The Yankees have lost 25 of 47 since June 19 and have blown a nine-game lead over the Astros for the 1-seed in the AL.
The Yankees blew a late two-run lead to the Mariners on Wednesday to lose the three-game series in Seattle. After ending their five-game losing streak on Monday, the Yankees have started a new losing that currently sits at two straight. They have lost 25 of 47 since June 19 and have successfully blown a nine-game lead over the Astros for the 1-seed in the American League.
It was the worst loss of the season for the Yankees, and it won’t be topped. Tuesday’s loss had something for everyone worried about the Yankees.
I have a headache. Above my left eye, and that eye is twitching or spasming. I’m not sure which because I’m unsure of the difference. (A quick Google search tells me a twitch is a form of a spasm.)
I woke up this morning after what seemed like minutes of sleep to feed a soon-to-be four-month-old and then the soon-to-be two-year-old woke up. Before 7 a.m. I had changed a pair of diapers full of poop, listened to the “Wheels on the Bus” roughly 21 times (in a row) and had already watched the trifecta of the “Circle of Life,” “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” and “Hakuna Matata” about 14 times.
I’m not complaining. I chose this. I chose to stay up to watch the Yankees play in Seattle at a 10:11 p.m. start time. I chose to stay up as the game went to the 10th inning then the 11th then the 12th then the 13th. I voluntarily kept watching, doubling down on poor decision after poor decision all the way until the Mariners walked off with a 1-0 win at 2:18 a.m.
It was a choice I regretted in the moment and regret even more now as I write this with a Seattle-esque marine layer serving as brain fog. All while not being able to get Pumbaa yelling, “WHEN I WAS A YOUNG WARTHOGGG!” out of my head.
It was the worst loss of the season for the Yankees, and it won’t be topped. Yes, worse than getting walk-off walked on in Baltimore. Yes, worse than all the late blown leads to the last-place Red Sox. Yes, worse than Clay Holmes’ meltdown against the Reds. Yes, worse than all five of the losses to the Astros.
Tuesday’s loss had something for everyone worried about the Yankees.
Worried about the offense? It had yet another disappearing act from the offense. A lineup that can’t come close to hitting starting pitching they will face in October after being shut out just three games prior.
Worried about the team’s baserunning and poor Baseball IQ? It had disastrous, unfathomable baserunning decisions as the Yankees ran into out after out.
Worried about the manager? (How could you not be?) It had bad management and horrible in-game calls like the ill-attempted double steal in the 10th.
The team’s pitching, which has been the team’s least trustworthy component for weeks now was the one aspect of the team that performed well, as a gem from Gerrit Cole was wasted as were five scoreless innings of relief before the 13th.
The offense produced three hits in the game. Three hits in 13 innings. Three singles in 41 plate appearances. It was a disgraceful, non-competitive performance from an offense that seems to have at least one of those a week, if not two. And of course it was Luis Castillo who shut down the Yankees for the third time in a month and twice in a week. It had to be the pitcher the Yankees needed to get, but chose not to, once again choosing a less expensive, second-tier option.
On the bases, Aaron Judge was thrown out trying to steal in the seventh. With runners on first and second and no outs in the 10th, Aaron Boone called for a double steal with Andrew Benintendi at second and Tim LoCastro at first. Benintendi took off too early and got caught in a rundown. In the 11th, with a runner on second and no outs, Aaron Hicks hit a line drive at the second baseman. Miguel Andujar took off too early for third and was doubled off second. In the 12th, with a runner on second and no outs, Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a ball back to the mound, Jose Trevino was too far off second and got caught in a rundown. While Trevino was in the rundown, Kiner-Falefa took off for second, so that the Yankees would have a runner in scoring position with one out once Trevino was tagged. Trevino was tagged immediately and Kiner-Falefa then got caught in a rundown of his own and ran out of the baseline for the second out on the play. After the game, Boone said, “I don’t want us to lose our aggression on the bases.” You might want to lose that aggression, Booney.
The icing on the shit cake that was Tuesday night into Wednesday morning is that the Yankees no longer hold the 1-seed in the American League. The Yankees had a nine-game lead for home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs back on June 19 and now they are 2-seed in the AL with the Astros passing them in the standings. So in a potential ALCS between the two teams, Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 will be played in Houston, just like they were in the 2017 ALCS and the 2019 ALCS. I wonder how the 2022 ALCS will play out if the standings hold and they do meet again.
Thinking about the Yankees in the ALCS right now seems foolish. Yes, they are going to win the division. Yes, they are going to have a bye into the ALDS. Yes, they will only need to win one series to get into the ALCS. But with the team going 22-24 over the last seven-plus weeks, and playing as poorly as they have of late, I don’t know how anyone could feel good about them. Maybe Boone can hold another team meeting since the one he held at the beginning of this week has worked out so well.
The Yankees’ trades for Andrew Benintendi and Harrison Bader mean the end of Aaron Hicks as an everyday player with the team.
When Aaron Hicks said his goal was to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in 2022, I couldn’t help but laugh. It was as realistic of a goal as me looking to be part of the Yankees’ rotation in 2022. Hicks had never hit 30 home runs in a season, and had never hit more than 15 outside of the 27 he hit in 2018 at a time when the baseball was juiced more than Alex Rodriguez ever was with the Rangers. (He didn’t use performance-enhancing drugs as a Yankee!) His career high in steals was 13 back when he was 25 years old, before he became a Yankee. So yeah, me slotting in as the Yankees’ No. 5 starter was about as likely as Hicks doubling his non-juiced ball career high in home runs and stealing 57 percent more bases than he ever had in a single season.
Some people might defend Hicks for shooting for the moon. It’s good to have goals! Hicks’ goal of being the first 30/30 Yankee since peak Alfonso Soriano wasn’t a goal, it was a dream. A pipe dream. He should have made a goal of not going on the injured list for an entire season as a Yankee, something he has never been able to accomplish, but while still unrealistic, it was at least something to strive for (and something he actually has achieved to date this season).
The Yankees have played 110 games, and Hicks has played in 97 of them. He has six home runs and nine steals. Earlier this week, he told The Athletic he’s “definitely going to be short” of joining the 30/30 club. (He only needs to hit 24 home runs and steal 27 bases in the team’s final 52 games.)
The problem is Hicks won’t come close to playing in all of those games. Once Giancarlo Stanton returns, and if Harrison Bader plays for the Yankees this season, Hicks will be the odd man out in the outfield. The Yankees didn’t trade for both Andrew Benintendi and Bader to not play them. Hicks will be the one on the bench, and rightfully so, after failing to take advantage of endless opportunities since becoming a Yankee and signing a seven-year extension prior to the 2019 season.
Hicks went from everyday center fielder to everyday left fielder to now looking at being an everyday bench player once the Yankees get healthy. This year he’s hitting .224/.349/.317 and that’s coming off last season when he was appointed as 3-hitter in spring training and then hit .194/.294/.333, lasting only 32 games before needing season-ending wrist surgery.
That surgery on the sheath of his wrist sapped his power (or what there ever was of his power) like it has to others that have had the same surgery. When he homered in three of four games from July 6 through July 9, the idea his power (or what he has ever had of it) was returning was a common theme among Yankees fans for those four days. But July 9 was the last time Hicks homered. A month ago. And in the 23 games he has played in over the last month, he’s hitting .171/.318/.171 (yes, slugging .171 over the last month), highlighted by an 0-for-32 streak that went for nearly two weeks.
“I started off the season good,” Hicks told The Athletic. “I was hitting for a high average for a while. I wasn’t really hitting for much power.”
When Hicks says he “started off the season good” he means literally the start of the season and no more. He was “good” for nine games (seven starts). He hit .348/.464/.478 over the first week of the season. Then he put together back-to-back 0-for-4s and it’s been downhill since. The last time his average was above .300 was on April 20. The last time it was above .275 was on May 3. The last time it was at.250 was on May 9. It’s at .223 today with 13 extra-base hits.
Hicks’ on-base percentage has carried his OPS (he has a higher on-base percentage than slugging percentage) because while he can’t hit, he is smart enough to take walks. His approach at the plate has always been to not swing and hope the pitcher throws four balls before he throws three strikes, and it works out for him often. (I wish more Yankees would have this approach.)
“All we’re trying to do is win a championship here,” Hicks told The Athletic. “So if I’m a guy that’s in the lineup, cool. If I’m not, it is what it is.”
If I were ownership or the front office I would expect a little more fire and motivation about being in the lineup, especially from a player who is under contract for next season and the season after that and the season after that and then will be bought out for $1 million to not play baseball for the Yankees the season after that. Saying it’s “cool” if you play “but it is what it is” if you don’t doesn’t make Hicks sound like a good teammate and team-first guy, it makes him sound like a loser. Hicks talks like a guy who signed a seven-year, $70 million guaranteed contract because he is that guy. And since receiving that extension, he has played in 242 of a possible 494 regular-season games (49 percent).
I have long wanted Hicks off the Yankees, and was vehemently against the extension he was offered in 2019. (The keyword there is “offered.” The extension and the endless treatment of him as if he’s Bernie Williams 2.0 is all on the Yankees. They created this mess. What is Hicks supposed to do? Not accept $70 million to play baseball?) I have been appalled year after year in their belief he could stay healthy and be productive and be counted on to be an everyday player for the Yankees.
It seems like the Yankees finally agree. By trading for two outfielders in Benintendi and Bader they made it clear they no longer believe in Hicks being the player he told The Athletic he “knows he can be,” which is a player he has rarely ever been in his seven years with the Yankees. Hicks is only playing now because of injuries and the only way he will play regularly for the rest of the regular season and the postseason will be because of injuries.
If Hicks has a future with the Yankees as the fourth outfielder, “cool.” If his future in baseball after this season isn’t with the Yankees, well, “it is what it is.”
The loss of Matt Carpenter overshadowed Josh Donaldson’s big night and the Yankees’ first win in a week.
The Yankees won for the first time in a week, beating the Mariners 9-4 in Seattle on Monday. But the big night from Josh Donaldson and the end of the Yankees’ five-game losing streak was dampened by the loss of Matt Carpenter who fouled a ball off his foot, which could end his season.
The Yankees blew a late lead on Friday night to the Cardinals, were shut out on Saturday and blew a three-run lead on Sunday.
The Yankees blew a late lead on Friday night to the Cardinals, were shut out on Saturday and blew a three-run lead on Sunday. They have now lost five straight and 16 of their last 25 games, having gone 21-23 since June 19. The Yankees are falling apart from a production and health standpoint, and it’s foreshadowing another disappointing end to a season.
