The Yankees used a spring training-esque lineup and a reliever with zero career ninth-inning saves to close out a game in Kansas City. It didn’t matter because Carlos Rodon was great again, and the Yankees beat the Royals 4-2.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. In Game 160 of the 2023 season, Carlos Rodon started for the Yankees against the Royals in Kansas City. He went into that game with a 5.74 ERA and .790 OPS against in 13 starts. He had missed about 60 percent of the first year of a six-year, $162 million deal, and the time he didn’t miss, he pitched horribly. In a season in which he was injured, bad and blew a kiss to heckling fans, nothing was worse than that start against the Royals.

Single
Walk
Double
Home run
Single
Single
Single
Walk

Rodon faced eight batters and retired none. The three that were on base when he exited in the bottom of the first all came around to score. He turned his back on Matt Blake during a mound visit. His final line: 0 IP, 6 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HR. His ERA ballooned to 6.85 and his WHIP to 1.446. Rodon made roughly $800,000 for a performance that any fan from the bleachers could have rivaled and any position player could have bested.

2. On Monday, Rodon took the mound in Kansas City for the first time since the worst start of his career and pitched the way someone owed $162 million over six years should pitch. Five days after taking a perfect game into the sixth inning in a win over the Twins, Rodon took a no-hitter into the fifth inning against the Royals.

“I definitely knew this game was coming,” Rodon said of his start on Monday. “It was circled on the calendar, and I wanted to show up and give my team the best chance to win after coming out of here last year with what happened and not pitching well. I definitely remembered that.”

Every Yankees fan remembers it. It was as low a point in the lowest Yankees season in 30 years. The star free-agent signing unable to record an out against a 106-loss team.

3. Rodon threw his seventh straight quality start (7 IP, 5 H 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K), picked up his league-leading ninth win and the Yankees improved to 11-3 when he takes the ball, which he has every turn through the rotation this year.

“I thought he threw the ball really well,” Aaron Boone said. “He made some big pitches the couple of times when they did pressure him there a little bit.”

4. It was a wildly managed game for Boone from the moment the lineup was posted right through the final out. Boone started the day by sitting Aaron Judge — the hottest hitter in baseball —despite his 20 home runs in the last 40 games.

“I never like him out of the lineup, of course,” Boone said, “but I feel like he needs a day.”

That’s a very ominous “I feel like he needs a day” from Boone. Is Judge hurt? Did Judge say he needs a day? Did Boone and training staff notice something? Unfortunately, these are the questions all Yankees fans are left to wonder whenever someone is held out of the lineup because of the lack of transparency with injuries in the six-plus seasons with Boone as manager.

5. “I had been marking this one down,” Boone said. “He had played every day and this time of the year … it’s important to get off.”

Either Judge is banged up or hurt, or when the schedule came out, Boone saw a Sunday Night Baseball game against the Dodgers followed by a night game in Kansas City and was going to sit Judge in it no matter what. Whether he hit four home runs the previous day or if he has been the hardest out in baseball over the last six weeks (which he has been), he was going to sit. (We’ll know on Tuesday afternoon if it was really just a day off or something more if Judge is held out again.)

6. Holding Judge out wasn’t the only oddity of the lineup. Giancarlo Stanton had to sit to get Juan Soto back in the lineup as the designated hitter since apparently it’s another season in which Stanton can’t play the field, and Anthony Rizzo was benched for a second straight game as he’s 1-for-June at the plate. (Boone said Rizzo’s absence with last “a couple of days.”) Gleyber Torres and his .640 OPS was promoted to third in the lineup and singles-only hitter DJ LeMahieu to fifth. Trent Grisham started again and batted sixth and Jahmai Jones got his first start in over a month. Jose Trevino and Oswaldo Cabrera rounded out the lineup at eight and nine.

Going against one of the season’s best starters in Seth Lugo with that lineup seemed like a bad idea, but Lugo had troubled locating his eight different pitches in the first inning and the Yankees jumped all over him for a pair of runs. They did the same in the fourth to extend their lead to 4-0.

7. The wildness continued once Rodon came out after the seventh. Boone went to the shaky Ian Hamilton for the eighth and Hamilton tried his hardest to blow a three-run lead, but only ended up allowing a run. Clinging to a two-run lead for the ninth and with Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver unavailable, and Boone trying his hardest to stay away from Tommy Kahnle, Michael Tonkin was called on to close out the game.

Tonkin went from the Mets to the Twins back to the Mets to the Yankees this season. In his first day as a Yankee he was asked to close out an extra-inning lead in Milwaukee and he failed miserably. After that he was relegated to blowout and mop-up duty, which he pitched admirably in with a 1.23 ERA over his next 10 games with the Yankees. On Friday, he pitched a scoreless 1 2/3 innings in a 0-0 game against the Dodgers before going back to mop-up duty in Saturday’s loss to the Dodgers. He had Sunday off and then was being asked to serve as the interim closer on Monday.

8. Tonkin worked around a one-out walk, struck out two and picked up the save to secure the win.

Tonkin had a 5.14 ERA in seven innings for the Mets and a 9.00 ERA in two innings for the Twins. He has a 0.89 ERA in 20 1/3 innings for the Yankees. He has gone from last man on the roster and the DFA bubble to being an important piece of the bullpen. It’s been a remarkable turnaround for an arm that looked like it was going to be a one-weekend pickup when signed.

9. The Yankees faced one of the best starting pitchers and league and sat the hottest hitter in baseball, started four hitters with OPS off .638 or lower, dropped down three sacrifice bunts, hit no home runs, used a 34-year-old journeyman reliever to attempt the first ninth-inning save of his career and still came away with a win. If that’s not a sign how well this season has gone to date, I don’t know what is.

10. I expect Judge to be back in the lineup for the second game of the series along with Stanton and Rizzo, and the trio of Kahnle, Weaver and Holmes should all be available. The Yankees will need another strong start on the mound with Brady Singer going for the Royals. It will be Marcus Stroman for the Yankees, coming off his worst start of the season (4.2 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 2 HR). Stroman has followed up each mediocre start with a good one this season and he’ll need to do that again on Tuesday.

The Yankees lost the first two games of the Dodgers series before bouncing back to salvage the series finale. The weekend served as a look into life without Juan Soto for the Yankees.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. I spent every available second on Friday checking for the results of Juan Soto’s left forearm tests. Thankfully, the results came back with no structural damage to either his forearm or elbow. It was as good of news as possible given the ominous feeling around the Yankees on Thursday night, even if it meant he would go on to miss the entire weekend series against the Dodgers.

The weekend series against the Dodgers was the Yankees’ version of It’s a Wonderful Life starring Soto. Every Yankees fan was treated to a glimpse of life if the Yankees hadn’t traded for Soto and what life will be like without Soto if the Yankees don’t re-sign him. The result: the 2023 Yankees.

“It’s a big bat out for us right now,” Alex Verdugo said. “But we always know when one guy is down, the next guy has to step up.”

Except there’s no guy who can step up and be Soto. Pitching-wise? That’s a different story. Gerrit Cole goes down and Luis Gil becomes Cole. Things like that happen. But you don’t find or create a Soto replacement. There isn’t one.

2. The Yankees didn’t score for 10 innings on Friday, and only eventually plated a meaningless run in the 11th thanks to the automatic runner. They lost the series opener 2-1 and then got pummeled 11-3 in the second game. Through 20 innings without Soto, this was the Yankees offense:

First run: Aaron Judge singles in the automatic runner.

Second run: Scores on an RBI groundout (was initially called a double play).

Third run: Judge solo home run.

Fourth run: Judge solo home run.

Judge, the automatic runner and a groundout. Welcome back to 2023, indeed.

3. Not only did the Yankees look like their 2023 selves at the plate, but Aaron Boone reminded everyone that he still hasn’t figured out how manage the actual game on the field. His only redeeming quality as manager continues to be his relentless defense of his players’ performance. He defended Gleyber Torres’ defense on both Friday and Saturday. He defended Alex Verdugo’s misread on a line drive on Saturday. And after Dennis Santana got knocked around yet again on Saturday, he said the reliever threw ball well.

4. Despite his manager thinking he threw the ball well against the Dodgers, Santana was designated for assignment ahead of Sunday’s game. Unfortunately, with John Sterling’s retirement, Michael Kay will likely be the only emcee of Old Timers’ Day, and therefore these former Yankees bios moving forward will have to be read as if they are coming from Kay:

Old Timers’ Day 2041: “Our next Yankee signed as a free agent prior to the 2024 season. The previous year, he was put on waivers by the Braves and Twins and granted free agency by the Mets. No one wanted his career 5.17 ERA and 1.430 WHIP except for the Yankees. He made the Opening Day roster and spent more than two months on the team pitching to a career-worst 6.26 ERA. He was allowed to pitch in high-leverage situations despite recording only 6.3 strikeouts per nine innings and a 1.354 WHIP. Please welcome back, Dennis Santana!“

5. As long as bad relievers are on the team, Boone will find ways to get them into games. With Santana gone, Caleb Ferguson and Victor Gonzalez take over for Santana as being tied for the worst and least trustworthy relievers. Sure enough, despite having a rested bullpen for Sunday night’s game, Ferguson was the first guy out of Boone’s bullpen. After he got the final out of the sixth inning, he no longer needed to meet the three-batter requirement, but that didn’t stop Boone from trying to steal outs with Ferguson in the seventh. And sure enough, the first two batters reached, and Luke Weaver had to come in with two on and no outs rather than a clean inning.

6. The defense of Torres’ defense is indefensible. With a straight face, and being completely serious, Boone praised Torres’ defense over the weekend. His error on Friday was erased by a pickoff. But his error on Saturday led to a four-run Dodgers inning to effectively end that game. Torres leads all second baseman in errors. At the plate, Torres didn’t make up for his defensive miscues, going 2-for-11 with three strikeouts.

7. Since Boone won’t give an honest opinion of his players, like Torres or Anthony Rizzo, I will: The pre-concussion Rizzo isn’t coming back. Despite being 1-for-June, Boone still hit Rizzo fifth in the lineup on Saturday and Sunday before sitting him down. Rizzo has two doubles since May 12. He has two walks since May 11. He last homered on May 10. He’s hitting .224/.285/.339. Rizzo looks incapable of figuring it out, and he would have to go on a Judge-like tear to get his numbers back to respectability, which isn’t possible.

8. I thought DJ LeMahieu could come back and make up for the lack of production from Torres and Rizzo, but LeMahieu is hitting like a 35-year-old who has missed 31 percent of the team’s games since 2022.

LeMahieu had a season-ending injury in 2022 and 2023 and missed the first two months of 2024. He has seven singles in 39 plate appearances, and one of them was ruled a single despite being a ground ball that hit a runner. He is hitting everything on the ground, and because of that, he has already hit into four double plays in 10 games. LeMahieu deserves a longer leash than 10 games, especially since players like Torres and Rizzo have been given endless leashes, but the early results for LeMahieu aren’t good.

The Yankees’ lineup can’t be three guys (Soto, Judge and Anthony Volpe), even if two of the three are the two best hitters in baseball. One of Torres, Rizzo or LeMahieu has to hit like the best version of themself. Because without that, and with the streakiness of Giancarlo Stanton (who is 8-for-52 with 20 strikeouts), there is no depth to the offense.

9. The big pitching matchup of these big series always ends up being the offense game. Gil allowed three earned runs in 5 2/3 innings for the most runs he had allowed since April 26 and Tyler Glasnow gave up five earned runs, including home runs to Oswaldo Cabrera and Trent Grisham.

The “WE WANT SOTO” chants during Grisham’s three-run home run at-bat were warranted. If Soto was truly available (and why wouldn’t he be if he’s now going to be OK to play on Monday?) then that was going to be the spot to use him. Boone decided against it, Grisham got a middle-middle fastball and crushed it into the right-field seats.

“Yes, I heard them,” Grisham said of the chants. “I was just happy that I was able to stay present in the moment, worry about myself and put a good swing on one.”

“I wasn’t too happy with it,” Judge said about the Soto chants. “He got his point across with that homer.”

Settle down, Judge. The only point he made was don’t throw him a middle-middle fastball. Other than that, people want to see the best player in the league in a big spot rather than the guy with the .695 career OPS.

10. The best player is expected to be back in the lineup on Monday in Kansas City. If he’s not, there will need to be a lot of questions asked about his absence given everything the Yankees have said about him since Friday afternoon.

Seth Lugo goes for the Royals, and he has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this season. Carlos Rodon goes for the Yankees, and the last time he faced the Royals was his last start of last season when he allowed eight runs without getting an out. Over the last three days, I have had more 2023 flashbacks than I can handle. Rodon needs to keep his strong season going, Soto needs to return to the lineup and everything that was good about this season before Thursday’s rain delay needs to continue.

The Yankees won their eighth straight and swept the six-game season series against the Twins with an 8-5 win. But if Juan Soto’s forearm issue is season-ending, nothing else matters.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. When the rain delay ended on Thursday night at Yankee Stadium, YES showed a zoomed out view of the field. You could clearly make out the four umpires standing around home plate conversing, and then a few pinstriped uniforms began to take the field.

I first spotted Alex Verdugo’s number 24. That’s odd, I thought, since Verdugo didn’t start the game and was being given a day off. He must be going in for Trent Grisham? But the Yankees are holding a three-run lead with four innings to go. If Grisham is going to play, wouldn’t now be the time you would want him in there for his defense?

I then spotted Aaron Judge’s number 99. OK, Judge is fine.

And then I saw Grisham.

2. My heart sank. Unless Juan Soto was clinging to a clubhouse toilet with diarrhea, him coming out of the game was never going to mean anything good. A guy who plays every inning of every game every day doesn’t come out of the lineup unless he’s sick … or injured. Before I could say anything, my wife turned to me and asked, “Where’s Soto?”

3. It wasn’t long after the game resumed the Yankees announced, “Juan Soto left tonight’s game due to left forearm discomfort.”

There has never been discomfort in a baseball player’s throwing arm that has led to something good. It’s highly unlikely Soto visits a doctor on Friday, has imaging and tests done and is in the lineup and batting second at night against the Dodgers. The odds of that happening are relatively the same as Anthony Rizzo barreling a ball this weekend.

4. What was taking place on the field over the remaining four innings of the Yankees’ 8-5 win over the Twins became meaningless. Sure, a win is a win, but every Yankee, Yankees employee and fan would gladly trade a slew of losses for the health of Soto. The postgame show became more important than the actual game, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Thursday’s postgame show was higher rated than any Yankees game this season.

In typical Aaron Boone fashion, the manager downplayed the absence of Soto for the final four innings and the idea that he could have a season-ending injury.

“It’s just something that’s been bothering him for the last week or so,” Boone said. “He’s been getting treatment on it. It hasn’t really affected him in his baseball stuff, throwing or swinging or anything.”

Yankees vice president of media relation Jason Zillo interrupted Boone to include information about Soto, including him needing to be evaluated by the team doctor and trainers — information that Boone conveniently left out.

5. So Soto has been dealing with forearm discomfort for a week and has been getting treatment, but now after a week of treatment he’s going for imaging on Friday? That means whatever the issue is, it hasn’t gotten better and has possibly gotten worse. The idea he came out after the rain delay as a precaution is the typical bullshit Boone and the Yankees have been spewing about injuries for his entire tenure.

Boone and Soto went on to say that with the rain delay, the team didn’t want to risk Soto’s arm being hot for the game then going cold during the delay then needing to be heated up again, as if his left arm is a 30 pack of beer the team is trying to avoid skunking.

6. “We all decided to not start getting warmed up again after an hour sitting down here,” Soto said. “We didn’t want to risk anything like that, so we just decided to stop.”

It doesn’t really matter that Soto says it doesn’t hurt when he throws or bats. Pitchers throw pitches at their normal velocity after tearing their elbow all the time. What matters is that Soto’s left arm hurts enough that at least a week ago he reported it to the training staff, for a week he has been receiving treatment on it, on Thursday the team doctor had to evaluate him and he eventually came out of a non-lopsided game for the first time all season, and is now going to have imaging and tests done on Friday.

7. “I actually just woke up one day, felt the tightness and discomfort in my forearm,” Soto said. “We’ve been working on it, and we’ve been trying to get away with it and it hasn’t gone out.”

There is absolutely no way what was said after the game by Soto or Boone or what we know about his arm at this moment can be viewed as positive. Because again, throwing arm discomfort is never a positive for a position player or pitcher. Until Soto or Boone or the Yankees announce that all testing came back negative and that he’s healthy, it’s impossible to think anything but the worst.

8. It will also be impossible to feel good about this season moving forward if Soto’s injury is worse than the Yankees are letting on (which has been a six-plus-year trend with Yankees injuries) and he’s done for the season. The Yankees are 45-19 with a 4 1/2-game lead in the AL East. But they did that with Soto. Without Soto, it’s the same core, the same group of guys that missed the playoffs last year, were embarrassed by the Astros the year before and have been chasing a championship drought for this entire era. I know how the story ends for these Yankees without Soto. If Soto ends up going down, the season unfortunately will go down with him. We have six years of games, performance and data that say as much.

9. In the middle of all the Soto-related questions, someone threw out a “What did you think of Stroman tonight?” to Boone. Unless Stroman discovered the cure for cancer in the clubhouse after throwing 4 2/3 miserable innings, no one gives a fuck about how the manager views Stroman’s lousy outing. The only current event about the 2024 Yankees that matters is what happens at whichever doctor’s office Soto is visiting on Friday.

10. Friday night is the first game of the first Yankees-Dodgers series at the Stadium in eight years, a potential World Series preview with the two must star-studded teams in the game. It was supposed to be an awesome, drama-packed weekend, including an at-home rivalry for me against my wife. Instead, I could care less about the games right now. All I care about is knowing the status of Soto and the state of his left forearm. Without him, there’s no season.

The Yankees won their seventh straight game and improved to 5-0 on the season against the Twins with a 9-5 win at the Stadium.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Carlos Rodon was a disaster in his first season with the Yankees. He got hurt in spring training, made comments about how if it were the postseason he would be pitching, missed the first half of the season, was horrible in nearly every start, blew a kiss to heckling fans in Anaheim, turned his back on Matt Blake during a mound visit, and in his last start of the season, allowed eight earned runs without recording an out.

The more and more Aaron Boone was asked about Rodon during this past winter and the more he has been asked about him this season, the more Boone lets on that Rodon was out of shape and not completely focused on his job despite signing a $162 million contract. He said as much again on Wednesday.

2. “It started in the winter, carried into spring training, carried into game day and the days he is not starting,” Boone said about Rodon’s focus this season. “And [he] focuses on getting ready to go out and pitch, and the results have been good.”

The results have been good, even great at times. Rodon carried a perfect game into the sixth inning on Wednesday against the Twins, and the Yankees won 9-5.

3. “I had a little feeling in my stomach from the start that he was on a roll,” Austin Wells said. “I didn’t think there were many hitters in baseball that could hit him tonight.”

Rodon has given the Yankees six straight quality starts dating back to May 8, and the Yankees are 6-0 in those games.

4. “All I want to do is win,” Rodon said. “I want to perform for my teammates. I don’t want to let my teammates down.”

All Rodon did last season was lose, not perform for his teammates and let everyone down. He has been a completely different pitcher in Year 2 with the Yankees, both with his performance and his comments.

5. I finished the Yankees Thoughts after the series opener by writing:

10. Tuesday was a relaxed, rather easy win, which is how Gil starts go. Wednesday has the potential to be the same if Carlos Rodon is as good against the Twins as he was three weeks ago (6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 1 HR), or if the Yankees offense hits Chris Paddack the way they did in that same game Rodon started (5 IP, 12 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR). Fourteen baserunners in five innings? I’ll sign up for that again.

Rodon was just about as good again (6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 1 HR), and Paddack was just about as bad again (4 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 7 K). The Yankees tagged Paddack with four runs in the first, and another three in a four-run fifth.

“Not the outing that I wanted, especially at Yankee Stadium,” Paddack said. “These are big moments you dream about as a kid. I’ve come here twice now, and it hasn’t been great.”

It’s OK, Chris. It hasn’t been great for nearly every Twins pitcher who has come to Yankee Stadium over the last two-plus decades. Paddack’s final line in two starts against the 2024 Yankees: 9 IP, 18 H, 12 R, 12 ER, 4 BB, 11 K, 1 HR.

6. Aaron Judge led the offense with a five-RBI night thanks to a bases-loaded-turned-bases-clearing triple in the fifth. Anthony Volpe had three hits, Giancarlo Stanton had two and the Yankees scored nine runs without hitting a home run. Even Gleyber Torres and Anthony Rizzo had doubles in the game. (Torres thought the ball he hit for a double was going foul and didn’t initially run out of the box, and Rizzo’s double was his second since May 11.)

7. I expect the Yankees to announce Dennis Santana has been designated for assignment prior to Thursday’s game.

Here is what I wrote about Santana on Monday:

Michael Tonkin isn’t good, but Tonkin boasts a 4.24 ERA in 250 1/3 career innings and has a 3.00 ERA in 24 innings this season (and a 1.20 ERA in 15 innings for the Yankees). Tonkin can’t be trusted, and he’s treated as such, only pitching in games the Yankees are losing or winning by five-plus runs. Meanwhile, Santana, with a much worse career and in the middle of a much worse season is treated like a middle relief weapon, when he’s only a weapon for the opponent.

Santana serves no purpose on this team. He’s not good enough to pitch in high-leverage situations (again, he has a 5.68 ERA), he can’t get a strikeout in a big spot (5.7 strikeouts per nine innings), he can’t be asked to hold a small deficit (like Sunday against the Giants) and he can’t be trusted to close out a blowout (like Wednesday against the Twins). It’s rather crazy he has been able to pitch in the majors every year since 2018 for four different teams despite posting a 5.25 ERA and 1.400 WHIP over 175 innings. As long as he’s on the team, Boone will find ways to use him. And as long as he’s used, he will either be the reason for losses, ruin the odds of comebacks or force the “A” relievers into games because he can’t even mop up.

9. The Orioles got walked off in the bottom of the ninth in Toronto thanks to a Craig Kimbrel meltdown, so the Yankees’ lead in the AL East is now 3 1/2 games. It’s an oddly-constructed 3 1/2 games (five up in the win column and two up in the loss column) since the Yankees have played three more games than the Orioles. The Yankees have a 2 1/2-game lead over the Guardians for the best record in the American League.

10. The Yankees have an opportunity to win an eighth straight game on Thursday in the season finale against the Twins. Pablo Lopez gets the ball for the Twins as they try to avoid a season sweep, and in his last start against the Yankees on May 15, the Yankees knocked him around for 10 hits in a 4-0 win. Marcus Stroman opposes Lopez like he did on May 15, and in that one, Stroman pitched six shutout innings. The second Rodon-Paddack matchup played out the same way the first one did, so here’s to the second Stroman-Lopez matchup playing out the same way the first one did.

Luis Gil had another ho-hum, six-shutout-innings, one-hit start and the Yankees extended their winning streak to six straight with a 5-1 win over the Twins at the Stadium.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. At this point, it’s no longer stunning when Luis Gil gives up a run (which is crazy), it’s stunning when he gives up a hit. Gil dominated yet another lineup on Tuesday in the Twins and the Yankees won 5-1. One hit over six shutout innings from the best pitcher in baseball.

“He’s got good stuff,” Rocco Baldelli. “He’s better than most.”

Thanks for the evaluation, Rocco. But Gil isn’t better than most. He’s been better than every starting pitcher in the majors this season.

2. It was Gil’s seventh start in a row with at least six innings pitched and one run or fewer allowed, which is now a Yankees record. It seems like Gil is matching or setting a record every start. His ERA is down to 1.82 on the season with 85 strikeouts in 69 1/3 innings and just 30 hits allowed. His 3.9 hits allowed per nine innings is the best in baseball.

“I had to come back from a big injury,” Gil said, “a lot of dedication, a lot of hours to put myself in the situation where I could be here and compete.”

3. On day’s Gil pitches the offense doesn’t have to do much, and in the series opener against the Twins they didn’t do much: three runs on six hits and four walks.

Gleyber Torres got the Yankees on the board in the second by showing he still has power … well, Yankee-Stadium-right-field-porch power when the ball goes off the outfielder’s glove. (Hey, they all count the same!) Torres has been better of late, though that’s not saying much since the bar he set through his first six weeks of the season was as low as bars can be set (he had a .543 OPS through May 11). I think the reason the perception is that he’s still struggling is because of all the non-offense-related issues he has in the field and on the bases. But he has been better.

4. Anthony Rizzo hasn’t been. He’s getting worse. Rizzo had another 0-for against the Twins and is now hitting .236/.296/.354. Add in his shaky defense (both fielding balls and catching throws), his lack of speed and his inability to get on base and there’s nothing redeeming to say about Rizzo’s season. Rizzo has one walk since May 11. He has one double since May 12. He has one home run since May 10.

5. After taking a 1-0 lead in the second on Torres’ home run, the Yankees added two more runs in the third on an Aaron Judge opposite-field double. The 3-0 lead was more than enough, but after Royce Lewis hit a home run in the seventh to cut it to 3-1, Giancarlo Stanton added two insurance runs in the eighth.

Caleb Thielbar got Stanton to awkwardly swing and miss on a first-pitch curveball, so Thielbar went back to that same pitch in the same location on his very next offering and Stanton destroyed it into the second deck in left field.

6. Because of Judge and Juan Soto, Stanton is quietly having a good season … I think? Well, that’s what everyone on YES keeps saying. His OPS is nearly 100 points below his career mark, but his OPS+ suggests he’s 16 percent better than league average. This version of Stanton is the best version Yankees fans have seen since 2021, and before that, you have to go back to his first season with the Yankees in 2018. He’s only hitting .232 and has a .281 on-base percentage, but his 15 home runs, with a lot of them being timely, is carrying the narrative of his year.

7. Stanton, Soto and Judge are the first trio in Yankees history to each hit 15-plus home runs through the first 62 games of a season. Judge is first in the majors with 21. Soto is third with 17. Stanton is fifth with 15. The trio has 53 home runs combined. That’s more home runs than the Blue Jays (52), Rockies (50), Marlins (48), Rays (48), Nationals (48) and White Sox (45).

8. Tommy Kahnle gave up his first earned run of the season on the Lewis home run, but that was the only run the Twins would score. Ian Hamilton pitched a perfect eighth, and after being a disaster for the majority of the season with six scoreless appearances sandwiched around a 16-game run in which he put 34 baserunners on in 17 innings, Hamilton looks to have resolved his issues.

9. After pitching on Saturday and Sunday, Clay Holmes got a second day off and Luke Weaver was called on to close out the game in the ninth. (It wasn’t a save situation, but I think Holmes would have been in even with a four-run lead. Also, no one should be managing based on a made-up statistic.) Weaver pitched a perfect ninth on just 10 pitches to end the game.

10. Tuesday was a relaxed, rather easy win, which is how Gil starts go. Wednesday has the potential to be the same if Carlos Rodon is as good against the Twins as he was three weeks ago (6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 1 HR), or if the Yankees offense hits Chris Paddack the way they did in that same game Rodon started (5 IP, 12 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR). Fourteen baserunners in five innings? I’ll sign up for that again.

After series wins over the Padres and Angels, the Yankees finished their nine-game West Coast road trip with a sweep of the Giants.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. I find it hard to believe Aaron Judge was ever close to signing with the Giants. I think he and his agent played the Yankees perfectly from Opening Day 2022 when he turned down a fair contract extension right through the moment Hal Steinbrenner called Judge in a panic and gave him a ninth year on his contract offer. When you look at the state of the Giants, their anemic offense and puzzling roster, there’s just no way Judge was going really going to give up everything he had and had built with the Yankees to play for at best, the third-best team in the NL West for the rest of his career.

Judge gave his hometown a look at what could have been (but likely never was actually going to be) as he spent the weekend destroying the team he grew up rooting for: 6-for-10, three home runs, six RBIs, three walks and a .600/.692/1.500 slash line.

“I grew up a Giants fan and loved coming to games out here,” Judge said. “It’s pretty cool, being on the opposite side of the field.”

2. Judge wasn’t the only Yankee to have a big weekend. Juan Soto went 6-for-12, with a triple, two home runs, four RBIs and a .500/.462/1.1.67 slash line. No hit was bigger than Soto’s two-run, go-ahead home run in the ninth inning off Camilo Doval on Sunday.

“I can go back over the years, how many times we probably lost that game, facing the closer up two runs and go 1-2-3,” Judge said. “This team is different.”

This team is different because of the Soto-Judge, 2-3 combination. Judge (1.075) and Soto (1.031) have the two highest OPS in the majors. The Yankees have the ability to make the modern day Maris-Mantle combination a thing for a long time. If they don’t, and if Soto isn’t a Yankee in 2025, I will be forced to walk away from the Yankees and baseball. If the team that generates more revenue than any other team doesn’t agree to pay Soto whatever number he is looking for there will be point in rooting for or caring about said team.

3. “That’s what he does. We’ve seen it all year long,” Judge said of Soto. “He comes up in big moments. Against one of the best closers in the game, throwing up to 102 miles an hour … That was impressive.”

Everything about the 2024 Yankees that is different than the 2023 Yankees and other iterations of the roster during the Aaron Boone era is because of Soto. The wins, the big moments, the offensive outbursts can all be traced back to Soto’s presence. But nothing Soto has done has been more important than his penchant to play every day.

Last season, Soto played in all 162 games for the Padres, a feat that seemed impossible for any Yankee to accomplish because of the oft-injured issues of the roster and because the team’s manager and front office would see to it that no one played every game of an entire season. This season has been different. I no longer check on the lineup a few hours before the game under the assumption at least one everyday player won’t be playing. The Yankees have played 61 games and Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres (unfortunately) have played in all of them. Anthony Volpe has missed one due to illness. Alex Verdugo missed three on paternity leave. Anthony Rizzo has had (only) two games off (unfortunately). Even Giancarlo Stanton has only had eight days off. It’s refreshing, and it has a lot to do with Soto.

4. “We’re having a great time,” Soto said. “We have great moments. We’re just having fun, that’s all I can tell you.”

They’re having fun, I’m having fun, all Yankees fans are having fun. But again, this fun better not end at the end of 2024.

5. “I know we’ve got something special in that room,” Boone said. “Where that takes us? We’ll see.”

Soto, Judge and the rotation can take the Yankees where they want to go, where they haven’t been in going on 15 years. But in order to do so, the Yankees are either going to need to outhit their own manager’s stupidity (like they did on Sunday), have their manager finally understand simple logic (unlikely) or get significant bullpen upgrades (very possible). The Yankees nearly dropped the series finale to the Giants because of the bullpen Brian Cashman built and because of the way Boone deploys it.

After overcoming a two-run deficit thanks to another road stinker from Nestor Cortes (4.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 2 HR), Boone decided to use Dennis Santana for a second inning of work in a 3-3 game in the sixth. It’s problematic that Santana was a Yankee to begin with this season, considering he has a career 5.15 ERA in 173 innings, but it’s even more problematic he’s still a Yankee with a 5.01 ERA this season. He can’t strike anyone out (just 15 strikeouts in 23 1/3 innings), and yet, he’s frequently placed in situations where a strikeout is greatly needed. He was miraculously able to get the last two outs of the fifth unscathed, but why Boone went back to him for the sixth, I have no idea.

Santana allowed back-to-back singles to open the sixth before getting a pair of outs on a pop-up and flyball. But then he hit the light-hitting, 9-hitter to load the bases with two outs. That brought up Heliot Ramos, who is pretty much the only player in the Giants lineup capable of anything. Sure enough, Ramos smoked a two-run single to left field to give the Giants their second two-run lead of the game.

6. Michael Tonkin isn’t good, but Tonkin boasts a 4.24 ERA in 250 1/3 career innings and has a 3.00 ERA in 24 innings this season (and a 1.20 ERA in 15 innings for the Yankees). Tonkin can’t be trusted, and he’s treated as such, only pitching in games the Yankees are losing or winning by five-plus runs. Meanwhile, Santana, with a much worse career and in the middle of a much worse season is treated like a middle relief weapon, when he’s only a weapon for the opponent.

Neither Santana nor Tonkin can be trusted. But the same goes for Caleb Ferguson and Victor Gonzalez, or Nick Burdi before he got hurt yet again. The bullpen is a huge problem because there are very few capable arms in it. The more incapable arms, the more there is a chance for Boone to screw it all up. Even if you’re the 25th or 26th man on the roster, if you’re on the roster, he will use you and use you at an inopportune time.

7. What made Boone’s decision to go to Santana even more questionable is that the bullpen was extremely well rested and there is a day off on Monday. He could have gone with his elite relievers to go for the sweep and an enjoyable cross-country flight home to end the road trip, and he chose not to. Luckily for him, his offense outhit his decisions to save the day. With this bullpen and the amount of close games the Yankees play, the offense is going to have to outhit Boone a lot to get to where they want to be. And in October, when every decision is the season-defining, they are going to have to outhit him against the front-end starting pitching and elite relievers every game. They haven’t been able to do that in the five postseasons they have appeared in with him as manager, but unless he changes his thought process, they will have to outhit him to end the championship drought.

8. Cortes stunk on Sunday, but Marcus Stroman was really good on Friday (7.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) and Cody Poteet was solid once again on Saturday (5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR).

“I’m not looking too far ahead,” Poteet said. “I’m just taking it a day at a time, trying to get better each day and enjoying being around so many great players.”

Poteet’s line in two Yankees starts: 11 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, 2 HR. He throws strikes and doesn’t nibble. He’s everything you want from a fifth starter, and exactly what the Yankees need for the time being.

9. For the time being the right side of the infield in Torres and Rizzo will continue to get every chance to turn their seasons around. They are extremely fortunate the best two hitters in baseball are on their team and the team is winning or they would be the focal point of the team. Instead, they are being allowed to figure out their issues, both offensively and defensively in the bottom third of the lineup.

I think it would take the two of them continuing at their current underperforming paces for the Yankees to find other options come the end of July. Even then, I could see the Yankees playing them every day through the rest of the season no matter how bleak their production is. For Torres, he’s playing himself out of a big free-agent contract at the end of this season, and for Rizzo, he’s playing himself out of the majors when his contract ends at the end of this season.

10. There’s nothing like going 7-2 on a nine-game West Coast road trip over 10 days, completing a ninth-inning comeback for the most memorable win of the season and then boarding a cross-country flight, getting the day off on Monday. The Yankees don’t play on the West Coast again until September 17, and they don’t have a game scheduled to start later than 8:10 p.m. between now and then. I’m happy that normal, East Coast start times are back.

The Yankees’ offense finally broke out in Anaheim in the series finale, and a five-run seventh inning on Thursday led to an 8-3 win.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Last July, Carlos Rodon made his third start as a Yankee against the Angels in Anaheim, and it was a disaster. Five days after getting beat up by the eventual 103-loss Rockies, Rodon got beat up by the Mike Trout-less Angels: 4.1 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 5 BB, 3 K, 2 HR.

Rodon walked off the mound after recording just one out in the fifth inning and responded to heckling fans behind the Yankees dugout by blowing them a kiss.

“A fan was angry as they should be,” Rodon said after that game. “I was just angry at myself and blew a kiss, unfortunately.”

In the least surprising moment of all time, his manager protected him by saying at least he didn’t do anything worse than blow a kiss. (That got me thinking about Jorge Lopez’s wild Wednesday for the Mets, and how Aaron Boone would undoubtedly have defended and supported Lopez’s on-field and postgame reactions if he were a Yankee.)

2. Rodon has been solid for the Yankees in his second season of his $162 million deal. Not as good as he should be for someone who signed a $162 million deal and makes more than $800,000 per start, but solid. He pitched much better in his second Yankees start against the Mike Trout-less Angels on Thursday (6 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR), didn’t blow any kisses to the crowd and the Yankees won 8-3.

3. Rodon put the Yankees in an early hole when he gave up a solo home run to Logan O’Hoppe in the second inning. The Yankees were held hitless through 3 1/3 innings by Patrick Sandoval (as I warned on Thursday, Sandoval hasn’t been good this year, but he has pitched decently well in three career starts against the Yankees), but that slump came to an end when Aaron Judge blasted his 18th home run of the season in the fourth inning with Juan Soto on first base to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

“He’s just a special player doing special things,” Boone said of Judge’s historic May. “I kind of felt like we needed a shot of energy. Judgie’s homer got the boys going a little bit.”

4. A few innings later, Sandoval finally came out of the game (6 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 1 HR), Adam Cimber came in and the Yankees opened the floodgates. Alex Verdugo walked to lead off the seventh and DJ LeMahieu singled, but Gleyber Torres took a lazy, halfhearted swing on the first pitch of his at-bat and popped it up. Jose Trevino walked to load the bases and Oswaldo Cabrera drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead. Anthony Volpe followed with a second straight bases-loaded walk to increase the lead to 4-1 and Ron Washington finally removed Cimber from the game. (No idea what Washington was waiting for?) Jose Suarez came in in relief and Juan Soto greeted him by hitting a first-pitch, 89-mph cutter down the right-field line for a bases-clearing, three-run triple to give the Yankees a 7-1 lead.

5. A six-run lead with nine outs to get seemed like the remaining three innings would be a formality, but the combination of Rodon, Boone and the Yankees bullpen made sure it wasn’t.

Rodon opened the seventh by going walk, single, double. The Angels trailed 7-2 and had runners on second and third and no outs. Boone went to Ian Hamilton and he struck out O’Hoppe and Jo Adell before walking Zach Neto load the bases. The Angels sent ex-Yankee Willie Calhoun to the plate as a pinch hitter, so Boone countered by going to the bullpen for Caleb Ferguson for a lefty-on-lefty matchup. Of course, Ferguson fell behind Calhoun 3-1 and allowed a run-scoring single on a line drive to left. The Yankees’ lead had been cut to 7-3 and the Angels had the tying run at the plate in Karen Paris. Fortunately, Ferguson’s lack of command and overall sucking ended with Calhoun and he retired Paris to end the inning and the threat. The Yankees added another run in the eighth in the eventual 8-3 win.

6. The historic streak of having a starting pitcher pitch at least five innings and allow no more than two runs came to an end though I think everyone always thought it would come to an end in a Rodon start.

“Now it’s time to start another streak,” Judge said of the rotation. “They’re the best in the game right now. The news about Clarke [Schmidt] definitely hurts, but I know guys will definitely pick up the slack and keep it rolling.”

7. The news about Schmidt being down for at least the next two months with a lat strain does hurt. Just yesterday in writing about who would come out of the rotation when Gerrit Cole returns, I wrote:

Usually these things have a way of taking care of themselves (injuries, lack of production, etc.) and Cole isn’t coming back any time soon, and maybe by the time he does, the Yankees will be in dire need of rotation help (knock on all of the wood).

Now no one needs to come out of the rotation, and you just hope no one else goes down. The Yankees’ pitching has been healthier than any other staff and better than any other staff this season, so something like this was bound to happen.

“It stinks for him,” Boone said of Schmidt. “But hopefully we’ll have hm down and get him on the mend, and hopefully get him back at some point.”

8. Anthony Rizzo was finally given the night off with LeMahieu moving over from third base to first base. LeMahieu went 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs. At third base, Cabrera went hitless but drew that all-important, bases-loaded walk in the seventh to extend the Yankees’ lead at the time from one run to two. The offense had its best night in nearly a week and the infield defense was flawless without Rizzo in the lineup. Coincidence? No.

9. The Yankees avoided being the first team to lose a series to the Angels in Anaheim this season and have their bullpen in very good shape for the next series. Over the last six days entering Friday night’s game, Clay Holmes will have thrown just 22 pitches and Luke Weaver just 26, and Tommy Kahnle has thrown just 17 over the last nine days. Those three are the only relievers you have to worry about being available. Anyone else who comes out of the bullpen is going to be an adventure (and likely a disastrous one) no matter how rested they are.

10. Now it’s off to San Francisco where the Yankees will finish this 10-day, nine-game West Coast road trip with three games against the one-game-over-.500 Giants. Unfortunately, the Yankees are getting the worst part of the Giants’ rotation to face with Jordan Hicks on Friday, Logan Webb on Saturday and Blake Snell on Sunday. For as weak as the Giants’ offense is, I expect these games to go similarly to how the Angels and Padres series played out, which means a couple of more late-night close games.

“It’s been a good month with a lot of wins, so I’m happy about that,” Judge said. “We’ll keep it rolling in June.”

I like the sound of that.

Luis Gil was impressive again and the offense did just enough to squeak by the Angels with a 2-1 win on Wednesday.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Last week I referred to Luis Gil as the “interim ace” of the Yankees, but maybe he’s just the actual ace of the team moving forward, no matter who’s in the rotation. On Wednesday night in Anaheim, Gil went a career-long eight innings and allowed just two hits and one earned run. The Yankees won 2-1 and finished May having won all six of Gil’s starts.

2. “Am I fully 100 percent surprised?” Gil asked of his dominance this season. “I’m not.”

Gil finished May with this ridiculous line: 38.2 IP, 14 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 12 BB, 44 K, 2 HR, 0.70 ERA, 0.672 WHIP. Batters hit .109/.184/.178 against him in the month.

3. “When you’re able to command pitches out there,” Gil said, “really good things happen.”

Gil leads the league in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (4.1), has struck out 79 in 63 1/3 innings and has only given up four home runs on the season (a 13-home run pace projected out over 200 innings). Of Gil’s 11 starts, the only time he gave up more than three earned runs was in Milwaukee, and the only time he really had no command was after the Yankees idiotically gave him eight days off between starts. He hasn’t just filled in for Gerrit Cole, he has been better than Gerrit Cole.

4. If the Yankees had to play one game for their season right now, I don’t know how you don’t pick Gil to start it. Certainly, he may be a little too amped (think Luis Severino in the 2017 wild-card game), but if he’s on, he’s as good as any starting pitcher in baseball.

“Having Gerrit Cole around and being able to listen to the points that he’s giving me,” Gil said, “it’s been great.”

5. Someone is leaving the rotation when Cole returns. I don’t envision the Yankees going with a six-man rotation, but maybe they will surprise us. If all five members of the current rotation are heathy, given the combination of production and money owed, I’m not sure who the odd man out will be. (I know who I would make it be, but again veteran status, reputation and money owed are more important than winning typically for the Yankees.) Usually these things have a way of taking care of themselves (injuries, lack of production, etc.) and Cole isn’t coming back any time soon, and maybe by the time he does, the Yankees will be in dire need of rotation help (knock on all of the wood). All I know is right now, Gil can’t lose his spot for any reason, including workload. He has been the team’s best starter. He’s been arguably the best starter in the majors.

6. Gil is only getting better too. He shut out the Orioles for 6 1/3 innings in Baltimore to lead the Yankees to their only win in that four-game series. Then in his next start, he allowed one hit over six innings to the Astros. He followed up that up by shutting out the Rays over six innings in Tampa (a magnificent start I got to watch in person), and then he struck out a career-high 14 against the White Sox to set the Yankees’ rookie single-game strikeout record. He pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings against the Mariners last Thursday and then there was Wednesday’s masterpiece against the Angels.

“I’m friendly with a couple of guys on other teams,” Anthony Volpe said, “and they’re saying after games that it’s the most electric fastball they’ve ever faced.”

7. Volpe has been on a nice run of his own and extended his hitting streak to 21 games with a leadoff single on Wednesday. He later added a triple that he would score on after the Angels sloppily threw the ball around. Volpe has had multiple hits in five of the last seven games and has returned to being the guy he was for the first week of the season.

Volpe’s season can be broken down into three parts:

March 28-April 14: .382/.477/1.041
April 15-May 5: .163/.247/.238
May 7-May 29: .341/.378/.550

8. The Yankees needed Gil to be as dominant as he was and for Volpe to score on his wild triple because the offense was nowhere to be found in terms of driving in runs for a third straight game. A day after scoring three runs and stranding 10 baserunners, the Yankees scored two runs and stranded 13 baserunners, including stranding all nine of their walks.

Nothing was more frustrating than in the first inning when Volpe singled, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge walked and the Yankees had the bases loaded with no outs. Followings two straight walks, Giancarlo Stanton decided to swing at the first pitch he saw and popped it up in the infield. The infield fly rule was enforced and Stanton was called out, but in getting back to second base, Soto and Angels’ shortstop Zach Neto bumped into each other and Soto was also called out for interfering with the play. The call of interference was the right call by the rulebook, but also nonsensical since Soto didn’t have a lane to get back to the base and Stanton was already called out because of the infield fly rule. As mentioned on the YES broadcast, on a play like that, the play should be ruled dead since the batter is already out and the ball doesn’t even need to be caught. Instead, it was a double play against the Yankees and they wouldn’t score in the inning.

9. I figured that play and not scoring with the bases loaded and no outs in the first would come back to haunt the Yankees, and it nearly did with Clay Holmes on the mound in the ninth.

Here is what I wrote about Holmes on Wednesday:

I don’t trust Holmes with anything less than a four-run lead … If the Yankees don’t have a big lead, the bullpen will either blow it or come as close as possible to blowing it, and Boone will see to it.

Holmes allowed a leadoff single to Luis Rengifo on a ground ball to begin the ninth after getting ahead of him 0-2. (Reminder: having a closer that relies on weak contact isn’t a great strategy since bad things happen when the ball is put into play.) Holmes then threw a wild pitch to move Rengifo to second. With the tying run on second and the winning run on first with no outs and ex-Yankee Willie Calhoun up, I figured the law of ex-Yankees would come into play with every former Yankee coming up big against their former team. Thankfully, Calhoun hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Rengifo moved to third with two outs, but never scored as Logan O’Hoppe hit a rocket to third base that DJ LeMahieu in just his second game of the season was able to make a spectacular play on to field the ball and throw out O’Hoppe. Ballgame over. Yankees win.

10. On Thursday night the Yankees will face left-handed Patrick Sandoval in the series finale. Sandoval hasn’t been good this year (5.60 ERA), but he has pitched decently well in three career starts against the Yankees (18.1 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 11 BB, 19 K, 1 HR, 3.93 ERA, 1.091 WHIP).

Carlos Rodon gets the start for the Yankees. His lone start again the Angels as a Yankee came last July  19 in Anaheim. That was the game Rodon got lit up (4.1 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 5 BB , 3 K, 2 HR) and then responded to heckling fans behind the Yankees dugout by blowing them a kiss. I trust Rodon about as much as I trust Holmes, so hopefully the offense shows up for the first time in this series and takes Rodon, Aaron Boone and the bullpen out of the equation.

The Yankees’ nine-game West Coast road trip started out with two wins over the Padres, but has been followed by losses to the Padres and last-place Angels.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Last July 17 when the Yankees really sucked, they faced Griffin Canning and the Angels in the Bronx. Canning entered that start with a 4.62 ERA and 5.03 FIP. Over 5 2/3 innings against the Yankees, he struck out a career-high 12. The Yankees put nine runners on base against him, but could never seem to get the big hit, losing 4-3.

On Tuesday night in Anaheim, Canning was on the mound to face the Yankees for the first time since that start. Like that start, he entered Tuesday with a 5.08 ERA and 5.35 FIP. Like that start, the Yankees put 12 runners on base against him in five innings. And like that start, the Yankees could never get the big hit, losing 4-3.

2. After being held to one run by Joe Musgrove and his 6.14 ERA and 5.81 FIP on Sunday in San Diego 4-1 loss, the Yankees’ offense minus Juan Soto hit like the Yankees’ offense minus Juan Soto on Tuesday in Anaheim. Michael Kay and Paul O’Neill will tell you how “explosive the offense has been,” but has it? The Yankees have scored nine runs in their last three games and 36 in their last eight, and to no surprise they’re 4-4 over that span.

3. The loss to the Angels was frustrating because the Yankees had a one-run lead with four outs to go and couldn’t hold the lead. They couldn’t hold the lead because of Anthony Rizzo who booted an inning-ending grounder, giving the Angels a fourth out to work with, and with that fourth out they hit a two-run double to take the lead.

“That play needs to be made,” Rizzo said.

Yeah, no shit, Anthony.

“The first couple of weeks were pretty brutal, but overall the last five or six weeks, I would say pretty normal,” Rizzo said about his defense this season. “A play like today’s, I’ve got to make it.”

Rizzo’s defense has been atrocious all season. He has bobbled and booted many routine plays and has scooped and picked balls like he’s blindfolded.

“He’s still great over there,” Aaron Boone said. “Just a couple of hiccups here lately.”

Except he isn’t great over there and it’s not just a couple of hiccups.

4. You could live with Rizzo’s horrific defense if he were hitting, but he isn’t. And you could live with his lack of offense if he are still playing Gold Glove defense, but he isn’t. He isn’t doing anything to help the team, just hurt it.

Rizzo hasn’t homered in 17 game. He doesn’t have an extra-base hit in the last 16 games. He has three walks in the last three weeks. His slash line is down to .245/.310/.370. He has been awful all season.

5. What’s startling is he’s not even the worst everyday player on the Yankees. That title goes to Gleyber Torres.

If you like Torres then you don’t like the Yankees because Torres is detrimental to the team’s success at the plate, in the field and on the bases. His two-week “hot streak” has his OPS out of the .500s, now at .631, but while his bat has been better of late, everything else about his game remains as sloppy as ever. On Sunday, Torres was picked off at first and later made the late-inning error that led to the Padres taking the lead in their eventual comeback win. On Tuesday, Luis Rojas inexplicably sent Torres home on an Austin Wells double, but of course it was Torres of all runners getting thrown out at the plate. When disaster strikes, Torres is always in the middle of it.

6. Boone is also in the middle of it. If you didn’t notice, all four of the Yankees losses in their last eight games are by three runs or fewer. Only one of the four wins was by three runs or fewer. The Yankees win when they hit and take Boone out of the equation. When they don’t hit and let Boone get his hands on the game, well, you get games like the last two. The more close games the Yankees are forced to play, the more they will lose with Boone having to make important bullpen decisions.

Last week against the Mariners, the Yankees nearly overcame a late-game deficit after being stifled by Bryan Woo, but Boone made sure it wasn’t possible. Trailing by two runs, Boone let Dennis Santana double the deficit. Then after the Yankees cut the deficit from four to one, he used Clayton Andrews to push the deficit back to two. (Immediately after the game, Andrews was sent to the minors. Good enough to pitch in the seventh inning of a one-run game, but not good enough to be a major leaguer after the ninth inning.)

On Sunday, Boone used Victor Gonzalez as the first guy out of the bullpen with a one-run lead and the tying run on base. Gonzalez let that run score and then another two, and the Yankees lost.

On Tuesday, after Rizzo’s error, Boone removed Luke Weaver in favor of Clay Holmes. (Ever since Boone pissed away the game in Milwaukee last month, he has been using Holmes for multi-inning save opportunities.) I don’t trust Holmes with clean innings, let alone with two runners on, considering it usually takes him a few pitches to gain his control and command, and sure enough, the first pitch was an elevated sinker that got crushed for a go-ahead, two-run double.

“I had to make a pitch, and I think he just put a good swing on that sinker there,” Holmes said. “He put it in the air, which doesn’t happen very often.”

8. The bullpen being untrustworthy and not very good isn’t all on Boone. While he rarely puts his players in the best possible position to succeed, he didn’t build the bullpen he’s working with. The Dodgers didn’t give away Gonzalez and Caleb Ferguson because they thought they would help them win the World Series. They’re the Dodgers. It’s not the Pirates giving up on and giving away Holmes. Nick Burdi wasn’t available as a free-agent signing because he’s often healthy and has a history of impeccable control. Dennis Santana isn’t on his fourth team in four years because he’s really good.

The only trustworthy relievers the Yankees boast at the moment are Holmes, Weaver and Tommy Kahnle, and I don’t trust Holmes with anything less than a four-run lead, a month ago I figured Weaver would be pitching in an independent league by Independence Day and Kahnle has thrown 19 pitches this season. If the Yankees don’t have a big lead, the bullpen will either blow it or come as close as possible to blowing it, and Boone will see to it.

8. I got a good laugh out of Boone batting DJ LeMahieu ninth in his season debut on Tuesday. LeMahieu hit behind Rizzo (.680 OPS), Torres (.631 OPS) and Austin Wells (.591 OPS). It wasn’t the “HAHA THAT’S HILARIOUS!” type of laugh, it was a “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS GUY IS THE MANAGER OF THE YANKEES STILL” type of laugh.

LeMahieu looks like himself at the plate. He drove the first pitch he saw to right field, which is where you want LeMahieu to be driving the ball) at 99.5 mph. He drew a walk in his second plate appearance, hit a 99.5 mph flyout in his third and a 101.7 mph flyout in his fourth (a ball that had a .680 expected batting average, but was caught).

When LeMahieu is healthy and going right, he should be hitting no lower than fifth in the lineup. I would hit him first, but Boone’s love for Anthony Volpe will outweigh what’s best for the team. And because Boone has to alternate righty-lefty throughout the lineup, a lefty will always hit fourth, and because Rizzo flat out sucks, Alex Verdugo is the only option there.

9. Well, he’s the only option until Jasson Dominguez is ready. Once Dominguez is ready, he should be an everyday Yankee. Will he be? Of course not. That would make too much sense. Veteran status, reputation and money owed will always trump talent and ability with the Yankees, so when Dominguez is ready to be activated, expect him to go to Triple-A.

10. The Yankees will try to end their two-game slide in which they blew late one-run leads in both games on Wednesday night in Anaheim as this 10-day, nine-game road trip continues. They will have to do it against the solid left-hander Tyler Anderson. I expect Rizzo to be on the bench for this one. Lefty starter or not, he deserves to be.

The Yankees suffered their worst loss of the season on Monday, losing 5-4 after blowing a three-run lead to the Mariners with one out and no one on in the ninth inning.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. When Jon Berti ended the fourth inning by hitting into a double play with the bases loaded, and when Giancarlo Stanton hit into an inning-ending double play in the fifth inning with runners on the corners, and when Stanton again ended the seventh inning with a double play with the bases loaded, I figured those three enormous missed opportunities would come back to haunt the Yankees later in the game. But after the Yankees were able to extend their 3-1 lead to 4-1 going into the ninth, I brushed those fears aside. There was no way the anemic Mariners offense was going to score three runs with three outs left to play with.

I was wrong. They scored four.

2. With one out and no one on, the Mariners soft contacted Clay Holmes all the way to a blown save and then a loss. It started with a Julio Rodriguez swinging bunt in front of home after Holmes couldn’t put him away with two strikes. Then it was Cal Raleigh drawing a walk after Holmes couldn’t put him away with two strikes either. Luke Riley hit a slow roller to second that Gleyber Torres sloppily threw away as Anthony Rizzo gave the least amount of effort possible to keep the ball from getting by him. Mitch Haniger blooped a single into no man’s land between Aaron Judge and Juan Soto and Dylan Moore drew a walk after being behind 0-2 in the count. Dominic Canzone tied the game with a sacrifice fly to the wall in right and Ty France gave the Mariners the lead with a single up the middle. Holmes faced eight batters, retired one, walked two, gave up four hits and four runs.

“That one’s on me,” Holmes said.

3. The loss felt very much like the Yankees loss to the Reds at the Stadium on July 12, 2022 when Holmes entered in the ninth with a 3-0 lead, faced five batters, hit two of them, walked another and gave up two hits. He didn’t record an out, allowed four runs and the Yankees’ 3-0 ninth-inning lead became a 4-3 loss.

“My stuff, I thought it was good enough tonight,” Holmes said. “I just didn’t make the pitch when I needed to.”

4. Anyone who has watched every Holmes appearance this season knows he hasn’t been as good as his 0.00 ERA (entering last night) suggested. He needed Soto to throw out a runner at the plate in his very first appearance on Opening Day to prevent a blown save. He has been on the fortunate end of line drives being hit right at Yankees infielders to double off runners. He has been lucky to have as many ground balls hit at fielders as he has had. The luck wore off on Monday, and the result was a disastrous loss. The Yankees have only lost 16 games this season, but this one to the Mariners was easily the worst.

5. It’s hard to be overly upset (except if you had the Yankees’ money line like I did), considering the team’s record and Holmes’ overall performance through this point in the season. Winners of seven straight, the Yankees weren’t going to win every game for the rest of the season, but it would have been nice if their next loss was because their starting pitcher laid an egg or their offense no-showed and not an excruciating, painful ninth-inning loss in which they had a three-run lead with two outs to go and no one on.

6. The loss was a reminder of what it’s like to have a closer who relies on ground balls and not strikeouts to generate outs. If you allow the ball to be put in play, bad things can happen. There have been a lot of soft contact hits against Holmes this year, though, prior to Monday, he always found a way to get out of the inning before the game was ruined, either by making pitches or getting lucky. Against the Mariners, he couldn’t make pitches, couldn’t put away three hitters with two strikes and couldn’t get lucky.

“I was ahead on a couple of guys there 0-2, 1-2, and put them on base,” Holmes said. “They could hav been big outs.”

I’m not upset that ground balls found holes, Rodriguez reached on a swinging bunt or Haniger blooped a ball perfectly between two fielders. I’m upset that Holmes walked two batters with a three-run lead.

7. Because the Mariners rely on their pitching and lack offense, it’s likely all four games in this series will be close. Holmes pitched on Sunday, so him pitching on Monday meant by the idiotic Yankees rules, he wasn’t going to pitch on Tuesday no matter what. Because he threw 31 pitches, he probably won’t be available on Wednesday either. Not only did Holmes ruin Monday’s game, but the Yankees lost and now don’t have their closer for at least the next two games.

The Yankees will have Luke Weaver available though, and somehow Weaver went from barely being a major leaguer to now being the Yankees’ latest version of Jonathan Loaisiga or Michael King. This is Weaver’s line over his last 11 appearances: 18 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 24 K. He’s throwing strikes, missing bats, not walking anyone and hasn’t allowed a run for the equivalent of two games.

8. “To be honest, it’s baseball,” Marcus Stroman said. “It was very weak contact. Essentially, if they hit the ball harder on some of those plays, we probably wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Stroman is right, and he said all the rights things even after having to watch his 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball disappear in the ninth. It was the longest Stroman has pitched into a game this season through 10 starts.

“He was dealing,” Aaron Boone said. “He had it all going.”

9. When disaster strikes the Yankees on the field, Torres is usually involved, and he was again in the ninth inning of this one. After fielding a slow roller that should have been put in his back pocket, Torres threw off balance to the left of Rizzo, whose picking ability has evaded him this season. It was a losing play by a losing play in what was a horrible loss. Torres did make up for it at the plate by going 0-for-3 with a walk.

10. The Yankees left 13 runners on in the game (the Mariners only left five). They hit into three double plays (two from Stanton and one from Berti) and were caught stealing on both of their steal attempts (one by Anthony Volpe and one by Berti). The offense was sloppy and Holmes’ meltdown was the cherry on top of a wildly frustrating night.

“A loss is a loss,” Judge said. “You’ve got one of the best closers in the game, and stuff like that is bound to happen at some point.”

Holmes 0.00 ERA is gone. The Yankees’ perfect record of 28-0 when leading after eight innings is over. The seven-game winning streak is no more. Start a new one on Tuesday.