1. If you didn’t watch Saturday’s Subway Series game, the only information you need to know the outcome is that it was a one-run game. Knowing that, you can safely assume the Yankees lost. And they did.

The level of ineptitude displayed by Aaron Boone in every close game somehow grows. Now in his eighth season as Yankees manager, for a man who was born into baseball, it continues to be startling how bad he is at everything involved with in-game strategy. It’s disturbing really.

Boone’s entire in-game job description is to put his players in the best possible position to succeed, and the times he does so each season can be counted with your fingers and you’ll likely have a few unused fingers. He has not improved in this aspect of his role since become manager. At best, he’s the same in 2025 as he was in 2018, though, in actuality, he may be worse.

Boone’s lack of common sense and creativity is the reason the team has the worst extra-inning road record in the majors since the automatic runner was implemented, but his inability to make simple choices that nearly everyone in attendance and watching at home can identify is why the team is 7-15 in one- and two-run games this season (and 19-4 in games decided by three runs or more). The closer the score, the more important every managerial decision becomes. The Yankees’ expected record based off of their run differential is 30-15 and their actual record is 26-19. It’s not a coincidence they are playing four games worse than their run differential when you factor in who is managing the team.

2. Boone had it easy on Friday night. The Yankees scored six runs and Carlos Rodon allowed one run over five innings. By the time Boone had to make a bullpen decision the Yankees had a five-run lead and it wasn’t exactly difficult to call on Jonathan Loaisiga, Mark Leiter Jr. and Devin Williams, who combined to throw three scoreless innings. With a five-run lead in the ninth, Boone decided to go with the last man in the bullpen in Yerry De los Santos. (Tyler Matzek had arguably been the last man in the bullpen, but was designated for assignment by the Yankees on Friday. He was good enough to be pitch in a one-run game in Seattle on Wednesday, but then not good enough to be a Yankee on Friday.) Yes, De los Santos should be able to get three outs with a five-run lead, but there’s a reason he was in Triple-A before injuries led to his call up, and he created a mess in the ninth. Boone ended up needing to use Luke Weaver to get the final out on Friday with two pitches. Those two pitches meant Weaver had pitched three of the last four days and that would make him unavailable on Saturday by the Yankees’ self-created pitching rules. (A little bit of foreshadowing for you.)

3. The Yankees offense wasn’t as good on Saturday as it was on Friday. They only managed to score on a pair of solo home runs in their 3-2 loss, but that doesn’t mean the opportunities weren’t there for them to score more. Their manager prevented them from doing so.

The Yankees didn’t get their first baserunner until the third inning and that runner touched them all. DJ LeMahieu hit a home run to the short porch in right to five the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

“It just felt good to play at Yankee Stadium again and in front of these fans,” LeMahieu said. “It’s obviously a big series. I’m just excited to be out there.”

4. To keep with the Yankees’ ongoing lack of shutdown innings, Clarke Schmidt immediately gave the run back and more in the very next inning. Schmidt walked Francisco Lindor and allowed back-to-back singles to Juan Soto and Pete Alonso. After Brandon Nimmo struck out, the Mets didn’t wait around for another base hit to score a second run. With Soto on second, Schmidt paid no attention to him and Soto took off to easily steal third as Yankees pitching continues to think stealing bases against them isn’t allowed. Mark Vientos hit a fly ball and Soto scored to give the Mets a 2-1 lead.

5. The Yankees had an opportunity to tie the game in the fifth and squandered it in an unbelievable (but very believable with Boone at the helm) way. J.C. Escarra led off with a walk and LeMahieu singled. The Yankees had first and second with no outs and 9-hitter Jorbit Vivas up. Vivas has been 60 percent worse than league average in 34 career plate appearances, so everyone knew he was going to bunt. Everyone except Boone. Vientos was drawn in at third anticipating the bunt, but Boone had Vivas swing away, and swing away he did, all the way to a strikeout to keep the runners where they were for an unproductive out. The Yankees could no longer tie the game with back-to-back productive outs and when Ben Rice followed with a deep fly ball that would have scored the tying run, it made the decision to not bunt hurt that much more. Aaron Judge followed with a groundout. Rally extinguished.

6. The Yankees did tie the game in the sixth with the only way they know how to score in close games: a home run. Cody Bellinger led off the inning with a long solo home run. After a Paul Goldschmidt groundout, Jasson Dominguez and Anthony Volpe hit back-to-back singles with Dominguez going to third on Volpe’s. The Yankees had first and third with one out and Escarra due up. It was too early in Boone’s mind to hit for Escarra with Austin Wells since Boone only hits for his catcher if the team trails in the ninth inning (a scenario that was created for him in this game). He bypassed hitting for Vivas in the fifth and bypassed hitting for Escarra in the sixth. Escarra hit the first pitch from Huascar Brazoban weakly to Pete Alonso at first. Holding true to his managerial deficiencies, Boone had the contact play on and Dominguez was easily thrown out at home. (I can think of one time the contact play worked for the Boone Yankees and it worked because of a throwing error.) The Yankees failed to score in the inning.

Schmidt had given the Yankees six innings of two-run ball and when he reached the dugout after the sixth it looked like his day was over. Not for Boone. Boone sent Schmidt back out for the seventh and he allowed a 105-mph single on the first pitch. Then Boone took him out. Was that really Boone trying to steal outs in the seventh inning of a game in which he already failed to bunt runners over to tie the game didn’t pinch hitter for his backup catchers with a chance to take the lead? You bet it was.

The Yankees caught an enormous break in the inning when Leiter Jr. allowed a double in the gap to 9-hitter Tyrone Taylor. There was only one out in the inning, but that didn’t stop the Mets from sending Brett Baty home in a move I thought only the Yankees were dumb enough to make. A perfect Yankees relay ended with Baty being thrown out at the plate to keep the game tied. Instead of having second and third with one out and Lindor and Soto due up, the Mets ran themselves out of the inning.

The Yankees would certainly make the Mets pay for their mistake, right? With Trent Grisham pinch hitting for Vivas (two innings two late) and Rice and Judge due up the Yankees had a chance to take a late lead. The trio went down in order.

7. In the eighth, with the game still tied at 2, the Yankees were in a prime position to take the lead. The effective-but-wild Reed Garrett came in for the Mets and walked Bellinger to start the inning. Unfortunately, Goldschmidt banged into a first-pitch double play to erase Bellinger.  Dominguez battled for a seven-pitch walk to extend the inning and with the slow-to-the-plate Garrett on the mound it was likely he could take second and get into scoring position. But Dominguez never took off for second. Not even when Volpe got into a 2-2 count did Dominguez get out in motion. So when Volpe doubled down the right-field line, Dominguez was unable to score. Escarra walked to load the bases for LeMahieu who crushed a first-pitch fastball at 107 mph (an exit velocity we haven’t seen from LeMahieu in years), but it was hit right at Soto in right. Instead of scoring a run or two or clearing the bases with a smoked line drive, LeMahieu and the Yankees had nothing to show for it. Only the Yankees could draw two walks and produce a single, double and a 107-mph line drive in a single inning and not score.

The old adage that you use your closer in the ninth inning of a tie game at home meant Weaver would pitch the ninth. Except he didn’t. Remember the two-pitch outing from the night before? That was enough to keep Weaver out of the game. So Boone sent Fernando Cruz back to the mound after he had gotten the last out of the eighth. Cruz allowed a walk, single, hit a batter and gave up a sacrifice fly and the Mets took a 3-2 lead.

The Yankees went down without a fight in the ninth inning. Boone finally used Wells against Edwin Diaz and he struck out. Rice hit a little flare to third that was caught and Judge struck out for the game. Judge finished the game 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, and unsurprisingly, the Yankees played a close game and lost.

8. “It was a great baseball game,” Boone said. “It really was.”

Boone really said that. The manger of the losing team in a game he single-handedly lost thought it was a “great game.” It was a losing quote from a losing-minded manager. All I could think about after hearing it was the image YES showed during the game of Boone presenting Soto with his American League Championship ring before the game as if producing or wearing a ring celebrating winning the AL and getting pantsed in the World Series isn’t embarrassing. Soto already has a ring. A real ring from when he posted an 1.178 OPS and hit three home runs against the Astros in 2019 to beat the team the Boone Yankees have lost to in the postseason three times during his tenure. Soto doesn’t need some piece-of-shit pennant ring.

9. Sunday presents a rubber game in the Stadium version of the Subway Series. The Yankees will face the left-handed David Peterson. Maybe they can bring back Jahmai Jones and J.D. Davis, the duo Boone famously hit first and fourth against the Mets in last year’s Subway Series.

Would Boone dare to hit LeMahieu first against the lefty? Based on LeMahieu’s at bats in three games it wouldn’t be the worst thing. He did hit a home run on Saturday and hit a ball 107 mph. If you want to say it was a short-porch homer, too bad. I didn’t see anyone else on the Yankees using the short porch on Saturday. I think I would be inclined to use LeMahieu as the leadoff hitter against a lefty. He’s as healthy as he’s going to be and with the more games he plays you never know when he’s going to get hurt and no longer be available. You might as well use him while you still can. I wouldn’t use Trent Grisham or Rice. If anything, I would go with Volpe or Bellinger as both have crushed lefties.

In actuality, this is what Boone is likely to do on Sunday night:

1. Trent Grisham, CF
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Cody Bellinger, LF
4. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
5. Jasson Dominguez, DH
6. Anthony Volpe, SS
7. Austin Wells, C
8. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
9. Oswald Peraza, 3B

10. It shouldn’t matter that much because Max Fried is starting and the offense doesn’t need to provide much when Fried starts. The Yankees lost the last time Fried started on Tuesday and it was the first time they have lost one of his starts, and they lost 2-1 (another one-run, extra-inning road loss). Fried didn’t have his best stuff and still only allowed one run over five innings. I don’t see him having to grind through a second straight start.

Fried is starting and the only relievers who should be needed when he starts are rested in Loaisiga and Weaver and the Yankees have a day off on Monday. The Yankees are set up to win the Stadium portion of this year’s Subway Series. Unless their manager screws it up.

1. It looked like the Yankees’ two-city, six-game road trip would end the same way their other two multi-series road trips had ended this season: with a letdown. After starting their Pittsburgh-Detroit trip in early April 2-1 , it ended 3-3. After starting their Tampa Bay-Cleveland trip in mid-April 3-1, it ended 4-3. After starting their Sacramento-Seattle trip this week 3-1, it was on the verge of ending 3-3.

The Yankees hit Luis Castillo as hard as they ever have (nine balls hit over 100 mph against Castillo) and had nothing to show for it through the first five innings. Trent Grisham hit a ball over the wall to lead off the game that Julio Rodriguez pulled back in to prevent a home run and Aaron Judge singled and Cody Bellinger doubled in the first, and the Yankees still didn’t score a run. In the third, the Yankees had two on with one out and couldn’t score, in the fourth they left a runner on and did so again in the fifth.

The Yankees trailed 2-0 with two outs and no one on in the sixth. Castillo was an out away from throwing six scoreless and turning it over to the strong Mariners bullpen before a two-out rally happened.

Anthony Volpe worked a six-pitch at-bat that ended with a double. With Castillo sitting at 91 pitches, Jasson Dominguez jumped on a first-pitch slider from Castillo and ripped it down the right-field line for an RBI double.

2. Now trailing by one run with three innings of outs to play with, Aaron Boone inexplicably went to Tyler Matzek for the bottom of the sixth to face the middle of the Mariners’ lineup as Boone tried his very best to make sure the Yankees would have a somber cross-country flight home. Matzek entered the game having allowed 14 baserunners in 5 2/3 innings this season, so why wouldn’t Boone go to him in a one-run game with a scheduled day off on Thursday?

Unsurprisingly, Matzek created a mess. He allowed a leadoff single to Cal Raleigh after Boone purposely put Matzek in to turn around Raleigh and have him hit from the right side. He got Randy Arozarena to fly out, but let Raleigh steal second and then walked pinch-hitter Dylan Moore. Matzek was able to strike out Leody Tavares (who was let go by the Rangers earlier this season and has a .554 OPS), and thankfully, Boone removed him from the game for Ian Hamilton.

3. Dan Wilson removed Castillo for the seventh at 93 pitches and went to his trusted lefty Gabe Speier, who had no problem shutting down the Yankees the night before. Boone went to his bench and used Paul Goldschmidt to pinch hit for J.C. Escarra and Goldschmidt blasted Speier’s first pitch into the left-field seats to tie the game at 2.

“It shows you the type of player he is and the knowledge he has,” Judge said of Goldschmidt. “His preparation to where he was ready to go from the very first pitch, and he put a great swing on it.”

After getting the last out of the seventh, Hamilton threw a perfect eighth, and just like Goldschmidt leading off the seventh with a home run, Judge did the same in the eighth to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead.

Fernando Cruz pitched around a couple of baserunners in the eighth and Luke Weaver struck out the side on 15 pitches in the ninth, and the Yankees were able to board their flight home in celebratory fashion.

4. Will Warren put together back-to-back good starts for the first time in his career. After going 7 1/3 innings last Friday against the A’s, he held the Mariners to two runs over five innings with a career-high nine strikeouts. He has brought his ERA down to a respectable 4.61 given where he was earlier this year. I still don’t trust him. I still need more than one of nine starts going more than five innings. But there is intrigue with him after this trip, and there is at least promise that maybe he can figure it out the way Clarke Schmidt kind of/sort of has.

5. DJ LeMahieu reached base with a walk and also hit a line-drive single up the middle in the game. As I wrote after the second game of the series, LeMahieu just needs to be average at the plate. That’s all anyone is asking: Be average.

6. Anthony Volpe has quietly been hitting well of late. For as critical I am of the Yankees’ Golden Boy, I will be fair when he’s going well. He hit .304/.448/.522 on the road trip, hit his first road home run of the season to prove he can hit the ball out away from the short porch at Yankee Stadium and his OPS for the season is back up to .770. He has a .900 OPS over the last three weeks and 17 games. Am I ready to believe he is the player the Yankees promised? No. He’s done this before. He has fooled us all into believing he has figured it out several times in his first two-plus seasons in the league. I’m going to need a much longer period of success than three weeks before I buy into Volpe again, but for the moment, my belief is trending in the right direction.

7. Cody Bellinger is riding a 10-game hit streak. Before the streak he had a .614 OPS. Now it’s all the way up to. 688. Wow! A .688 OPS for a $25 million player! What an accomplishment. I’m sure the trio of Bellinger, Grisham and Dominguez will all sit a game this weekend. That seems to be the way things are going. It’s going to take one of them turning into Aaron Hicks or Josh Donaldson to get something close to an everyday expected lineup, and even then, as you remember with Hicks and Donaldson, that still may not be enough. Even if Bellinger is the worst of the three (which he has been by a large margin), his defense, reputation and owed money will always keep him at the top of the pecking order.

8. The Yankees have already told us they don’t give a shit that Dominguez is destroying right-handed pitching with a .305/.383/.512 slash line against them and an .895 OPS since they continue to sit him against them. (For comparison, Bellinger has a .639 OPS against righties.) Grisham seems to need to homer twice a series to stay in the lineup, and Bellinger seems to be able to do whatever he wants to stay in the lineup. Throw in the extra-base hit machine in Ben Rice, who can’t get into the lineup daily and the Yankees have a problem in that they have too many hitters for not enough lineup spots. The problem derives from the fact that their best hitters don’t play positions of need. The Yankees need a second baseman and third baseman, and unfortunately, none of Dominguez, Grisham, Bellinger and Rice play those positions, so LeMahieu and Oswald Peraza/Jorbit Vivas get to play every day.

9. This is the best possible Yankees lineup against a right-handed starter at the moment:

1. Trent Grisham, CF
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Ben Rice, DH
4. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
5. Jasson Dominguez, LF
6. Anthony Volpe, SS
7. Austin Wells, C
8. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
9. Oswald Peraza, 3B

10. The Yankees will see two right-handed starters this weekend against the Mets. Friday’s game is going to have a postseason feel to it in the first game of the 2025 Subway Series and the first game back in the Bronx for Juan Soto. I love the Subway Series, always have, even after all of these years. I don’t think the games have lost their luster, and this year’s (especially this weekend) will show that.

Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt and Max Fried are lined up to go this weekend, so it’s the best possible three the Yankees could use going in the series. A night game on Friday, followed by a day game on Saturday and then another night game on Sunday leading into a day off on Monday. It’s going to be a loud weekend at the Stadium.

1. Blowout wins and close losses. That’s what the Aaron Boone Yankees do. That’s what they have always done, and that’s what they did on Tuesday night in Seattle, losing to the Mariners 2-1 in 11 innings.

It’s not a coincidence the Yankees are 7-12 in one- and two-run games this season and 15-5 in games decided by three or more runs. The Yankees win games with a large gap in the score because their offense is capable of going off and their pitching is sound enough to rarely be on the wrong end of a blowout. They lose close games because the closer the score, the more important managing, situational hitting and fundamentals are, and the Yankees suck at all three. It’s why the Yankees have the worst extra-inning road record (12-25) since the automatic runner was implemented (stat from Katie Sharp). It’s why they lost for the third time in three extra-inning road games this season.

2. Bryan Woo is a very good starter. Coming off a 22-start, 2.89 ERA season last year, Woo has been mostly good this year, though he was lit up in Sacramento in his previous start (6 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR). Couple Woo going against Max Fried, who has been the best or second-best (to Tarik Skubal) starter in the league this year and runs were always going to be at a premium on Tuesday.

That’s why it hurt so much when Trent Grisham played a ball in center field like late-career Aaron Hicks would have. Grisham got turned around on a Cal Raleigh deep drive to center and played it into a run-scoring double. That one run is all that would come in the game until the ninth.

3. The Yankees had a couple of chances to get to Woo in the game, but only a couple. That’s because from the third out in the first inning until there were two outs in the sixth inning, Woo didn’t allow a baserunner, retiring 15 straight. The Yankees stranded Cody Bellinger at second in the first, and in the sixth, Bellinger left both Grisham and Aaron Judge on.

4. In the seventh, trailing by a run with one out, Austin Wells doubled on a ground ball inside first base. It wasn’t like Wells drilled one in the gap, but Dan Wilson still pulled Woo at 88 pitches. Even with Anthony Volpe (who hits lefties well) due up, Wilson went to a lefty in Gabe Speier, the way every manager has gone to lefties in the middle innings against the Yankees this season. Volpe drew a seven-pitch walk to set up first and second with one out. With Jasson Dominguez batting right-handed at the plate, Boone called for a double steal and both Wells and Volpe were safe. With runners now on second and third and one out, the Yankees had their best chance of the game to that point to score.

They didn’t. Dominguez continued his struggles against lefties with a couple of ugly hacks to go down swinging and Speier made quick work of Oswald Peraza with a three-pitch strikeout.

5. The Yankees went down again in the eighth and still trailed 1-0 in the ninth with Anthony Munoz and his 0.00 ERA taking the mound. The Yankees caught a break when Munoz hit Paul Goldschmidt with a pitch to put the leadoff man on, and Goldschmidt made him pay by immediately stealing second. The Yankees had the opportunity to score the tying run without a hit, and they did just that as Pablo Reyes (pinch running for Goldschmidt) scored after a couple of ground balls.

The Yankees failed to score Volpe from second with one out in the ninth, and the moment the game went to extra innings I knew the Yankees were doomed.

“When you don’t score in the extra innings, it puts the home team at a real advantage,” Boone said, “so we were kind of up against it there.”

6. The Yankees don’t score in extra innings on the road because their entire extra-inning road strategy seems to be to hope Judge is due up in the 10th and then hope he hits one in the gap or over the wall. The problem is Judge is never allowed to bat in extras because no opposing manager is dumb enough to let the one Yankee who will beat them, beat them.

DJ LeMahieu in his first plate appearance of 2025 led off the 10th with an unsurprising strikeout and Grisham followed with a strikeout as well. Grisham worked the count full before going down on a slider in the dirt. Had he taken that pitch, Judge would have had a chance to hit. Instead, the Mariners threw up four fingers and put Judge on before he even stepped foot in the batter’s box. Bellinger ended the inning with his patented lazy fly ball.

Devin Williams kept the game alive with a scoreless bottom of the 10th, but with the bottom of the order due up it wasn’t going to matter.

Reyes hit a ground ball to move the automatic runner to third with one out, Wells popped out for the second out, and after Volpe walked, Dominguez grounded out.

In the bottom of the 11th, Tim Hill took the mound. Hill is the last pitcher you want to see with the game-winning run on second and no outs, considering he pitches to contact and can’t get whiffs. In the span of three pitches, the Mariners singled twice and ended the game.

7. Max Fried had to grind through five innings and still only allowed a run: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. It was the first game the Yankees have lost this season Fried has started. He still leads the league in WAR, wins, ERA, innings pitched and ERA+.

8. I expect LeMahieu to be in the starting lineup on Wednesday and with the West Coast trip coming to an end, a scheduled day off on Thursday and the Mets waiting back in New York for Friday’s Subway Series opener, I think Boone could give us a lineup like this for the rubber game in Seattle:

1. Trent Grisham, CF
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Ben Rice, 1B
4. Cody Bellinger, LF
5. Anthony Volpe, SS
6. Jasson Dominguez, DH
7. J.C. Escarra, C
8. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
9. Jorbit Vivas, 3B

9. After scoring one run in 11 innings on Tuesday, things won’t get easier on Wednesday with Luis Castillo going for the Mariners. Castillo is coming off a brutal performance against the Blue Jays, but Dylan Cease and Woo were both coming off of clunkers recently and then dominated the Yankees. I doubt Castillo will suck for a second straight start, especially since he always pitches well against the Yankees.

Will Warren gave the best start of his career on Friday in Sacramento, and now for the first time in the majors, he’s going to try to give back-to-back good-enough-to-win efforts. For the Yankees to have a chance against Castillo, they’re going to need Warren to not ruin the game early, which he seems to have a knack for doing.

10. The Yankees’ first multi-series road trip of the season started out 2-1 and ended 3-3. Their second started out 3-1 and ended 4-3. Their third and current started out 3-1 and can either finish 4-2 or 3-3. If it’s the former, it will be an enjoyable cross-country flight home leading into Thursday’s day off. If it’s the latter, it will be an enormous disappointment after the way the first four games went.

1. In all four games of this two-city, six-game West Coast trip the Yankees have had a four-plus-run inning. On Friday, they had an five-run eighth. On Saturday, they had have a five-run sixth. On Sunday, they had had a five-run second and a five-run fifth. On Monday, they had a six-run fifth to blow the game open in their 11-5 win over the Mariners.

2. It’s been an extra-base hit barrage for the Yankees in the Pacific Time Zone where they are now 3-1, having outscored the A’s and Mariners 40-20 in four games. In the series opener against the Mariners the Yankees had three doubles (Aaron Judge, Ben Rice and Oswald Peraza) and three home runs (Trent Grisham with two and Austin Wells).

3. The pair of solo home runs from Grisham went to the exact same spot in straightaway center. The first tied the game at 1 in the third after Clarke Schmidt (6 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 2 HR) had given up a solo home run to Julio Rodriguez in the first. On Grisham’s home run, Rodriguez had a chance to make a play on the ball at the wall, but the ball hit off the top of his glove and went over the wall. Had Rodriguez done nothing, the ball would have stayed in the park for a double.

4. Schmidt gave the Mariners the lead back after allowing another solo home run, this one to Jorge Polanco in the third. In the fifth, Grisham got the run back with his second home run, which managed to go three feet farther (415 feet) than his first (412 feet), preventing Rodriguez from making a play on it. Grisham’s leadoff home run in the fifth ignited the six-run rally that carried the Yankees to a win as the first five Yankees of the inning all reached: Grisham homered, Judge doubled, Rice doubled, Paul Goldschmidt singled and Cody Bellinger singled. The Yankees went from trailing 2-1 to leading 4-2 following Bellinger’s RBI single. After Anthony Volpe lined out, Wells hit a three-run home run to break the game open and give the Yankees a 7-2 lead.

5. The Yankees added a run in the seventh and the Mariners answered with one in the seventh and two in the eighth to pull within three. The Yankees extended their lead in the ninth with a three-run inning that included a severe leg injury for Oswaldo Cabrera. Cabrera was on third when Judge hit a sacrifice fly to right field. Cabrera raced home and looked to plant his left leg awkwardly to score, immediately went to the ground and both training staffs attended to him. He was eventually put on a stretcher and removed from the field by ambulance.

“For him to get hurt on a play like that, it speaks a ton to what type of guy he is,” Judge said. “It’s a game where we’ve got a little bit of a lead, and he’s still fighting to the very last out.”

Based on the pain Cabrera looked to be in and the way he was attended to and removed from the field, it’s likely a season-ending injury.

“Before he got on [the gurney], he said, ‘Judgy, did I score?’ and Judge said, ‘Yeah,'” Aaron Boone said. “That made him smile.”

This season Cabrera had finally been getting the most playing time he has received in his four years in the majors before Monday’s injury. During his time in the majors he has played every position other than catcher.

“[Grisham] said something after: ‘Cabby does it right every day,” Boone said. “Every day. How he prepares to do his job, the kind of teammate he is, the joy he walks in this room with every single day. He is an example in so many ways for anyone to look to for how to go about living their life.”

6. Cabrera will be missed in the clubhouse, where he’s clearly well-liked by every person on and involved with the team and on the field where he can fill in at any position, whether in a starting or reserve role. It looks like the Yankees have their replacement on the way in DJ LeMahieu.

“He’s en route now,” Boone said of LeMahieu before Monday’s game.

LeMahieu missed the first two months of last season after breaking his foot on a foul ball near the end of spring training. His season ended a month early due to a hip impingement, making it the third time (2021, 2022 and 2024) in four years his season ended early due to injury. He hurt his left calf on March 1 of this year, having played in one spring training game.

“The stuff I’ve been watching has been really good,” Boone said of LeMahieu’s rehab games.

Boone always says everyone looks really good, no matter how they really look. He told everyone Nestor Cortes’ bullpen sessions leading up to the World Series looked really good. Freddie Freeman proved it was all bullshit.

“DJ LeMahieu could fall out of bed and hit,” Boone said. “I think the biggest thing that’s tripped him up over the years is nagging, different injuries that have popped up and slowed him.”

Yes, once upon a time LeMahieu could fall out of bed (Boone meant to say “roll out of bed”) and hit. But it’s been a long time. LeMahieu hit .204/.269/.259 last season in 228 plate appearances. Since the start of 2021 and his six-year contract, he has hit .252/.336/.362, has been five percent worse than league average and has missed 31 percent of the Yankees’ 689 regular-season games and has missed all 24 postseason games. As for the “nagging, different injuries” Boone spoke about, well, that’s called getting old and LeMahieu is about to play in his 15th season in the majors.

I don’t expect LeMahieu to contribute, and I hope I’m pleasantly surprised. Even a league-average version of LeMahieu is an upgrade over what the Yankees have gotten in the infield in recent years. We know LeMahieu will be fine defensively. Just be average at the plate. That’s all anyone is asking. Be average. (LeMahieu has been league average offensively in one of the last four seasons.)

7. I wrote on Monday how Jasson Dominguez (despite being outstanding against right-handed pitching with a .948 OPS) would be benched for at least one game in Seattle, and sure enough, he sat out the first game. (Have to get Bellinger in there! Just have to to.) That means Dominguez will play on Tuesday, especially since he’s for 1-3 with a home run off of Bryan Woo. Boone can’t possibly sit Grisham coming off a two-homer game, can he? He can’t, but he might. It makes all of the sense in the world to sit Bellinger. Here is what I think Boone will do:

1. Trent Grisham, CF
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Ben Rice, DH
4. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
5. Jasson Dominguez, LF
6. Anthony Volpe, SS
7. Austin Wells, C
8. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
9. Oswald Peraza/Jorbit Vivas, 3B

8. I would play Peraza at third over Vivas, given Peraza’s glove, his homer on Saturday and his double on Monday. But I don’t know that Boone can stomach batting two right-handed hitters consecutively in the lineup in the event a tough right-handed reliever is summoned at some point in the game, since Boone thinks the late innings are more important than the early innings of a game.

9. I also could see Boone sitting Goldschmidt on either Tuesday or Wednesday against Woo or Luis Castillo, two elite righties. That allows Rice to play first and opens up the DH spot so one of the outfielders doesn’t have to sit. With Thursday’s day off, it’s likely Boone gives Goldschmidt the day off on Wednesday, so Goldschmidt has all of Wednesday and Thursday off before Friday’s game against the Mets.

10. Whatever lineup Boone chooses to go with on Tuesday shouldn’t matter that much with Max Fried starting. Three runs is all the offense should need to give Fried to work with. And since Devin Williams and Luke Weaver haven’t pitched in six days, the easy path to victory is Fried for seven to Williams to Weaver. An easier path is Fried to Weaver. That’s the path I would like to see on Tuesday in Seattle.

1. The Yankees’ first stop on their two-city, six-game West Coast road trip had everything the 2025 Yankees seem to offer: the best hitter in baseball continuing to be that, a poor showing against a left-handed starter, a career game for the top prospect, a late-inning meltdown from the bullpen, questionable in-game decison-making from the manager and a few explosive innings from the offense.

2. It had been more than two weeks since Will Warren had given the Yankees a serviceable start after being unable to get through four innings against the Orioles and taking a loss in 4 2/3 innings against the Rays his last two times out. On Friday, Warren turned in the best performance of his career: 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K.

For much of the game, Warren needed to be as good as he was. The Yankees only had a 2-0 lead entering the fifth, before tacking on one run in each of the fifth, sixth and seventh and then blowing the game open with a five-run eighth. Warren entered Friday having been unable to record an out in the sixth inning this season and was still on the mound in Sacramento in the eighth.

3. The Yankees got to Osvaldo Bido (5.1 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 2 HR) and then pounded Hogan Harris and Elvis Alvarado. Aaron Judge, J.C. Escarra, Jorbit Vivas, Ben Rice and Oswaldo Cabrera hit doubles, Paul Goldschmidt had a solo home run and Jasson Dominguez became the youngest Yankee ever to hit three home runs in a game.

“Tonight was special,” Dominguez said. “A very special night that I will remember.”

Dominguez homered from both sides of the plate on three different pitch types. His third home run was his first career grand slam.

“He just needs to play,” Aaron Boone said. “It’s just the experience with him. He’s so talented.”

I feel like Boone is just fucking with everyone at this point. Who is the one who decides when Dominguez plays? BOONE! Boone played Dominguez in all three games in the series and he went 5-for-12 with six runs, three home runs, seven RBIs, two walks and two strikeouts. It was the first time Dominguez appeared in every game of a series since the Guardians series nearly three weeks ago.

Dominguez should be in the lineup every game, but leave it to the Yankees to toy with their top prospect who is hitting .324/.407/.541 against right-handing pitching and just hit his first career home run against a lefty. Overall, Dominguez has a .343 on-base percentage and is hitting 24 percent better than league average. And yet, he doesn’t play every day. You can guarantee he will sit at least one game in Seattle. Can you imagine how the Yankees would have acted if Anthony Volpe had this type of production in his rookie season? Or any season? Volpe gets to play every day and has since the moment he was called up. If he had these kind of numbers two years ago in his rookie year there would already be a plaque for him in Monument Park. But not for Dominguez.

Not for Dominguez because the Yankees traded for Cody Bellinger, and reputation combined with owed money will always trump actual performance, talent and development. Bellinger is hitting .221/.293/.382 on the year and is nine percent worse than league average. If you gave Bellinger’s salary to Dominguez and Dominguez’s salary to Bellinger, Dominguez would be batting third as Judge’s protection every game and Bellinger may not even be on the team. Because if Dominguez were hitting nine percent worse than league average, he would be back in Scranton. Instead, even with his numbers, he has to settle for batting seventh or eighth in 28 of his 34 games.

4. The Yankees nearly came back from a four-run deficit on Saturday to win, but instead, they just added to their league-leading total of blowing games they lead in after the seventh inning. Ex-Yankee JP Sears (traded for Frankie Montas in a memorable Brian Cashman deal) stifled the Yankees for five innings (5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR), allowing only one run on a Judge solo home run. Add Sears to the list of left-handed starters that have shut down the Yankees.

5. Trailing 4-0 after three because of a couple of home runs and a crooked-number inning against Carlos Rodon, Judge homered in the fourth. The Yankees exploded for a five-run inning for the second straight day in the sixth to take a 6-4 lead. Judge solo homered for the second time in as many at-bats, Bellinger walked, Volpe doubled, Austin Wells hit a sacrifice fly, Dominguez walked, Oswaldo Cabrera hit a sacrifice fly and Oswald Peraza hit a two-run home run. All of that happened against the same reliever. Mark Kotsay removed Sears after five innings and only 82 pitches for fear of Judge facing him again and the rest of the lineup seeing him for a third time. He brought in Justin Sterner and let him throw 28 pitches and allow five runs.

For a moment I felt thankful for Boone as Yankees manager. Even Boone wouldn’t allow something so egregious to happen. Then the very next inning Boone reminded me why I feel the way I do about him.

6. Ahead 6-4 with the top of the A’s lineup due up to begin the seventh inning, the spot screamed for Luke Weaver. But as I wrote in these Thoughts when Weaver was moved into the closer role, Weaver being the closer is detrimental to the Yankees because he will be assigned to the ninth inning (and maybe an out or two in the eighth every once in a while) no matter who is due up. Boone went to Fernando Cruz because Boone manages his bullpen to set innings. His plan was for Cruz to pitch the seventh, Devin Williams to pitch the eighth and Weaver the ninth. Boone has a plan and once the plan is deployed, there’s no stopping it. No matter what takes place on the field, he will see the plan out. Because in his mind, the plan will work flawlessly. Cruz will pitch a 1-2-3 seventh, Williams will do the same in the eighth and Weaver the same in the ninth.

Cruz allowed a one-out single followed by a double. The slugging Shea Langeliers came to the plate and Cruz threw a splitter that didn’t split and ended up being a middle-middle 81 mph fastball and Langeliers hit it 418 feet to regain the lead for the A’s.

7. There are likely some (idiotic) fans who will side with Boone and ask, “Well, if Weaver gets through the seventh, who pitches the eighth or ninth?” Cruz and Williams, obviously. If Weaver had pitched a scoreless seventh, the Yankees have a two-run lead with six outs to go. It changes how the eighth is managed by Kotsay. He may use someone other than Tyler Ferguson for the eighth and he’s certainly not going to Mason Miller for five outs when trailing. (He’s not going to Miller at all when trailing.) But because Cruz gave up the lead, Kotsay went to his elite relievers to close the door and they did.

The Yankees trailed by one still in the eighth and Boone used Ian Hamilton to try to keep it there. Hamilton got two outs but had the bases loaded against him, so Boone went to Tyler Matzek to try to get Tyler Soderstrom out to end the threat. Matzek gave up a first-pitch, two-run single and followed that up by allowing a two-run double to give the A’s an 11-6 lead. Sure enough, in the ninth, Trent Grisham led off the inning with a triple against Miller and Judge drove him in. If only, the Yankees had gotten out of the eighth still trailing by a run.

It’s time for Matzek to go. He was great for the Braves from 2020-2022, missed all over of 2023 and was bad in 11 appearances when he returned last year. As a Yankee, he’s allowed 14 baserunners in 5 2/3 innings despite four of his six appearances coming in games decided by eight runs or more. That’s really the only time he can be trusted: in a game of eight runs or more.

8. The power of the Law of Ex-Yankees may be waning. Sure, Sears had a nice start on Saturday, but any person using their left hand to throw a baseball would have success against this Yankees team. It used to be any ex-Yankee playing or pitching against their former team would have an exceptional performance. But Nestor Cortes got rocked in the second game of the season, Wandy Peralta was a disaster last week and Luis Severino pitched against the Yankees on Sunday the way he would pitch in the postseason for the Yankees.

9. Severino was bad in the series finale (4 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) and it allowed the Yankees to pick up their second straight series win. Not only was Severino awful, but Ryan Yarbrough was solid: 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR. I asked for Yarbrough to join the rotation long ago, and in his second start this year (he started for a scratched Clark Schmidt last week) he gave the exact type of performance you would expect. At this moment, the Yankees won’t need to use a fifth starter until Memorial Day Weekend in Colorado, so back to long relief he goes.

The Yankees had two five-run innings on Sunday (the second and fifth innings), Goldschmidt had three doubles, Cabrera had another double, Judge had a double and Rice hit his first career grand slam. It was the exact type of win anyone could ask for on Mother’s Day: an early-blowout-and-coast-to-the-ninth win.

10. Now it’s off to Seattle for three games against the slumping Mariners. The Mariners just got swept at home by the Blue Jays over the weekend and embarrassed in the series finale in a game in which the Blue Jays used Jose Urena as an opener and then went to Eric Lauer for the bulk work and were able to coast to a 9-1 win.

It’s never easy for the Yankees in Seattle. Add in that it’s the last leg of the West Coast trip, there’s a scheduled day off on Thursday and Juan Soto and the Mets come to the Bronx on Friday, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the end of this series is a slog for the Yankees. But the start of the series shouldn’t be.