1. Score four runs against the Royals and you win. That’s what I wrote about after the Yankees’ Tuesday romping of the Royals, and the Yankees went out and scored four runs against the Royals on Wednesday and won again.

With the win, the Yankees are now 5-0 on the season against the Royals, and 9-3 against them dating back to last season (including the postseason). These Yankees own the Royals no matter who is pitching, whether it’s a lefty, a righty, the league leader in strikeouts per nine innings in the AL last season or the AL ERA leader this season like it was on Wednesday.

2. The Yankees were one of two teams to get to Kris Bubic for three or more earned runs this season entering Wednesday when he took the mound with his sparkling, best-in-majors 1.43 ERA.

“Came out feeling pretty hot,” Bubic said, “feeling pretty good in the first inning.”

Bubic retired the side with 10 pitches in the first, striking out Paul Goldschmidt and Aaron Judge. And then the Yankees ended the game in the second.

3. Cody Bellinger led off the second with his third triple of the season. Jazz Chisholm followed with an eight-pitch walk. That walk was the most important plate appearance of the inning. Chisholm struggles mightily against lefties and when he fell behind 1-2 it seemed like he would strand Bellinger at third. If Chisholm makes an out there, that leaves Bellinger on third and the Royals bring the infield in for Anthony Volpe. Instead of Volpe’s groundout scoring Bellinger with the Royals playing at double play depth, Bellinger is still at third with two outs. Then Trent Grisham grounds out to end the inning and the Yankees don’t score.

4. But that didn’t happen because of Chisholm’s walk. The walk put runners on first and third with no outs and the Royals kept their middle infielders back for a double play. Volpe’s groundout scored Bellinger and Volpe was able to beat the throw to first to prevent the double play. Grisham grounded out for the second out, advancing Volpe to second. DJ LeMahieu drew a four-pitch walk and Austin Wells came up with yet another big hit against a lefty, doubling to center field to score Volpe. Paul Goldschmidt singled in LeMahieu and Wells and Ben Rice singled in Goldschmidt (after Goldschmidt went to second on the Royals’ throw home to try to get Wells). Four of the Yankees’ five runs came with two outs.

5. The game was over at that point because when you score four runs against the Royals, you win. Clarke Schmidt made sure that trend continued with six scoreless innings (6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K).

“I thought he looked really good,” Bellinger said of Schmidt. “I was just kind of out there in the outfield just hanging out. He was pounding the zone, getting a lot of swings-and-misses, and it was good to play behind him.”

Schmidt has made 10 starts this season. Five have been good, three have been OK and two have been bad.

“I think every time I go out there, I’m getting stronger and stronger as far as pitch mice [goes] and more confident in who I am as a pitcher,” Schmidt said. “It’s a constant tinkering process and figuring out who you are. I think we’re going a good job of that.”

6. Brent Headrick and Fernando Cruz combined to throw a scoreless seventh and eighth. Mark Leiter Jr. had his worst outing of the season in the ninth with a six-run lead to close out and was only able to get one out before Devin Williams came in to get the final two.

7. Chisholm left the game early with a groin issue, which isn’t good. He missed a month because of a swing, was taken out early of the game on Tuesday with a neck issue and had to be removed on Wednesday because of a groin issue. Hopefully the strength and conditioning geniuses employed by the team can figure it out because these aren’t freak injuries like getting hit by a pitch or getting hurt sliding into second on a steal.

8. Volpe picked up his 20th double of the season. He had 23 doubles in 601 plate appearances in 2023 and 27 doubles in 689 plate appearances last season. He now has 20 doubles in 266 plate appearances this season. His OPS is at .776 and he’s hitting 16 percent better than league average. He still strikes out too much, isn’t stealing enough and is prone to extended slumps, but he is trending in the right direction offensively after not really improving from 2023 to 2024.

9. LeMahieu reached base twice (walk and single). His slash line is up to .279/.372/.397. He’s as close to the old version of himself as possible at this point I would think, considering he’s going to turn 37 next month. With each day he continues to hit like he has, it becomes less likely the Yankees will make a move for an infielder at the deadline (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing unless LeMahieu gets hurt after the deadline).

10. The game plan remains the same in the series finale on Thursday as it was on Tuesday and Wednesday: score four runs. Score four runs and win. The Yankees will face Seth Lugo and the last time they faced him in April they scored four runs against him … and won.

Will Warren will get the ball for the Yankees. In his last start against the Red Sox last Friday, he held them to one run through five innings before coming undone in the sixth and allowing three more. The start prior to that was the disaster against the Dodgers. The start prior to that one was his rain-shortened outing in Colorado that started off rocky. Warren hasn’t had a good outing start to finish since he shut out the Rangers for five innings more than three weeks ago. We’re back to not knowing what to expect when Warren starts. But as long as the Yankees score at least four runs, that will be enough in the last regular-season finale with the Royals.

1. After the Yankees’ disappointing home series loss to the Red Sox over the weekend, I was fearful their sloppy play may linger and travel with them to Kansas City. But I forgot how badly these Yankees own the Royals. In 2024, the Yankees went 8-3 against the Royals in the regular season and postseason. After Tuesday’s 10-2 thumping, the Yankees are now 4-0 against them this season.

2. Before Max Fried threw a pitch on Tuesday he had a two-run lead to work with after Aaron Judge crushed a 469-foot home run in the top of the first.

“I’ve never seen a ball come closer to being up there,” Austin Wells said.

“He’s playing in a different league,” Aaron Boone said.”

3. Fried didn’t need much (7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HR), but the offense put up 10 for him. Ten runs on 16 hits and three walks. After winning a pair of one-run games and a three-run game against the Royals in April, the Yankees blew them out this time. Since the start of last season the Yankees seem to always do enough to beat them. Whether it’s winning close games like in the postseason or in April or hitting a big multi-run home run when needed like they did on Tuesday, the Yankees come through against the Royals.

4. The big blast in the game came in the fourth inning. With the Yankees holding a 2-1 lead, Wells took the left-handed Noah Cameron deep. It was Wells’ second three-home run off of a lefty in as many games for him after he took Garrett Crochet deep on Saturday.

“He’s just been really productive,” Boone said. “He’s really good in the bigger the spot.”

Wells’ OPS is up to .770, thanks specifically to his power as his on-base percentage sits at .294. Last year, he was forced to hit cleanup behind Judge because of the Yankees’ lack of lineup depth. He batted ninth on Tuesday. A No. 9 hitter with a 113 OPS+ in 2025 is as rare as a Yankees’ road extra-inning win.

5. Every Yankees starter had a hit in the game, including DJ LeMahieu with two. The Yankees have to decide what to do with their infield between now and the trade deadline in less than six weeks and LeMahieu’s resurgence is complicating the expected plans.

The Yankees certainly want LeMahieu to be the answer. They’re paying him $15 million to be the answer (even if they paid him for six years thinking they would get above average production for at least 2021 through 2023 and then deal with 2024 through 2026). LeMahieu being the answer saves them from having to trade from their system to acquire another infielder and/or prevents Hal Steinbrenner from having to pay a tax on any infielder acquired.

6. If LeMahieu continues to hit the way he has so far at .277/.365/.400, he will be the answer. LeMahieu has been 16 percent better than league average in 21 games and 74 plate appearances this season. If he were to continue to hit 16 percent better than league average, it would be his best offensive season in five years (since the 2020 shortened season). If he were to continue to hit like this, everyone who plays for, works for and roots for the Yankees would be ecstatic.

7. My biggest fear isn’t that LeMahieu continues to do well and the Yankees then don’t address adding an infielder at the deadline. My biggest fear is that those things happen and LeMahieu gets hurt post-deadline and the Yankees are stuck with Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas playing every day or holding out hope for a miracle return by Oswaldo Cabrera.

LeMahieu missed the 2021 wild-card game due to injury. He missed the entire 2022 postseason because of his injury. He missed the entire 2024 postseason because of injury. In three of the last four years, LeMahieu has been shut down before the season ended because of injury and he missed the first month of this season because of injury. Every day LeMahieu plays and plays well at this point is a luxury and he can’t be trusted to stay healthy for however long the Yankees’ 2025 season goes.

I want LeMahieu to play well and be the answer. I’m just worried he will do enough that the Yankees won’t bring another player in and then he will get hurt.

8. Before Wells broke open the game, the Yankees were a clinging to a one-run lead after the Royals AL Central’d their way to a run in the second. Fried allowed an infield to Vinnie Pasquantino and then a bloop single (which should have been caught) to Salvador Perez. A ground ball from Mark Canha for a double play was bobbled by LeMahieu to only get the runner at second, allowing Pasquantino to go to third. Pasquantino then scored on a groundout. It was the pesky, infield-singles-and-bloop offense the AL Central loves.

9. The Royals want to play low-scoring games because it’s the only type of game they can win. Once Wells homered, the game was over. Get four runs against the Royals and you win. The Royals are 3-14 this season when the opposition scores four or more runs. Those three wins were against the Rockies (who will go down as the worst team in baseball history), the last-place Orioles and then the Astros.

10. I don’t expect the Yankees to put up 10 again on Wednesday with Kris Bubic starting for the Royals. Bubic has a 1.43 ERA in 12 starts. He has allowed no earned runs in six starts, one earned run in three starts and two earned runs in one start. In the other two starts he allowed three earned runs and four earned runs. That start with three earned runs allowed was against the Yankees on April 16 (5.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 6 K). The Yankees got to him in that start with an Anthony Volpe two-run double and a Cody Bellinger RBI double. Judge added a solo home run in the seventh off of John Schreiber and the Yankees won 4-3.

It will be the same matchup on Tuesday as that game with Clarke Schmidt going against Bubic and hopefully the same result. Score four runs and win.

1. After beating the Guardians 4-0 on Thursday night to win that series, the Yankees nearly blew a seven-run lead on Friday to the Red Sox and the Red Sox nearly blew a five-run lead on Saturday to the Yankees. Then the Yankees went out and blew two different leads in the rubber game on Sunday to lose a home series to the reeling Red Sox.

2. The Red Sox aren’t good. They came to the Bronx four games under .500 with a lackluster lineup, an awful rotation, a bad bullpen and the worst defense in the majors. They left the Bronx with a series win, having scored 27 runs over the last 23 innings of the series.

One-run losses aren’t a result of randomness and winning or losing one-run games is not a product of luck. The Red Sox have lost 17 one-run games this season. Not because they’re unlucky. But because they wildly throw the ball around the infield, lack an actual first baseman, have an untrustworthy bullpen and a top-heavy offense. Don’t try to justify the Yankees losing this series as “That’s baseball!” or anything other than what it was: disappointing.

3. The Yankees had a distinct pitching advantage for the series finale with Carlos Rodon starting and all of their top relief arms rested and available for large workloads going into the scheduled day off on Monday.

As I wrote after Rodon’s last two starts when I praised him for his turnaround in his third year with the Yankees, I still don’t trust him. Ten starts isn’t enough to erase the last two years for me because 2023-24 Rodon still exists inside him, you just hope it never rears its ugly head. Unfortunately, it did on Sunday.

When things unravel for Rodon, they unravel quickly. There’s a reason I have called him the left-handed A.J. Burnett. If you’re not prepared for a Rodon game to spiral out of control, it will do so before you get the chance to save it. The bullpen needs to be up at the first sign of trouble because there won’t be enough time to get anyone warm before the second and third signs.

4. The first sign of trouble on Sunday was when Rodon went from two outs and no one on in the top of the fifth inning to allowing a walk and home run to tie the game at 2. Rodon walked No. 8 hitter Ceddanne Rafaela and then gave up a two-run home run to No. 9 hitter Kristian Campbell, the player all Red Sox fans have been calling to be sent down in recent weeks. Having blown a two-run lead and with the Red Sox’ lineup turning over for a third time, all of the ingredients of a Rodon meltdown were present, but Aaron Boone let the pot simmer during the Yankees’ half of the fifth.

DJ LeMahieu regained the lead for the Yankees during that half with a solo home run, but the Yankees’ second lead in the game didn’t last long.

Rodon walked Rafael Devers to begin the sixth. The last four batters Rodon faced had gone walk, home run, strikeout, walk. The meltdown was in motion and with the well-rested bullpen and an all-righty lane coming up for the Red Sox, pulling Rodon then would have been the right choice based on “matchups” which is what Boone always cites when feeding the media his bullshit reasoning for any move. But in this instance, Boone said screw the matchups, fooled by Rodon’s run of strong, lengthy starts against lineups like the Guardians, Angels and Rangers. He was going to let Rodon face the heart-of-the-order righties who were solely batting in those places in the Red Sox lineup because of their outstanding success against lefties.

5. With Devers on first, former Yankee Rob Refsnyder (who is only in the league at this point because of his success against lefties) came up and Rodon walked him. Rodon had now gone walk, home run, strikeout, walk, walk. Certainly Boone would remove him with two on and no outs and another righty due up? Certainly not.

Rodon was allowed to face Carlos Narvaez — the former Yankee who is hitting .282 with an .820 OPS and who the Yankees had lower on their internal depth chart than J.C. Escarra who puts every ball on the ground to first base and who is 0-for-17 throwing out runners. Narvaez crushed a Rodon fastball down the left-field line for a three-run home run to give the Red Sox a 5-3 lead. (Escarra started the game even though it was a night game after a night game and even with a day off on Monday because he has quietly become Rodon’s personal catcher. We can throw that nonsense out the window now.)

6. Five of the last six batters Rodon faced reached base (walk, home run, strikeout, walk, walk, home run) and he allowed five runs to those six batters. Once Rodon had blown his second lead in as many innings and put the Yankees in a two-run deficit Boone had seen enough. A move that at worst two batters too late. The unraveling was evident when Rodon walked Devers, but Boone let him face a righty and walk that righty and then face yet another righty and give up the go-ahead home run.

“Falling behind hitters and giving out free bases is a no-go,” Rodon said, stating the obvious. “I need to be better.”

7. Trailing by two with still 12 outs of offense to work with, Boone went to one of his ‘A’ arms in Fernando Cruz. This is a big deal because the night before, Boone went to one of his ‘A’ relievers in Mark Leiter Jr. with the Yankees trailing by three. After the Yankees cut the deficit from three to one, Boone went to Ian Hamilton, the last or second-to-last arm in the bullpen and he put the game out of reach. Boone had committed to doing his best to give the Yankees a chance to come back on Saturday with Leiter Jr., but then abandoned his commitment to the comeback after the Yankees had started the come back.

Cruz showed up in relief of Rodon’s fire with a can of gasoline in his right hand as he couldn’t get through the sixth without allowing three baserunners and a pair of runs. He wasn’t on the mound when the runs he was charged with scored, though. That would be left-handed specialist Tim Hill who came in with the bases loaded and two outs to face a lefty and gave up a game-opening, two-run single.

After Hill, it was Jonathan Loaisiga’s turn to inflate his ERA. Loaisiga allowed two runs over 1 1/3 innings and then Boone waved the white flag, going to his Brent Headrick who gave up two more. With the Yankees down six runs in the ninth, guess who Boone called on? Hamilton! So Boone used Hamilton in a 16-run game last Saturday, didn’t use him for a week because of all the close games the Yankees played, then used him in a one-run game this Saturday followed by a six-run game. Ladies and gentlemen, Aaron Boone!

8. “They had their hitting shoes on,” Boone said. “They beat us here this weekend.”

The Yankees scored seven runs on Saturday and lost and scored seven runs on Sunday and lost. That seems like a problem. The Yankees gave up 29 runs to the Dodgers last week and 27 runs to the Red Sox this weekend. Not every game is going to be against the Rangers, Angels or Guardians where the Yankees’ relief trickery with changeups and splitters works. They need a couple of relievers who can throw a fastball by someone and not always rely on deception and smoke and mirrors to get outs. The good offenses aren’t fooled by the Yankees’ offspeed stuff.

9. The ex-Yankees on the Red Sox had one collective and enormous laugh at their old team. Narvaez and Refsnyder were in the middle of every big Red Sox rally, Greg Weissert retired all five batters he faced (and struck out four), Garrett Whitlock didn’t allow any damage after taking a line drive off his leg and Aroldis Chapman got the save in both Yankees losses. Embarrassing.

10. With the series loss, the Yankees’ lead in the loss column in the division is down to five games over both the Blue Jays and Rays. (The Red Sox are 10 games back of the Yankees in the loss column.) After the day off on Monday, the Yankees begin a stretch of 16 games in 16 days across four cities and two time zones. Get ready for weird lineups, odd bullpen usage and a lot of already scheduled days off for certain players.

1. The Yankees followed up their meltdown on Friday night with the worst loss to a National League team in franchise history: an 18-2 drubbing from the Dodgers.

I actually felt good about the Yankees’ chances on Saturday, thinking they would be able to get to Landon Knack even if the Dodgers were able to get to Will Warren.

Prior to the game I wrote:

The good version of Warren needs to show up on Saturday. The version that shut down. the A’s and Mariners, stifled the Rangers and handled the Rockies after a shaky first inning. If early-season Warren or first-inning in Colorado Warren shows up against the Dodgers, things could get ugly. Warren can’t nibble and be afraid to throw strikes like he has the penchant to do at times against the Dodgers. Even without Mookie Betts, the Dodgers won’t allow Warren to settle in and figure it out if he doesn’t have it from the get-go. That’s why the offense (especially the top of the order since all that can be trusted) needs to go out and have the kind of start they had on Friday on Saturday and support him early.

Warren nibbled, fell behind hitters and got rocked. A day after Max Fried allowed the most runs any Yankees starter has allowed this season (six), Warren went and one-upped him. Warren faced 15 batters and 11 of them reached base. He gave up seven runs on six hits and four walks and needed 57 pitches to get four outs. He also added in a pitch clock violation for good measure.

2. “I talk about executing and being aggressive in the zone, and today didn’t go that way for me,” Warren said. “They took advantage of it.”

It’s frustrating that Warren goes in and out of windows when he challenges hitters and when he doesn’t. After giving up four runs and letting nine hitters come to the plate in the first, Aaron Boone kept him in face Ohtani for a second time in the first inning, this time with the bases loaded. I expected Ohtani to drive a ball deep into the late Los Angeles afternoon, but instead, Warren got two swings-and-misses and struck out Ohtani. How could the guy who couldn’t retire Andy Pages in a nine-pitch at-bat strike out Ohtani after Ohtani had already seen him in the inning and with Warren having thrown an exorbitant amount of pitches (39) before facing him. That’s what makes the Will Warren experience so maddening.

“I’m going to let it soak in,” Warren said. “It hurts. It sucks. I let the team down.”

At least Warren admitted he was awful and didn’t go the Sonny Gray route of years past and claim he had “good stuff” when he clearly didn’t. Not even Boone couldn’t concoct a positive evaluation of Warren’s dismal performance.

3. There’s not much to say about the Yankees’ offense. Trent Grisham led off the game with a four-pitch walk and then Aaron Judge was ahead in the count 2-0 before hitting into a double play. Maybe if Judge puts one in the seats there or the Yankees score in the first to give Warren a cushion the game plays out differently. But the Yankees didn’t score in the first and were down four runs when they batted for a second time and 10 runs when they batted for a third time. Judge did hit a meaningless home run down 10-0 and another one down 15-1 to pad his stats though.

4. All seven of the Yankees’ runs in the two games have come by way of the home run. The Dodgers have scored 26 runs with 14 coming from home runs. If the Dodgers didn’t hit a home run in either game they still would have won both games.

5. The offense couldn’t even score when the Dodgers had Kike Hernandez pitch the ninth inning of a 16-run game, which was more embarrassing than suffering the worst lost to an NL team in franchise history. Jasson Dominguez doubled against the position player and then Oswald Peraza and Austin Wells both grounded out and DJ LeMahieu flew out. LeMahieu had three hits in the blowout win over the Rockies last Saturday, but aside from that game, he hasn’t had a hit since two Saturdays ago against the Mets. Remove the Coors Field rout and LeMahieu is 0-for-24. He’s not hitting into bad luck or having good at-bats that would make you believe he’s about to break out. He’s having the at-bats of someone who has been 18 percent worse than league average over the last three seasons and 836 plate appearances.

6. Jorbit Vivas looks like a hitter in the batter’s box. He packs a fat lip, waggles his bat as if he’s the left-handed Gary Sheffield and takes monster cuts that would make you think he’s going to hit a 120-mph line drive somewhere. Excepts he sucks. Vivas is hitting .156/.255/.267 for a .522 OPS that puts him 51 percent worse than league average. The Dodgers traded Vivas and Victor Gonzalez to the Yankees for Trey Sweeney. Vivas is awful and the Yankees released Gonzalez during last season and now he’s pitching in Mexico. The Dodgers used Sweeney to trade for Jack Flaherty to help them win the World Series.

7. Pablo Reyes pitched the ninth inning for the Yankees and somehow had a better outing (1 IP, 3 ER) than Warren (1.1 IP, 7 ER) and Brent Headrick (0.2 IP, 3 ER). Reyes has started one game since May 4. I’m guessing he will be the one to go when Jazz Chisholm returns this week?

8. “It always feels good to beat the Yankees,” Dave Roberts said. “They’re the class of the American League right now.”

Roberts was on the right side of history against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS and 2024 World Series. For him to call the Yankees “the class of the American League” after his team just beat the shit out of them is such a snarky, sarcastic remark. But hey, he can say whatever he wants. His team won on Friday and Saturday and is 8-2 against the Yankees over the last two seasons and he has the World Series ring to prove it. All the Yankees have are their American League champion rings, which I wouldn’t be surprised if Boone wears.

9. “It’s definitely been a tough few games here,” Cody Bellinger said. “But we haven’t lost confidence in the group of guys here.”

I’m glad Bellinger hasn’t lost confidence, but he must be the only person in the world who hasn’t. The Dodgers are without Mookie Betts, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Blake Treinen, Brusdar Graterol, Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech and Kirby Yates and they just humiliated the Yankees in back-to-back games. The Yankees couldn’t beat the Dodgers with their ace on the mound and a three-run lead in the sixth. They suffered the worst loss to an NL team in franchise history with at worst an even matchup on the mound.

10. Now the Yankees have Ryan Yarbrough (who has been great, don’t get me wrong) going against Yoshinobu Yamamoto to salvage the series. Yamamoto allowed just two hits over seven shutout innings against the Yankees last June and then allowed one hit over 6 1/3 innings against them in Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees have scored one run on three hits in 13 1/3 innings against Yamamoto. I’m not sure how anyone could feel good about the Yankees’ chances of winning on Sunday. If they don’t win, a road trip that started out so promising at 5-1 will end in disappointment at 5-4.

1. This time it was the sixth inning.

Seven months after the fifth-inning meltdown, which ended the Yankees’ bid to end the franchise’s 15-year championship drought, the Yankees did their best to recapture the disappointment of that night on Friday at Dodger Stadium.

This time it was the new ace.

Paying homage to Gerrit Cole’s unraveling in Game 5 of the World Series, Max Fried — the best pitcher in the league this season — fell apart in the sixth. Cole was on the mound when the five-run lead turned into a tie game last fall and Fried was on the mound on Friday as a three-run lead turned into a one-run deficit. Fried couldn’t get an out in the sixth, allowing a home run, two singles and a double before he was relieved. The six earned runs charged to Fried were the most given up by any Yankees starter this season, a season in which Will Warren had a 5.65 ERA through early May and Carlos Carrasco was allowed to make six starts.

“The guys did a great job tonight, putting up early runs,” Fried said. “I just didn’t do my job.”

Fried and the relievers who followed (Jonathan Loaisiga, Tim Hill and Yerry De los Santos) weren’t any good in turning a 5-1 lead into an 8-5 loss (the vision of Freeman doing the Dodgers dance on second base haunts my life), but they were let down by their defense the same way Cole was last fall.

2. It was a rough night for Anthony Volpe and his supporters. Those supporters consist of fans who will defend Volpe to no end against criticism, citing his exceptional defense as the reason to disregard his inconsistent offense. It seems when a game and moment are at their biggest, Volpe is at his worst in the field. A disastrous trait for the most important position within the infield. Volpe couldn’t come up with two ground balls in the sixth that would have snuffed the dodgers rally. Two balls that a “Gold Glove” defender has to come up with. Two balls that someone who provides nothing for long stretches with the bat needs to come up with.

3. Defensively, Volpe served as fuel for the Dodgers sixth-inning fire. Offensively, he served as an extinguisher for the Yankees’ rallies. With one run in and two on in the first and a chance to break the game open the game before the Dodgers could bat for the first time, Volpe hit a fly ball with a .010 expected batting average.

When he came up in the third after Paul Goldschmidt hit a leadoff home run to give the Yankees a 5-2 lead and Ben Rice had ripped a 110-mph single to right, Volpe hit into a a double play. Eight of 14 Yankees had come to the plate and reached base before Volpe’s double play and the two batters after him also reached. Four Yankees reached in the inning, but sandwiched around Volpe’s costly double play, the Yankees weren’t able to score. An 0-for-4 night with five outs made, a strikeout, three weakly hit balls, three left on and two have-to-have plays not made in the field. A golden night for the Golden Boy.

4. There is this perception that Volpe has been better in 2025 than he was in 2024. Sure, if you take the last third of 2024 and compare it to the first third of 2025, Volpe has been better. But here is Volpe through the first third of 2024 compared to the first third of 2025:

Home runs
2024: 6
2025: 6

RBIs
2024: 23
2025: 33

Walks
2024: 22
2025: 23

Strikeouts
2024: 52
2025: 59

Doubles
2024: 9
2025: 12

Stolen Bases/Attempts
2024: 11 of 14 (78.6%)
2025: 7 of 11 (63.6%)

Runs
2024: 36
2025: 27

Batting Average
2024: .285
2025: .241

On-Base Percentage
2024: .356
2025: .319

Slugging Percentage
2024: .434
2025: .433

OPS
2024: .791
2025: .752

(He has more RBIs this year because he’s always hitting fifth or sixth, and he had more runs last season because he hit at the bottom of the lineup ahead of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.)

For all the talk about how good Volpe has been this season by many, he was much better at this time last year and still managed to finish 16 percent worse than league average for the year. If Volpe were to maintain the .752 OPS he has now for all of 2025 and stay on pace with the other numbers, yes, this season would be a success for him and a sign he has taken the next step in his development. But we’re a long way from that and all signs through two months point to him being an exceedingly streaky hitter.

5. Five runs should be more than enough to win a game started by Fried, but it wasn’t. Like the Game 5 collapse, the Yankees scored five runs in the first three innings on Saturday, however, in Game 5 they managed to score a sixth run over the final six innings. On Friday, the Yankees packed it in after the third and didn’t score again despite facing Tony Gonsolin for three more innings and the Dodgers’ bullpen for the last three.

6. Unlike the World Series, Judge actually showed up for this one, homering in his first at-bat and doubling in the seventh to put the potential tying run in scoring position before being stranded because the Dodgers’ relievers actually did their jobs. And unlike the World Series when Judge dropped a fly ball hit right at him that will forever be the lasting image of the the collapse, he made a nice diving catch early in the game, completely laying out for the ball in right field.

7. The Yankees continue to play daily with two automatic outs in the lineup with at least two of DJ LeMahieu, Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas playing every game. That will change this coming week when Jazz Chisholm returns, but it still means one of those three will play every day. That trio combined for an 0-for-5 game with a walk and hit by pitch in the series opener. One of the zeros was from LeMahieu who pinch hit for Peraza in the eighth representing the tying run and hit a fly ball with an expected batting average of .030 to end the threat. With each passing day and each unproductive at-bat, LeMahieu sadly inches a little closer to no longer being a Yankee, and with only recording a hit in one game (he had three in the blowout last week at Coors Field) in the last nearly two weeks, that day will be coming soon if he doesn’t turn it around immediately.

8. I could pick apart Aaron Boone’s bullpen management, which helped the Dodgers come back, but I will give the manager the day off, considering Hill walked in the go-ahead run in the sixth (even if removing Loaisiga and/or loading the bases purposely before brining in Hill was foolish and letting the last man in the bullpen face the 2-3-4 hitters of the Dodgers in a one-run game was irresponsible). Loaisiga needs to be better. Hill needs to be better. Yerry De los Santos … well, it’s not his fault as the last or second-to-last arm in the bullpen the “lane” given to him in a one-run game was Teoscar Hernandez, Will Smith and Freddie Freeman. Luke Weaver, Devin Williams and Mark Leiter Jr. are all more than rested going into Saturday and I expect to see them if. the game is close.

9. Hopefully, the game isn’t close. Hopefully, the offense beats the crap out of Landon Knack, stakes Warren to a multi-run lead and it’s smooth sailing for the night. The Yankees could use a game like that. Their most recent games were last night’s meltdown, a 1-0 win, a 3-2 win, a 5-1 win that was a nail-biter in the ninth, a 5-4 win that was a nail-biter in the ninth, a 13-1 blowout win, a 3-2 loss, a 1-0 win, a 4-3 win and. a 5-2 win. Of. theYankees’ last 10 games, only last Saturday’s rout of the Rockies wasn’t close.

10. The good version of Warren needs to show up on Saturday. The version that shut down. the A’s and Mariners, stifled the Rangers and handled the Rockies after a shaky first inning. If early-season Warren or first-inning in Colorado Warren shows up against the Dodgers, things could get ugly. Warren can’t nibble and be afraid to throw strikes like he has the penchant to do at times against the Dodgers. Even without Mookie Betts, the Dodgers won’t allow Warren to settle in and figure it out if he doesn’t have it from the get-go. That’s why the offense (especially the top of the order since all that can be trusted) needs to go out and have the kind of start they had on Friday on Saturday and support him early.