The Yankees went 6-0 on their homestand, have won eight of nine and have the best record in the American League. It’s been a good last week to be a Yankees fan.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. What a difference a week makes. A week ago, the Yankees were getting shut out for the third time in 13 games to start the season, losing to the Tigers and missing their second chance in two tries to sweep a series in 2022. It was an all-too-familiar performance from a Yankees offense that failed to finish off series with sweeps in 2021 and left countless winnable games on the table. The Yankees had gone an unacceptable 3-3 on their road trip to Baltimore and Detroit and everything about the team looked and smelled like the 2021 team.

The Yankees returned home to beat the Guardians last Friday, and on Saturday, after blowing a one-run, eighth-inning lead, it looked like the Yankees were headed to leaving yet another winnable game on the table. But after their ninth-inning comeback to walk off the Guardians on Saturday afternoon, the Yankees have looked like a completely different team. If the Yankees get to where they want to go this season, somewhere they haven’t been in going on 13 years, I think we will look back at Saturday, April 23 as the win that turned the season.

2. The Yankees don’t deserve praise or special treatment for winning six straight against the Guardians (who will likely finish around .500 this season), or the Orioles (who will likely finish as the worst team in the American League this season). The Yankees simply did their job in winning eight of nine against the Tigers, Guardians and Orioles, but I guess they could use some praise for doing their job since it’s something these Yankees haven’t done in a long time.

Last season, the Yankees’ inability to beat up on bad teams is what ruined their chances at winning the division, what forced them into the one-game playoff and what forced the one-game playoff to be played at Fenway Park. The 2021 Yankees went 25-23 against the Orioles, Indians, Tigers, Mets, Nationals and Angels, including a paltry 11-8 against an Orioles team that went 1-18 against the Rays.

The Yankees scored 27 runs over the last three days against the Orioles. They scored double-digit runs in three of their last four games. Last year, the Yankees scored double-digit runs six times. The Yankees’ 37 runs over the last four games surpassed their 35 runs scored in the previous 12 games. Nothing can get an offense going like Orioles pitching, which makes it all the more amazing that the Yankees lost two of three to the Orioles two weeks ago and scored just six measly runs in 29 innings at Camden Yards of all places.

3. It’s hard to fathom how the Yankees truly believed an all-right-handed lineup would be best for a team that plays half of its games at Yankee Stadium. After seeing Anthony Rizzo hit three home runs on Tuesday night, taking full advantage of the short porch in right, it made me happy to see Rizzo having such an impressive start to this season after posting his worst statistical season in 2021 since his rookie year in 2013. It also infuriated me as I couldn’t help but think back to all the times Brian Cashman spoke to the media and tried to sell everyone on the idea of the New York Yankees having no left-handed power in their lineup, and the only left-handed presence of the last few years being Aaron Hicks, Brett Gardner, Rougned Odor, Mike Ford and Didi Gregorius. They really thought they could win like that. A team that is focused on optimizing every possible advantage (except at manager) with high-end nutritionists, renowned strength trainers and sleep specialists, who determine the best possible time for the team to depart for road games, the Yankees purposely constructed a team the last few seasons with comical left-handed bats. Thankfully, they admitted their mistake at last year’s trade deadline and brought in Rizzo and Joey Gallo, and then brought Rizzo back. (They didn’t have to bring Gallo back as he was under contract for 2022).

Yes, I wanted Freddie Freeman over Rizzo, as did anyone who’s not related to Rizzo, but so far Rizzo has exceeded expectations and I’m ecstatic that what could have been considered the start of the downfall of his career last year may have just been one down year for him.

4. On Tuesday, Luis Severino had a no-hitter through 5 1/3 innings and the Yankees had a 6-0 lead. I thought the Yankees were on their way to their second straight laugher. Instead, the Yankees ended up needing to use Clay Holmes, Jonathan Loaisiga and Aroldis Chapman in a game in which they had two different six-run leads.

He eventually left the game in the seventh with this line: 6 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR. What was looking like his best start of the young season ended up being his worst. But through four stars, he’s averaging a strikeout per inning with a 3.32 ERA. For a guy who made only five starts over the previous three-and-a-half years, Severino has been really good.

He eventually left the game in the seventh with this line: 6 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR. What was looking like his best start of the young season ended up being his worst. But through four stars, he’s averaging a strikeout per inning with a 3.32 ERA. For a guy who made only five starts over the previous three-and-a-half years, Severino has been really good.

Jordan Montgomery had another good start (5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HR) with both of the runs he allowed coming on a sixth-inning, game-tying home run. Jameson Taillon was could get out of the fifth inning in his start (4.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K), putting nine baserunners on and leaving with the Yankees trailing.

It was the Yankees’ worst starting pitching series this season, and even so, the starters pitched to a 4.41 ERA, which isn’t great, but it’s not horrible. With this offense (or at least the offense we have seen of late), a 4.41 starters’ ERA over a full season would still get the Yankees into the postseason.

5. Here’s my current level of trust with the rotation (scale of 1-10):

Gerrit Cole: 7.9
Against bad teams it’s somewhere around a 9.6. Against the Rays, Blue Jays or Red Sox, it’s in the 3s.

Luis Severino: 7.7
As long as he’s healthy, the last time he wasn’t a superb front-end starter was in 2016.

Nestor Cortes: 6.8
The most enjoyable of the five to watch, I feel good when he’s on the mound. (2019 me can’t believe I wrote that.)

Jordan Montgomery: 5.3
I’m always waiting for him to allow the crooked number after cruising for three or four innings (like he did again on Wednesday).

Jameson Taillon: 4.1
He reminds me too much of Phil Hughes to ever feel truly good and confident with him. There always seems to be traffic (hat tip, Aaron Boone!) on the bases when he’s on the mound and he rarely ever gives the team adequate length.

6. It was the worst series for the bullpen as well. It was the first time the bullpen has been hit all season and for it to happen against the Orioles was odd. The line: 9.2 IP, 12 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 5 BB, 15 K, 2 HR, 6.51 ERA, 1.758 WHIP. It wasn’t good, but thankfully, it didn’t matter.

It didn’t matter because the offense showed up, and the best part about scoring 27 runs in three games is Boone was completely taken out of the series from a bullpen management standpoint. Scoring consistently is Yankees’ best (and only chance) to win over the long haul because it makes all of Boone’s decisions moot. He can’t ruin games by getting his hands on the game since there’s no illogical, nonsensical decision that can match up with the kind of offensive production. When the Yankees can outhit and outscore Boone, it makes winning that much more fun and enjoyable.

7. The only enjoyable part of the offense has been Josh Donaldson. Aaron Judge now has five home runs and a .944 OPS. Giancarlo Stanton just went 5-for-11 with two walks. DJ LeMahieu is hitting .313 with an .858 OPS and a 12-game hitting streak. Rizzo has a league-leading eight home runs. Hicks has a .377 OBP. Gallo finally homered and homered twice in the series. Isiah Kiner-Falefa is hitting .298. Even Gleyber Torres has six RBIs, had the big sacrifice fly on Opening Day and the walkoff single against the Guardians. Josh Donaldson needs to join the party.

Donaldson had the walkoff hit on Opening Day and the momentary go-ahead home run last Saturday against the Guardians, but overall his plate appearances have been painful to watch. The power hasn’t been there (.348 SLG), getting on base hasn’t been there (.312 OBP), and he’s chasing bad pitches and getting himself out, something I never saw him do while playing against the Yankees. Maybe his elite playing days are done and he’s finally washed up or maybe he’s just in a season-opening slump. All I know is he hasn’t been hitting into bad luck. He’s just not been hitting.

8. After the Guardians series, I wrote the following about Stanton:

I’m not worried about Stanton. I know who he is as a player, and he could homer four times in the next six games. At some point he’s going to do something exactly like that. But with nearly the entire lineup slumping prior to Sunday, which was the first time the Yankees scored six runs this season without the automatic runner), it would be nice if that power and home run barrage arrived this week.

Stanton went 5-for-11 with a home run, four RBIs and two walks in the series. The home run came on Wednesday, and when Stanton homers, they usually come in bunches. Because he didn’t homer on Thursday, I’m thinking the Royals should be worried about this weekend.

9. The Royals should be worried because we haven’t seen the Yankees be this good against bad teams since 2019. That Yankees team went 17-2 against the Orioles and 50-12 against the Orioles, Royals, Mariners, Angels, Giants and Red Sox: all bad teams that season. That Yankees team was the best of the teams from this core, winning 103 games and the team’s only division title since 2012. It was made possible by beating up on the bad teams.

The Royals are a bad team. They aren’t bad like Orioles or Reds bad since they do have a future and a plan, something the Orioles haven’t had for the last few years and something the Reds clearly don’t have now. But they are bad in the sense that they’re still a few years away and their current talent level and ability doesn’t match that of the Yankees on paper and shouldn’t on the field either.

10. After this weekend in Kansas City, the consecutive cupcake schedule of Detroit, Cleveland Baltimore and Kansas City is over. In May, the Yankees will play the Blue Jays five times, the White Sox seven times, the Rays four times and will start a three-game series with the Angels on the last day of the month. They will have games against the Orioles and Rangers sprinkled in, but the Yankee don’t have another stretch of games like the one they’re currently in against mediocre to awful teams.

The Yankees have done their job. Even including the debacle in Baltimore two weeks ago, they have gone 9-3 in these 12 games. They have gotten fat in term of wins and now have the best record in the AL and are a 1/2 game ahead of the Blue Jays, two games up on the Rays and 5 1/2 games up on the Red Sox. They have mostly won the games they are supposed to win and have put the pressure on their division competition to do the same when they play the weak part of their schedules.

It’s been a good week to be a Yankees. No. It’s been a great week to be a Yankees fan.

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After losing two out of of three to the Orioles, the Yankees went to Detroit and took two of three against the Tigers and then swept the Guardians in the Bronx. The Yankees are finally winning like the Yankees are supposed to.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. That’s more like it. That’s what the New York Yankees are supposed to do. They’re supposed to beat (and in this case sweep) average and below-average teams. They’re supposed to win games started by their “ace” and they’re supposed to pad the win column against the league’s mediocrity.

On Sunday, following the Yankees’ win on Twitter, in a game in which they scored six runs for the first time without the automatic runner all season, I received the following mentions:

Any comment on the Yankees’ game today? Or Only when they lose?

And this:

Dude. You’re awfully quiet when the Yankees win.

I’m always willing to comment on the Yankees, and no, I wasn’t quiet on Sunday. I was maybe more quiet than other days because it was Sunday and the 19-month-old was running wild and the 10-day-old needed to be fed just about every other inning, but I wasn’t quiet. I watched the Yankees game in its entirety, kept track of nearly every other game for gambling purposes and kept two kids under two years of age alive.

Everything I write in blogs, say on podcasts or tweet is based on fact and my observations of on-field performance. I have been called negative and pessimistic, but I’m neither. I’m a realist. And here’s some real news: the Yankees haven’t won a championship in going on 13 years and have won once since 2001. They have underachieved many times for the last two decades, have created inadequate rosters, underspent when they could have put themselves over the top, have hired and extended the wrong manager and have generally half-assed their way to getting their next championship. It has resulted in zero championships.

I want the Yankees to win. Every day. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. But what has happened these last few years has been hard to watch, knowing how much time and money I invest into an organization that hasn’t equally invested in their fans. If the way I write, talk or tweet about the team is upsetting, it’s likely because you’re an enormous homer who thinks the Yankees can do no wrong and should be praised even when they’re not meeting expectations. And that’s exactly what this core has done since 2018 and what this organization has done since 2009.

Everyone has their own way of being a fan. There’s no such thing as being a good fan or a bad fan, just like there’s no such thing as Aaron Hicks driving in a runner from third with less than two outs. If you’re a fan who believes the Yankees are always acting in the best interest of the on-field product, great. If you’re a fan who thinks Brian Cashman is batting 1.000 in his career in trade and free-agent signings, awesome. If you’re a fan who watches a few innings here and there and waits to be locked in until the postseason, wonderful. If you’re a fan who thinks everyone should be benched and fired, superb. If you’re a fan who hates analytics and thinks batting average and RBIs and pitcher wins and losses matter, good for you. If you’re a fan who needs to have Baseball Savant open during each game and would rather their team lead the league in wRC+ than actual wins, that’s cool too. Again, there’s no such thing as a good fan or a bad, and however you want to consume this team or any team is fine. In the end, all Major League Baseball fans are irrationally tied to a group of millionaires (who likely share contrasting views to you on the world, economics, politics, vaccines and life) playing a game no fan has control over. So who cares how you root or enjoy or hate-watch your team? The whole concept of being a fan at its core is ridiculous. I know at its core the whole idea of being a Yankees fan is ridiculous. Yet, it still bothers me to my core when they lose.

I realize it’s not healthy for the result of a baseball game to determine my mood and general well-being on a daily basis for six or seven months, and then have the team’s handling of the offseason affect those two things the other months. It’s ridiculous. It’s silly. It’s illogical. It’s unhealthy. But it’s who I am.

For me as a fan, I expect the Yankees to be great. That’s how I consume them. It might be unreasonable, but I grew up on them being great and believe they should still be. My tone in my writing, my words and my tweets is based on the foundation of wanting them to win. Winning the division isn’t good enough. Winning a postseason round isn’t good enough. Winning the American League pennant isn’t good enough. Reaching the World Series isn’t good enough. Winning the World Series is the only thing that’s good enough and this current team’s window to do that is being held up a stack of unread books.

2. This weekend, these Yankees were great for a change. But they don’t deserve special treatment or adoration because they swept a mediocre-at-best Guardians team that has the fourth-lowest payroll in the majors at home. They did their job. That’s what the Yankees are supposed to. They’re not going to get some unearned congratulatory commentary from me like I think some Twitter users were expecting. They did what they were supposed to do, a week after losing a series to the worst team in the AL.

3. And that’s what Gerrit Cole is supposed to do. He’s supposed to dominate bad lineups and the Guardians have a bad lineup. The Tigers also have a bad lineup, which is why I was so critical of him after his last start. It wasn’t just one bad start from Cole, and it wasn’t just three bad starts to the season. It was a trend that date back to the beginning of September and a span of nine bad starts, including the one-game playoff. The version of Cole that pitched on Sunday is the version I expect nearly every start from him. He’s also pissed away two (I will give him a pass on the Blue Jays), and his personal season is now 12 percent over.

4. After last week’s 1 2/3 disastrous innings from Cole, I tweeted:

Kyle Higashioka should be worried. Not only does he suck, but Gerrit Cole is running out of excuses for why he sucks, and eventually scapegoating Higashioka and requesting to pitch to Jose Trevino is coming.

Sure enough, there was Trevino in the lineup on Sunday. It was the first time, when healthy, Higashioka didn’t catch Cole since Opening Day 2021. The only other time Higashioka didn’t catch him was July 2021 when Higashioka had COVID and Gary Sanchez caught him in a Yankees win.

Boone said having Trevino catch over Higashioka was “just something he wanted to do.” There is absolutely no truth to Boone making the decision to have Trevino catch Cole over Higashioka. The fact that Higashioka caught Cole for nearly all of 2020 and all of 2021 is because Cole wanted Higashioka to catch him. Every single thing Cole does is based on routine and being a creature of habit, as we saw on Opening Day when he freaked out over the pregame ceremonies throwing off his day by four minutes. Do you think someone who has that concerned with each second of the day he has to pitch is going to let Boone decide who catches him after Higashioka has caught him for nearly every start of his as a Yankee? If you believe that, you probably think the Yankees made the right decision protecting Nick Nelson and Brooks Kriske from the Rule 5 draft instead of Garrett Whitlock.

If Trevino isn’t injured or sick (knock on all the wood) when Cole pitches next, he will undoubtedly be catching him. Trevino is the better catcher and the better player than Higashioka, and if Trevino has now taken Higashioka’s one purpose away (catching Cole) then he has no purpose on the team anymore. Boone chose Higashioka over Sanchez by pairing him with Cole and playing him in the team’s biggest games over the last two years. That forced Brian Cashman to trade Sanchez before he hits free agency after this season. Not even three full weeks into the season, the trade was pointless.

5. Here are some things I wrote and tweeted about Nestor Cortes in 2019:

I guess this is a throwaway game. Nestor Cortes is warming up. – May 19, 2019

When it was announced that Nestor Cortes would start (or open) for the Yankees on Tuesday and when the lineup against the Tigers was posted and DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Judge and Luke Voit weren’t in it, I shook my head in disbelief like Lee Trevino in Happy Gilmore. – Sept. 11, 2019

I have no idea how he’s survived a demotion in more than four months, but I guess good for him? He’s been a New York Yankee, making a major-league salary and traveling in luxury nearly all season, earning service time toward his future pension. Good for him. Bad for Yankees fans. – Sept. 16, 2019

Nestor Cortes being on the major league roster for as long as he has is more impressive than Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak. – Sept. 28, 2019

There are more (many more), but you get the point. I didn’t like Cortes and he didn’t like pitching well.

The 2018 Orioles lost 115 games and they didn’t want Cortes, but the Yankees did. He somehow held a major-league roster spot for nearly the entire season on a Yankees team that won 103 games despite pitching to a 5.67 ERA and allowing 104 baserunners and 16 home runs in 66 2/3 innings. After the season he ended up pitching in Seattle in 2020, put 20 baserunners on and allowed six home runs in just 7 2/3 innings. For some unknown reason, the Yankees wanted him back for 2021, and thankfully they did.

6. Cortes was outstanding last season for the Yankees, both as a starter (14 starts) and reliever (eight appearances). This season he has been even better, allowing just two earned runs in a two-run home run and seven hits in 15 2/3 innings, while striking out 25. His pitch arsenal and unusual deliveries coupled with his results have made him the most enjoyable part of the season to date. With shades of El Duque, the four days between his starts feel like an eternity.

Cortes’ ERA+ in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was 60, 79 and 29. Last season it was 150, and this season it’s at a comical 323. (For perspective, Mariano Rivera is the all-time ERA+ lead at 205.) He hasn’t just been good or great or outstanding in 2022, he’s been the best pitcher in the league. The same guy who was piggybacking Chad Green as an opener two years ago and allowing at least three earned runs in each relief appearance is currently the best pitcher in the league. Fucking crazy.

7. Aaron Judge’s extension rejection combined with his season-opening slump, Cole’s disappointing first three starts, Josh Donaldson potentially being washed up, the Boone lineup carousel and Joey Gallo’s inability to put the ball in play has all done Giancarlo Stanton a favor. It would be nice if the Yankees could have everyone being productive at the same time, but I know that’s unrealistic. I would take even one-third of their lineup being productive at the same time. But there will always be one or two, or (in the Yankees’ case) five or six guys not producing at a given time. At this given time, Stanton is one of those guys.

I called Brett Gardner “The Streak” throughout his career because there was no consistency in his game throughout the season. He could be an automatic out for two weeks and then the hardest out in baseball the next two. Stanton is very much like that.

Stanton homered in the first two games of the season and hasn’t since. When the Yankees play their next game on Tuesday, it will be 10 days since the last time he drove in a run, despite having played in every game other than Sunday’s since then. He’s hitting .203/.213/.322 and has struck out in 22 of his 59 plate appearances.

I’m not worried about Stanton. I know who he is as a player, and he could homer four times in the next six games. At some point he’s going to do something exactly like that. But with nearly the entire lineup slumping prior to Sunday, which was the first time the Yankees scored six runs this season without the automatic runner), it would be nice if that power and home run barrage arrived this week.

8. Earlier in the week, Gleyber Torres wasn’t good enough to be in the starting lineup, and rightfully so. Not playing Torres every day is one of the few things Boone has done right. But after his pinch-hit, game-winning single on Saturday, Torres was suddenly not only good enough to start, but to bat fifth.

Torres is a Boone favorite. Just like Higashioka and Hicks are. When you’re a Boone favorite, it only takes one game, or in this case one at-bat to get promoted, and it will take weeks now for Torres to be demoted. That’s how it goes for Boone favorites, and it went the opposite for non-favorites like Sanchez, Clint Frazier and Luke Voit, and all three are no longer Yankees.

9. The Yankees have played five series:

2-1 vs. Red Sox
2-2 vs. Blue Jays
1-2 at Orioles
2-1 at Tigers
3-0 vs. Guardians

Prior to the season-opening series, taking two out of three and winning the series against the Red Sox was acceptable, but not until the Sunday game happened in which the Yankees stranded 13 and lost by one run. Going 2-2 against the Blue Jays was acceptable. Losing two of three and scoring six runs in 29 innings at Camden Yards was completely unacceptable. Like the Red Sox series, taking two of three in Detroit would have been acceptable, but then the Yankees left every runner on third with less than two outs in the series finale and got shut out for the third time in 13 games. This past weekend, I would have been happy with a series win, but a sweep (something these Yankees failed to pull off too often last year and to date this season prior to Sunday) was more than I could have asked for.

The Yankees are 10-6 and that’s exactly where I had them being through 16 games. But to have received thee pitching they have and to have pissed away at least two golden opportunities against the Red Sox and Tigers is why it might seem like I’m not satisfied with their current state. And I’m not. I expect greatness out of them and sweeping the Guardians wasn’t just needed because of the series loss in Baltimore, it was needed to prove that this Yankees team can be capable of greatness. Great teams, championship teams, beat up on the average and below-average teams.

10. Hal Steinbrenner, Cashman and the Yankees want Yankees fans to think the 2021 Braves are the norm. It’s why Cashman specifically mentioned the Braves in each media setting this offseason. The Yankees want you to think just getting into the postseason is enough and then hoping the bounces go their way. It’s simply not true. The 2021 Braves are the anomaly. They won 87 games and went on a storied, magical run in October.

The 2020 Dodgers were the best team in the league and in the World Series for the third time in four years. The 2019 Nationals had Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg as their 1-2. The 2018 Red Sox won 108 games. The 2017 Astros won 101 games (and had quite the home-field advantage). The 2016 Cubs won 103 games. The 2015 Royals won 95 games and had been in the World Series the year before. The 2014 Giants had a core that was winning the their third championship in five seasons. The last puzzling World Series champion before 2021 was the 2006 Cardinals.

The Yankees shouldn’t want to be like the 2021 Braves. They should want to be like all of the other champions since 2006. Winning five of six against the Tigers and Guardians is what those teams would do. Continuing that level of play this week against the Orioles and Royals is also what they would do.

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The Yankees had a chance to make up for their lost weekend in Baltimore by sweeping the Tigers. Instead, they were shut out for the third time in the first 13 games of the season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees are 7-6 and on pace for 87 wins. They have a plus-2 run differential and an expected record of 7-6, so their mediocre play has played them to their expected mediocre record.

Even though they won the series in Detroit, it wasn’t enough. It can’t be enough when you lose a series to the Orioles. Had they won at least two of three against the Orioles, then yeah, winning two of three in Detroit would have left a better taste in all Yankees fans mouths.

The issue isn’t the Yankees losing games because they are going to lose games. It’s how they are losing them and who they are losing them to. They left 13 on against the Red Sox in their one loss to them. They were shut out once by the Blue Jays. They scored six runs in 29 innings in Camden Yards of all places. They were shut out by the Tigers.

Thursday’s loss was the third time the Yankees have been shut out in 13 games this season. For as miserable as 2021 was, the Yankees weren’t shut out for a third time until their 65th game last season. The 2019 Yankees were only shut out twice all year. The 2018 Yankees were shut out for a third time in their 80th game and the 2017 Yankees in their 113th game. This offense is really, really bad, and the franchise hasn’t seen an offense produce this few runs through 13 games in half a century.

(Of course it was Michael Pineda of all pitchers shutting out the Yankees for five innings on Thursday. Pineda is just the latest ex-Yankee in a long list of ex-Yankees to perform to their peak abilities when playing the Yankees.)

When asked after the Orioles series about how the 2022 Yankees look just like the 2021 Yankees (because they are except for Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa), Aaron Boone said, “It’s fair to say that about last year. Let’s check back with us. We’ll be fine.”

Since Boone said the offense would be fine, they scored four runs on Tuesday, three of which came as a result of a combination of a bases-loaded infield popup being dropped and a pitcher spiking a ball into the mound during his delivery. On Wednesday, they needed the Tigers to throw away the ball on an ill-advised Gleyber Torres bunt attempt to break a 3-3 tie. On Thursday, they were shut out.

Oh yeah, I’m sure everything will be fine. Just like it was last year when Boone kept saying the Yankees were going “to get it rolling” or that they would “turn the page” after each disappointing performance.

The offense has been the team’s biggest problem since the starting pitching has been good to great and the bullpen has been great to outstanding. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t individual underachievers who are a part of a 3-3 six games against two greatly inferior opponents.

2. Following the sticky stuff crackdown in 2021, Gerrit Cole’s performance dipped. Any poor start he had after the crackdown could be attributed to him learning to pitch with a mostly dry baseball, and eventually his poor starts in September and October were attributed to him pitching through a hamstring problem. He’s now had half of a regular season and a full offseason to get used to pitching without sticky stuff and he no longer has a hamstring issue. So what should his three 2022 starts be attributed to?

Someone with his resume and pedigree isn’t supposed to throw three consecutive clunkers. A bad start every once in a while is expected, even for him. But to make it the norm? That’s scary.

Going back to the beginning of September, here are Cole’s last nine starts:

3.2 IP, 2 ER
5 IP, 1 ER
5.2 IP, 7 ER
6 IP, 3 ER
6 IP, 5 ER
2 IP, 3 ER
4 IP, 3 ER
5.2 IP, 3 ER
1.2 IP, 2 ER

One of those starts could be considered good for Cole’s abilities (the 5 IP, 1 ER start), but even then he didn’t make it past the fifth inning.

On Tuesday against the Tigers, he walked a career-high five batters in a game, and he only needed 1 2/3 innings to achieve it. He walked the Tigers’ 7, 8 and 9 hitters consecutively and walked four of five before being pulled.

“Certainly, never had anything like that in my career before,” Cole said after the start, clearly lost on what to do. “But it’s not something we can’t get through.”

After Cole’s first inning, I thought he was going to dominate the Tigers for at least six innings and give the bullpen a much-needed break. Instead, he recorded two more outs and the Yankees needed Clarke Schmidt to step up with his best major-league outing, since the offense took another night off.

“I’m pretty disappointed right now,” Cole said.

As he should be. All Yankees fans are disappointed and I would say all are concerned even if some hide it. Everyone should be concerned. Cole has been average to awful for nine starts going back to last year. I think everyone within the Yankees is concerned too, even if they would also tell you otherwise. Everyone except Boone that is.

“I’m not (concerned),” Boone said. “I’m really not. I believe he’s poised for a big year for us.”

Well, 10 percent of his starts have already been made, and in the best of the three, he literally tipped his cap to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for beating him for a third straight time in an important divisional matchup.

I expect Cole to go out on Sunday and dominate an extremely weak Guardians lineup. If Cole is still himself and if he wants to put an end to any question about his abilities post-sticky stuff, then he has to dominate that lineup at home.

3. The Yankees’ two wins in Detroit both came in close games since that’s all the Yankees have played since the start of last season. The Yankees failed to win yet another winnable game in the series finale and failed to complete yet another series sweep. It was a problem for all of 2021, and it’s been a problem for eight percent of 2022. That’s because this season is just a continuation of last season.

The Yankees have yet to get blown out in a game that could be classified as Just one of those days over the course of a 162-game season. Their losses have been by 1, 3, 2, 1, 5 and 3 runs. In the five-run loss (last Sunday to the Orioles), the game was 0-0 in the eighth. In their most recent three-run loss (on Thursday to the Tigers), the game was 1-0 in the eighth. The Yankees are in every game because their pitching is the best in the American League. They are 7-6 because their offense has been close to the worst in the AL.

While the Yankees aren’t getting blown out, they’re not blowing anyone out. Yet another trait of the 2021 team. The Yankees’ wins have been by 1, 2, 4, 3, 3, 2 and 2 runs. The Yankees’ inability to score runs and turn games into laughers is a recipe for disaster, as it was last year. Asking their elite relievers to pitch every single day is the same strategy that helped lead to their demise in 2021, and it will eventually in 2022 as well. We already saw Jonathan Loaisiga show signs of fatigue on Sunday. Chad Green showed the same as his inning on Wednesday went on. Miguel Castro struggled to get outs on Thursday. The fatigue will eventually come for Clay Holmes as well.

4. Aaron Judge couldn’t be off to a worse start after turning down a seven-year, $230 million contract extension to cover his age 31 through 37 seasons. Judge is hitting .255/.340/.404 with four doubles, one home run and two RBIs. With runners in scoring position, he has a single hit in 11 plate appearances. In late-and-close situations, he has a .523 OPS.

Judge has been the offense’s biggest problem. Sure, Joey Gallo has sucked, Donaldson has been a disappointment, Giancarlo Stanton has looked lost since the first two games against the Red Sox, Anthony Rizzo has sprinkled in a few home runs around a lot of outs and Gleyber Torres and Kyle Higashioka are working on playing themselves out of the league, but none of those players are Judge. None of them are supposed to be the Yankees’ best and most important bat. And none of them turned down nearly a quarter of a billion dollars on Opening Day.

If Judge doesn’t start producing soon, the narrative of the pressure of a new deal is going to consume his season. Whether it’s true or not, it will be hard to ignore if a player with a .940 career OPS coming into this season suddenly doesn’t have a number close to that. It’s not necessarily going to happen, and there’s too much of the season left to think it will happen, but with each feeble at-bat of his (and there have been a lot of those), the eventual dollars Judge gets from some team are dropping.

Having a down season (again there’s 92 percent of the season left) was always a possibility for Judge. And because free-agent baseball players get paid on their most recent season (like Marcus Semien), it was always foolish for Judge to reject the Yankees’ very fair offer and try to better it. The Yankees didn’t lowball Judge, like I thought they did when the news broke there was no extension. I thought the Yankees had offered him something like six years and $150 million. But to turn down seven years, when he’ll be 31 years old at the start of the new deal, and a higher average annual salary than Bryce Harper and Mookie Betts was a really, really bad decision. Judge was going to need to have a year like his 2017 season to beat the offer he turned down, and since he’s had that type of season once, and since he has spent a good part of his career on the injured list, I will never understand why he turned down seven years and $230 million.

Judge is far from the only problem and far from the only problem with runners in scoring position and a runner on third with less than two out.

5. Aaron Hicks has been one of the Yankees’ two most consistent hitters this season, with DJ LeMahieu being the other. But Hicks’ consistency has come with no one on base. With a chance to drive in runs, Hicks has turned into Higashioka.

First and second, one out: intentional walk
Bases loaded, one out: ground into double play
Second and third, one out: popout to short
Runner on third, one out: home run
Runner on third, one out: walk
Runner on second, no outs: strikeout
First and second, one out: groundout to first
Bases loaded, one out: ground into double play
Second and third, one out: groundout to short
Runner on third, one out: sacrifice fly
Runner on second, two outs: walk
First and second, no outs: lineout
Second and third, one out: flyout
Second and third, no outs: popout to short

6. Gallo has become unplayable. I don’t care that Gallo has a .135 batting average since he has a .205 career batting average. With two more hits this season, Gallo would be near his career average. I do care that he’s not hitting home runs. That’s what Gallo is supposed to be. He’s supposed to strike out (which he has no problem doing), he’s supposed to walk (which he’s somewhat doing) and he’s supposed to hit home runs, which he has none of. Gallo has five hits in 43 plate appearances, and they’re all single. He doesn’t have an extra-base hit and he’s driven in zero runs, despite having many chances to, as he’s left 22 runners on base.

The frustrating thing is that his defense hasn’t been good either. He has misplayed several caroms, made offline throws on scoring attempts and even took a wrong angle on Thursday, playing what could have been a single into a double. Every part of Gallo’s game has been bad.

7. The Yankees traded for Donaldson because like Cashman said, “Gio Urshela is not Josh Donaldson.” No, he’s not. At least not from a career standpoint. But Donaldson has played more like Urshela, and I mean the version of Urshela the then-Indians gave up on and the Blue Jays gave away for nothing.

Donaldson has started 11 of the Yankees’ 13 games and has appeared in all 13. He has only started at third base in seven of them. I guess the Yankees’ plan to keep Donaldson healthy is to simply not play him. That still wouldn’t be good, but would at least make a little more sense if the Yankees didn’t also have an outfielder in Stanton who they don’t let play the field.

The Yankees owe Donaldson $48 million between this season and next and they are already shying away from using him as an everyday player. And when he does play, he’s been atrocious with seven multi-strikeout games and more strikeouts than Gallo.

Donaldson is 36. This could just be a slump and a poor start to a long season. There’s also a chance he’s done as a major leaguer at what is an extremely advanced age in baseball now without the help of certain things that could enhance performance in the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. Sometimes it goes overnight on players, even those who were as productive as Donaldson was last year. Sometimes it goes during an offseason like it may have for Donaldson.

8. Earlier this week, I wrote the When Will Yankees Say Goodbye to Gleyber Torres? Since then, Torres rightfully wasn’t in the starting lineup for two of the three games in Detroit and went 1-for-5 when he did play (he started one game and pinch hit in another). The longer Torres is on the Yankees, the bigger a problem he becomes and he’s already an enormous problem. It becomes bigger because as long as he’s a Yankee, he’s going to get playing time, and when he plays, someone who should play doesn’t. He doesn’t do anything well, has a horrible baseball IQ and makes poor decisions at the plate and in the field.

Somehow, Torres has already found his way back to shortstop twice this season. No, that’s not his doing, that’s his idiotic manager’s doing, but here’s a timeline of the Yankees’ handling of Torres:

July 31, 2021: The Yankees are unable to trade for a shortstop at the deadline.

Sept. 14, 2021: With no alternative options, the Yankees finally move Torres to second and Gio Urshela to short after Torres’ defense single-handedly loses them a game against the Mets on Sunday Night Baseball.

Oct. 19, 2021: At the Yankees’ end-of-the-season press conference, Brian Cashman admits “failed endeavor” to trade for a shortstop at the deadline. He says Torres is “best served as a second baseman.”

April 11, 2022: Torres plays shortstop.

April 17, 2022: Torres plays shortstop.

The Yankees are always overly cautious with giving up on one of their players. They waited and waited for Eduardo Nunez to come around after being unwilling to include him in a trade for Cliff Lee that would have gotten to them to the World Series and making him the heir to Derek Jeter. They eventually released him for nothing. When Clint Frazier wasn’t injured, he was jerked around by the organization and kept in Triple-A so Mike Tauchman could play and then named the 2021 starting left fielder only to give that job to Brett Gardner a week into the season. They eventually released him for nothing.

Torres is going on three years removed from the last time he was a young star and on his way to becoming the Yankees’ most important player. The Yankees aren’t going to release him for nothing like the other two given his resume is much better than theirs even if it’s been a long time since he was even an average player, let alone a superstar in the making. But he has no place on this team, and unfortunately, because the Yankees chose to pass on trading him this past offseason, I think he’s here for at least all of 2022. Be prepared for a lot of poor quality at-bats, unacceptable defensive plays and important pieces of the lineup sitting all so Torres can play.

9. No one waits to make a pitching change until the bases are loaded like Boone. Boone likes to commonly use the phrase “We were up against it” when discussing a situation in which he brought a new pitcher into a bases-loaded jam, and the reason the Yankees are ever “up against it” is because of their manager. Because he let it get to that point.

He did it last weekend with Loaisiga. He did it again on Thursday with Castro. There’s nothing Boone loves more than bringing in a new pitcher with zero margin for error. It has happened countless times in his managerial career, and apparently it’s going to keep happening as he hasn’t evolved in any aspect of his position. (Just another gripe with a manager who is undeserving of the position he has.)

10. The Yankees pissed away an opportunity to sweep the Red Sox in the season-opening series. They were embarrassing in their series loss to the Orioles, who are 2-8 against the rest of the league. They were gifted enough runs to beat the Tigers twice before getting shut out yet again. These last six games were supposed to be part of an easy portion of their schedule in which they play the Orioles (3), Tigers (3), Guardians (3), Orioles (3) and Royals (3), and they are 3-3 in this 15-game stretch.

The Yankees better play like the Yankees for the remaining nine games of this schedule. Because after that 13 of their next 20 will come against the Blue Jays, White Sox and Rays. (The other seven will come against the Orioles, who they can’t seem to consistently beat.)

I need to see the offense come alive at home against the Guardians and Orioles for the next six games. I need to see Gerrit Cole pitch like the ace he’s supposed to be. I need the bullpen to get a rest before the blown leads and crushing losses arrive like they did for a fatigued bullpen last season. I need the Yankees to play to their abilities, not down to their opponents’.

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