would say it’s more than a few. The Yankees have had trouble scoring for six straight games. They single-handedly revived the Red Sox’ season, and following their 1-0 loss to the Angels on Monday, their lead in the loss column in the AL East is down to three games.

“[Jose] Soriano was really good,” Boone said. “He kept us in the ballpark.”

That’s what Soriano does. He hasn’t allowed a home run since April 22. And when the Yankees don’t hit the ball over the wall, they don’t know what to do. When they aren’t hitting home runs, they’re pathetic. Today marks a week since someone other than Aaron Judge hit a home run. A week!

3. It’s not that the Yankees didn’t have opportunities to score runs, it’s that they are the worst situational hitting team in baseball. They lack the awareness and ability to get a runner in from second with no outs, and if they were given five outs to get the runner in, I still don’t think they would be capable of it.

On Monday, they had runners on first and second with no outs in the first inning and didn’t score. They got a leadoff double in the second inning and the runner stayed put. They hit into an inning-ending double play in the fourth. They stranded two in the fifth. They left a runner on second in the seventh and left another on in the eighth.

4. With the game tied 0-0 in the bottom of the ninth, Giancarlo Stanton delivered a leadoff double and then was removed for a pinch runner in Jasson Dominguez. Rather than do everything possible to score the run and win the game, the Yankees seemed to be playing for multiple runs when one run would end the game.

Boone inexplicably let Jazz Chisholm swing away, and Chisholm, as he always does, tried to hit the ball on the 4 train tracks rather than just put the ball in play. He struck out on three pitches.

Next up was Anthony Volpe. If Chisholm is the worst situational hitter in baseball then Volpe is second. Volpe constantly swings at early pitches in counts as if he’s in an 0-2 hole. In this at-bat, Dominguez had third base stolen, but Volpe swung away and popped up a ball foul to send Dominguez back to second. When Dominguez went for third again, Volpe did what he does best and hit a ground ball to the left side of the infield, leading Dominguez to be tagged for the second out. Austin Wells struck out swinging to end the inning, with the third strike above his head.

5. Jonathan Loaisiga stranded the automatic runner in the top of the 10th, but the Yankees stranded theirs in the bottom half. DJ LeMahieu tried to bunt the runner over to third, but couldn’t and ended up striking out and then Trent Grisham and Paul Goldschmidt flew out;.

In the 11th, Loaisiga allowed a one-out, excuse-me double down the left-field line to score the automatic runner from second. In the bottom of the inning, the Angels intentionally walked Aaron Judge to secure the win. Cody Bellinger flew out, Goldschmidt was thrown out at home, Chisholm reached on an infield single and then Volpe swung at the first pitch of his at-bat and did what he does best again: hit a weak ground ball to the left side.

“First pitch is the best one to hit sometimes,” Boone said.

Sometimes the first pitch is a good one to hit. But that one wasn’t. If it had been good, why did Volpe swing like he was in an 0-2 hole battling for the game and take an off-balanced, half-hearted swing? Either the pitch wasn’t a good one to swing or Volpe isn’t good. Or both.

6. “We had some leverage there late with the runner on second,” Boone said, “and just couldn’t push it around.”

The Yankees are a disaster in extra innings. They have played nine extra innings this season, which means they have had nine automatic runners. One of those nine have scored.

7. Do you think it’s a coincidence the Yankees continue to lose one- and two-run games? Do you think it’s random that the team Boone manages has no idea how to drive in runs with productive outs? Do you think it’s just bad luck that the team can’t win games when situational hitting, fundamentals and managing are heightened? On Monday, the Yankees were 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position in the game. (The one was the infield hit that led to no runs.) They left 12 on base.

8. It wouldn’t surprise me if this dumbass team gives Stanton the day off on Tuesday while they are starved for offense. It would be very Yankees for them to sit him and say it was the plan to give him a day off after he played one game since the World Series.

9. The free fall for Grisham and Ben Rice continues. Volpe and Wells are back to their usual selves. Chisholm is swinging for the fences with every swing like he was before he got hurt, DJ LeMahieu’s few-game hot streak is over and April Bellinger has returned. The only capable, trustworthy bat remains Judge and Ron Washington isn’t dumb enough to let him beat his team as he continues to intentionally walk him. Things are bad right now with four straight losses and losses in six of nine, but it’s not hard to see how it can get worse if the offense doesn’t wake up.

10. The Yankees have wasted strong starts by Ryan Yarbrough, Max Fried and Clarke Schmidt and a winnable start from Carlos Rodon. The starting pitching isn’t good enough to continue to give the Yankees these efforts, and outside of Fried, there aren’t any expectations for the other four. That includes Will Warren, who gets the ball on Tuesday.

Kyle Hendricks goes for the Angels. If the Yankee can’t wake up and hit the soft-tossing Hendricks and his 5.20 ERA, I don’t know when they will wake up and put an end to this embarrassing offensive run.