As long as Aaron Boone is manager it’s hard to envision the Yankees winning the World Series, and for at least another season, he will be manager.
I knew this would happen, and yet, I’m still disgusted by it happening. I knew Hal Steinbrenner would retain Aaron Boone. I knew it. It doesn’t matter that the Yankees were just swept by the Astros in embarrassing fashion, and it wouldn’t have mattered if the Yankees lost to the Guardians in the ALDS, or if they had completely blown their 15 1/2-game lead, or if they missed the playoffs completely.
“As far as Boone’s concerned, we just signed him and for all the same reasons I listed a year ago, I believe he is a very good manager,” Steinbrenner said. “I don’t see a change there.”
It doesn’t matter that Boone and his coaching staff spent the hours before Sunday’s Game 4 showing their players videos of their organization experiencing the worst collapse in postseason history as a motivational tactic. It doesn’t matter that the Yankees have grown progressively worse under Boone’s watch since losing Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS and moving on from Joe Girardi. It doesn’t matter that with Boone as manager, the Yankees have been eliminated by both the Red Sox and Astros in two postseasons, and by the Rays once, and in a season in which Boone’s Yankees were the odds-on favorite to represent the American League in the World Series (2021), they finished fifth in the AL and third in their own division with their postseason lasting nine innings (but really not even one full inning thanks to allowing a first-inning, two-run home run). It was after that depressing, miserable season that Steinbrenner decided to double down on his decision to hire Boone by giving him a new three-year deal with a fourth-year option.
A year ago, Boone became the first manager in Yankees history to be given a fifth year on the job without winning a championship in his first four years. Now, he has broken his own record, becoming the first manager in Yankees history to be given a sixth year on the job without winning a championship in his first five. That’s just a small part of the prestigious history he has helped create as Yankees manager.
In 2018, Boone oversaw the most lopsided home postseason loss in franchise history. In this year’s postseason, his Yankees became the first team in Major League Baseball postseason history to have a three-game span with 12 hits or fewer, 40-plus strikeouts and three losses. His Yankees set the MLB record for most consecutive games in postseason history with six hits or fewer at 10 straight games. After Game 3 of the ALDS, his Yankees recorded the lowest team batting average through eight postseason games in MLB history as well. And best of all, Boone’s bullpen management of Game 3 of ALDS became the first time the Yankees as an organization have blown a multi-run lead in the ninth inning of a postseason game, as they were 167-0 prior to Boone deeming Clay Holmes unavailable.
And Boone deemed Holmes unavailable on a night in which Holmes told the media he was available to pitch, which led to that night’s starter (Luis Severino) questioning Boone’s bullpen management to the media. It was Severino who in Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS didn’t know what time the game started before getting rocked by the Red Sox and before Boone let that game get out of his hand with his slow hook and poor choice of relievers, just like it was Harrison Bader this postseason unaware he was leading off for the first time as a Yankee until the media told him.
When Boone was hired, fans were led to believe the Yankees chose him over more experienced and better-suited candidates because of his communication skills. And yet, the team’s communication failed at least twice (that the public knows about) in this postseason to go along with countless other instances since 2018. Instances like Boone benching Gary Sanchez in the postseason in favor of his personal favorite Kyle Higashioka without explaining to Sanchez his decision, or Boone saying he didn’t think Domingo German needed to address the clubhouse upon returning from his domestic violence suspension. It wasn’t until Zack Britton spoke out about German’s presence that Boone backtracked and had German apologize to the team to try to make amends for being a scumbag.
“Fire Boone” chants began at Yankee Stadium during the 2021 season and carried over to this season when the Yankees watched a 15 1/2-game division lead fall to one game in the loss column. When questioned about the possibility of blowing the division, Boone told the media, “If we blow this thing, you’ll have a hell of a story to write.” His use of the word “if” was an admission that the Yankees might blow the single-largest division lead in baseball history. I’m shocked the manager who didn’t deny the possibility of blowing the AL East this season thought it was smart to both show his team video highlights of the worst moment in organization history and willingly tell the media and public about his decision show these videos.
Steinbrenner’s decision to give Boone a new contract last season was his own admission as well: an admission that winning doesn’t matter and losing is acceptable. That’s because winning doesn’t matter to Steinbrenner. The Yankees’ revenues are at an all-time high, and year after year the team’s payroll isn’t relative to revenue. Winning isn’t close to being a top priority for ownership, if it’s even a priority at all. George Steinbrenner planned on leaving the team to his son-in-law over his own children, and then when his daughter and son-in-law divorced, he had no choice other than to leave the team to his children, who had never wanted a part of running a baseball team. We’re likely seeing why George didn’t want Hal to run his team.
If Steinbrenner isn’t willing to replace Boone then the only other hope is that Brian Cashman isn’t given a new deal and a new general manager wants his own manager. Unfortunately, that prayer isn’t going to be answered, as Steinbrenner announced he’s working on a new deal with Cashman, who has been Yankees general manager for a quarter of a century, and has produced one World Series appearance in two decades.
“Cash and I had some preliminary conversions,” Steinbrenner said on Wednesday.
Cashman gave up on Sonny Gray after 2018, saying, “I don’t feel like we can go through the same exercise and expect different results,” and yet, the Yankees just went through the same exercise in 2022 as they did the previous four seasons, and to no surprise the result was the same: no World Series. It seemed unfathomable ownership could possibly bring back the same general manager and manager tandem that continues to fail and the same roster that continues to disappoint, but it’s happening, again.
Boone is a loser, who never won anything as a player and hasn’t as a manager, and the Yankees have become losers under him. A once-proud franchise that used to live in the World Series hasn’t been there in 13 years, and it’s hard to expect that number to not reach 14 in 2023. As long as Boone is manager it’s hard to envision the Yankees winning the World Series, and for at least another season, he will be manager.
The Yankees lost 6-5 to the Astros in Game 4 of the ALCS, completing the series sweep. The Yankees’ season is now over and the World Series drought is up to 13 years.
The Yankees lost 6-5 to the Astros in Game 4 of the ALCS, completing the series sweep. The Yankees’ season is now over and the World Series drought is up to 13 years.
1. I couldn’t have cared less about Game 4. I had spent the last nearly two weeks sleep depriving myself through the ALDS and the first three games of the ALCS and to go to and from Yankee Stadium. After the Game 3 embarrassment, I wasn’t about to subject myself to go back to the Bronx for Game 4, so when I left the Stadium on Saturday after the seventh inning, I knew I would be saying goodbye until next season.
2. The idea the Yankees could pull off the single greatest comeback in the history of major professional sports was absolutely ridiculous. The 2022 Yankees are no 2004 Red Sox. When the Red Sox came back in the ninth inning against Mariano Rivera in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS and then erased a two-run deficit in the eighth inning of Game 5 the following night, it didn’t matter that they had to go to New York for Games 6 and 7, as they were set up with Curt Schilling and Derek Lowe to start those games. Meanwhile, the Yankees would turn to Jon Lieber in Game 6 and Joe Torre was undecided on a starter for Game 7, eventually choosing Kevin Brown. Once the Red Sox won Game 5, the series was theirs, a series they never should have been down 3-0 in to begin with.
If the Yankees were to survive Game 4 with Nestor Cortes against Lance McCullers Jr., they would still have to win games started by Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez in the series while countering with Jameson Taillon, Luis Severino, Gerrit Cole on short rest and an exhausted and overused bullpen. They would still have to win two games in Houston, a place they have won a single postseason game in three ALCS. They would have to beat a team they only led for a total of six batters over 10 games in 2022 four straight times. It was never going to happen.
3. Within the Yankees on Sunday, Chad Bohling, the team’s Director of Mental Conditioning, sent around a video compilation of the 2004 Red Sox coming back against the Yankees. It was an appalling strategy, and yet, Aaron Boone gleefully told the media about his team watching 2004 ALCS highlights in the clubhouse to prepare for Game 4 of their own ALCS. The message couldn’t have been more tone deaf. Did Boone think Yankees fans would be excited and pumped to hear the team they invest so much of their time and money on was watching replays of the destruction of the most recent Yankees dynasty?
With ideas like this, it’s no surprise Bohling has been employed by the Yankees in his role for the last 12 years, which happens to be every season since the team’s last championship. Bohling has overseen the team’s mental skills since the first season after the 2009 World Series win, a period of 12 years in which the team has appeared in zero World Series and has lost five ALCS.
While the Yankees were tucked away in their clubhouse watching Kevin Millar draw a leadoff walk against Rivera, watching Dave Roberts steal second and Bill Mueller single him home, Boone was spending his time before the game FaceTiming with David Ortiz and picking his brain as to how to pull off the unthinkable. There would be only one way for the Yankees to win four straight and destroy the Astros’ prolonged success over them the way the Red Sox did to the Yankees: score runs.
4. In the first three games of the series, the Yankees scored two earned runs, and four total. (The two unearned came on Valdez’s double error.) Two runs produced on their own in 27 innings. A disastrous offensive performance for a team that seems to one-up their disastrous October offensive performances each year. But in Game 4, the Yankees bats came alive. It still didn’t matter.
The Yankees took a 2-0 lead in the first and had a 3-0 lead at the end of the second. The insane Yankees fans who actually attended the game were jumping around in the crowd as if the Yankees were on the verge of clinching a World Series berth. And then the third inning happened.
5. Cortes walked No. 9 hitter Martin Maldonado, as the Yankees continued to display their inability of retiring the bottom of the Astros’ order. After Cortes fell behind Jose Altuve, Boone visited Cortes on the mound with a trainer as Cortes’ velocity had dropped nearly 3 mph. Cortes was able to talk Boone out of pulling him, but went on to walk Altuve. With two on and no outs and Jeremy Pena representing the tying run, Boone stayed in the dugout against his better judgment to allow Cortes to face the right-handed Pena, who was having an all-time postseason to that point. Cortes fell behind 3-1, threw an 82 mph batting practice cutter with his diminished velocity and Pena sent it into the left-field seats, narrowly missing the second deck. Tie game.
6. Boone then took Cortes out. After the game Boone said Cortes was dealing with a groin issue, the same groin issue that caused him to miss starts in the regular season. Boone went on to say that Cortes aggravated the injury in the ALDS. And yet, there was Boone letting his starter with a known injury pitch to the top of the Astros’ order with diminished stuff and velocity. In each of the four games in the ALCS, Boone made a decision that backfired and helped the Yankees lose, and his decision to leave Cortes in wasn’t the only one.
The Astros went ahead 4-3 in the third. The Yankees tied the game at 4 in the bottom of the fourth, and in the bottom of the sixth, Harrison Bader hit his fifth home run of the postseason to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead. The Yankees were nine outs away from a Game 4 win and from completing the first step in the long road to trying to pull off a miracle. They might have done won the game, and there might be a Game 5 tonight, if not for a Boone pregame decision.
7. After the Yankees lost Game 3 to the Guardians in the ALDS, Boone benched Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The worst everyday Yankee on a Yankees team competing for a championship in the team’s history had single-handedly helped the Guardians put the Yankees on the brink of elimination, and just a little more than a month since the delusional Boone referred to Kiner-Falefa as “one of the best shortstops in the game,” he was benching one of his favorite players. The Yankees won Games 4 and 5 over the Guardians and saved their season without Kiner-Falefa’s unstable glove and weak bat in the lineup.
For Game 1 of the ALCS, it was as if the ALDS never happened. There was Kiner-Falefa back on the lineup and starting at shortstop. With a less-than-healthy Matt Carpenter, and without DJ LeMahieu and Andrew Benintendi, the Yankees were going to need to optimize every inch of their roster to have a prayer in competing with the Astros, and Boone was willingly playing the team’s at-best, third-best shortstop in Game 1.
After the Yankees lost Game 1, Kiner-Falefa was back on the bench. The Yankees were 1-4 in the playoffs when he started and he was providing them nothing in the field or at the plate. After choosing not to play Top 50 MLB prospect and the Yankees’ third-best prospect Oswald Peraza with any consistency upon being called up in September, and after purposely leaving him off the ALDS roster, Boone was now OK with starting Peraza at shortstop in Game 2 of the ALCS. Peraza rewarded the decision with a fantastic play on the first batted ball of the game by the Astros, robbing Altuve of a would-be leadoff hit, fielded every routine ground ball flawlessly and used a 360-spin to complete a jaw-dropping double play with Gleyber Torres. Peraza should have become the Yankees’ everyday shortstop the moment he was called up from Triple-A, where he led the Yankees’ farm team in home runs. In 18 games in the majors, he hit .306/.404/.832 and played exceptional defense. Boone had done everything he could to avoid using Peraza, but finally it seemed like he was coming to his senses, and even if Peraza wasn’t going to hit in the playoffs, at least the Yankees were getting elite defense at the most important infield position.
Peraza never saw the field again. Boone decided to use Oswaldo Cabrera at shortstop in Game 3 instead of Peraza, and in Game 4, with the Yankees on the brink of elimination for the second time in less than a week, Boone went back to Kiner-Falefa. It was unbelievable, and at the same time, very believable. Kiner-Falefa had botched the first ball hit to him in the postseason in the first inning of Game 1 of the ALDS. He had single-handedly lost the Yankees Game 3 of the ALDS, forcing them to play an additional game, giving the team no days off between the ALDS and ALCS, forcing their bullpen to work even more and screwing up the rotation for the ALCS. And yet, there was Boone going back to his guy with the season on the line. And there was Kiner-Falefa taking the Yankees off the brink of elimination and eliminating them.
With Altuve on first and one out in the seventh, Pena hit a ground ball to Torres. It was going to be hard and maybe not even possible to double-up Pena at first, but at least the Yankees would get one out on the play, and be seven outs away from a Game 4. Instead, Torres fielded the ball and shoveled his throw to Kiner-Falefa and it ended up in left field. Torres got the error on the play because it was his throw, but it wasn’t a bad throw. Kiner-Falefa was out of position, came across the bag wrong and was unable to reach for the throw. It was a play that needed to be made, and one that Peraza would have easily made and no one would have even though any more about it. It was a routine play a major-league shortstop makes.
8. Yordan Alvarez then singled on a ground ball, and instead of runners on first and second (or even first and third) with two outs, Altuve scored to tie the game at 5. When Alex Bregman came up next and singled, instead of tying the game, the Astros took a 6-5 lead, and that was the game, as the Yankees’ offense, for their grand finale, went down in order for the last three innings.
On a night in which the Yankees ended their major-league record streak of 10 straight postseason games with six hits or fewer, they finally produced some offense, scoring five runs on nine hit and a walk, and still couldn’t beat the Astros. The Astros beat them by two runs. They beat them by one run. They beat them in a dominant five-run win, shutting out the Yankees and holding them to three hits. And in the last game of the series, they beat them by overcoming a three-run deficit in the early innings and by overcoming a one-run deficit in the late innings. The Astros beat the Yankees every which was possible, and if this was a best-of-9 or best-of-11 or best-of-any odd number, the Yankees likely get swept in all of those series as well.
9. The disparity between the Yankees and Astros is frightening. The Astros had to clean house as a result of their 2017 scandal, brought in a new general manager and front office, changed their manager and coaching staff, let Cole leave as a free agent, then let George Springer leave as a free agent and then let Carlos Correa leave as a free agent haven’t missed a beat. They just appeared in the ALCS for the sixth straight, having posted an 18-5 ALDS record in those six years, and are headed to their second straight World Series and fourth in those six years.
Five years ago, the gap between the two teams was a single game, with the young, up-and-coming Yankees blowing a 3-2 series lead after overcoming a 2-0 series deficit. Three years ago, the gap was two games, as the Yankees’ hitting stalled once again in October and they didn’t have enough starting pitching or relief pitching to get through the ALCS. This year, the gap was as big as possible: a four-game sweep. The Astros beat the Yankees in nine of 11 games in 2022, and if Dusty Baker had been willing to use his elite relievers in the Yankees’ second win over the Astros, the Astros would have won 10 of 11.
10. The only way for the Yankees to close the growing gap is through organizational change. The kind of organizational change I wrote about after their wild-card loss to the Red Sox a year ago. The kind of organizational change they chose to not make and ended up in the same spot: short of the World Series.
In all likelihood, the Yankees will “run it back” again. A new contract for the general manager, who will retain his manager, who he gave a new three-year deal (with a fourth-year option!) to a year ago. The Yankees will re-sign Aaron Judge and call it an offseason, and on March 30, 2023 against the Giants, Josh Donaldson will be batting fifth or sixth, Kiner-Falefa will be starting at shortstop and batting eighth with Peraza on the bench and Anthony Volpe’s service time being manipulated with him in Triple-A.
The most likely scenario for the 2023 Yankees is that they look nearly identical to the 2022 Yankees, the same way the 2022 Yankees looked (and performed like) the 2021 Yankees. And if that happens, a year from now, the Yankees’ season will be over while the postseason is still going, and I will be wondering when and if the Yankees will ever make the changes needed to win again.
The Yankees were three-hit and shutout in a 5-0 loss to the Astros in Game 3 of the ALCS and are now facing elimination for the second time in four days. Here are 10 thoughts
The Yankees were three-hit and shutout in a 5-0 loss to the Astros in Game 3 of the ALCS and are now facing elimination for the second time in four days.
1. The Yankees had a nine-game lead on the Astros for the 1-seed in the American League on June 18. From June 19 through the end of the season, the Yankees went 50-47 and the Astros went 66-31 with the Astros eventually winning the 1-seed by seven games (a 16-game swing since mid-June when the Yankees had their biggest lead over the Astros of the season). Within those remaining 97 games played by each team were seven head-to-head games, in which the Yankees went 2-5 and never led for a single pitch in any of the games. Both of their wins came on walk-off hits by Aaron Judge at Yankee Stadium.
What we have seen over the last three games and four days isn’t anything new, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Astros were better than the Yankees in the regular season, they have been better than the Yankees for now eight seasons and they have been drastically better than them through in this series. It’s why I wrote things recently like …
I don’t expect the Yankees with their injuries, first-round bullpen usage and schedule to beat the Astros. The Astros were the better team in the regular season (especially against the Yankees having never trailed them in their seven head-to-head games) and they are set up to be the better team in the postseason. The Yankees needed to win the 1-seed in the American League to beat the Astros in a potential ALCS matchup. They failed to do that. Then they needed to sweep the Guardians to have a chance to beat the Astros in a potential ALCS matchup. They failed to do that. Then they needed to beat the Guardians in four games to have a prayer to beat the Astros in the ALCS. Now? Now they’re coming off a five-game series that went the distance and are landing in Houston on the same day they will be asked to beat the soon-to-be-named AL Cy Young winner who has owned the Yankees in the postseason in five different seasons and with two different teams.
2. Like a fool, I returned to the Stadium on Saturday afternoon to observe the disparity between the “Top 2” teams in the AL with my own eyes. I should have stayed home rather than venturing to the Bronx yet again. At least I would have been able to change the channel when Aaron Boone removed Gerrit Cole with the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth in favor of the at-best fourth-best reliever on the team. Instead, I had to watch Christian Vazquez once again ruin the Yankees in a postseason game, just like he did in Game 4 of the 2018 ALDS.
Trailing 5-0, I knew the game was over. To that point, the Yankees had scored two earned runs in 23 innings in the series and would now need five runs in four innings just to tie the game and would need to somehow find a way to score a sixth run to win the game if they were able to prevent the Astros from scoring again. The Astros didn’t score again after plating their fourth and fifth runs on the Vazquez single, but it didn’t matter because the Yankees never scored. A second straight game of scoring zero earned runs in a best-of-7 is a good way to ensure you go home early.
3. I did go home early. After the Yankees went down listlessly in the seventh, while still sitting on one hit for the game, I walked out of the Stadium. A few of my inebriated friends asked “Really?” when I said I was leaving, and I answered, “Yes. I know how simple math works.” The odds were close to zero the Yankees would go from being one-hit through seven innings to staging the greatest late-game postseason comeback in the team’s history. I was present for their last great postseason comeback in Game 4 of the 2017 ALCS against the Astros, but this Yankees team isn’t that Yankees team.
That Yankees team was the team that turned what was supposed to be a rebuild into coming within one win of the World Series. Their young core was the envy of the league and was about to get even better by acquiring Giancarlo Stanton for nothing and promoting top prospect Gleyber Torres. Big contracts and owed money was going to be coming off the books left and right, giving the Yankees the rare opportunity to combine a young, inexpensive core with young, expensive big-name free agents also in their prime.
Instead, the Yankees cut payroll by nearly $50 million after that magical 2017 postseason run. A year later, they met with then-26-year-old Manny Machado as a well-we-tried ploy more than anything and chose to not even meet with the then-26-year-old Bryce Harper because they claimed their outfield of the future was set with Judge, who they needed to extend (and never did and now might lose him for nothing), Stanton (who they never let actually play the outfield), Aaron Hicks (who they then gave a seven-year extension to) and Clint Frazier (who they eventually released for nothing).
4. As I approached home, the Yankees did pick up their second and third hits of Game 3, finishing the game 3-for-29 with five walks and 11 more strikeouts to add to their absurd total of 41 strikeouts through three games. The Yankees became the first team in MLB postseason history to have a three-game span with 12 hits or fewer, 40-plus strikeouts and three losses. Congratulations to Aaron Boone on overseeing yet another Yankees milestone! Here are some other great moments in Yankees history Boone has overseen: most lopsided home postseason loss in franchise history, only blown multi-run lead in ninth inning in team postseason history (now 167-1) and only team in MLB postseason history to record six hits or less in 10 straight postseason games. After Saturday’s loss, the Yankees now have the lowest team batting average through eight postseason games in MLB history as well. Quite the resume for the Yankees manager!
5. Unfortunately, the Yankees simply advancing to the ALCS guaranteed Brian Cashman would receive a new contract, and in turn, guaranteed Boone would be retained as manager with two more guaranteed years left on his contract. The Yankees needed to either completely blow their 15 1/2-game division lead (which they nearly did) or lose to the vastly inferior Guardians in the ALDS (which they nearly did) for Cashman to possibly not get a new deal with the Yankees and for Boone to not be the manager in 2023, and even then, they were probably both returning next season no matter what.
6. With Game 4 guaranteed to take place, the Yankees will have played five postseason home games, and essentially six with the hours-long delayed call on the postponement of Game 5 of the ALDS. That’s likely enough for Hal Steinbrenner to keep things status quo since his No. 1 priority isn’t winning, it’s maximizing the team’s revenue, and the team once again reached the second-farthest round of the postseason. If the difference between finishing in last place in the league and winning the World Series was $1, Hal would rather finish in last place for that extra dollar.
7. While the Yankees are on the brink of elimination, I would like to think that as a Yankees fan I’m on the brink of seeing a long list of Yankees play their final game (or games if this somehow lasts more than four game) with the team. That includes Josh Donaldson and Gleyber Torres (two players the team unsuccessfully tried to trade at this year’s deadline), and it includes Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who should have never been a Yankee to begin with. When I watched Hicks walk off the field after the collision with Oswaldo Cabrera, it was likely the last time I saw him in a Yankees uniform. (I can only pray.) But I fully expect to see them all on the Yankees next season. They’re all under contract, so why wouldn’t they be back?
8. A year ago when Boone had his end-of-the-season press conference, he said the league had “closed the gap” on the Yankees as if it was 20 years ago and the franchise was coming off five World Series appearances in six seasons. It was a startling and delusional comment from a manager who continues to tell everyone after every postseason elimination how close his team is to winning it all. Except they’re not. They’re not close at all.
They’re further away from winning it all than they were when he took over. He took over a team that came within one win of the World Series and they have never been that close again. As a loser who has never won anything as a player or manager in the league, the young core he took over has blossomed into losers as well, constantly hearing their manager make excuses for the team’s shortcoming, praising mediocre and bad performances from his players and always talking about the next day and the next game has turned the organization into one that is accepting and comfortable with losing.
9. After the Game 3 loss, Judge (who is as much to blame for this postseason debacle as he is for all of the postseason debacles in his time with the Yankees) said, “We’ve got a lot of talented individuals in this room. We just haven’t been able to get everybody clicking on the same page this series, but we’ve still got a lot of ball left to play.”
It’s not just “this series,” and unless the Yankees are playing the Twins in the postseason, it’s every series. The Yankees have talented individuals every season who come up short in the postseason and then get passes from management and the front office who attribute postseason failure to “small sample sizes” and “randomness.” Oddly enough, I don’t remember Cashman or the Yankees claiming “luck” for postseason success when they won four championships in five seasons and appeared in the World Series in six of eight seasons. The “postseason is a crapshoot” excuses didn’t start getting thrown around until the Yankees started losing frequently and excessively in October, and all this group of Yankees (outside of Anthony Rizzo who is the only person in the clubhouse to have ever won anything, and unsurprisingly, has the been the Yankees’ best player this postseason) has known is losing, and so, the “small sample size” and “randomness” and “luck” and “crapshoot” references have been thrown around a lot in recent years.
10. There may only be one game left in the Yankees’ season. Barring the single greatest comeback in postseason history (which would top the Red Sox’ 2004 comeback since they faced Jon Lieber and Kevin Brown in Games 6 and 7, while the Yankees will face Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez), the Yankees’ season will end sometime in the next few days, and as early as Sunday. There will be no more next day or next game or tomorrow for Boone or his roster to reference. All there will be is another wasted season once again ended by the Astros.
Yankees win tonight. Cole in Game 3. Cortes in Game 4. Yankees have 3-1 series lead.
Boom. That easy!
It couldn’t possibly have been more sarcastic. Obviously, nothing about this ALCS was ever going to be easy (as I have said all season long), and nothing about being down 1-0 in the series already and needing to win four of the next six games was going to be easy. The Yankees are now down 2-0 in the series and need to win four of the next five games to avoid being eliminated by the Astros for the fourth time in eight seasons.
2. Game 2 was a lot like Game 1, which means it was a lot like every game the Yankees have played in Houston in the postseason since the start of the 2017 ALCS. The Yankees lost 3-2, which was their fourth one-run loss to the in Houston in the ALCS in nine games. Add in the Game 6 loss in the 2019 ALCS and the Game 1 loss from Wednesday, and the Yankees have lost six games in Houston in the ALCS by two runs or less. The Game 2 loss dropped them to 1-8 in Houston in the ALCS.
For as much as Game 2 was like Game 1, it was even worse. Sure, the result was the same in that the Yankees lost, but the way they lost was more painful than only hitting a pair of solo home runs and striking out 17 times like they had the night before. In Game 2, the Yankees scored only two runs (which were both unearned as a result of two errors on the same play by Framber Valdez) and struck out 13 times. As a team, the Yankees are 9-for-65 with four walks, 30 strikeouts and a .138/.200/.262 slash line through two games. It’s making their .214/.289/.383 slash line from the six-game loss to the Astros in the 2019 ALCS look amazing. Every Yankees fan would sign up for a .214/.289/.383 slash line right now.
The Yankees have such an abysmal batting line because they have faced arguably the best pitcher in the world who is soon to be awarded his third Cy Young award, and the Astros’ No. 2 starter, who would be a No. 1 on nearly every other team in baseball after leading the league in innings pitched, complete games, quality starts and home runs per nine innings.
3. The Yankees were built as a boom-or-bust offense, and when there’s no boom (like there wasn’t in Game 2), and it’s a lot of bust, it looks awful. Thirty strikeouts in two games is awful. Nine straight postseason games with six or fewer hits is awful (and also the all-time record in Major League Baseball history).
The Yankees are able to reach the postseason as often as they do with this offensive strategy because they are able to beat up on the mediocre and bad teams (of which there are a lot) during the regular season, and beat up on those teams’ fourth and fifth starters and fringe-major-league middle relievers. Those pitchers aren’t part of the postseason, and when they are, like Aaron Civale was inexplicably as the starter in Game 5 for the Guardians, the Yankees beat up on him. But other than Civale, here are the pitchers the Yankees have faced in the postseason:
Cal Quantrill: 3.38 ERA in 186 1/3 innings Trevor Stephan: 11.6 K/9 Enyel De Los Santos: 10.3 K/9 James Karinchak: 14.3 K/9 Shane Bieber: 2.88 ERA in in 200 innings Emmanuel Clase: League-leading 42 saves and 0.729 WHIP in 72 2/3 innings Trevor McKenzie: 2.96 ERA in 191 1/3 innings Sam Hentges: 10.5 K/9 Eli Morgan: 0.885 WHIP in 66 2/3 innings Justin Verlander: 1.75 ERA in 175 innings Hector Neris: 10.9 K/9 Rafael Montero: 1.024 WHIP in 68 1/3 innings Ryan Pressly: 12.1 K/9 Bryan Abreu: 13.1 K/9
There’s no fringe major leaguer on that list. There’s no mediocre arm on that list. It’s a list of some of the very best starters and relievers in the entire game.
Because this is the norm for postseason play, the Yankees’ boom-or-bust approach tends to be exposed more often than not. But any approach against pitchers like these is to be exposed more often than not. The difference between the Yankees’ lack of success against the Astros and the Astros’ success against the Yankees is the one thing the Yankees do better than every team during nearly every regular season: hit home runs.
Between the 2017, 2019 and 2022 ALCS, the Astros haven’t collectively hit better than the Yankees (outside of these last two games) …
… and yet, the Astros are 10-5 against the Yankees in these three series.
The difference has been timely hitting.
4. The Yankees outhit the Astros overall in the 2017 ALCS, but their slash line is propped up by the success they had in Games 3, 4 and 5 at Yankee Stadium. In that series, in Houston, the Yankees scored three totals runs in four games.
The Yankees outhit the Astros again in the 2019 ALCS, but their slash line was propped up by a 7-0 win in Game 1 (when Gleyber Torres was still good at baseball).
The Astros have out-timely hit the Yankees the majority of the time. Whether it was Alex Bregman’s three-run home run in Game 2 or the pair of solo home runs off Clarke Schmidt in Game 1. Whether it was Jose Altuve’s two-run, walk-off home run off Aroldis Chapman in Game 6 in 2019 or Yuli Gurriel’s three-run home run off Chad Green in the first inning in that same game, or the pair of three-run home runs by George Springer and Carlos Correa in Game 5 in 2019, or the pair of solo home runs by Jose Altuve and Josh Reddick in the first two innings in Game 3 in 2019, or the game-tying solo home run by Springer and the walk-off solo home run by Correa in Game 2 in 2019. The list goes on and on.
What’s the common theme on this list? The home run. The biggest, game-changing and game-winning moments in the postseason are home runs. It’s nearly impossible to string together three or four hits in an inning against the list of arms I provided, and the best odds of scoring are to get a mistake, run into one or get a little bit of luck and have one carry out.
The difference between these two teams in the ALCS isn’t limited to the Astros. In the five games the Yankees have won, it’s been the home run that got them back in a game, changed the game or won the game for them. Whether it’s Torres’ big Game 1 in 2019 or Aaron Hicks’ three-run bomb off Justin Verlander in Game 5 in 2019. When DJ LeMahieu nearly changed the 2019 series by tying the game in the ninth inning in Game 6, how did he do it? A single to right field? No. A double down the line? No. A two-run shot that is now the second-most forgotten about nearly-all-time-home run in Yankees history after Alfonso Soriano’s go-ahead solo home run off Curt Schilling in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.
5. The difference in Game 2 was that Bregman hit a ball off Luis Severino that had an expected batting average of .040 and carried out to left field for a three-run home run, and Aaron Judge hit a ball with an expected batting average of .910 that instead of giving the Yankees a one-run lead in the eighth inning, was caught at the wall for an out.
To make matters worse if you’re a Yankees fan, look at this stat:
Judge’s flyout was hit at 106.3 mph and at a 28-degree launch angle, but it only traveled 345 feet. Similarly-hit batted balls (106-107 mph exit velocity with a 27-29-degree launch angle) traveled an average of 414 feet during the regular season.
Did the MinuteMaid Park roof being open for the second time in 2022 help Bregman’s ball for a three-run home run and prevent Judge’s ball from going over the wall and giving the Yankees the lead and changing the series? Yes.
The Yankees ran into the ultimate bad luck between Bregman and Judge in Game 2, in a game in which the margin of error was extremely slim. Instead of the series being tied at 1, the Yankee are in an 0-2 hole, and the odds of them advancing to the World Series for the first time in 13 years are looking grim.
The Yankees may have not needed the opened roof to be on their side if they had done anything else at the plate all night. They couldn’t touch Valdez’s elite curveball, and seemed to take every single one of his over-the-plate, and at times middle-middle fastballs. How many times were the Yankees in an 0-1 count after taking a mid-90s fastball over the plate only to then start chasing the curveball in at the feet of the right-handed batters and low-and-away to Anthony Rizzo? It was infuriating to watch them have the same approach and make the same mistakes over and over each time through the lineup with no adjustment.
But that’s also what makes Valdez great. He’s not the No. 2 starter on the Astros because he throws get-me-over, loopy curveballs. He’s second to only Verlander on the Astros because he throws strikes, works ahead and can locate his curveball wherever he wants it. The Yankees barely made him work and the bottom four hitters of the order must have made him laugh.
6. As I have said each and every season, I’m never worried about the Yankees’ pitching in the postseason. It’s their hitting I’m always worried about. In all seven of their postseason games this year, they have gotten good to great starts from their starters, with no eggs laid and no clunkers. The pitching has been there, and it was again in Game 2 with Severino shutting down the Astros outside of Bregman’s wind-aided home run. Look at where the pitch to Bregman was.
Painted on the black. In on the hands. It was a great pitch that Bregman was able to lift and the Houston atmosphere did the rest.
7. Yes, luck was on the Astros’ side and not on the Yankees’ side in Game 2. A lot of postseason games are decided by luck, and sometimes they are decided by an inordinate amount of luck. Think about Jeffrey Maier leaning over the wall to pull in Derek Jeter’s “home run” in the 1996 ALCS, or Tino Martinez getting a second chance on a missed strike call before hitting a grand slam in the 1998 World Series, or the umpires missing Joe Mauer hitting the chalk of the left-field foul line with the bases-loaded in Game 2 of the 2009 ALDS at Yankee Stadium. All of those moments were game-changing and series-changing breaks that went the Yankees’ way.
But even if Bregman’s “lucky” home run was the difference in Game 2, no one wants to hear that from the Yankees. Not from the manager and certainly not from the players. For Aaron Boone to blame the loss on the roof being opened, saying, “The roof (being open) kinda killed us,” is embarrassing, and yet, it’s not even in the Top 20 embarrassing excuses he has made in five years as Yankees manager.
8. You know who makes excuses? Losers. In Jeter’s documentary over the summer, while reflecting on the 2001 and 2003 World Series and 2004 ALCS and commenting that he thought the Yankees “should have won” those years, he admitted he sounded like a loser by saying “should have won.” As Sean Connery’s character John Mason famously said, “Losers whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.”
This Yankees core is essentially a group of losers because all they have ever done together is lose. And led by a manager who has never won anything as a player or manager, he has instilled a culture that is accepting of losing and comfortable with losing. “Annie” Boone is always talking about “tomorrow” the way the Broadway character sang about it and his players have followed his act. The one time Boone has been unaccepting of losing as Yankees manager was this summer when the team nearly blew its 15 1/2-game division lead, and in showing his frustration with losing, he admitted to the media the Yankees may actually blow their astronomical division lead. (Yes, the Yankees moved on from a manager who had won three championships as a player with the team and a fourth as a manger for this loser.) Every Yankee who spoke with the media after the Game 2 loss sounded exactly like their manager because as a team they don’t know what winning looks like or sounds like. The only current Yankee to have ever won anything is Anthony Rizzo, and shockingly, he is the only Yankee to consistently produce this postseason.
9. The Yankees sound like losers blaming the roof for yet another postseason loss to the Astros, even if it helped the Astros win. The roof didn’t cause the Yankees to strike out 13 times. It didn’t cause Josh Donaldson to swing at breaking balls like he had never seen one before. It didn’t cause Boone to use his sixth different lineup, third different leadoff hitter and third different shortstop in seven games. It didn’t cause Boone to play Kyle Higashioka and then bat him seventh over a Top 50 MLB prospect and a player who had been the Yankees’ No. 5-6 hitter for the last month-plus.
The roof didn’t cause Brian Cashman to take on the nearly $50 million owed to Donaldson in order to acquire Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who neither the Twins nor Rangers wanted. It didn’t cause Boone to play Kiner-Falefa all season, and including in the last month of the season when Oswald Peraza was on the roster and outplaying Kiner-Falefa. It didn’t cause Boone to play Kiner-Falefa in the ALDS and leave Peraza off the ALDS roster, only to then have to bench Kiner-Falefa with the Yankees on the brink of elimination as he single-handedly ruined Game 3 against the Guardians. It didn’t cause Boone’s love for Kiner-Falefa and hate for Peraza to extend the ALDS to five games, forcing the Yankees to go from the ALDS and ALCS in back-to-back days with a tired team, fatigued bullpen and out-of-order rotation.
The roof helped the Astros hit a home run and prevented the Yankees from hitting one. It didn’t cause the seismic gap between the two organizations that has the Astros two wins away from going to their second straight World Series and third in six years and has the Yankees two losses away from being eliminated before the World Series for the 12th straight year and 18th time in 19 years. It didn’t cause one organization to be able to let Gerrit Cole, Springer and Correa walk and fill their voids from within their own homegrown talent pool, while the other organization trades for players like Donaldson and Kiner-Falefa to fill their lineup voids. It didn’t cause one organization to re-sign Verlander at two years and $50 million, while the other organization was only willing to give him one year and $25 million, five years after one organization was willing to take on his salary from the Tigers, while the other organization wasn’t.
10. The opened roof may have changed the result of Game 2, but it’s not the reason the Astros won 106 games and the 1-seed in the playoffs, as the Yankees stumbled for the final three months of the season and completed the worst trade deadline outcome of all time. It’s not the reason the Yankees have led the Astros for a total of six batters in nine games this season.
The Yankees needed to play their best baseball of the season and have luck on their side to beat the Astros in this series. They haven’t had the latter, but it’s the former that has them one loss away from being on the brink of elimination for the second time in less than a week.
After failing to hit in Houston against the Astros in the ALCS in 2017 and 2019, the Yankees continued that trend in the 2022 ALCS, scoring just two runs and having 16 straight batters retired
After failing to hit in Houston against the Astros in the ALCS in 2017 and 2019, the Yankees continued that trend in the 2022 ALCS, scoring just two runs and having 16 straight batters retired between the third and eighth innings in Game 1.
1. As I stood in unison with the rest of Yankee Stadium during the ninth inning of Game 5 against the Guardians on Tuesday, I wasn’t foolish enough to join in the chant reverberating throughout the Bronx.
“WE WANT HOU-STON! WE WANT HOU-STON! WE WANT HOU-STON!“
No one should “want” Houston. I get that at that moment the Yankees and Yankees fans didn’t have a choice. The Astros had already advanced to the ALCS three days earlier after sweeping the Mariners and there was no other option. Beat the Guardians and face the Astros, or lose to the Guardians and go home. I joked that I would rather lose to the Guardians than suffer a third ALCS loss to the Astros in six years and fourth elimination by the Astros in eight years. I was only half-joking.
Normally, it would be humiliating to lose in the same round of the postseason to the same team for a third straight time and to be eliminated by the same team in the postseason for the fourth time in eight years, especially this team. However, it really won’t be humiliating if the Yankees are eliminated by the Astros in the ALCS because the roster, talent and management gap between the two is that wide. And after Wednesday’s 4-2 loss in Game 1, the Yankees are 25 percent of the way and three losses away from being eliminated by the Astros once again.
2. I went into Game 1 thinking of it as pretty much a throwaway game. The Yankees were being forced to start Jameson Taillon, a pitcher they went out of their way to prevent from starting a postseason game, including trading away good, young starting pitching talent to acquire Frankie Montas. (That turned out well.) And on the other end, they would be facing a well-rested Justin Verlander coming off seven days rest. The soon-to-be AL Cy Young winner at age 39 has spent his career shutting down the Yankees in the playoffs dating back to the 2006 ALDS, and including the 2011 ALDS, 2012 ALCS, 2017 ALCS, and 2019 ALCS. Verlander could have been a Yankee these last six years if Hal Steinbrenner had been willing to take on his salary at the 2017 waiver deadline. The Astros were willing to take on his salary from Detroit and he has shoved it back in the Yankees’ face in now three different postseasons. (The Yankees could have had him for this season as well, but they only offered him $25 million for one year, and the Astros offered him $25 million per year for two years, so he went back to Houston. Two years and $50 million is nearly what the Yankees are paying Josh Donaldson for this year and next.)
Verlander wasn’t his usual dominant self against the Yankees in Game 1. Yes, he finished the game with one run allowed over six innings, striking out 11 and retiring the last 11 he faced, but the Yankees had runners on against him early (something they never seem to have against him) and couldn’t capitalize (something they never seem to do against him).
It started in the first at-bat of the game when Gleyber Torres (a continual awful choice for the leadoff spot given his approach) was ahead 3-1, and rather than take a pitch and possibly draw a walk, took the kind of swing you would expect to see on an 0-2 pitch and weakly grounded out to third. The Yankees eventually had two runners on in the first before Donaldson struck out in one of the least competitive at-bats you will ever see. (That is, until you saw his next two at-bats.)
3. In the second, Harrison Bader hit his fourth home run in six playoff games to give the Yankees their first lead over the Astros in eight games this season. That lead didn’t last long. In the bottom of the inning, after getting two quick outs, Taillon allowed a single to No. 8 hitter Chas McCormick and then a double off the wall on a 1-2 pitch to career-.634 OPS Martin Maldonado. To that point, Taillon had allowed a lot of hard contact, and the only reason the Astros hadn’t put the game out of reach was because of Aaron Judge’s spectacular diving catch on an Alex Bregman line drive that saved two runs from scoring in the first. Taillon ended up giving the Yankees 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball, which was drastically better than when he allowed six runs on 10 hits in his lone regular-season start against the Astros.
4. Aaron Boone decided to go batter-to-batter with Taillon in the fifth inning, despite Taillon facing the top of the order for a third time. After he retired Jose Altuve (who remains hitless in the postseason, and yet the Astros are undefeated in the postseason), he allowed Jeremy Pena to double off him for the second time and Boone went to Clarke Schmidt to face the 3-4-5 hitters. The only thing Boone hates more than giving his relievers a clean inning to work with is playing Oswald Peraza, so he waited until a runner was in scoring position to go to his bullpen. It was a spot that had “Lou Trivino” written all over it and Boone went with Schmidt instead. After intentionally walking Yordan Alvarez, Schmidt walked Bregman to load the bases. I was about ready to go to bed and catch up on the sleep I have been deprived of because of the week-long ALDS until Schmidt got Kyle Tucker to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning. Between Taillon getting 13 outs and allowing only a run and Schmidt pitching out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam against the heart of the order, I began to think Maybe they can steal this game. It was an unintelligent thought to have.
That’s because there were still four innings to play, and the Yankees were already in their bullpen. There would be a lot of decisions by Boone for the remainder of the game, and the more decisions needed to be made by Boone, the worse off the Yankees would be. It didn’t take long for that theory to prove out as Boone stayed with Schmidt for the sixth and Yuli Gurriel crushed a solo home run off him to lead off the inning and give the Astros a 2-1 lead.
The fifth-inning had “Lou Trivino” written all over it, but the sixth inning screamed “LOU TRIVINO!” Instead, Boone stayed with Schmidt and he gave up the home run. Even after the home run, Boone stayed with Schmidt, and two batters later, McCormick (again, the No. 8 hitter) went deep to extend the Astros’ lead to 3-1. Then, Boone decided to go to Trivino. Why pitch him in a tie game when you can bring him with the Yankees trailing by two runs? Of course he retired the next two batters to end the inning, including striking out Altuve.
5. From then on, the rest of the game was a mere formality. The Astros added an insurance run in the seventh when Pena hit a solo home run off Montas (ironic he was pitching in relief in a game started by Taillon when he was acquired to pitch in the postseason over Taillon). The Yankees did bring the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth in Matt Carpenter, but the Yankees’ version of Barry Bonds from the regular season struck out for the fourth time in the game. Carpenter is now 0-for-6 with six strikeouts in the postseasons, though his plate appearances have come again Trevor Stephan, James Karinchak, Justin Verlander and Ryan Pressly. Those are the only six plate appearances Carpenter has had since August 8, and it’s hard enough to hit those names, let alone after a two-and-a-half-month layoff. That doesn’t change the fact that I would continue to use Carpenter (though with the left-handed Framber Valdez starting in Game 2, you can bet Carpenter won’t be starting.)
6. Carpenter had a bad night, though so did all of the Yankees except for Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton and Bader. From the second out of the third until Rizzo’s home run with two outs in the eighth, the Yankees didn’t get a single baserunner. What Boone, Schmidt and Montas did was bad, but it truly didn’t matter with the offense performing their traditional postseason disappearing act in Houston. That game might as well have been a game from the 2017 ALCS or 2019 ALCS. The Yankees scored two runs on two solo home runs, didn’t capitalize on the few chances they had with runners on base, struck out 17 times and at one point went 16 straight batters without getting a baserunner. After having the worst batting average (.182) of a team to win a division series in league history, the Yankees followed it up with the same kind of offensive performance they have put together all season against the Astros.
7. The Yankees have now played eight games against the Astros in 2022, and this is what the Yankees’ offense has done in those games:
June 23: No-hit for seven innings, 10 strikeouts June 24: One run June 25: No-hit, 15 strikeouts June 26: No-hit for 6 1/3 innings June 30: One run, 11 strikeouts July 21: Two runs July 21: Five runs off a starter who isn’t in the Astros’ playoff rotation and a reliever who is no longer in the majors, 10 strikeouts October 19: 16 batters retired in a row from third inning until eighth inning, 17 strikeouts
8. It’s going to be hard for the Yankees to survive another series (especially one against the Astros) with Aaron Judge contributing little to nothing at the plate, and in Game 1, he contributed nothing at the plate. The Yankees tried to get past the Astros in 2019 with only Torres and DJ LeMahieu hitting and it inevitably didn’t work out. They won’t get past them this year either if Rizzo, Stanton and Bader are going to be the only bats to provide offense.
9. Donaldson can’t be counted on to provide offense. He just produced the worst season of his career despite being healthy for all of it. He can’t hit elite pitching, can’t touch high-90s velocity and has no clue how to put a breaking ball in play. In Game 1, he struck out with two runners on in his first plate appearance, struck out on three pitches with runners on second and third and one out in his second plate appearance and struck out on three pitches in his third plate appearance. He did draw a walk in his fourth plate appearance, which is the extent of his offense through six postseason games. Continuing to bat Donaldson fifth because of his name and as if he’s still the same player he was three to seven years ago is infuriating. He’s undeserving of batting fifth in the lineup (as much as Torres is undeserving of leading off), and if he’s not going to be benched outright (which he should be) then he needs to be moved down.
10. To be honest, this is the least upset I have ever been after a Yankees postseason loss. I’m not upset because the Yankees aren’t as good as the Astros, and I’ve known that since late June. Even with a fully healthy Carpenter, LeMahieu, Andrew Benintendi, Michael King, Ron Marinaccio and Scott Effross, it was going to be extremely difficult to beat the Astros. Without them and without home-field advantage and with the Yankees’ bullpen fatigued from the ALDS and their rotation out of order because they went the distance in the ALDS, it’s going to be nearly impossible to win this series. Just think, in Game 1, the Yankees held Altuve, Alvarez, Bregman and Tucker to 0-for-12 with three walks and they still lost. If Pena (three extra-base hits), who had a .289 on-base percentage this season, McCormick (two hits, including a home run and a walk), who is their 8-hitter, and Maldonado (game-tying double), who is among the worst “everyday” hitters in the majors can win a game in the series, the Yankees may really have no chance.
As I originally thought and wrote after the ALDS Game 5 win, I don’t expect the Yankees with their injuries, first-round bullpen usage and schedule to beat the Astros. After what I saw in Game 1, it’s going to be even harder for the Yankees to upset the Astros than I envisioned. I thought it would take a miracle for the Yankees to get back to the World Series for the first time in 13 seasons and the second time in 19 years, but what’s more improbable than a miracle? Because that’s what it’s going to take.
