The Yankees lost two out of three to the Blue Jays, scoring seven runs total in the series against their division rival.
The Yankees lost two out of three to the Blue Jays, scoring seven runs total in the series. It was yet another lackluster offensive effort from the Yankees against their direct competition for the division, and the offense has shown no signs of ever breaking out and hitting the way they’re expected to.
I hope I’m wrong. I want to be wrong, but I think the Yankees’ offense we have seen so far this season is what it will be all season.
When the Yankees lost 3-2 on Opening Day, Aaron Boone said he wasn’t worried. He said his team would hit. He has said it a lot since then. Brian Cashman has said it as well. The players have said it too.
The Yankees haven’t hit, at least not with any consistency. Through the team’s 48 games, they have scored four runs or less in 29 of them (60.4 percent). They have scored double-digit runs once. ONCE. The Yankees’ 28-20 record is solely a product of the team’s pitching
Aside from Aaron Judge, an unbelievable two weeks from Giancarlo Stanton and a few big hits from Gio Urshela, no one has hit. Sure, Gleyber Torres has been “hot” recently though that’s only after being an automatic out for nearly the first weeks of the season. Gary Sanchez hasn’t hit, and Kyle Higashioka started out well and then turned back into having the bat of a career backup catcher. Clint Frazier is currently 8-for-23, and all that did was get him up to a .183/.299/.330 line. Aaron Hicks didn’t hit before he got hurt, and Luke Voit was supposed to give the offense upon his return, but he’s hitting .182/.280/.250 with one extra-base hit in 50 plate appearances.
On Tuesday, the Yankees’ offense once again failed to show up, scoring two runs against the Blue Jays, while striking out 10 times in 6 2/3 innings against Steven Matz. Five days earlier, the Red Sox put 12 baserunners on against Matz in six innings, and he entered his start against the Yankees with a 4.69 ERA. That didn’t stop him from having the best start of his season at Yankee Stadium. Matz became the latest starter to have their best start of the season against the Yankees.
There was Michael Wacha (who was last good in 2018) on April 16. There was Matt Harvey (who was last good in 2015) on April 26. There was Joe Ross (who was last good in 2016) on May 9. There was Jordan Lyles (who was last good in … he’s never been good, owning a career 5.25 ERA in 1,017 1/3 innings) on May 18. And there was Matz on Tuesday night. Those are just the starters. That doesn’t include all of the barely-hanging-on-to-a-roster-spot-in-the-majors relievers that have stifled the Yankees with ease.
In Matz, the Yankees faced a left-handed starter, which is when they have the best chance to score runs given their nearly all-right-handed lineup, and they still were shut down. To make matters worse, with DJ LeMahieu (6-for-10 against Matz) unavailable for the birth of his child, Boone didn’t use Miguel Andujar (3-for-6 with two doubles and a home run off Matz), choosing to use Sanchez (1-for-12 against Matz) and play both Gardner and Odor, despite neither of them being able to make remotely average contact against left-handed pitchers. No, the Yankees haven’t hit, but their manager continues to not optimize his lineup and put his players in the best possible position to succeed.
I keep thinking Maybe tonight is the night the offense breaks out, and it hasn’t happened yet. Even when the offense does have a good game, and tricks me into thinking it was the turning point of the season, they follow it up with another stretch of scoring two runs consistently. It’s no longer early and it’s no longer a small sample size. The season is 30 percent complete, and the Yankees have scored as many runs as the Orioles and 59 less runs than the Rays.
I would rather the Yankees have better pitching than hitting since we have seen where having an overpowering regular-season offense and mediocre pitching has gotten them since 2004, but this team is supposed to have both. With the second month of the season nearly over, it’s getting hard to envision them ever having both. I don’t think they will. I hope I’m wrong. I want to be wrong, but I think the Yankees’ offense we have seen so far this season is what it will be all season.
Corey Kluber followed up his no-hitter by leaving Tuesday’s game early with shoulder tightness. Not good.
Corey Kluber pitched one inning in 2020 before needing shoulder surgery, and the Yankees gave him a one-year, $11 million contract knowing he missed nearly all of 2019 and 2020. Kluber had looked like his former Cy Young-winning self over his previous five starts, but on Tuesday, he couldn’t control his pitches and left the game early with shoulder tightness. Given Kluber’s recent shoulder history and the way the Yankees have diagnosed, treated and handled injuries, I don’t have a good feeling about his return.
After the recap, Cam Lewis of Blue Jays Nation joined me to talk about the Blue Jays, their recent six-game losing streak, getting beat up by the Rays, their need for two starting pitchers and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s breakout season.
The Yankees swept the team that used to have the best record in the American League.
The Yankees swept the team that used to have the best record in the American League. The Yankees had been 1-6 when they had a chance to sweep a series, but now they’re 2-6, having won six straight games with a big series against the Blue Jays up next.
1. Going back to last Monday when Gerrit Cole was rocked by the Rangers, I was very scared about the next six games. The Yankees’ offense has been non-existent all season, Cole had just been lit up by a last-place team and wouldn’t pitch again until Saturday, and the 2021 Yankees were starting to look like the 2019 Yankees in terms of injuries. I thought there was a very real chance the Yankees could get swept by the Rangers after Cole lost the series opener and then get swept by the then-best team in the American League in the White Sox.
It looked like this might happen when Jameson Taillon put the Yankees in a 3-0 hole the night after Cole laid an egg, but then the Yankees rallied with a five-run fifth inning and haven’t looked back. Since Cole’s worst start as a Yankee last Monday, the Yankees haven’t lost. They took the final three games in Texas and then completely shut down the White Sox, allowing five runs in three games, and finally closing out a sweep.
2. I said all offseason the Yankees or White Sox will represent the AL in the 2021 World Series, and I still believe that. The White Sox have the better chance since they are a guarantee to win their division, getting to play 78 games against the Indians, Royals, Twins and Tigers. The White Sox’ record is truly a product of an awful, and I mean awful AL Central as they are already 17-9 against. Meanwhile, the Yankees will have to battle the Rays, Blue Jays and possibly the Red Sox all season just to avoid the one-game, wild-card playoff. It’s unfair, but it’s the way it’s set up.
The White Sox are overrated. White Sox fans can whine about not having Luis Robert or Eloy Jimenez, however, they just got swept by a Yankees team that didn’t have Giancarlo Stanton or Aaron Hicks, didn’t have Clint Frazier until the series finale, and had way too much of Mike Ford, Tyler Wade and Rougned Odor in the lineup.
3. Goodbye, Hicks. Hicks opted for surgery to repair his wrist sheath, and we won’t see him again in 2021. There is supposedly a chance he could return very late in the season, but we’re talking about Hicks here, and he has never returned from an injury before or on schedule.
Hicks will be 32 later this year, and if he doesn’t play in another game in 2021 (which he won’t), he will have played in 493 of 870 regular-season games as a Yankee, or 57 percent. He will now have a surgically-repaired wrist to go along with a surgically-repaired elbow, a balky back, and he has had issues with both obliques, a hamstring and his intercostal muscle. The seven-year extension for Hicks was a mistake the second it was announced and it looks like an even bigger mistake now that he has experienced three significant injuries since it was signed: a back injury, Tommy John surgery and now wrist surgery. Even if Hicks is ready to go for Opening Day 2022, this doesn’t seem like an injury that he’s going to bounce back from right away and be fine at the plate. He has barely ever been fine at the plate in his career, anyway.
4. Hicks will be a Yankee through at least 2025 (he will be bought out for 2026), and that’s four more season after this one. For a player who was never healthy in his 20s and hasn’t been in his early-30s, I’m not sure how the Yankees think he’s going to be for his age 32, 33, 34 and 35 seasons.
The Yankees need a center fielder, and no, not Brett Gardner. I mean a real center fielder. Someone who can play against both right-handed and left-handed pitchers, which Gardner can no longer do. I’m sure the Yankees will trade for someone to fill that role this summer, though they need a long-term solution since Hicks can’t be trusted to be that. That’s where Jasson Dominguez comes in, and he better be as good as he’s been hyped to be.
5. Gleyber Torres hit .234/.327/.287 in April. In May, he’s hit .375/.434/.521. The power still isn’t there (just three extra-base hits in 53 plate appearances in May), but his overall approach and offense is there.
This is the player who nearly came from behind to win the 2018 AL Rookie of the Year award and the player who hit 38 home runs in 2021 (even if everyone was hitting 25-plus home runs). This is the player who was supposed to become the Yankees’ No. 3 hitter for years and eventually the team’s best and most important player. I don’t know where he was for the 2020 shortened season and for the first month of 2021, but it’s good to have him back.
6. Aaron Judge played in all 13 games in the last 13 days, starting 12 of them. That’s as good as it will ever get for Judge when the Yankees play 13 games in 13 days. And what do you know? Judge hit .457/.537/.804 with five home runs and eight RBIs in 54 plate appearances and added his first career walkoff with the walkoff walk on Sunday. It’s almost as if Judge doesn’t need unnecessary rest and personal days off. It’s almost as if the Yankees are better with their best overall player in the lineup and in the game (they went 10-3 in the 13 games) than if he’s inexplicably on the bench so he can have preventative rest.
7. When Jordan Montgomery strikes out 11 over seven shutout innings (like he did on Friday) and Jameson Taillon shuts out a team over five innings (like he did on Sunday), you know things are going your way. Having those two going against the White Sox scared me and they combined for 12 shutout innings and 15 strikeouts. Right now, I think this is how the Yankees would set up their rotation for a postseason series:
Game 1: Gerrit Cole Game 2: Corey Kluber Game 3: Jordan Montgomery Game 4: Scumbag Domingo German
I don’t think Taillon would get a postseason start. I also really need Luis Severino to return and be his old self, so that he, Cole and Kluber can pitch Games 1-3 and only one of Montgomery or Scumbag German is needed for Game 4. I don’t trust Montgomery, Scumbag German or Taillon, and I’m not sure when or if I will.
8. It’s time the Yankees send every runner home from second a base hit to the outfield with no outs. I can’t watch the team strand runners at third with no outs anymore, or get nothing from second and third with no outs or nothing from the bases loaded and no outs. It’s always been a problem with these Yankees and it will continue to be a problem with these Yankees because everyone on the team with the exception of DJ LeMahieu and Gio Urshela is trying to hit a 500-foot home run in every at-bat, and they are unable to simply put the ball in play in a productive way. Mostly, when the 2021 Yankees have put the ball in play with the bases loaded and no outs, it has resulted in a double play. The Yankees lead the majors in ground into double plays, but at least it was somewhat evened out with the triple play they were able to turn on Friday when it looked like they were going to give away a winnable game.
The Yankees had Monday off after playing 13 games in 13 days, and now they’ll play another 12 games in 13 days, except these 13 game are doing to be much harder. Sandwiched around three games in Detroit are three against the Blue Jays, four against the Rays and three against the Red Sox.
9. We’re still waiting for the offense to show up in 2021. Sure, there have been a few games where the Yankees will score seven runs, like they did on Tuesday in Texas, or on Saturday against the White Sox, but in the other five games last week, they scored 13 runs total. As of now, the Rays have scored 60 more tuns than the Yankees in two more games played. That’s absurd. The Yankees have become a the glorified Rays with bigger names and a much bigger payroll. They have the same style of play, relying on their pitching and hoping to scratch across three or four runs. I don’t hate it. I would rather the Yankees have better pitching than hitting since we have seen where having an overpowering regular-season offense and mediocre pitching has gotten them since 2004, but this team is supposed to have both.
10. I keep thinking maybe this will be the series the offense finally breaks out, and it keeps not being the series. But maybe this will be the series the offense breaks out since they are avoiding Hyun Jin Ryu and the Blue Jays have lost six straight and seven of 10. If it’s not, I’m sure the Yankees will beat up on the Tigers this coming weekend to end the month like they did to begin the month, and everyone will think the offense has finally arrived, but then on Memorial Day, they begin their fourth series of the season against the Rays and we’ll see whether the offense will be attending the third month of the season after being absent for the first two.
I was worried about the Yankees seeing the White Sox over the weekend, and I shouldn’t have been.
I was worried about the Yankees seeing the White Sox over the weekend, and I shouldn’t have been. The Yankees’ starting pitching continued its dominant run and the offense did just enough to pull off the three-game sweep over the team that used to have the best record in the American League.
After the recap, White Sox Dave of Barstool Sports joined me to talk about the series, why I’m wrong to think the White Sox are overrated, Carlos Rodon turning around his career, if the White Sox players are against Tony LaRussa and why I’m not a fan of Aaron Boone.
