1. Jacob deGrom had to be feeling like he was still a Met on Tuesday night against the Yankees. The soon-to-be 37-year-old righty went six innings, allowed three baserunners and one earned run and took the loss in a 3-2 Yankees win. He took the loss because Cam Schlittler was better than deGrom, as he continues to have the type of early-career success deGrom once had.

“He embraces every opportunity,” Aaron Judge said of Schlittler. “He wants to be in the moment. He’s not scared. There’s no fear.”

2. It was Schlittler’s fourth start with no earned runs in seven starts this year. His ERA is down to 1.51 and he leads the league in strikeouts (49) and the majors in FIP (1.52), WHIP (0.744), walks per nine innings (1.3) and strikeouts per walk (8.17).

“He’s a superstar,” Fernando Cruz said. “What he’s doing is really impressive — throwing three pitches at one speed — but they’re going in different directions.”

3. Last week, Michael Kay made a comment about the Yankees’ rotation and how once Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole come back that Schlittler will be quite the No. 4 starter. No. 4? He’s the No. 1. He’s the best pitcher on the team. He’s the best pitcher in the league! I don’t care who has more service time or what anyone’s salary is, Schlittler would be my choice to get the ball for Game 1 of the playoffs right now. We saw what he did in the playoffs last year, and we have seen what Max Fried, Rodon and Cole have done in their careers in the playoffs. It’s no contest. To think Schlittler is the team’s No. 4 is simply a joke.

4. The Yankees won for the second straight night against the Rangers the way they always seem to win: dominant starting pitching and the long ball. Schlittler gave them six scoreless innings and the Yankees hit two home runs: one from Austin Wells and one from Judge. Their other run came on a first-inning double from Cody Bellinger that hit the highest part of the wall in right-center. The offense was the double from Bellinger and the home runs from Wells and Judge. The Yankees went 5-for-33 in the game with no walks and those three had all five hits. The other six hitters in the lineup went 0-for-26.

5. Here is how the Yankees have scored their seven runs in Arlington:

Two-run home run
Solo home run
Solo home run
Double off the highest part of the wall
Solo home run
Solo home run

The Yankees lead the American League with 48 home runs (the next closest team is the Angels with 40) and also lead the majors (the next closest team is the Dodgers with 45.) The Bronx Bombers, indeed.

6. The Rangers had their chances to take a lead in the game and win it late. They drew two walks against Schlittler, which is impressive considering he had walked four total in his six other starts, they put two on against Brent Headrick, two more on against Cruz in the eighth and scored a run and had the winning run on base against David Bednar in the ninth. The play Cruz made on the really dumb sacrifice bunt attempt from Joc Pederson was amazing. It wasn’t amazing that he slid during the play, but it was amazing that he was able to make an accurate throw to third in time to get the lead runner for the first out of the inning and likely save the game.

7. As for Bednar, here is what I wrote about him after Monday’s game:

Michael Scott describing Andy Bernard is how I would summarize my confidence level with Bednar: “Pros: I trust him … Cons: I don’t really trust him.”

Bednar delivered nearly the same performance on Tuesday that he produced on Monday, including being hurt by another infield error as well. Instead of having two outs with no one on, Bednar was faced with one out and one on after Ryan McMahon bobbled a ground ball and then made a poor throw. If you’re going to post a .539 OPS, you’re going to need to make every play at third base. Danny Jansen followed with a run-scoring triple because why wouldn’t he as someone who has made a career off of big hits against the Yankees. Bednar then hit Brandon Nimmo with a 1-2 pitch to put the tying run on base. He threw five straight splitters to Josh Jung and Jung hit the fifth one for an RBI single to make it 3-2. With Corey Seager up with one out and the winning run on base I envisioned a double in the right-center gap or a three-run home run for a Rangers walk-off win. Bednar managed to get a ground ball from Seager for a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.

8. Bednar finished the game throwing seven straight splitters and 10 of his final pitches were splitters. Just five of his 22 pitches were fastballs. I hate having a closer whose best pitch isn’t a fastball. We just went through this last season with Devin Williams. The Yankees’ philosophy that if you have an elite non-fastball pitch you should throw it over and over and over is tiresome. We saw what happened with Tommy Kahnle throwing only changeups in the 2024 World Series. We saw Williams lose his closer role because of the same approach and now we’re watching Bednar throw mostly splitters with some curveballs and almost no fastballs. Bednar will undoubtedly be unavailable on Wednesday and with the day off on Thursday he won’t pitch against until the Orioles series if he’s needed. Hopefully he’s not needed because the Yankees have blown out the Orioles, but if he is, hopefully he has better command or is more willing to go to his fastball.

9. Elmer Rodriguez will make his major-league debut on Wednesday against the Rangers. His line in four Triple-A starts this season: 21.1 IP, 12 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 7 BB, 20 K, 1 HR. I’m excited to see what someone from the minors can do that isn’t named Luis Gil. It’s a great spot for the righty to make his debut, coming against a Rangers team with an extremely top-heavy lineup. It’s a good way for him to get his feet and for the rest of the rotation to get an extra day of rest built into this time through.

10. The Yankees will face Nathan Eovaldi who is always the starting pitcher on my annual All-Animosity Team. Here is what I wrote about Eovaldi for last year’s team:

Never trust a pitcher who throws triple-digit fastballs and has trouble striking hitters out, which is what Eovaldi was with the Yankees and has mostly been in his career. The Dodgers gave up on him and then the Marlins gave up on him. The Yankees thought they could be the ones to hone his incredible velocity, but they weren’t.

As a Yankee in 2015, Eovaldi pitched to a 14-3 record, so every idiot who relies on wins and losses to determine a pitcher’s success thought he had a great season. It didn’t matter that he received 5.75 runs of support per start or that he routinely struggled to get through five innings because he needed 20-plus pitches to get through each inning. In 2016, it was more of the same. Eovaldi pitched to a 4.76 ERA over 21 starts and 24 games before being shut down for another Tommy John surgery, ending his time with the Yankees as they let him walk after the season.

Eovaldi returned to the mound in 2018 and pitched well with the Rays and was traded to the Red Sox. He went on to shut out the Yankees in an important August series for the division lead and shut them out again in September. He did it again in October (even if he received more run support than any opposing starter had received in a postseason game at Yankee Stadium in history).

In 2018, Eovaldi beat the Yankees and Astros in the playoffs, mixed in a few relief appearances and then became a hero for his bullpen work in Game 3 of the World Series (even though he took the loss after giving up a walk-off home run). Eovaldi helped the Red Sox win the World Series and five years later helped the Rangers win it all after earning five wins in six starts in the 2023 postseason.

The only thing that could possibly make ending a nine-game road trip on a three-game winning streak and with an 8-1 going into a scheduled day off, even better is if it were to come at the expense of Eovaldi. The Yankees have the chance to board the plane home happy and put a smile on the faces of all of their fans going into the weekend by beating “Nasty Nate” who was never “nasty” as a Yankee.

1. I miss watching Juan Soto play for the Yankees every day, but Ben Rice is doing all he can to fill that void. Rice hit his 10th home run of the season on Monday night in Arlington to give the Yankees a two-run lead in the third inning in an eventual 4-2 win over the Rangers.

“It’s must-watch TV at this point, when he steps to the plate,” Aaron Judge said of Rice. “He’s going to put something in play hard, or he’s going to take his walk and pass the baton. It’s impressive to watch.”

2. Rice is up to 10 home runs, 23 RBIs and a .322/.447/.744 slash line with 21 walks in 28 games. He has become what Soto was for the Yankees in his lone season in pinstripes. He has become the offensive force to complement Judge that the Yankees were missing before Soto arrived and again last year after he left.

“I get a front-row seat hitting right behind him now,” Judge said. “It makes my job easy.”

3. Judge followed Rice’s two-run homer with a solo shot of his own as part of a 3-for-3 night that also included a pair of doubles.

“I couldn’t let him catch me in homers,” Judge said of his 11th immediately following Rice’s 10th. “I had to make sure I got one after that.”

Judge is tied for second in the majors in home runs with Yordan Alvarez and Rice is right behind them. They have the most home runs of any two teammates in baseball and are second (Rice) and third (Judge) in OPS behind Alvarez.

“I’m glad I don’t have to face them,” Max Fried said. “Those are two of the best hitters in the game.”

4. Fried put together another scoreless start (6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) to lower his ERA to 2.09 and extend his league-leading innings total to 47 1/3 innings. He continued pitching out of the stretch after abandoning his windup in Boston last Wednesday.

“It’s not like I’ll never do it again,” Fried said of his windup, “but we’ll give it some time.”

5. Camilo Doval entered in relief of Fried for the seventh and allowed a home run to make it a 4-1 game. Doval has allowed earned runs in three of his last four outings and home runs in those three outings. A four-run game is too close of a score for him to be pitching in.

Tim Hill pitched the eighth and walked two — his first two walks of the year — before eventually getting out of a bases-loaded jam.

6. David Bednar closed it out in the ninth but made it uncomfortable the way he seems to always do, though he did need to get four outs in the inning, thanks to a Jazz Chisholm error. Michael Scott describing Andy Bernard is how I would summarize my confidence level with Bednar: “Pros: I trust him … Cons: I don’t really trust him.” The Rangers scored an unearned run off Bednar.

7. Trent Grisham went 1-for-4 with a walk, Jazz Chisholm added his third home run of the season (all coming over the last five games), Cody Bellinger went 0-for-4 (he has a .488 OPS over the last eight games), Jasson Dominguez went 1-for-4 in his return to the majors, Austin Wells went 0-for-3 with a walk and Ryan McMahon and Jose Caballero both had singles. As long as Rice and Judge recreate what Soto and Judge did two years ago, there’s no need for anyone else to do much, and they haven’t, other than chipping in here and there. But aside from Bellinger who hasn’t hit much since the Saturday blowout of the Royals, everyone is the lineup is trending in the right direction.

8. It was good to see Dominguez back in the bigs. He ripped a line drive just foul down the right-field line in his first at-bat before eventually picking up a single in his third at-bat. Dominguez belongs. He belongs playing every day in the majors and batting leadoff (at least against right-handers), but instead, he’ll likely go back to Triple-A after Wednesday’s game.

9. Caballero went into Saturday’s game against the Astros 9-for-9 in stolen base attempts before getting caught twice in that game. He had a steal on Sunday and then got caught twice again on Monday. He’s now 11-for-15 this season, but for 1-for-5 since Saturday. The opposition seems to be aware he’s going to run on the first pitch and they’re getting him. Jack Leiter’s pickoff of him was the first of Leiter’s career.

10. Tuesday’s game features Cam Schlittler against Jacob deGrom. Schlittler is off to a deGrom-like start to his career, while deGrom is having a typical outstanding season as he approaches his 37th birthday. The Rangers have never faced Schlittler, and while it hasn’t mattered if a team has faced Schlittler or not so far in his career as he has been dominant against everyone, teams that have yet to face him really struggle against him. There are a few Yankees with decent numbers against deGrom: Bellinger, McMahon and Randal Grichuk have all homered off him twice and Chisholm has also homered off him. It’s too bad Giancarlo Stanton is now on the injured list as he is 9-for-27 with four home runs in his career against deGrom.

1. Allowing Luis Gil to start against the Astros was very much a wave-the-white-flag, eat-some-innings game. After fooling some with his performance at Fenway Park on Monday, all of the underlying numbers suggested Gil would get blasted by an offense that doesn’t have the worst team OPS in the American League. Sure enough, the Astros teed off on him and ended the Yankees’ eight-game winning streak.

2. Immediately after allowing eight baserunners, six earned runs and two home runs in just four innings (without recording a strikeout), Gil was sent back to Triple-A with a 6.05 ERA, diminished velocity and no way to get major-league hitters out unless their high-exit-velocity line drives are hit right at a fielder. For the fourth straight start, Gil had no clue where the ball was going when it left his hand and for the second straight start he only generated three whiffs.

3. “He struggled to get swing-and-miss again,” Aaron Boone said. “He’s just been struggling to get consistency with his delivery and fastball profile.”

And yet, the Yankees let him start four games this season. In the four-game stint, Gil allowed six home runs in 19 1/3 innings with 11 walks to just nine strikeouts. The Yankees managed to go 2-2 in the four starts because of their miracle walk-off win against the Angels built off a dropped pop-up and because Gil got to face a team that fired their entire dugout staff, partly because they were unable to hit him.

4. I don’t know what’s next for Gil. The pitcher we saw in 2024 seemed to have disappeared when he returned from the lat injury at the end of 2025, and the pitcher he is in 2026 is nowhere close to who he was last year, let alone two years ago. He’s buried on the starting pitching depth chart now and will be further buried when Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole return. And if the Yankees need a spot starter or a rotation member at some point this season, it would be appalling if it’s him with his current stuff.

5. Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough ate up the final four innings in a blah game that saw the offense fold against the only good starter in the Astros’ rotation. Trent Grisham and Ben Rice went 0-for-7 with a walk at the top of the order, Aaron Judge failed to get the big hit in the third inning with two on and two out but did manage to hit a meaningless home run down seven runs in the sixth, Cody Bellinger went 0-for-4, Jazz Chisholm went 2-for-4 and lost another ridiculous challenge, Paul Goldschmidt went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles to ensure he won’t be the odd man out when a roster spot is needed, J.C. Escarra went 1-for-4 with an RBI double, Ryan McMahon went 1-for-4 with an RBI single and Jose Caballero went 0-for-3. It was one of those all-around crappy games that’s part of a 162-game season.

6. Chisholm’s challenge privileges need to be revoked as he’s now 1-for-7 this year with them. Caballero’s privileges should be called into question as well and Rice isn’t too far behind. Offensively, the Yankees challenge pitches in extremely low-leverage situations and it needs to be resolved. Too many times they are challenging pitches that are blatant strikes and too many times they are wasting their challenges in the early innings in ill-advised spots.

7. Jasson Dominguez was called up after the game, presumably to be the designated hitter the next three days against the Rangers and three right-handed starters. Dominguez has hit .326/.415/.478 at Triple-A with five doubles, three home runs and 15 RBIs in 24 games. He has an .889 OPS over 77 games and three different seasons at Triple-A. There’s nothing left for him to accomplish in the minors offensively. He’s a major leaguer and will once again be one on Monday night against the Rangers.

8. The Yankees will face Jack Leiter, who has struggled of late. After two strong starts against the Orioles and Reds to begin the season (11 IP, 3 ER, 17 K), Leiter has pitched to a 6.91 ERA over his last three starts against the Dodgers, Athletics and Pirates, allowing 27 baserunners in 14 1/3 innings. Like Arrighetti on Sunday, Leiter has a penchant for walks, and the Yankees will need to take advantage of that, which they didn’t do in the series finale in Houston with just one walk in the game.

9. Max Fried gets the ball for the Yankees, coming off his eight-shutout-innings performance against the Red Sox. The Rangers aren’t very good offensively (fourth-worst team OPS in the AL), and like the Yankees, they have a very top-heavy lineup. Fortunately, for Fried, the Rangers’ best hitters are left-handed in Corey Seager and Brandon Nimmo, but Josh Jung and Jake Burger are potential problems.

10. We’re still waiting to see the best version of Fried this year, which is crazy to think, considering he’s the league leader in innings pitched, has a 2.40 ERA and a sparkling 0.774 WHIP, but it’s true. Fried has struggled with his command, especially out of the windup, and prior to shutting down the Red Sox (which is no real feat given Gil shut them out for 6 1/3 innings), the Yankees had lost his three previous starts. I expect Fried to pitch well on Monday because I always expect him to pitch well and because he’s too good not to make the necessary adjustments that have him somewhat off this season.

1. The Yankees have been waiting all season for the bottom of the lineup show up. Prior to this last week there had been a few moments here and there, but nothing consistent. Then Payton Tolle went and started Jazz Chisholm’s season for him, Jose Caballero decided he wanted fans on his side when Anthony Volpe returns, Ryan McMahon started making contact and hitting the ball hard and Austin Wells started to get on base regularly. Again, the last week of games has come against the Royals, Red Sox and Astros — three last-place teams — but these signs of life from the bottom of the order have been encouraging.

“[We’re] being patient when we need to, being aggressive when we need to,” Ben Rice said. “Guys are just delivering.”

2. On Friday, the Yankees routed the Astros 12-4. The top of the order gave them an early lead in the first inning, but the bottom of the order put the game out away in the later innings. Chisholm, McMahon and Caballero all homered and the 6-through-9 hitters went 8-for-17 with three home runs, seven RBIs and a walk.

On Saturday, it was Caballero who gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning and it was Wells who gave them a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning. The combination of Wells, McMahon and Caballero went 7-for-13 with two home runs, four RBIs and two walks.

3. Caballero is heating up at the right time for the fan base to be distraught when Volpe is automatically the starting shortstop again. Caballero is hitting .280/.316/.430 on the season with three home runs, 11 RBIs and 10 steals in 12 attempts. He has a .746 OPS and a 107 OPS+. If Volpe had those numbers the Yankees would be offering him a nine-figure extension. In his rehab games, Volpe has a .636 OPS in three games at Triple-A and a .780 OPS in four games at Double-A, while playing the infield like he has a blindfold on. Seriously, the video of his errors and misplays at short in the seven games is startling. Caballero could homer in every at-bat from now until Volpe is activated and it won’t matter: Volpe will get his job back. If Volpe doesn’t get off to a great start (and his career suggests he won’t), the calls for Caballero to be the starter will be as loud as ever and the Stadium boo birds that booed Volpe into getting pinch-hit for in his last at-bat of 2025 will be waiting for him.

“Just a tough out,” Boone said of Caballero. “Just a gritty, tough player. You kind of want him up there in certain situations.”

The complete opposite of the player who is going to take his job this week.

4. Caballero is a fun watch and the ideal “you hate him when he’s on another team, but love him when he’s on your team” player. However, he’s also reckless in both his challenges at the plate and basestealing decisions. Both of his attempts to steal third base on Saturday were ill-advised. The first was with no outs in the inning and the second was with Rice and Judge due up. I understand Caballero entered the game 9-for-9 in attempts this season and was likely thinking he’s invincible as the reigning league leader in steals, but he needs be a little smarter about when to try to take third.

5. The Yankees are riding an eight-game winning streak, having gone 8-0 against the three last-place teams, which is what they need to do. Beat up on the bad teams and play .500 against the good teams and you’ll wind up with a win total in the mid-90s, a division title and a bye to the division series. The one caveat there is that there aren’t really any other “good” teams at the moment in the AL. The Yankees and Rays are the only teams over .500 in what was supposed to be the best division in baseball and only five teams total in the AL are over .500. This season feels a lot like 2024 so far in that the AL is the Yankees to lose. Considering where they are without Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon and the rotation production and depth they have, and yes, it’s definitely theirs to lose.

6. And since its theirs to lose, Boone’s seat should be hotter than ever, especially after what just unfolded in Boston. Boone called the 2025 roster the best he has managed and the 2026 roster is the same, so he’s once again managing the best roster he has had in his eyes. Given that and the level of ineptitude around the AL and if the Yankees don’t reach the World Series this season, Boone should finally be shown the door. (Sadly, we all know his future is safe as long as he reaches the division series.)

7. Will Warren was good again on Friday and has now allowed two earned runs or fewer in all six of his starts this season with 37 strikeouts to seven walks in in 31 1/3 innings.

Ryan Weathers was also good on Saturday, considering he and his wife just had a baby a few days ago. For as good as Weathers was through five innings I would have taken him out in the sixth inning given he was going to face the the lineup a third time and the Yankees’ bullpen is as rested as it will ever be until the offseason. But Boone let Weathers go back out for the sixth and he gave up a leadoff home run then a single then a loud out to the deepest part of the park before taking him out.

“Obviously, I wish I would have been a littler sharper in the sixth,” Weathers said.

I don’t know why simple decisions continue to be so difficult for Boone. Luckily for Boone the Astros bullpen is so bar the Yankees were able to retake the lead and then tack on five more runs to avoid him having to manage a close game for the final three innings.

8. The battle for the fifth spot in the rotation once Rodon and Cole return (and if all starters stay healthy) continues to be close.

IP Weathers 33.2, Warren 31.1
H: Warren 29, Weathers 33
ER: Warren 9, Weathers 13
BB: Warren 7, Weathers 8
K: Weathers 40, Warren 37
HR: Warren 3, Weathers 5
ERA: Warren 2.59, Weathers 3.21
WHIP: Warren 1.149, Weathers 1.218

The fact these two are battling to be the fifth starter on the team when they would be No. 1s on a lot of teams and no worse than No. 2s on the majority of teams is absurd. The Yankees’ rotation is good and so deep (knock on all the wood) that it won’t matter most of the time how many below-league-average bats they roster and play.

9. Aaron Judge continues to take his walks (five in the first two games of the series), but when he does swing the bat, he’s not doing much. The Yankees are 18-9 and in first place with Judge being just really good and not otherworldly to this point and that’s encouraging because at some point he will get hot and carry the offense.

10. It would nice if that point was on Sunday. The Yankees will face Spencer Arrighetti who is currently the best starter in the Astros’ rotation. Arrighetti walks a lot of hitters (eight in 13 innings), which plays right into the Yankees’ best offensive attribute, but so far this season he has been able to limit the damage despite a lot of baserunners ( 19 in 11 innings). If regression comes for Arrighetti’s strand rate, Sunday is a perfect storm for it to happen.

Luis Gil gets the ball for the Yankees. The box score shows Gil was outstanding against the Red Sox, but he only got three swings-and-misses and had little command of his pitches against a truly awful lineup. The Red Sox have the worst team OPS in the AL, while the Astros have the best. If Gil was only able to generate three whiffs against the Red Sox, it’s possible he generates zero against the Astros. The Astros are going to put the ball in play, and if Gil misses his spots, the Astros will make him pay. If not, the Yankees will be on their way to their 12th win in their last 13 games in Houston.

1. My only fear going into the series finale on Thursday was that Cam Schlittler might be so amped up for his first start at Fenway Park that he may overthrow early, walk a few batters and possibly leave one over the middle of the plate for the Red Sox to add to their league-worst team home run total. That fear was put to rest when Schlittler dominated the Red Sox early and continued to dominate them through eight innings of one-run ball with one mistake pitch mixed in.

“It was good. I don’t think emotions were too high,” Schlitter said.

2. However, another fear was created with Payton Tolle pitching like Brendan Fraser’s character Steve Nebraska from The Scout. In the movie, Nebraska famously threw a perfect game in the World Series, striking out all 27 batters and it looked like Tolle might do the same against the Yankees. Tolle wasn’t very good in limited major-league action last year and was pretty good, but nothing special in Triple-A this year. That seemingly didn’t matter as he struck out the side in the first inning, the first two batters in the second inning and the first batter in the third inning. He was doing to the Yankees what Schlittler did to the Red Sox in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series last October.

3. While Tolle was embarrassing the Yankees, the Red Sox took a 1-0 lead on an unearned run in the second after a Rosario throwing error. In the fourth, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs for the 4-5-6 in the lineup, but unfortunately, the 4-5-6 in this one was Giancarlo Stanton who looked lost all game, Randal Grichuk and Trent Grisham. The trio left the bases loaded, failing to plate a single run.

The Yankees managed to tie the game in the next inning when Jazz Chisholm hooked his first home run of the season around the Pesky Pole in right field. (Chisholm also singled in his next at-bat. Maybe this is him finally joining the 2026 season? With the next six games indoors in Texas, the weather excuse is gone.) But in the bottom of the inning, Schlittler missed badly with a 1-2 pitch to Carlos Narvaez and Narvaez gave the Red Sox the lead again with the team’s 14th home run of the season. It’s always an ex-Yankee or someone previously in the Yankees’ system who seems to get the big hit against them.

4. In the seventh, the Yankees looked like they might repeat their leaving-the-bases-loaded act. With them loaded and one out, Austin Wells got ahead of Danny Coulombe 3-0. He took a strike and ripped a line drive foul to run the count full. Coulombe then left a sweeper over the heart of the plate, but Wells waved through it for the second out. With Rosario due up, Alex Cora went to former Yankee and right-hander Greg Weissert and Aaron Boone countered with Cody Bellinger off the bench, Bellinger got ahead 2-0, and took a middle-middle sinker for a strike. Weissert came back with a four-seamer up in the zone and Bellinger lined it to left field to score two and give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. Aaron Judge followed with an RBI single to make it 4-2, and that’s how this one stayed.

5. For as good as Tolle looked, Schlittler outlasted him by two innings. Sure, Tolle struck out 11 to Schlittler’s five, but Schlittler gave the Yankees two more innings and allowed the same amount of earned runs in the game (1). Schlittler was able to to hand the ball off to David Bender to close the game out, while Tolle forced the Red Sox use four relievers to get through three innings and they blew the lead and the game.

“He’s just getting really, really good out there,” Boone said. “That’s an ace-like performance.”

He’s already really, really good, Boone. He has a 1.77 ERA and 41 strikeouts to four walks in 35 2/3 innings. He is your ace.

6. It’s always enjoyable to beat the Red Sox, so when the Yankees sweep them at Fenway Park it’s an indescribable high. The Red Sox scored three runs in the series: one on a single following a defensive indifference, one after an error on a throw that should have ended the inning and a solo home run. I don’t care if the Red Sox suck, if their entire lineup lacks a single star, that they are in last place and headed nowhere and couldn’t even sell out two of three home games against the Yankees. I used to pay hundreds of dollars for standing room tickets to sit in awful obstructed view seats for Yankees-Red Sox at Fenway Park. The fact that two games in this series weren’t sellouts is disturbing. At least the Fenway crowd got their “YANKEES SUCK” chants in as they fell to seven games under .500.

7. A six-game winning streak is a six-game winning streak, but these six wins came against the Royals and Red Sox, the two worst offenses in the AL. The Yankees swept the Red Sox, but also scored 12 runs in three games in hitter-friendly Fenway Park. The bottom of the lineup remains a disaster and the top of the lineup seems to never be clicking at the same time. Tuesday’s offense was Stanton, Wednesday’s was Amed Rosario and Thursday’s was primarily Bellinger’s pinch-hit single. I expect more from the offense in Houston because the Astros have the worst team ERA (5.81) in the majors, which is why they are 10-16 and the third straight last-place team the Yankees will face. The reason their last-place record isn’t worse is because they have an AL-best team OPS of .783. They can mash.

8. Yordan Alvarez, especially, can mash. It’s going to be nearly impossible to keep him from doing damage unless you pitch around him or throw up four fingers, which I’m fine with. Throw up four fingers every time he comes up and let someone else beat you. Do to another superstar what the opposition has done to Judge in recent years. Don’t let the league leader in hits, home runs, RBIs, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+ and total bases beat you.

9. The Yankees will face three righties this weekend, so that means no Paul Goldschmidt or Randal Grichuk. It will be interesting to see what Boone does at third base. I bet he gives Ryan McMahon the start on Friday and then goes from there the next two days based on how McMahon looks on Friday. There’s a chance Anthony Volpe joins the Yankees after this series, which means someone (likely Grichuk due to money owed and reputation within the team) is going to lose their roster spot. We may have already seen Grichuk’s last at-bat as a Yankee.

10. It will be Will Warren against Lance McCullers Jr. on Friday. Warren pitched well in his last start, but that came against the Royals. The Astros will be the best offense Warren has faced this season and could be the best one he faces all season.

McCullers Jr. has been very bad this season, pitching to a 6.20 ERA in four starts. He had a 6.51 ERA last season after missing all of 2023 and 2024 with injuries. The last time McCullers Jr. was himself was back in 2022, four years ago. But for as bad as he has been, I only think of McCullers Jr. as the kid throwing breaking ball after breaking ball in Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS to stifle the Yankees.