The Yankees followed up their three-game sweep of the Tigers with a series win over the Astros. The season series with the Astros is now over with the Yankees having won six of seven.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees did their job against the Astros, taking two of three, winning the series and pushing the Astros another game under .500. The offense showed up on Tuesday (10 runs) and Wednesday (nine runs) and then left a whole bunch of baserunners on (eight) on Thursday.

The Yankees finished the season series 6-1 against the Astros. I would have gladly signed up for 4-3 and would have even taken 3-4. But 6-1? Maybe the rivalry that has been one-sided in favor of the Astros for seven years is flipping to the other side?

After sweeping the Tigers, the Yankees went 5-1 at the Stadium, and now have an AL-best .684 winning percentage at home.

2. Juan Soto hit .348/.423/.522 on the homestand and drove in eight runs and it feels like he was just OK in terms of his standard. Soto is so good that him having a .945 OPS against the type of pitching the Yankees faced from Detroit and Houston is just OK.

“It’s just the relentless nature of his at-bats,” Aaron Boone said of Soto. “He doesn’t give a pitch away.”

I think I think he was just OK this week because I expect him to be great, and he is. He’s so good that when he doesn’t come through in a big spot it’s shocking. He has met and exceeded all expectations as a Yankee, and this is a reminder that if he isn’t a Yankee in 2025 and for the rest of his career, I will have no choice but to walk away from the team.

3. “I think before Juan got here, that’s who we always have wanted to be as an offense,” Boone said. “I do think there’s been at least a subtle movement of the needle, because of his presence.”

I wish the other eight Yankees would or could emulate Soto and have the same mentality and presence at the plate that Boone thinks they “subtly” do, but they don’t. Boone can think what he wants, but the other eight hitters are all playing to the back of their baseball cards with Aaron Judge now showing up for the season after five weeks. Judge is who he is when he’s on (which is awesome), Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo are who they are, Alex Verdugo hasn’t changed, Gleyber Torres has been an outright disaster and after impressive starts to the season Anthony Volpe and Oswaldo Cabrera are back to their 2023 ways. (I will exclude the catching tandem since I don’t expect them to contribute offensively, and they rarely have.)

4. Volpe hit a pair of home runs in the Astros series after hitting one home run over the last month. But even with those long balls off of Justin Verlander and Ronel Blanco, Volpe’s hitting .224/.311/.343 since the sixth game of the year. Last year, he was a .209/.283/.383 hitter, so not much has changed.

When Volpe is ahead in the count (65 plate appearances), he’s a .311/.523/.533 hitter.

When Volpe is even in the count (43 plate appearances), he’s a .325/.342/.475 hitter.

When Volpe is behind in the count (63 plate appearances), he’s a .175/.175/.270 hitter.

Certainly, nearly every major-league hitter is going to be a better hitter when even or ahead in the count than when behind, but the disparity for Volpe when ahead or behind is startling. When he’s ahead in the count (1.056 OPS), he hits like he’s Mookie Betts. When he’s behind in the count (.445 OPS), he hits like he’s on his way to playing in an independent league.

I really thought after the first five games of the season Volpe’s approach and plan at the plate was here to stay. I was wrong. It doesn’t mean it won’t come back, it’s just not who he is or has been since those first five games.

5. After going 1-for-the Orioles series over four games, Judge looked like his old self on the six-game homestand against the Tigers and Astros. The Yankees faced five very good to Hall of Fame starting pitchers … and Spencer Arrighetti, who reminds me of the kind of arm the Yankees would call up in the mid-2000s for spot starts in what would be the only major-league appearances of their career. Arrighetti has an 8.44 ERA and has allowed 44 baserunners in 21 1/3 innings.

In the six games, Judge went 10-for-22 with four doubles, three home runs, seven RBIs, four walks and six strikeouts. He only grounded into one double play (he stills leads the league with 11) and even stole a base. A .455/.539/1.046 slash line and 1.584 OPS will do.

Judgey’s special, man. Judgey’s special,” Marcus Stroman said. “He’s not even hot yet.”

Let’s hope this is Judge “getting hot” and staying hot for an extended period of time to make up for whatever went on with him in the first five weeks of the season. It would be nice if Stroman could get hot as well.

6. Stroman put the Yankees in an early hole on Thursday, giving up three runs on two first-inning home runs. He managed to go 5 2/3 innings, but allowed four earned runs and 11 baserunners.

Stroman likes to live on the edges, get ground balls and get soft contact, but he’s been walking too many and not getting enough ground balls, having allowed seven home runs this season. He hasn’t pitch six innings in a start since his second start back on April 5 and has put 55 baserunners on in his last 30 3/2 innings, pitching to a 5.28 ERA with a .925 OPS against.

7. Carlos Rodon made up for the egg he laid in Baltimore (4 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 3 HR) with a strong performance against the Astros (6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB 7 K, 1 HR). He still has a long way to go for me to trust him or respect him (if I ever do) after last season, but he’s making progress.

8. The bullpen and bench are going to get help soon with Tommy Kahnle, Nick Burdi and Oswald Peraza all having started rehab assignments. DJ LeMahieu has resumed “baseball activities” (as opposed to hockey activities or basketball activities) though there is no timetable for his return after the Yankees completely botched his last one and allowed him to begin playing without imaging his injury to see if it had healed.

When LeMahieu comes back, the plan will be for him to be the everyday third baseman (or as close to “everyday” as a 35-year-old with season-ending injuries the last three years can be). That means Torres is safe as the everyday second base … unless … Peraza can hit consistently in the majors. If Peraza joins the team and hits, the Yankees will have no choice but to finally start sitting Torres with regularity.

After going 1-for-the Astros series with four walks, Torres’ OPS is at .565 on the season. Going back to September of last season, Torres has one home run in 60 games and 256 plate appearances. He’s already been demoted twice in the lineup and when you play defense and run the bases like he does, when you’re not hitting there’s nothing to fall back. A bloop single every few days isn’t going to cut it.

9. Remember when Boone said he didn’t go to Clay Holmes for a second inning in that eventual Friday night loss in Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago because of Holmes’ appearance pace? At the time, Holmes was on pace to appear in 75 games even though Boone said it was 80 games. And while 75 is a perfectly acceptable number, Boone chose to pitch Michael Tonkin and lose rather than close out a game in which the Yankees led. Tonkin has appeared in three games since, all in mop-up duty. Holmes has also appeared in three games since. Three games in 13 days. If Holmes doesn’t get into Friday’s game against the Rays, it will be three appearances for him in two weeks. His pace now is 66 games. Good call back in Milwaukee, Boone.

10. Now it’s off to Tampa for a three-game weekend series against the .500 Rays. Despite taking two of three from the Rays three weekends ago in the Bronx, the Yankees struggled to score in that series. The Aaron Boone Yankees have never played the Rays particularly well overall, especially at Tropicana Field. The Boone Yankees have been able to overcome their Astros issues (at least in the regular season), and it would be satisfying if they could do the same with their Rays issues.

After taking three straight games over the weekend against Justin Verlander’s former team, the Yankees destroyed Verlander his current team on Tuesday, winning 10-3. The Yankees are now 5-0 against the Astros on the season with two games remaining between the two.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. When the 2009 Yankees pounded Pedro Martinez for seven runs in 10 innings in Games 2 and 6 of the World Series, it didn’t feel right. Yes, standing on the mound at Yankee Stadium twice in the series and taking two of the Phillies’ four losses in the six games was technically Martinez, but it wasn’t the Martinez I had grown accustomed to watching pitch against the Yankees as a Red Sox starting in 1998 and then as a Met seven years later. Martinez was there in name only.

That was the feeling I had on Tuesday night watching the Yankees beat up Justin Verlander at Yankee Stadium. Verlander has been a rival since 2006 and has nearly always pitched well against the Yankees, including being on the winning side of six postseason series against them (2006, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2019, 2022) and never once on the losing side of a postseason against them. But the pitcher standing on the Stadium mound on Tuesday may have been Verlander, but only in name.

2. “They had a good approach and I wasn’t very good,” Verlander said. “If I’m being really honest with myself, the last couple of games, particularly the walks, showed me I was a little off.”

The first walk off Verlander came from Aaron Judge in the bottom of the first. After Anthony Volpe lined out on the first pitch Verlander threw, Juan Soto followed with single and Judge drew a five-pitch walk. Then Alex Verdugo put together a seven-pitch at-bat, and on that seventh pitch, he hit a three-run home run to right field. Just like that, the Yankees had a 3-1 lead.

3. “I think these guys told me today that I got some work to do,” Verlander said. “I’ve got to be more deceptive.

Verlander threw 97 pitches and recorded just 15 outs, allowing 11 baserunners. Of his 97 pitches, the Yankees only swung and missed at five of them. Last season, Verlander faced the Yankees twice as a Met and twice as an Astro. In those four starts, the Yankees swung and missed an average of 10 times per game. When Verlander struck out 11 Yankees in Game 1 of the 2022 ALCS, he got 17 swinging strikes.

4. On Tuesday, Verlander had a hard time fooling anyone. The Yankees were taking his breaking pitches off the plate and he couldn’t blow his patented high fastball by anyone, as it was either put in play or fouled back, even at 96 mph. David Cone remarked on YES that Verlander “didn’t know where to go” to get strikes and outs.

“I would like to have a tick or two more veto on my fastball,” Verlander said, “which is something I’ve been expecting because I wasn’t able to long toss really at all.”

5. The Yankees’ early 3-1 lead was a lead they wouldn’t relinquish and a lead that was never in jeopardy, thanks to the offense’s ability to tack on a run in the third, two runs in the fourth, a run in the fifth and sixth and two more in the seventh. The Yankees put 20 baserunners on in the game and scored half of them, including three home runs off Verlander (Verdugo, Volpe and Giancarlo Stanton). The lead was also never in jeopardy because of Luis Gil’s dominant performance.

6. After retiring Jose Altuve to begin the game, Gil allowed a long home run to Kyle Tucker. In the moment, I figured Gil would be wild, give up some long balls, the offense would be stifled by Verlander and the Yankees would help wake up the Astros and save their season. The Tucker home run ended up not only being the only run that Gil allowed, but the only hit he allowed.

7. It was the second straight start Gil gave the Yankees at least six innings after pitching 6 1/3 shutout innings against the Orioles last Wednesday. In just one of seven starts this season has he allowed more than three earned runs, now boasting a 2.92 ERA and 1.135 WHIP.

“He’s just got a lot of weapons, he’s hard to hit,” Aaron Boone said. “It wasn’t perfect by any means for him tonight.”

Gil did add his league-leading walk total with four, and against a better team that’s a recipe for disaster, but against the last-place Astros, it wasn’t.

8. It feels weird to talk about the Astros in such a degrading manner. After seven straight ALCS appearances and four World Series appearances over that time with two championships, at some point the clock would strike midnight on their dominance, but I didn’t see it coming this season. It was the Yankees who put them in an 0-4 record hole to begin the season and it’s the Yankees who are now 5-0 against them on the year with still two games to go. The Yankees 5-0 against the Astros? It’s a record that seems impossible, and yet it’s fact.

9. I’m not ready to pronounce the Astros’ season over, not even with their 12-23 record and negative-27 run differential. Despite their horrific position, they are still only seven games back in the loss column in a weak AL West and still hold an astounding 35.1 percent chance of making the playoffs. They have the same amount of losses as the Angels, three more losses than the A’s and the only team with a worse winning percentage than them in the AL is the White Sox. Despite all of that, I’m still not ready to call their season over. Their last seven seasons, especially 2017, 2019 and 2022 have scarred me.

10. Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman and the offense could help push the 2024 Astros closer to the brink and to the point of no return on Wednesday and Thursday. Taking five in a row against the Astros and five of seven in the season series is already more than enough, but taking another or both over the next two days would go a long way to ruining the rest of the Astros’ season. With two games left in this series and two games left against the Astros for the season, the Yankees can continue to do their part in ending a dynastic Astros run they helped start.

After shutting out the Orioles 2-0 on Wednesday, they dropped the series finale 7-2 on Thursday and lost an important series in Baltimore.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. In the biggest series of the season to date the Yankees came up small, losing three of four to the Orioles.

“A really good team, obviously,” Aaron Boone said of the Orioles. “They can pitch, they’re athletic, they got thump. They’re a complete team that you gotta play well.”

And his team didn’t play well against them.

2. A four-game series against the Orioles is about as close to a postseason series as you can have in the regular season and these Yankees played exactly like they always do in the postseason.

In four games and 36 innings at Oriole Park, the Yankees scored six runs. They were shut out on Monday, hit a pair of solo home runs on Tuesday, hit a two-run home run on Wednesday, and on Thursday, they scored on the worst throw home you’ll ever see and a solo home run. An average of one-and-a-half runs per game over four games against their direct competition for the AL East.

3. And because it was as close to a postseason series as you get in the regular season, Aaron Judge played as close to the way he does in the postseason as possible. 

Judge went 1-for-13 with two walks and four strikeouts in the series. A measly single in four games. A measly single in four games is all he provided in the 2022 ALCS as well (1-for-16), the last time these Yankees were in the playoffs.

“Somebody’s going to pay, big time,” Boone said of when Judge gets going. “He’ll get it going, and look out when he does.”

If healthy, it’s impossible to believe Judge won’t “get it going.” But knowing the Yankees’ now six-year track record of misdiagnosing and improperly handling injuries, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Judge isn’t healthy. Also, Boone is the last person in the world who should be trying to sell people on his players “getting it going” after his failed attempts at this in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

4. Judge was the worst hitter on the team in the biggest series of the season to date, but he wasn’t alone.

Giancarlo Stanton went 1-for-10 with two walks and three strikeouts and Anthony Rizzo went 1-for-13 with four strikeouts. The Yankees’ 3-4-5 hitters went a combined 3-for-36 with four walks and 11 strikeouts as the heart of the order needs a triple bypass.

5. If you’re thinking, “Well, Alex Verdugo is really the cleanup hitter now,” you’re right, but Verdugo was on paternity leave for the first three games of the series, and for the fourth he batted sixth? Why? Here’s what Boone had to say:

“Verdugo will be back in the cleanup spot tomorrow,” Boone said. “With the long travel, I just want to get him settled and ease him in.”

So he’s “eased in” enough to start and play, but not bat cleanup, and instead bat behind Gleyber Torres. I don’t care if he lost his eye sight on the flight to Baltimore or a limb, he should never bat behind Torres again.

6. Before Verdugo’s return flight to the East Coast, the Yankees shut out the Orioles 2-0 on Wednesday. A two-run home run from Oswaldo Cabrera was all the offense in the game behind Luis Gil’s best start in the majors: 6.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. When Gil is throwing strikes, he can dominate, and the only start in which he didn’t really throw strikes was the seven-walk performance in Toronto after the Yankees inexplicably gave him extra rest.

Clay Holmes was asked to get the final five outs of the game and it only made the loss in Milwaukee on Friday that much more comical when Boone wouldn’t use him for six outs and the Yankees lost. Holmes wasn’t needed on Saturday, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday (he did get one unnecessary appearance on Monday from Boone just to get some work in a close game the Yankees were losing), just as I predicted.

7. On Thursday, Carlos Rodon was putrid, reverting back to his 2023 self: 4 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 3 HR. For as bad as Rodon was, Boone thought there was some good.

“A few mistakes around some good,” Boone said of Rodon.

That quote would make you believe there was more good than mistakes. “Some” is more than a “few.”

Rodon had a 1-2-3 first inning then loaded the bases with no outs in the second and was fortunate to get out of it when Ryan McKenna’s line drive was hit right at Verdugo in left.

In the third, immediately after the Yankees took a one-run lead, he gave the run back on a solo home run to Ryan Mountcastle.

In the fourth, he gave up a pair of solo home runs to Jorge Mateo Ryan McKenna. Yes, the 29-year-old Jorge Mateo who has 24 home runs and a .637 OPS in his career. And yes, the 27-year-old Ryan McKenna with six home runs and a .620 OPS in his career.

During the fifth inning, Michael Kay mentioned how Rodon had “great stuff” in the game, despite the Yankees losing 4-1. After Kay said that, the Orioles scored three more runs and Rodon never recorded an out in the inning.

I’m not sure how anyone could have “great stuff” and allow three home runs (including to JORGE MATEO and RYAN MCKENNA) and six earned runs in four-plus innings. Delusional.

8. Boone would rather tell you it’s snowing outside on a 99-degree day in July than not defend one of his players when he sucks and did so again by trying to sugarcoat Rodon’s awful day. However, when it came to Torres’ error, Boone didn’t stand by his second baseman.

“You gotta secure the ball,” Boone said. “This is the big leagues. You gotta make the play, and he didn’t make the play.” 

Of course Torres hit his first home run of the season (in the 33rd game of the season) the following inning with the Yankees losing by six. In terms of meaningless home runs it was high on the list.

“We got punched in the face,” Torres said. “We have to figure out a way to beat them.”

One day closer to Torres no longer a Yankee. One day closer.

9. With the game out of reach, Boone gave the ball to Michael Tonkin for mop-up duty in the seventh and eighth innings. It was Tonkin’s third appearance as a Yankee. In his second appearance he also was asked to eat meaningless innings. In his first, well, he was asked to close out a one-run game with the automatic runner on. Isn’t Boone the best?

10. The Yankees now trail the Orioles by two games in the loss column and return home for a three-game series against the much-improved Tigers. The Tigers lost 84 games last year, but are five games above .500 this season and have a really good rotation and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Then again, after the Yankees struggled to put away the Rays and split a series with the A’s at home, they should know better than to take any team lightly, even at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees’ offense mostly no-showed for a second straight game in Baltimore, and the Yankees lost to the Orioles again.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees couldn’t hit for a second straight night, and for a second straight night they lost to the Orioles. The 4-2 loss on Tuesday coupled with the 2-0 loss on Monday gives the Yankees two runs in 18 innings in what is the most important series of the season to date.

Dean Kremer entered the game with a 4.61 ERA, but had no problem keeping the Yankees’ offense quiet: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 2 HR. The Yankees had five hits in the game and Juan Soto (2) and Austin Wells (2) had all but one of them. Anthony Volpe had the other.

2. Soto stared down Kremer after his home run, and when asked about it after the game, he said, “We were going back and forth. He didn’t like the shuffle. I bet he didn’t like the homer, too.”

Typically, it would bother me for a Yankee to be trash talking an opponent after a loss, but Soto can do whatever he wants since he represents the entirety of the offense for the season. This is his team and if he wants to chirp Kremer after blasting a 447-foot home run onto Eutaw Street, so be it. He’s the only one contributing offensively with any consistency.

3. With the loss, the Yankees fell to 0-9 when they score two runs or fewer this season, which is the worst winning percentage in the majors.

As I wrote yesterday, the Yankees are 19-3 when they score at least three runs, and yet they couldn’t do that for two straight days against the Orioles. They have the best winning percentage in the majors when they score three runs and it feels impossible for them to do so at times.

4. The biggest reason it feels impossible at times is because of their knack for destroying innings with double plays. The Yankees hit into three double plays in the game: Aaron Judge hit an inning-ending one in the first, Anthony Rizzo erased a leadoff walk in the second and Giancarlo Stanton ended the Yankees’ rally in the sixth. The Yankees have hit into 36 double plays, which leads the majors.

5, Nearly three years ago in June 2021, after a loss to the Red Sox, Boone said, “Typically, the better teams are going to hit into double plays.” Three years later, I’m still laughing at that quote. Here is the double play leaderboard this season following the Yankees’ 36.

Marlins (7-24): 34
Padres (15-18): 30
Blue Jays (15-16): 28
Diamondbacks (14-17): 26
Rockies (7-22): 24

Not exactly the kind of company you want to be keeping.

6. The Yankees’ double play problem is led by Judge, who has hit into 10, tops in the majors. His previous high in a season is 16 (2021), which he could break by mid-May at this rate. Judge is 1-for-7 with a walk and two strikeouts in the series.

7. “I think they’ve had a lot of good bounces go their way,” Wells said of the Orioles after the game.

That’s not how I view it. I view a young, athletic, fast team that puts the ball in play and is able to put pressure on the defense, even beating out balls that might otherwise not be hits. The Yankees, on the other hand, have players like Rizzo and Stanton going station and station (and at times not even doing that like Stanton on Monday) and I’m not sure either would beat Jorge Posada in a race during his playing days.

The Orioles may have soft contacted their way to a three-run lead against Nestor Cortes (6 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K), but Joe Girardi explained it best on the broadcast, saying, “They beat two balls out for infield hits where a lot of teams don’t get those hits and it changes the complexion of the inning. Very athletic and young, fast team. It doesn’t always have to be stolen bases and first to home. Sometimes it’s infield singles.”

8. This is Anthony Volpe’s batting line from the first four games of the season: .571/.667/1.000.

This is Volpe’s line from the next 26 games: .231/.310/.317.

Volpe has stolen one base on one attempt in the last 14 games. He has been on first base 14 times in that span and has run once.

It’s clear the Yankees don’t want Volpe to run in front of Soto or Judge for fear of taking a run off the board if either of them goes deep, but Volpe needs to run. It’s the one thing offensively he’s good at. Considering he is rarely getting on base (.246 on-base percentage in the last two weeks), it would be nice if he could put some pressure on the defense and make something happen on the bases.

9. Gleyber Torres made his losing play of the day when on a ground ball instead of taking an easy out at first tried to throw out the runner moving to third and hit the runner with the ball, allowing the runner to then score. Even on days when Torres pitches in offensively (which is rare), he’s usually negates it with a defensive or baserunning mistakes. On Tuesday, he made the defensive mistake and did nothing at the plate, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. His OPS is .549.

10. “Overall, I think it was a pretty good month for us,” Cortes said. “We could have probably won four of those 12 games that we lost.”

It was a good month (plus four days), and Cortes is right, the Yankees could have won more games than they did, much more than four.

The only true loss was 7-0 to Arizona on April 2. Other than that, the Yankees were in every loss. They lost by one run three times, lost by two runs six times and lost by three runs two times.

If they continue to play the way they played for four days in March and all of April, they will be just fine. It would be nice though if they could win the next two days in Baltimore.