The Yankees are three games under .500 and in last place. Their manager thinks they will turn the season around.
The Yankees are three games under .500. They are in last place. They have lost seven straight games. They have won one series since June 25. Somehow, their manager thinks they will turn the season around.
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The Yankees have lost five straight. They haven’t won a series against a team other than the A’s or Royals in two months. Their postseason odds are down to 2.3 percent. Here are 10 thoughts
The Yankees have lost five straight. They haven’t won a series against a team other than the A’s or Royals in two months. Their postseason odds are down to 2.3 percent.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
1. After Tuesday’s loss to the Braves, Aaron Judge said what everyone outside of the Yankees knows. “We’re not showing up,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down.”
It wasn’t a great look for Judge’s manager, who spent the previous two nights telling everyone how his team is “scuffling their asses off” and “playing hard” and “preparing the right way” and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Aaron Boone is part Pollyanna to accept his team is showing up, part delusional to think they are playing hard, and part liar to tell everyone he thinks they are doing both things. And yet, there was the star of the team, the franchise player and captain disagreeing with everything Boone has been saying for days.
2. Boone was asked about Judge’s comments and tried to spin, twist and mold them into something other than what they were, which is an indictment on the entire roster and organization. Boone said Judge didn’t mean what everyone thinks he meant, which is exactly what he meant: that the Yankees have given up.
A night later, after the Yankees were shut out for the second straight game, Judge had changed his tune. Changed it to a karaoke tune of his manager. Judge was no longer calling out his teammates, instead he did a perfect impression of his manager. “It’s right in front of us,” Judge told the media after the Yankees lost their fifth straight game and fell under .500.
3. There’s nothing in front of the Yankees. They no longer control their own destiny. The Blue Jays hold the third wild card. The Blue Jays are 6 1/2 games up on the Yankees. The Yankees have six games left with the Blue Jays. If the Yankees were to sweep the six games from the Blue Jays, they still wouldn’t overcome the deficit. The season is in front of the Blue Jays. It’s not in front of the Yankees. They need to help themselves and then they need outside help.
Twice this week Boone talked about how there is a quarter of the season left. He mentioned the history of baseball being “littered” with teams that went on “unlikely runs” to reach the postseason. He referenced the 2019 Nationals, the 2021 Braves and the 2022 Phillies. He said Suzyn Waldman told him about the 1995 Yankees. He didn’t reference the hundreds of teams that were just as disappointing and bad as the Yankees that never turned it around.
4. Let’s act as though Boone isn’t a crazy, desperate man who has a little more than six weeks left in his current job and is spewing nightly bullshit to the media worse than he ever has. Let’s take the Yankees’ current 2.3 percent odds of reaching the postseason and join Boone in thinking having a 2.3 percent chance of reaching the postseason is just some minor adversity that a team that has been under .500 for 213 games can overcome. Let’s try to map out a way for the Yankees to reach the postseason.
The Yankees trail the Blue Jays by 6 1/2 games, and in between them are the Mariners (6 games back of) and Red Sox (3 games back of). Let’s remove the Mariners from the equation and standings for now.
The Yankees have six games remaining with the Blue Jays and seven with the Red Sox. Realistically, the best you could hope for is the Yankees to go 4-2 against the Blue Jays and 5-2 against the Red Sox.
Yes, winning five of seven against the Red Sox will be difficult, but it seems like every season no matter how good or bad one of the teams in the rivalry is, they always end up one or two games apart in the season series. The Red Sox depressingly lead the season series 5-1. If the Yankees go 5-2, they will finish 6-7 against the Red Sox. They would lose the season series, and therefore would need to finish at least one game ahead of them in the standings to avoid the tiebreaker.
5. Here are the Yankees’ remaining other games: Nationals (3), Rays (3), Tigers (7), Astros (3), Brewers (3), Pirates (3), Diamondbacks (3) and Royals (3).
For the sake of this exercise, we are going to need to pretend the Yankees can win series against teams other than the A’s or Royals, something they haven’t done since June 25. We are also going to need to pretend the Yankees can beat bad teams, even though they themselves are a bad team.
The Nationals (3), Tigers (7), Pirates (3) and Royals (3) are all bad teams. That’s 16 games against bad teams. Simply winning each series isn’t going to cut it. The Yankees are going to need to win at least 12 of the 16 games against these teams. They are going to need to clean up here. It’s their only chance.
That leaves games against the Rays (3), Astros (3), Brewers (3) and Diamondbacks (3). The Yankees are going to have to find a way to win two-thirds of these 12 games and go 8-4. This is the most unrealistic part of this exercise, even though the entire exercise is unrealistic. The Rays, Astros and Brewers are all in the postseason currently and trying to hold or better their position. The Diamondbacks are a game out of the last wild card in the NL. All four of these teams will be going all out in September to solidify their place in October.
The Yankees are 60-61. Add in the 9-4 record against the Red Sox and Blue Jays, and they are 69-65. Add in the 12-4 against their fellow bad teams, and they are 81-69. Add in the improbable 8-4 against the remaining schedule, and they are 89-73. Are 89 wins enough to get in?
6. The Blue Jays would be 69-59 if they went 2-4 against the Yankees. The Yankees could tie the Blue Jays with wins since they would hold the season series advantage. The Yankees would need the Blue Jays to go at best 20-14, as that would give the Blue Jays 89 wins but give the Yankees the tiebreaker.
The Red Sox would be 65-63 if they went 2-5 against the Yankees. The Yankees can’t tie the Red Sox since they would have lost the season series, so they need the Red Sox to finish with 88 wins. The Yankees would need the Red Sox to go at best 23-11, as that would give the Red Sox 88 wins, and they would finish one game behind the Yankees.
Then there’s the Mariners.
The Mariners are 66-55 and six up on the Yankees. The Yankees won the season series (4-2) against the Mariners, so they can finish with the same record. The Mariners have to go 23-18 to finish with 89 wins. The Mariners have won 11 of 14, and after they play three against the Astros this weekend, they play nine straight against the White Sox, Royals and A’s. They also have three games against the A’s in September.
7. To recap:
The Yankees need to go 4-2 against the Blue Jays.
The Yankees need to go 5-2 against the Red Sox.
The Yankees need to go 20-8 in all other games.
The Blue Jays need to win no more than 20 games against other teams.
The Red Sox need to win no more than 23 games against other teams.
The Mariners need to win no more than 23 games.
That’s a lot that needs to happen. The Yankees need to play .707 baseball for six weeks, they need to beat up on the Blue Jays and the Red Sox, and have those two teams cooperate when they aren’t playing the Yankees, and then they need to the Mariners to play no better than .561 baseball for the rest of their season. And now you know why the Yankees’ playoff odds are down to 2.3 percent.
8. But they’re not 0 percent, and that’s what Boone, Judge and the Yankees want you to remember. It’s why Tommy Kahnle wrote “BELIEVE” on a piece of paper and hung it above his locker. As ridiculous as it is for the Yankees to start winning like the 1998 team they are celebrating next month at Yankee Stadium, and as absurd as it is to think the Blue Jays, Mariners and Red Sox will all do just enough to not beat out the Yankees (and even the Angels who I left out, but are just one game behind the Yankees), there’s still a chance, no matter how small it is, and the Yankees as an organization are clinging to idea they can be the team a team in a future disappointing will reference when talking about trying to reach the playoffs.
9. It would be very on-brand for the Yankees to go on a historical run, have all the needed elements to reach the postseason fall their way and get into the playoffs only to get embarrassed at some point by the Astros and then run it back in 2024 with the same general manager, manager, coaching staff and roster. It’s my biggest fear, that the Yankees as currently constructed on the field, in the dugout and in the front office will be the Yankees eight months from now. And if the Yankees miraculously do reach the playoffs only to get run out of the tournament, the 2023 Yankees will be the 2024 Yankees because they will have accomplished their goal: make the playoffs.
10. That is the Yankees’ goal: make the playoffs. Whether it’s as the 1-seed with the best record in the league and holding home-field advantage throughout or as the third wild card that clinched in the final at-bat of the final day of the season. Be in the Top 40 percent of the league is what the Yankees strive for, not to be the Top 1 in the league. Again, it’s in every Yankees fan’s best interest that they don’t reach that goal, and that the degrading series in Atlanta carries into this weekend against the Red Sox. Bottoming out is the only way change can happen (even if bottoming out doesn’t promise doesn’t guarantee change).
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The Yankees followed up their eight-run loss to the Braves by getting one-hit and shut out.
The Yankees followed up their eight-run loss to the Braves by getting one-hit and shut out.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
1. Aaron Boone and his coaching staff showed up in full uniform to Tuesday night’s game against the Braves. Maybe it was the last possibility on their list of superstitions to turn the season around. I have to think it was Boone knowing he has less than seven weeks to wear a Yankees uniform. Whatever his reason, it didn’t work. The Yankees were one-hit and shut out in a 5-0 loss.
“It’s not fun getting beat up, especially when you wear this uniform,” Boone said after the loss.
Boone showed off the number 17 on his back that the Yankees hope Shohei Ohtani is wearing in 2024, but that would entail persuading Ohtani to give up playing on the West Coast and somehow getting him to choose the Yankees over a contender, or even a team with a hint of promise in their future. The Yankees don’t boast any of those things. Instead, they boast a .500 record this late in the season for the first time in 28 years.
2. It didn’t matter that Luis Severino was allowed to start against the best offense baseball. Not just because the Yankees are playing meaningless games at this point, even if they are trying to lead you to believe they aren’t meaningless, but because the offense provided nothing. One hit and no runs in nine innings. The game could still be going on at this moment and the Yankees still wouldn’t have scored.
“Not good enough,” Boone said about the offense he has spent the last three calendar years saying would “get it rolling.”
But Severino did start, and he wasn’t good. Sure, he struck out five in four innings and was finally getting swings and misses. He also allowed put eight runners on base in those four innings, gave up five runs and two home runs.
“I thought he threw the ball well,” Boone said. “Again, a lot of swing-and-miss. It was as good of stuff as I’ve seen.”
3. When it looked like Severino might pitch a scoreless first inning, he allowed a three-run home run. When it looked look like he might finish strong with a string of scoreless innings after the three-run first, he gave up a two-run home run in the fourth.
“He had stuff tonight,” Boone said. “You could tell he was having his way a lot of the night which was good to see.”
Let’s ask Marcell Ozuna and Ronald Acuna about Severino “having his way” with the Braves lineup.
“I think that was a much better Sevy than we’ve seen,” Boone said, saying “we” should be happy with five runs in four innings, which translate to a 7.20 ERA.
Again, it didn’t matter. Severino could have given up one run or the five he gave up or 55. DJ LeMahieu’s one-out single second was the only hit. The Yankees went 1-for-24 with five walks. They had one runner get past first base. After allowing 10 runs in his last two starts and 9 1/3 innings, Braves starter Bryce Elder pitched seven scoreless innings.
3. On top of the Yankees’ latest putrid offensive performance, they hit into four double plays. The Yankees have now hit into a league-leading 58 double plays since June 1, which is the most in the majors. If you recall, on June 4, 2021 after a loss to the Red Sox, Boone said, “Typically, the better teams are going to hit into double plays.” If that’s true, the Yankees are just ones of the “better” teams since June 1 of this season, they are the best team! (They are actually 26-36 since June 1. I can’t believe leading the league in double plays for two-and-a-half months hasn’t translated to more wins.)
Gleyber Torres hit into two double plays on Tuesday and has hit into six in his last six games, which is the most double plays grounded into in a six-game span in Yankees history. (Congratulations on making history, Gleyber!) Harrison Bader hit into one, and like a well-written script, Aaron Judge banged into one to end the sad night.
4. I think “sad” is a perfect way to describe the Yankees at this point. It’s not like they’re being embarrassed because they have suffered many losses like the ones on Tuesday, or Monday, or Sunday. It’s the norm for this team, so it’s hard to say they are being embarrassed or humiliated anymore. No one says the A’s or Royals or Rockies or White Sox get embarrassed or humiliated when they lose. Those teams all suck, and losing is what they do. Well, the Yankees also suck, and losing is what they do as well.
5. The Yankees are 1-9-3 in their last 13 series dating back to June. (That one series win came over the Royals.) They are 8-1 against the A’s and Royals and 52-59 against everyone else. They are 104-108 in their last 212 games. They are 20-26 since Hal Steinbrenner said he was confused why fans are upset this season. They are 11-18 since they fired their hitting coach. Anyway you break it down, they are a bad baseball team on their way to a last-place finish and ending the organization’s 30-year winning streak. Yes, they suck, and are a sad collection of overpaid, underachieving losers managed by the biggest loser of all.
“It sucks,” Boone said about falling to .500. “We’re simply just not playing well enough. It starts with me and on down. It’s a broken record, right?”
It’s hard to argue the Yankees haven’t given up. Their play certainly suggests they have. (Has anyone checked in on Bader since his August 6 comment of “No concern” about the Yankees’ place in the standings?)
6. The only player on the Yankees’ roster who has ever won anything is Anthony Rizzo, which is likely why he can be seen on camera nightly cracking up in the dugout as if he’s watching a Sebastian Maniscalco comedy special on one of the scouting iPads. Rizzo could care less that the Yankees have become a laughingstock and that the fan base is rightfully angry and distraught. He ended the Cubs’ curse. He’s a Chicago hero. He has a ring. He doesn’t need one with the Yankees, and he doesn’t need to do anything with the Yankees other than collect a paycheck.
Rizzo’s carefree attitude seems to be contagious. Throughout the season, he has been seen having the time of his life during losses with different players. On Monday, he had Judge and Giancarlo Stanton all but slapping their knees on the top step with the Yankees trailing by eight runs. Earlier this summer, he nearly had Anthony Volpe in tears while the Yankees were enduring one of their countless series losses. In the dugout, the Yankees are having the kind of fun you have during the last hour of a wedding reception, while on the field, they are a disgrace.
7. “There’s a lot of season left,” Boone said on a night the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Rangers, Astros and Mariners all won and the Yankees’ playoff odds fell to 2.9 percent. “There’s a quarter of the season left and we gotta do better than this.”
A QUARTER OF THE SEASON?! How are Yankees fans supposed to be subjected to this type of play 42 more times?!
“Forget October,” Boone said. “Forget September.”
I wish I could forget September when the Yankees are playing mathematically eliminated games. I wish I didn’t have to sit through October with 12 teams not named the Yankees playing for a championship. Unfortunately, I can’t just forget about two months on the calendar.
8. “Like that’s not the focus,” Boone said of September and October. “And it never is, frankly, when you’re in the driver’s seat.”
First, the Yankees were “championship-caliber.” Then, they were “going to get it rolling.” Then the season was still “in front of them.” Now, they’re just forgetting about September and October. What’s next? Forgetting about July and August? Creating a new calendar that only includes months and days chosen by the Yankees?
9. “We’re scuffling our asses off,” Boone said. “We need to do better and we need to take some personal pride.”
If the Yankees are truly “scuffling their asses off” which was said following a one-hit, no-run performance, well that’s a serious problem. I really hope they just gave up and aren’t actually trying their hardest. As for pride, well, I think that concept was lost on these players and in the clubhouse a long time ago. Long before this season.
10. “So the message continues to be, ‘Make sure we’re competing our asses off,’” Boone said, “and I believe that is happening.”
It’s time for a new message. It’s been time for a new message for a long time. Next season, there will be a new message from a new manager. (And again, if there isn’t, my time as a Yankees fan will come to an end, and I can spend the thousands of hours in 2024 dedicated to this team doing anything else.)
With each sloppy, depressingly played game the Yankees are one day closer to ending this miserable season. A season that looks like it was pulled from the Stump Merrill years. At least Merrill had the excuse of managing a roster that was never going to win and was never expected to win.
Maybe on Wednesday night, Boone and his coaching staff will add wearing high socks to their full-uniform attire. I’m sure that will jumpstart the season.
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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers
is available as an ebook!
The Yankees followed up their eight-run loss to the Braves by getting one-hit and shut out.
The Yankees followed up their eight-run loss to the Braves by getting one-hit and shut out.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
1. Aaron Boone and his coaching staff showed up in full uniform to Tuesday night’s game against the Braves. Maybe it was the last possibility on their list of superstitions to turn the season around. I have to think it was Boone knowing he has less than seven weeks to wear a Yankees uniform. Whatever his reason, it didn’t work. The Yankees were one-hit and shut out in a 5-0 loss.
“It’s not fun getting beat up, especially when you wear this uniform,” Boone said after the loss.
Boone showed off the number 17 on his back that the Yankees hope Shohei Ohtani is wearing in 2024, but that would entail persuading Ohtani to give up playing on the West Coast and somehow getting him to choose the Yankees over a contender, or even a team with a hint of promise in their future. The Yankees don’t boast any of those things. Instead, they boast a .500 record this late in the season for the first time in 28 years.
2. It didn’t matter that Luis Severino was allowed to start against the best offense baseball. Not just because the Yankees are playing meaningless games at this point, even if they are trying to lead you to believe they aren’t meaningless, but because the offense provided nothing. One hit and no runs in nine innings. The game could still be going on at this moment and the Yankees still wouldn’t have scored.
“Not good enough,” Boone said about the offense he has spent the last three calendar years saying would “get it rolling.”
But Severino did start, and he wasn’t good. Sure, he struck out five in four innings and was finally getting swings and misses. He also allowed put eight runners on base in those four innings, gave up five runs and two home runs.
“I thought he threw the ball well,” Boone said. “Again, a lot of swing-and-miss. It was as good of stuff as I’ve seen.”
3. When it looked like Severino might pitch a scoreless first inning, he allowed a three-run home run. When it looked look like he might finish strong with a string of scoreless innings after the three-run first, he gave up a two-run home run in the fourth.
“He had stuff tonight,” Boone said. “You could tell he was having his way a lot of the night which was good to see.”
Let’s ask Marcell Ozuna and Ronald Acuna about Severino “having his way” with the Braves lineup.
“I think that was a much better Sevy than we’ve seen,” Boone said, saying “we” should be happy with five runs in four innings, which translate to a 7.20 ERA.
Again, it didn’t matter. Severino could have given up one run or the five he gave up or 55. DJ LeMahieu’s one-out single second was the only hit. The Yankees went 1-for-24 with five walks. They had one runner get past first base. After allowing 10 runs in his last two starts and 9 1/3 innings, Braves starter Bryce Elder pitched seven scoreless innings.
3. On top of the Yankees’ latest putrid offensive performance, they hit into four double plays. The Yankees have now hit into a league-leading 58 double plays since June 1, which is the most in the majors. If you recall, on June 4, 2021 after a loss to the Red Sox, Boone said, “Typically, the better teams are going to hit into double plays.” If that’s true, the Yankees are just ones of the “better” teams since June 1 of this season, they are the best team! (They are actually 26-36 since June 1. I can’t believe leading the league in double plays for two-and-a-half months hasn’t translated to more wins.)
Gleyber Torres hit into two double plays on Tuesday and has hit into six in his last six games, which is the most double plays grounded into in a six-game span in Yankees history. (Congratulations on making history, Gleyber!) Harrison Bader hit into one, and like a well-written script, Aaron Judge banged into one to end the sad night.
4. I think “sad” is a perfect way to describe the Yankees at this point. It’s not like they’re being embarrassed because they have suffered many losses like the ones on Tuesday, or Monday, or Sunday. It’s the norm for this team, so it’s hard to say they are being embarrassed or humiliated anymore. No one says the A’s or Royals or Rockies or White Sox get embarrassed or humiliated when they lose. Those teams all suck, and losing is what they do. Well, the Yankees also suck, and losing is what they do as well.
5. The Yankees are 1-9-3 in their last 13 series dating back to June. (That one series win came over the Royals.) They are 8-1 against the A’s and Royals and 52-59 against everyone else. They are 104-108 in their last 212 games. They are 20-26 since Hal Steinbrenner said he was confused why fans are upset this season. They are 11-18 since they fired their hitting coach. Anyway you break it down, they are a bad baseball team on their way to a last-place finish and ending the organization’s 30-year winning streak. Yes, they suck, and are a sad collection of overpaid, underachieving losers managed by the biggest loser of all.
“It sucks,” Boone said about falling to .500. “We’re simply just not playing well enough. It starts with me and on down. It’s a broken record, right?”
It’s hard to argue the Yankees haven’t given up. Their play certainly suggests they have. (Has anyone checked in on Bader since his August 6 comment of “No concern” about the Yankees’ place in the standings?)
6. The only player on the Yankees’ roster who has ever won anything is Anthony Rizzo, which is likely why he can be seen on camera nightly cracking up in the dugout as if he’s watching a Sebastian Maniscalco comedy special on one of the scouting iPads. Rizzo could care less that the Yankees have become a laughingstock and that the fan base is rightfully angry and distraught. He ended the Cubs’ curse. He’s a Chicago hero. He has a ring. He doesn’t need one with the Yankees, and he doesn’t need to do anything with the Yankees other than collect a paycheck.
Rizzo’s carefree attitude seems to be contagious. Throughout the season, he has been seen having the time of his life during losses with different players. On Monday, he had Judge and Giancarlo Stanton all but slapping their knees on the top step with the Yankees trailing by eight runs. Earlier this summer, he nearly had Anthony Volpe in tears while the Yankees were enduring one of their countless series losses. In the dugout, the Yankees are having the kind of fun you have during the last hour of a wedding reception, while on the field, they are a disgrace.
7. “There’s a lot of season left,” Boone said on a night the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Rangers, Astros and Mariners all won and the Yankees’ playoff odds fell to 2.9 percent. “There’s a quarter of the season left and we gotta do better than this.”
A QUARTER OF THE SEASON?! How are Yankees fans supposed to be subjected to this type of play 42 more times?!
“Forget October,” Boone said. “Forget September.”
I wish I could forget September when the Yankees are playing mathematically eliminated games. I wish I didn’t have to sit through October with 12 teams not named the Yankees playing for a championship. Unfortunately, I can’t just forget about two months on the calendar.
8. “Like that’s not the focus,” Boone said of September and October. “And it never is, frankly, when you’re in the driver’s seat.”
First, the Yankees were “championship-caliber.” Then, they were “going to get it rolling.” Then the season was still “in front of them.” Now, they’re just forgetting about September and October. What’s next? Forgetting about July and August? Creating a new calendar that only includes months and days chosen by the Yankees?
9. “We’re scuffling our asses off,” Boone said. “We need to do better and we need to take some personal pride.”
If the Yankees are truly “scuffling their asses off” which was said following a one-hit, no-run performance, well that’s a serious problem. I really hope they just gave up and aren’t actually trying their hardest. As for pride, well, I think that concept was lost on these players and in the clubhouse a long time ago. Long before this season.
10. “So the message continues to be, ‘Make sure we’re competing our asses off,’” Boone said, “and I believe that is happening.”
It’s time for a new message. It’s been time for a new message for a long time. Next season, there will be a new message from a new manager. (And again, if there isn’t, my time as a Yankees fan will come to an end, and I can spend the thousands of hours in 2024 dedicated to this team doing anything else.)
With each sloppy, depressingly played game the Yankees are one day closer to ending this miserable season. A season that looks like it was pulled from the Stump Merrill years. At least Merrill had the excuse of managing a roster that was never going to win and was never expected to win.
Maybe on Wednesday night, Boone and his coaching staff will add wearing high socks to their full-uniform attire. I’m sure that will jumpstart the season.
Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast.
My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers
is available as an ebook!
The Yankees played the best team in baseball and never had a chance. The Braves gave the Yankees their straight loss with an 11-3 in Atlanta.
The Yankees played the best team in baseball and never had a chance. The Braves gave the Yankees their third straight loss with an 11-3 in Atlanta.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
1. On Monday, coming off the worst loss of the season, with the Yankees’ postseason odds down to 6.1 percent and a three-game series on tap against the best team in baseball, I wrote:
It would be in Yankees fans’ best interest for the team they root for to get humiliated between now and Sunday. Root for them to get their asses kicked in Atlanta over the next three nights (which shouldn’t be hard) and then have the Red Sox come into their building and embarrass them over the weekend (which happens so often it should be expected).
The plan is off to a good start as the Yankees were thoroughly humiliated in Atlanta with an 11-3 ass-kicking from the Braves. The Yankees jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, gave that run right back in the bottom of the first, took the lead back with a run in the top of the second, and then gave it away for good in the bottom of the second. The Braves scored three in the second, four in the third, one in the sixth and two more in the eighth. The Yankees added a meaningless run in the ninth.
2. Clarke Schmidt produced the worst start of his career in a return to his home. Schmidt has been the Yankees’ second-best starter for months, but on Monday, he pitched like Luis Severino: 2.1 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HR. Schmidt couldn’t get through three innings before being relieved by Ian Hamilton (who pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings) before Albert Abreu came in to let the Braves pad their league-leading offensive stats a little more, as the always awful Abreu put seven baserunners on in three innings and allowed three runs.
3. It was the bottom of the Braves’ order that degraded the Yankees. Eddie Rosario went 3-for-5 with four RBIs and Nicky Lopez went 3-for-4 with three RBIs. The Braves stunned everyone when they traded for Lopez at the deadline. Acquiring a career .250/.312/.321 (.653 OPS) with a career 74 OPS+ was puzzling, but in three games with the Braves, Lopez has a 2.000 OPS, five RBIs and hit a home run after hitting five in his previous 563 career plate appearances.
Everything the Braves touch turns to gold. Two years ago at the deadline, they traded for Rosario, Jorge Soler and Joc Pederson, and that trio helped lead them to a championship. On top of their Midas touch, they are also incredibly smart. Their entire core is locked up long term. They gave Ronald Acuna, Matt Olson and Michael Harris eight-year deals. Ozzie Albies got seven years. Six years for Sean Murphy and Spencer Strider and 10 years for Austin Riley. All seven of those players are under 30 years old, and Harris, Acuna, Albies, Riley and Strider are all under 27. Not only is their core locked up, but their core plays. The Braves have played 118 games in 2023. Acuna, Albies, Olson and Riley have played in 117 of them.
4. As a Yankees fan, I’m jealous of the Braves and their fans. They are what the Yankees were once upon a time. A perfect mix of homegrown talent, acquired talent and free-agent talent. The Yankees could have had Olson or Murphy, like the Braves have. They opted for Anthony Rizzo and the combination of Jose Trevino and Kyle Higashioka. The Yankees could have locked up Aaron Judge or Gleyber Torres before they ever hit free agency, but instead they now have to pay Judge until he’s 40 and are likely to trade Torres before next season or lose him for nothing after next season.
5. Watching the Braves treat the Yankees the way the Yankees treat the A’s or Royals had me thinking about Aaron Boone’s quote following the Yankees’ 2021 wild-card loss when he famously said, “The league has closed the gap on the Yankees.” The Yankees never had a gap on the league in Boone’s tenure as manager and once he’s relieved of his duties in seven weeks, he will leave the Yankees with the team separated by a Grand Canyon-like gap from the Braves.
6. “They have a lineup that’s really, really rugged and balanced,” Boone said after game in what seemed like a direct shot as his general manager. “A little peek into what you’re trying to get to.”
Like the Astros, the Braves are awesome. Two teams that seem to push every right button, extend their young talent, smartly acquire the right talent and then go to what Brian Cashman calls the marketplace to fill any holes still left. They are the anti-Yankees, who develop one to two position players each decade, acquire busts and bums through trades and overpay in free agency to make up for their development and front office shortcomings. Cashman goes to the marketplace trying to build an entire roster, a strategy that isn’t possible in today’s game.
7. The Braves are managed by a 67-year-old who has been part of the Braves organization since 1980 and started out as a coach and minor-league manager. The Astros are managed by a 74-year-old who started out as a base coach and is the only manager in the history of the game to lead five different teams to the postseason. The Yankees are managed by a moron who never worked one day as a coach at any level, and is responsible for overseeing a laundry list of negative Yankees records, and could be responsible for a few more before this season ends.
8. With their losing streak now at three straight and their postseason odds down to 5.3 percent, the Yankees will send Severino back to the mound against the best team in the majors with the best offense in the majors. Severino couldn’t navigate the horrid White Sox offense and now he’s supposed to take his flat, uncommandable fastball and get outs against the Braves? I’m sure it will go well.
9. The gap the Yankees have to close on teams in their own division is growing each day, let alone the gap they will likely never close on the Astros until Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Christian Javier and others are no longer Astros. And then there’s the gap with the Braves that even if the Yankees were able to ever return to the World Series, it’s ridiculous to envision how they could win four of seven from the Braves.
10. Monday was a wake-up call for any Yankees fan who believes Hal Steinbrenner, Cashman or Boone when they call the Yankees “championship-caliber.” The game served as an infomercial for what actual “championship-caliber” teams look like. The Yankees used to be one. They haven’t been one for a while, and I’m not sure when they will be one again.
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