1. Carlos Rodon was bad, the offense was worse, the Yankees once again lacked any semblance of fundamentals under Aaron Boone and they lost 4-3 to the Red Sox. The loss dropped them to 1-4 against their storied rival this season.

Not everyone thought was Rodon was bad. His manager didn’t think he was bad despite lasting only five innings and allowing nine baserunners, four runs and three earned runs in those five innings.

“I actually thought he was pretty sharp,” Boone said.

2. Rodon’s last two starts have come against the Red Sox, the Yankees have lost both and he has allowed eight earned runs in 10 innings. In the first of the two, he blew two different leads.

“It seemed like they had a team approach today,” Rodon said. “They were a little more aggressive than last time.”

Rodon went on to say that he would try to have better location with his pitches the next time he faces the Red Sox instead of trying to overpower them. The idea Rodon and the Yankees thought a good game plan would to be to not locate pitches and try to overpower the Red Sox is unbelievable (but actually very believable with this organization).

We’ll always have those few weeks when Rodon dominated the Rays, Guardians, Orioles, Padres, Rangers and Angels and people were fooled into thinking he figured it out and could be trusted. As I wrote multiple times during that stretch, I still didn’t trust Rodon and never will.

3. Is it possible the Yankees have gotten worse with fundamentals and details under Boone? I didn’t think it was possible given the last seven years, culminating in the World Series Game 5 disaster, but it just may be.

In the first inning, the Red Sox had a runner on second with two outs (Rob Refsnyder doubled on a middle-middle fastball on Rodon’s first pitch). Carlos Narvaez hit a ground ball to Anthony Volpe in the hole at short and after recently making two successful Derek Jeter-esque jump-throws, Volpe attempted it again and wildly threw the ball nowhere near the bag. Narvaez was safe at first and Refsnyder came around to score to give the Red Sox an early lead. Not only was Volpe’s throw poor, but Paul Goldschmidt played the throw like he had never received an errant throw before. He played it like he had never played first base before.

“I feel like that one was on me,” Goldschmidt said. “He should have the freedom to throw that ball across the diamond like he did.”

4. A day after foolishly attempting to steal third with no outs in the 10th inning, Volpe tried to a be a first-inning hero rather than put the ball in his pocket and let Rodon face the left-handed Jarren Duran with two on and two outs. Duran popped out to third. Complete unawareness from Volpe.

His unawareness didn’t end there. In the fourth inning, Trevor Story drove in Narvaez with a base hit to center field. With Volpe’s back to second waiting for the throw in, Story took off for second and turned a single into a double. Volpe turned around stunned to see Story sliding safely into second.

5. A night after it took the Yankees until the ninth inning to get on the board, it took until the seventh inning on Saturday. Trailing 4-2 with two runs in and still two on with two outs, Jasson Dominguez was inexplicably picked off of second to end the inning.

The following inning with the Yankees desperate for a baserunner to bring the tying run to the plate, Ben Rice was given an automatic strike for a pitch clock violation to start his at-bat 0-1. He would go on to strike out.

At this point, I’m waiting for the day the Boone Yankees bat out of order.

6. If Boone thought Rodon was “sharp” in his inadequate performance, I wonder what Boone thought about Hunter Dobbins’ performance. Dobbins shut out the Yankees for six innings, allowing just two hits. In two starts over the last week against the Yankees, Dobbins allowed three earned runs over 11 innings and won both starts.

7. It was more of the same from the ex-Yankees on the Red Sox playing well at the Yankees’ expense. Refsnyder went 2-for-3; Narvaez did the same and added a walk; Justin Wilson faced six Yankees, struck out three and put an end to their eighth-inning rally and Greg Weissert pitched the ninth to earn the save. All that was missing was another pair of dominant outings from Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman.

8. The Yankees 1 through 3 hitters went 0-for-12 with six strikeouts. Everyone has been so worried and concerned about what will happen with the lineup when Giancarlo Stanton returns, but Rice and Trent Grisham seem to have resolved the issue on their own. Since May 13, Rice has a .527 OPS and Grisham has a .552 OPS.

9. I have written this before, but I would have Judge lead off. I don’t care that he will bat with no one on base in his first at-bat of the game. He’s the best player in baseball at getting on base given his majors-leading .479 on-base percentage and no pitcher is going to pitch around the first batter of the game. If Shohei Ohtani can lead off for the infinitely smarter Dodgers who do everything better than the Yankees then Judge can lead off for the Yankees. Give me Judge, Cody Bellinger and Stanton at 1 through 3 when Stanton returns this week. (It will never happen.)

10. Max Fried gets the ball on Sunday to try to salvage the series. The Yankees offense scored one run in 10 innings on Friday and two runs on Saturday. My expectation for “the best offense in baseball” which has scored four runs in its last three games isn’t high for Sunday . But maybe the bats will show up in the series finale to support their ace and keep their performance against the Red Sox this season to just embarrassing and not allow it to progress to humiliating.

1. “That’s brutal” is what DJ LeMahieu says he said to first-base umpire Jeremie Rehak to get ejected in the 10th inning of Friday’s 2-1 loss to the Red Sox for the first ejection of his career. Rehak’s call on the “foul” ball LeMahieu hit with two outs in the 10th that remained foul after review was just one of many things that were “brutal” in the loss.

2. The Yankees’ offense was brutal. The Yankees didn’t get on the board until there was one out in the ninth inning when Aaron Judge hit a game-tying home run off of Garrett Crochet. Prior to the home run, Judge had been 0-for-6 with six strikeouts against Crochet this season, but he got him for a 443-foot blast well over the Green Monster. The home run would have been remembered as an awesome moment in a great comeback win, except the Yankees didn’t win. Instead, it will just be remembered as a game-tying home run in a loss. Once the game was headed for extra innings it was only going to end with a Yankees loss.

3. The Yankees’ extra-inning approach was once against brutal. The Yankees are now 12-26 in extra-inning road games since the automatic runner was implemented five years ago, which is the worst win percentage in the majors. It’s not a coincidence Aaron Boone is the manager of the team that is the worst in the majors at succeeding in a in which success can only be obtained by a combination of smart managing, situational hitting and creativity. The Yankees continue to play for multiple runs on the road in extras rather than one run to take the lead, and they continue to not score any runs let alone multiple runs, and they continue to lose.

3. On Friday, Anthony Volpe was the automatic runner for the 10th. With no outs and Jasson Dominguez up, Volpe took off for third. Sure, Volpe has been good at stealing third in three years in the majors, but when you attempt to steal third with no outs in extra innings, you have to make it. There’s no excuse if you don’t. There’s no excuse unless you’re Boone who has an excuse for everything.

“The only reason he’s out [is] because he kind of gets caught on the slide where he doesn’t extend,” Boone said of Volpe’s attempt.

Ah, yes, Volpe would have been safe if not for the slide. And the Yankees would have won the game if not for the Red Sox scoring more runs than them. And the Yankees would have won the World Series if not for the Dodgers winning four games and the Yankees only winning one. And Boone would have multiple championships as Yankees manger if not for disappointing postseason losses in six of his seven seasons as manager and if not for completely missing the postseason in the other season.

4. If you wonder why it’s always reported how much players love playing for Boone it’s because of instances like this. Instead of calling out Volpe for a dumb decision (and it was a dumb decision because unless you’re safe in that spot, it’s dumb), he says it’s the slide’s fault. Guess who is in control of the slide? Volpe! (It was dumb whether Boone called for it or Volpe did it on his own. With one out it would have been acceptable to attempt. With no outs it’s completely unacceptable.)

Last Sunday night Jazz Chisholm did the in-game interview with ESPN against the Red Sox and when asked about Boone, Chisholm said, “We’re really good friends.” He didn’t say Boone is a “really good manager,” no, he mentioned how good of friends they are. A manager has to have the ability to call out his players when they deserve to be called out. A friend? A “really good friend” isn’t about to call out their friend even if they deserve to be.

5. It was brutal LeMahieu’s ball was called foul on the field and even more brutal the call stood after review. The ball was clearly fair.

“I want the courage to overturn the call,” Boone said, “a quarter of the ball is on the line.”

I want the courage for you to call out Volpe for trying to steal third.

6. It was brutal for Tim Hill to face Carlos Narvaez with two outs in the 10th. Hill sent the game to extras by retiring David Hamilton for the final out in the ninth. Once the Yankees didn’t score in the 10th, you knew Hill would come back out with three straight lefties due up. Hill got Jarren Duran to ground out, which moved the automatic runner to third, intentionally walked Rafael Devers and struck out Marcelo Mayer. The winning run was on third with two outs and the right-handed Narvaez due up.

Boone had right-handed options in Mark Leiter Jr. or Devin Williams to go to. Leiter had pitched the previous two days and even if he had only thrown 23 pitches over those two days, the Yankees don’t use relievers three days in a row, so he wasn’t “available” in Boone’s eyes. The Yankees had yet to take the lead and Boone manages to a fictitious stat in the save, so Williams also wasn’t available in Boone’s eyes. Boone would rather lose the game than use his “closer” to extend it, so the best two options to send the game to the 11th weren’t available because of make-believe reasons. Boone stayed with Hill and Narvaez hit a ball high off the Monster to end the game. The ex-Yankee has now beaten the Yankees in back-to-back games between last Sunday night’s 11-7 loss and Friday’s 2-1 loss. Meanwhile, J.C. Escarra has a .706 OPS, is 0-for-17 throwing runners out this season and there are talks of him losing playing time at catcher to Ben Rice.

7. Rob Refsnyder served as the Red Sox’ leadoff hitter and had a hit and a walk, Aroldis Chapman retired both hitters he faced in the ninth and Garrett Whitlock threw a scoreless 10th. It was yet another all-around effort for the ex-Yankees on the Red Sox in beating the Yankees.

8. Prior to the series, I wrote “I expect the pitching to be much better than this weekend than it was last weekend, for both teams that is” and it was in the first game. Crochet was unfortunately magnificent until the Judge home run and Yarbrough held the Red Sox to one run over 4 2/3 innings. The only run the Yankees’ bullpen allowed over five innings was the unearned automatic runner and the Red Sox’ bullpen went five up and five down.

9. The Yankees’ offense has now scored two runs over its last 21 innings dating back to the start of the eighth inning on Wednesday. One of the runs was the Pablo Reyes chaos run on Thursday and the other was the Judge home run on Friday. It’s not only runs the Yankees are lacking, it’s hitting altogether. They have nine hits in those 21 innings. It’s not like they leaving everyone on, they aren’t getting anyone on.

10. That needs to change on Saturday. It’s embarrassing the Yankees are 1-3 against the Red Sox. The Red Sox season was hanging by a thread before last weekend in the Bronx and the Yankees revived them and the Red Sox have won five of seven since last Friday. With Carlos Rodon against Hunter Dobbins and Max Fried against Brayan Bello on Saturday and Sunday, the Yankees hold extreme pitching advantages in both games. Anything less than winning both games and taking the series will be brutal.

1. The Yankees didn’t score four runs against the Royals on Thursday, but they still won. The Yankees beat the Royals 1-0 for their fourth 1-0 win of the season. As I wrote after Monday’s win, since the start of last season the Yankees seem to always do enough to beat the Royals. Whether it’s winning a blowout game, needing a late-game big hit or holding on for a 1-0 win, I love when the Yankees play the Royals.

2. It was always going to be hard for the Yankees to score on Thursday with Seth Lugo on the mound, but Aaron Boone made things harder by keeping Aaron Judge out of the lineup along with Jazz Chisholm, Austin Wells and DJ LeMahieu. It was the first game Judge didn’t start this season. I “get” he can’t play every day, but I also don’t really get it. He’s having the best offensive season in the history of baseball. Maybe don’t give him a day off, considering there’s no proof random days off keep anyone healthy over the long haul.

3. The Yankees used a 7-8-9 of J.C. Escarra, Pablo Reyes and Oswald Peraza, which is about as bad as it gets for a 7 through 9 in the majors. But Escarra had two of the Yankees’ five hits and their only extra-base hit, and Reyes scored the only run of the game. (Thursday ended up being the only game this season Reyes has started and completed.) You can’t predict baseball.

4. I was shocked when Reyes led off the eighth with a single against Lucas Erceg. It’s rare someone of Reyes’ ability beats someone of Erceg’s ability, but I guess anyone with a bat in their hand is truly dangerous. I figured Boone would use Judge to hit for Reyes, but he didn’t, and instead had Judge hit for Peraza after Reyes reached. Judge struck out on a 3-2 pitch clearly outside the zone to fall to 1-for-18 as a pinch hitter in his career.

5. After Judge struck out, Trent Grisham grounded out to move Reyes to second and Erceg pitched around Ben Rice to put two on with two outs. Paul Goldschmidt came up and hit a line drive to Vinnie Pasquantino at first and the ball went off Pasquantino’s outstretched glove and landed behind first. Reyes raced around third and tried to stop halfway down the line, but stumbled. When he saw Pasquantino try to make the out at first rather than throw home, Reyes then took off for home. Erceg threw home on a hop, but it wasn’t handled and Reyes slid in headfirst safely to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

“I saw Pablo stop halfway and then I was like, ‘Oh, no,” Boone said. “And then we’re still able to score, so, whew, we’ll take it.”

6. Reyes is going to be designated for assignment when Giancarlo Stanton returns, which could be as early as Friday. If Friday was the last game Reyes plays in as a Yankee, we can remember it as the Pablo Reyes Game.

“Pablo juked him out, I think,” Will Warren said. “We were all pumped … that changed the game.”

7. It did change the game because it was the only run scored in the game. Warren turned in his best start (5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) in more than three weeks, pitching around a 28-minute rain delay. Warren got out of a first-and-second-no-out jam in the second inning and pitched around a one-out triple in the fifth.

8. The Yankees own the Royals. They swept the six-game season series, outscoring them 29-11. The Yankees are 14-3 against the Royals since the start of last season. If the Royals aren’t at the top of every Yankees fans’ I Hope the Yankees Play This Team in the Postseason list, they should be.

9. Boone made a lot of odd choices in the game, but it worked out. Not pinch hitting for Reyes worked out. Using Tim Hill for the seventh and a two-righty lane was risky, but worked out. Not going back to Jonathan Loaisiga after an eight-pitch inning against the Royals 2-3-4 hitters was risky given Devin Williams being an unknown from game to game, but it worked out. He gave Judge a day off and gave Wells and LeMahieu days off and kept Chisholm out of the lineup, but it worked out. It all worked out because the Royals are an offensive disaster. It’s why the Kauffman Stadium crowd continues to give Jac Cagliannone standing ovations when he comes to bat as they hope and pray and try to will him to be an important piece of an offense that currently has three pieces at most.

10. For the second straight weekend the Yankees will play the Red Sox. I expect the pitching to be much better than this weekend than it was last weekend, for both teams that is. Ryan Yarbrough will go on Friday, Carlos Rodon on Saturday and Max Fried on Sunday, so the Red Sox will be seeing the Yankees’ best starter this weekend after missing him last week. Following the disappointment of last weekend’s series (which was made up for by sweeping the Royals), I expect the Yankees to win this series.

1. Score four runs against the Royals and you win. That’s what I wrote about after the Yankees’ Tuesday romping of the Royals, and the Yankees went out and scored four runs against the Royals on Wednesday and won again.

With the win, the Yankees are now 5-0 on the season against the Royals, and 9-3 against them dating back to last season (including the postseason). These Yankees own the Royals no matter who is pitching, whether it’s a lefty, a righty, the league leader in strikeouts per nine innings in the AL last season or the AL ERA leader this season like it was on Wednesday.

2. The Yankees were one of two teams to get to Kris Bubic for three or more earned runs this season entering Wednesday when he took the mound with his sparkling, best-in-majors 1.43 ERA.

“Came out feeling pretty hot,” Bubic said, “feeling pretty good in the first inning.”

Bubic retired the side with 10 pitches in the first, striking out Paul Goldschmidt and Aaron Judge. And then the Yankees ended the game in the second.

3. Cody Bellinger led off the second with his third triple of the season. Jazz Chisholm followed with an eight-pitch walk. That walk was the most important plate appearance of the inning. Chisholm struggles mightily against lefties and when he fell behind 1-2 it seemed like he would strand Bellinger at third. If Chisholm makes an out there, that leaves Bellinger on third and the Royals bring the infield in for Anthony Volpe. Instead of Volpe’s groundout scoring Bellinger with the Royals playing at double play depth, Bellinger is still at third with two outs. Then Trent Grisham grounds out to end the inning and the Yankees don’t score.

4. But that didn’t happen because of Chisholm’s walk. The walk put runners on first and third with no outs and the Royals kept their middle infielders back for a double play. Volpe’s groundout scored Bellinger and Volpe was able to beat the throw to first to prevent the double play. Grisham grounded out for the second out, advancing Volpe to second. DJ LeMahieu drew a four-pitch walk and Austin Wells came up with yet another big hit against a lefty, doubling to center field to score Volpe. Paul Goldschmidt singled in LeMahieu and Wells and Ben Rice singled in Goldschmidt (after Goldschmidt went to second on the Royals’ throw home to try to get Wells). Four of the Yankees’ five runs came with two outs.

5. The game was over at that point because when you score four runs against the Royals, you win. Clarke Schmidt made sure that trend continued with six scoreless innings (6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K).

“I thought he looked really good,” Bellinger said of Schmidt. “I was just kind of out there in the outfield just hanging out. He was pounding the zone, getting a lot of swings-and-misses, and it was good to play behind him.”

Schmidt has made 10 starts this season. Five have been good, three have been OK and two have been bad.

“I think every time I go out there, I’m getting stronger and stronger as far as pitch mice [goes] and more confident in who I am as a pitcher,” Schmidt said. “It’s a constant tinkering process and figuring out who you are. I think we’re going a good job of that.”

6. Brent Headrick and Fernando Cruz combined to throw a scoreless seventh and eighth. Mark Leiter Jr. had his worst outing of the season in the ninth with a six-run lead to close out and was only able to get one out before Devin Williams came in to get the final two.

7. Chisholm left the game early with a groin issue, which isn’t good. He missed a month because of a swing, was taken out early of the game on Tuesday with a neck issue and had to be removed on Wednesday because of a groin issue. Hopefully the strength and conditioning geniuses employed by the team can figure it out because these aren’t freak injuries like getting hit by a pitch or getting hurt sliding into second on a steal.

8. Volpe picked up his 20th double of the season. He had 23 doubles in 601 plate appearances in 2023 and 27 doubles in 689 plate appearances last season. He now has 20 doubles in 266 plate appearances this season. His OPS is at .776 and he’s hitting 16 percent better than league average. He still strikes out too much, isn’t stealing enough and is prone to extended slumps, but he is trending in the right direction offensively after not really improving from 2023 to 2024.

9. LeMahieu reached base twice (walk and single). His slash line is up to .279/.372/.397. He’s as close to the old version of himself as possible at this point I would think, considering he’s going to turn 37 next month. With each day he continues to hit like he has, it becomes less likely the Yankees will make a move for an infielder at the deadline (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing unless LeMahieu gets hurt after the deadline).

10. The game plan remains the same in the series finale on Thursday as it was on Tuesday and Wednesday: score four runs. Score four runs and win. The Yankees will face Seth Lugo and the last time they faced him in April they scored four runs against him … and won.

Will Warren will get the ball for the Yankees. In his last start against the Red Sox last Friday, he held them to one run through five innings before coming undone in the sixth and allowing three more. The start prior to that was the disaster against the Dodgers. The start prior to that one was his rain-shortened outing in Colorado that started off rocky. Warren hasn’t had a good outing start to finish since he shut out the Rangers for five innings more than three weeks ago. We’re back to not knowing what to expect when Warren starts. But as long as the Yankees score at least four runs, that will be enough in the last regular-season finale with the Royals.

1. After the Yankees’ disappointing home series loss to the Red Sox over the weekend, I was fearful their sloppy play may linger and travel with them to Kansas City. But I forgot how badly these Yankees own the Royals. In 2024, the Yankees went 8-3 against the Royals in the regular season and postseason. After Tuesday’s 10-2 thumping, the Yankees are now 4-0 against them this season.

2. Before Max Fried threw a pitch on Tuesday he had a two-run lead to work with after Aaron Judge crushed a 469-foot home run in the top of the first.

“I’ve never seen a ball come closer to being up there,” Austin Wells said.

“He’s playing in a different league,” Aaron Boone said.”

3. Fried didn’t need much (7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HR), but the offense put up 10 for him. Ten runs on 16 hits and three walks. After winning a pair of one-run games and a three-run game against the Royals in April, the Yankees blew them out this time. Since the start of last season the Yankees seem to always do enough to beat them. Whether it’s winning close games like in the postseason or in April or hitting a big multi-run home run when needed like they did on Tuesday, the Yankees come through against the Royals.

4. The big blast in the game came in the fourth inning. With the Yankees holding a 2-1 lead, Wells took the left-handed Noah Cameron deep. It was Wells’ second three-home run off of a lefty in as many games for him after he took Garrett Crochet deep on Saturday.

“He’s just been really productive,” Boone said. “He’s really good in the bigger the spot.”

Wells’ OPS is up to .770, thanks specifically to his power as his on-base percentage sits at .294. Last year, he was forced to hit cleanup behind Judge because of the Yankees’ lack of lineup depth. He batted ninth on Tuesday. A No. 9 hitter with a 113 OPS+ in 2025 is as rare as a Yankees’ road extra-inning win.

5. Every Yankees starter had a hit in the game, including DJ LeMahieu with two. The Yankees have to decide what to do with their infield between now and the trade deadline in less than six weeks and LeMahieu’s resurgence is complicating the expected plans.

The Yankees certainly want LeMahieu to be the answer. They’re paying him $15 million to be the answer (even if they paid him for six years thinking they would get above average production for at least 2021 through 2023 and then deal with 2024 through 2026). LeMahieu being the answer saves them from having to trade from their system to acquire another infielder and/or prevents Hal Steinbrenner from having to pay a tax on any infielder acquired.

6. If LeMahieu continues to hit the way he has so far at .277/.365/.400, he will be the answer. LeMahieu has been 16 percent better than league average in 21 games and 74 plate appearances this season. If he were to continue to hit 16 percent better than league average, it would be his best offensive season in five years (since the 2020 shortened season). If he were to continue to hit like this, everyone who plays for, works for and roots for the Yankees would be ecstatic.

7. My biggest fear isn’t that LeMahieu continues to do well and the Yankees then don’t address adding an infielder at the deadline. My biggest fear is that those things happen and LeMahieu gets hurt post-deadline and the Yankees are stuck with Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas playing every day or holding out hope for a miracle return by Oswaldo Cabrera.

LeMahieu missed the 2021 wild-card game due to injury. He missed the entire 2022 postseason because of his injury. He missed the entire 2024 postseason because of injury. In three of the last four years, LeMahieu has been shut down before the season ended because of injury and he missed the first month of this season because of injury. Every day LeMahieu plays and plays well at this point is a luxury and he can’t be trusted to stay healthy for however long the Yankees’ 2025 season goes.

I want LeMahieu to play well and be the answer. I’m just worried he will do enough that the Yankees won’t bring another player in and then he will get hurt.

8. Before Wells broke open the game, the Yankees were a clinging to a one-run lead after the Royals AL Central’d their way to a run in the second. Fried allowed an infield to Vinnie Pasquantino and then a bloop single (which should have been caught) to Salvador Perez. A ground ball from Mark Canha for a double play was bobbled by LeMahieu to only get the runner at second, allowing Pasquantino to go to third. Pasquantino then scored on a groundout. It was the pesky, infield-singles-and-bloop offense the AL Central loves.

9. The Royals want to play low-scoring games because it’s the only type of game they can win. Once Wells homered, the game was over. Get four runs against the Royals and you win. The Royals are 3-14 this season when the opposition scores four or more runs. Those three wins were against the Rockies (who will go down as the worst team in baseball history), the last-place Orioles and then the Astros.

10. I don’t expect the Yankees to put up 10 again on Wednesday with Kris Bubic starting for the Royals. Bubic has a 1.43 ERA in 12 starts. He has allowed no earned runs in six starts, one earned run in three starts and two earned runs in one start. In the other two starts he allowed three earned runs and four earned runs. That start with three earned runs allowed was against the Yankees on April 16 (5.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 6 K). The Yankees got to him in that start with an Anthony Volpe two-run double and a Cody Bellinger RBI double. Judge added a solo home run in the seventh off of John Schreiber and the Yankees won 4-3.

It will be the same matchup on Tuesday as that game with Clarke Schmidt going against Bubic and hopefully the same result. Score four runs and win.