The Yankees bounced back from their disgraceful loss to the White Sox by beating the worst team in baseball history 4-1 on Tuesday. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees. 1. For every game that
The Yankees bounced back from their disgraceful loss to the White Sox by beating the worst team in baseball history 4-1 on Tuesday.
1. For every game that comes off the schedule, Yankees fans are one day closer to not having to watch Gleyber Torres or Alex Verdugo play for the team. But for every game that comes off the schedule, it also means Yankees fans are one day closer to Juan Soto possibly no longer being a Yankee.
It’s a thought I don’t even like to think. It’s a world I don’t want to envision: one without Soto on the Yankees. But it’s a very real possibility and given Hal Steinbrenner’s knack for crying poor in every opportunity he gets despite the Yankees generating more revenue than any other team in the game, it’s a world Yankees fans must be prepared to live in.
2. On Tuesday in Chicago, Soto single-handedly beat the White Sox, hitting three home runs and driving in all four of the Yankees runs in their 4-1 win. Without him, the Yankees would have suffered a second straight defeat to the worst team in the history of baseball, a team that has won two games in a month. It was the first three home run game of Soto’s career, but it was already his sixth multi-home run game as a Yankee, having had one two days earlier as well.
3. “I feel like in watching Juan, I’m watching one of the best seasons I’ve ever seen,” Aaron Boone said. “I try not to take it for granted. I just know that is one tough at-bat, every single day.”
Boone is watching one of the best seasons he has seen, or anyone has seen. And he’s smart to not take it for granted since as of now there are only 41 guaranteed games remaining with Soto in a Yankees uniform.
4. Aaron Judge called Soto “the greatest hitter in the game” despite Judge having a season rivaling his historic 2022 campaign. Soto, in turn, called Judge “the greatest one” on Tuesday.
Judge may be the AL MVP frontrunner, but he’s right that Soto is “the greatest hitter in the game.” Soto, at age 25, already has 193 home runs and 739 walks. When Judge was Soto’s age, he had played in 45 major-league games.
5. Soto is just four months older than “kids” Oswaldo Cabrera and Ben Rice and only nine months older than Austin Wells. He will be 26 years old on Opening Day 2025, coming off the best season of his career and having not yet entered his prime. He’s the guy you open the checkbook for and give him whatever he wants.
6. “Look, we went and got him and paid a big price to bring him here, because we know what a special player he is,” Boone said. “We’ve seen every bit of that and probably more.”
The first part of what Boone said is why I feel the Yankees will re-sign Soto in that the Yankees “paid a big price to bring him here.” I don’t think they went into this thinking it would only be a one-year thing. But once he hits free agency, it’s out of their control, unless they are the highest bidder.
7. The Yankees are set up to be able to pay Soto with Torres’ $14.2 million and Verdugo’s $8.7 million coming off the books. That’s $22.9 million right there. Add it to Soto’s current $31 million, and there’s the roughly $50 million per year it’s going to take to keep him. Factor in Wells, Cabrera, Rice, Anthony Volpe, Luis Gil and Jasson Dominguez all making nothing in terms of major-league salaries and the Yankees are set up to meet Scott Boras’ demands for Soto.
8. Re-signing Soto isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. Without him and with him signing elsewhere, the countdown for the end of Torres and Verdugo may have been for nothing with the Yankees potentially re-signing one or both with the funds put aside for Soto. Losing Soto would be disastrous because the Yankees wouldn’t have him making them worse, another team would making that team better and the available free agents not named Juan Soto aren’t once-in-a-lifetime talents.
9. We know what the Yankees are without Soto, even with Judge at his best. I don’t want to relive that over and over until Judge exits his prime. At 32, who knows how long Judge has left of his prime. I don’t buy the idea Judge would be upset by being the second-highest paid player on the team behind Soto, who will undoubtedly sign for more than the $40 million salary Judge receives. With salaries rising each year, are the Yankees supposed to not sign anyone until Judge retires and is no longer the highest paid player on the team? I think Judge wants to win to erase being the face of these Yankees, a group that hasn’t won in his first seven seasons, and Soto helps his chances at winning.
10. With Soto (25), Wells (25), Volpe (23), Rice (25), Dominguez (21) and Jazz Chisholm (26), the Yankees would set up for the foreseeable future with a strong, young core to potentially have the kind of future the last core could have had, but didn’t. It all hinges on re-signing Soto. If the Yankees don’t re-sign Soto then none of it matters. If they don’t re-sign him, being a Yankees fan won’t matter.
The Yankees were embarrassed by the White Sox, losing 12-2. It was the most runs the White Sox have scored this season.
The Yankees were embarrassed by the White Sox, losing 12-2 in Chicago. It was the most runs the White Sox have scored this season, their biggest margin of victory and just their second win in their last 26 games. The Yankees left 18 runners on base and fell to 5-5 in August against the Blue Jays, Angels, Rangers and White Sox, four teams that won’t reach the playoffs.
The Yankees were blown out by the White Sox 12-2 on Monday. The team on pace for the most losses in a season in the modern era of baseball routed a team that believes it
The Yankees were blown out by the White Sox 12-2 on Monday. The team on pace for the most losses in a season in the modern era of baseball routed a team that believes it can win a championship.
The next three games are the easiest the Yankees will play as an organization for a long time. It may be the easiest three games they ever play for the rest of time. Three games against the 28-91 White Sox, a team that is on pace to win 38 games and finishes with the most losses (124) since the modern era dating back to the start of the 1900s. The White Sox have won one of their last 25 games and anything less than a sweep over the next three days won’t just be a disappointment, it will be a disgraceful failure.
Nine innings into the series and the series is already a disgraceful failure for the Yankees. Sadly, the series was a disgraceful failure long before nine innings were completed.
2. The first three batters of the game for the Yankees reached, and only one of them scored. In the second inning the bases were left loaded. In the third inning they stranded two. In the fourth inning the bases were left loaded for a third time. They left one on in each of the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, and in the eighth, for a fourth time, the bases were left loaded. In the ninth, they stranded two more.
3. The Yankees had nine hits and 11 walks, totaling 20 baserunners and two of them scored. It was just the second time in franchise history the team had 20-plus baserunners and scored two or fewer runs with the last time being 112 years ago before the team’s name became the Yankees.
4. “That wasn’t the issue,” Aaron Boone said in defense of his offense. “We couldn’t keep them off the board.”
Well, the offense was an issue, and keeping them off the board was also an issue. It’s hard to win a game when you score two runs, even against the White Sox.
5. “Offensively, we had the right at-bats,” Boone said. “Offensively, the at-bats were fine.”
Boone’s level of delusion is unlike any other in the game, but these two statements from him are flat-out crazy.
When the Yankees’ first three batters of the game reached, the next three popped up. Right at-bats?
When they had runners on the corners with one out in the second, Juan Soto popped one up in the infield. Right at-bat?
When they had first and second with one out in the third, Jazz Chisholm hit into an inning-ending double play (his first double play of the season). Right at-bat?
When the first two hitters walked in the fourth with the Yankees trailing by one run in a game against the worst pitching staff in the league, Alex Verdugo inexplicably tried to lay down a bunt and popped out to the pitcher. Right at-bat?
The Yankees left a runner in scoring position in the fifth and again in the sixth. They left a runner on in the seventh and couldn’t score with the bases loaded in the eighth. In the ninth, the first two hitters walked and neither of them reached third, let alone score. Right at-bats in all of those innings?
The Yankees went 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position and stranded 18 baserunners on the night. Right at-bats!
6. “We pressed,” Boone said. “Could have been one of those nights we threw a lot of crooked numbers up there.”
Could have, should have, would have. Spoken like a true loser, which Boone is. And being the loser he is, he added another line to his resume of memorable moments as Yankees manager:
Only Yankees manager to get a fifth season on the job without a championship (and now a sixth and seventh season)
Manager for the most lopsided home postseason loss in franchise history (Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS)
Manager for the worst single-month record in 33 years
Manager for the worst season record in 31 years
Manager for the most steals allowed in a single game by franchise in 109 years
Manager for the first three-plus-game-series sweep by NL team at Yankee Stadium in franchise history
Manager for the first Yankees team to lose five straight home series in 34 years
Manager for the first time in Yankees history the team allowed 35-plus home runs and had a losing record over any 16-game span
Manager for the first Yankees team to not steal a base over 20 consecutive games in 61 years
Manager of the first team in the organization to have 20-plus baserunners in a game and score two or fewer runs since the franchise name became Yankees 113 years ago
7. For as bad as the offense was, Luis Gil was just as bad and the bullpen was worse.
Gil got rocked over four innings, allowing seven hits, two walks and four earned runs to a team that came into the game barely averaging three runs per game for the season.
After Gil needed 98 pitches to get 12 outs, former White Sox Tim Hill showed why arguably the worst team in baseball history released him, allowing a run of his own. Enyel De Los Santos pitched the final 1 2/3 innings and allowed seven earned runs on eight hits.
8. The White Sox’ 12 runs were the most they have scored all season and just the second time they reached double digits. Their 18 hits were also a season high with nine of the 18 hits going for extra bases. Not a single White Sox hitter entered the game with an OPS of .700, and yet, they lit up the Yankees’ best starter, got to one of the Yankees’ reclamation projects and then ruined one of the two relief arms they acquired at the deadline (likely ending De Los Santos’ Yankees tenure).
9. The Orioles didn’t play on Monday, so the Yankees lost a half-game in the standings, putting them a half-game behind for the AL East. Really, the Yankees are now 1 1/2 games back since the Orioles hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.
10. Losing one of these three games has already made this series a disgraceful failure. Losing one of the next two, or possibly both? I don’t know how one could even describe such a result. But with Nestor Cortes and his 6.08 road ERA on Tuesday and then a bullpen game on Wednesday with this miserable bullpen, I may have to start thinking about how to describe it.
The Yankees won the three-game series against the Rangers to finish their nine-game homestand 5-4. It may have been a winning homestand, but given the opponents it was a disappointment. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
The Yankees won the three-game series against the Rangers to finish their nine-game homestand 5-4. It may have been a winning homestand, but given the opponents it was a disappointment.
1. If you had told me 10 days ago I could sign up for a 5-4 homestand for the Yankees against the Blue Jays, Angels and Rangers, I wouldn’t have. Despite the Yankees posting a winning record over the nine games, finishing one game above .500 against three teams counting down the days until their miserable seasons end, it was a disappointment.
The Yankees were supposed to get fat in the win column in August. They were supposed to make up for their poor play that lasted from mid-June through the end of July. They were supposed to try to create separation from the Orioles with the Orioles playing a harder schedule during this month. It could still happen. The Yankees could rip off a long winning streak (especially with their next six games against the White Sox and Tigers), but they wasted a nine-game homestand against three teams that are currently a combined 32 games under .500.
2. It’s always hard to sweep a doubleheader, but you had to like the Yankees’ chances to do so on Saturday, especially after they walloped the Rangers 8-0 in the first game with Carlos Rodon outpitching my most hated ex-Yankee in the league Nathan Eovaldi.
For Rodon, even though he walked five in 5 2/3 innings, it was his fourth straight solid start, as the Yankees have won four of those starts with him pitching to a 2.22 ERA against the Rays, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Rangers. It’s not exactly who the Yankees will be facing in October, but at least Rodon is somewhat earning his salary these days, something he didn’t do from mid-June to mid-July.
3. The second game of the doubleheader was tied at 1 when Gerrit Cole was pulled after getting the leadoff hitter out in the sixth. Cole had struck out 10 of the 23 batters he faced and was dealing, but at 90 pitches and needing his start pushed back due to fatigue, you knew he wasn’t going to be allowed to go as long as he would have liked. Aaron Boone removed Cole for Luke Weaver and Weaver did his best to keep the old adage “it’s hard to sweep a doubleheader” alive.
Against Weaver, the Rangers went single, single, single, bases-loaded walk, sacrifice fly, three-run home run. Weaver got one out, allowed four hits, a walk and five earned runs. He entered a 1-1 game and left losing 6-1. It was a disastrous performance.
“He has been so good for us,” Boone said. “It wasn’t his day. I don’t think he had the right feel for the changeup.”
Boone didn’t think Weaver had “the right feel for the changeup” as Weaver couldn’t throw it for a strike in the zone and couldn’t get anyone to bite on it out of the zone, but that didn’t stop Boone from sticking with him when he clearly didn’t have it. The worst part about the inning was the four-pitch, bases-loaded walk. It’s hard to ever have trust in a pitcher who can walk a batter on four pitches with the bases loaded, let alone walk the 9-hitter in that situation. It will be a while until I trust Weaver again.
The game was over when Weaver began his walk back to the dugout, but for anyone who had an inkling of hope the Yankees may come back against the Rangers’ bullpen, Michael Tonkin made sure that didn’t happen by allowing five hits and three earned runs of his own in 1 1/3 innings in an eventual 9-4 loss.
4. Sunday was the rubber game for the series and the homestand. Knowing the law of ex-Yankees, I didn’t feel good about Andrew Heaney getting the ball for the Rangers, envisioning eight dominant innings from him with fellow ex-Yankee David Robertson coming in to close out the game. Add in Marcus Stroman and his 6.32 ERA since the start of June, and I was worried the Yankees may lose a second straight series to a struggling AL West team.
The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the first, added a run in the third and three more in the fifth. A 5-0 lead with 12 outs to go at home. A nice, easy, relaxing Sunday win, right? Wrong.
A friend texted me to ask me how many runs the bullpen needed for me to feel comfortable. I responded, “Six.”
With a five-run to start the sixth, Boone decided he would put my answer of six to the test by allowing Stroman to face the Rangers’ lineup for a third time. Josh Smith worked an eight-pitch walk against Stroman to lead off the inning and Corey Seager ripped an RBI double to right. Boone decided he wasn’t going to try to steal another out with Stroman against Semien and went to Jake Cousins. Cousins came in to strike out the side.
The Yankees got the run back in the bottom half of the inning, but after Adolis Garcia led off the seventh with a single, Boone pulled Cousins for Tommyy Kahnle. A couple of singles and a fielder’s choice mess between Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Volpe later, and the Yankees’ lead was down to 6-3.
Boone has admitted there would be “growing pains” with Chisholm at third and the first time we saw a growing pain was when he cut in front of Volpe to field the ball in the seventh. He’s learning a new position at the major-league level, so he gets every pass in the book.
You would think after seven years of Gleyber Torres playing second base there wouldn’t be any “growing pains” with him, but there somehow still are. I guess they aren’t growing pains at this point, but rather stupidity, as the play after Chisholm cut in front of Volpe, Torres cut in front of Volpe to field a ball on the shortstop side of the bag. Thankfully, Torres made the play and ended the inning, because had he not, it would have been the worst play/decision of Torres’ career, which seems impossible given all of the fuck-ups he has had in the field, at the plate and on the bases.
Juan Soto and Aaron Judge went back-to-back in the bottom half of the seventh and the offense got the runs back the bullpen gave up for a second straight inning. And they needed all of them.
In the eighth, Mark Leiter Jr. gave up two solo home runs and a double, forcing Boone to go to Clay Holmes for a four-out save. With the Yankees clinging to an 8-6 lead in the ninth, Holmes quickly struck out Semien and Josh Jung to begin the inning and then the wheels came off.
Holmes walked Wyatt Langford and then walked Nathaniel Lowe. Garcia followed with an RBI single to make it an 8-7 game, and the Rangers had runners on the corners with two outs. That turned into second and third when Garcia stole second without a throw. Holmes had thrown 39 pitches, still needed to get an out, and was a single away from the Yankees trailing. Fortunately, he got a ground ball from Leody Tavares. Unfortunately, Tavares hit the ball to Torres. Torres went to field it with his glove and fell over momentarily before regaining his balance and throwing to first to end the game. Holmes finished with 46 pitches which are the most he has thrown in four seasons with the Yankees and the most he had thrown in a game since 2019.
5. “It was a win,” Judge said. “It was another good one. I’m happy to win the series and get back [to] the winning ways.”
It was a too-close-for-comfort win, which happen all too often with this Yankees bullpen. Weaver had his worst game of the season on Saturday, Leiter Jr. followed with his worst on Sunday after Kahnle was his usual untrustworthy self, and Holmes did the best he could to add to his league-leading blown save total. This bullpen is a problem and it seems unfixable between now and the end of the season.
6. Here are season slash lines for three different players:
Player A: .239/.298/.372 (10 home runs, 50 RBIs) Player B: .238/.310/.354 (10 home runs, 45 RBIs) Player C: .255/.326/.443 (20 home runs, 61 RBIs)
Here are the slash lines for those same players since July 28:
Player A: .265/.351/.367 (0 home runs, 2 RBIs) Player B: .250/.309/.250 (0 home runs, 6 RBIs) Player C: .296/.345/.704 (7 home runs, 11 RBIs)
Here are where those three players have hit in the order since July 28:
Player A is Verdugo, Player B is Torres and Player C is Chisholm. July 28 is when Chisholm played his first game as a Yankee.
We keep hearing from Boone how well Verdugo and Torres have swung the bat of late, even though it’s untrue, but how come we never hear from him about how well Chisholm is swinging the bat?
Verdugo and Torres are free agents after this season. The Yankees owe them nothing once this season ends and neither are a part of the team’s future plan. The Yankees traded for the younger Chisholm, who they have under control for 2025 and 2026. He’s not only part of their future and expected to be a better player than both, he’s already a better player than both. And yet, he’s the one who was forced to change his position upon arrival, and he’s the one who keeps hitting in the bottom third of the order, while the other two are given unlimited opportunities to hit in the most important places in the order.
7. There is nothing Boone wants more than for his Verdugo to be his everyday leadoff hitter. Even though Verdugo’s team-worst .298 on-base percentage and sad .669 OPS suggest he should hit at the bottom of the lineup (or not even be in the lineup), Boone continues to force Verdugo into the top of the order. Verdugo played in eight of the nine games on the homestand, batted first in six of them and hit .235/.297/.294 in 37 plate appearances. Verdugo doesn’t walk (again, a .298 OBP), doesn’t hit for average (.239 batting average) and doesn’t hit for power (.372 slugging percentage). His last home run came in the Ben Rice three-home run game against the Red Sox on July 6 (37 days ago) and that’s his only home run since June 14 at Fenway Park (59 days ago). Verdugo is great when the Yankees are playing the Red Sox, and he sucks against everyone else.
Torres posted a .676 OPS on the homestand, appearing in eight games like Verdugo. Torres batted first three times and never batted lower than seventh. He had no extra-base hits in the eight games, and is hitting .241/.295/.259 over the last two weeks. But hey, keep playing him everyday!
8. Austin Wells is the man. Well, the man on a normal player level, not the Soto/Judge level that only those two play on. Wells’ slash line is up to .251/.344/.417, which may not seem like anything to someone who doesn’t watch him or the team every day, but that line was at .086/.261/.086 near the end of April. Since April 24, Wells is hitting .280/.361/.475, becoming the best-hitting catcher in the majors. If Boone isn’t going to give LeMahieu an extended look at leadoff then Wells is deserving of one. Knowing Boone, he loves having Wells there to break up Judge and Giancarlo Stanton against a right-handed starter, and won’t move him from the cleanup spot for anything.
9. Golden Boy Anthony Volpe is 0-for-23 with 10 strikeouts going back to the first game of the doubleheader against the Angels last week. After Volpe briefly got hot following the All-Star break and told Meredith Marakovits he didn’t change anything or his approach during the time off, he wasn’t kidding. His on-base percentage is back below .300 (.297) and his slugging percentage is back under .700 (.687). Luckily for Volpe, he will never be sat because Oswald Peraza is red hot at Triple-A and would deserve a look at some point if not for Volpe’s never-ending immunity.
10. The next three games are the easiest the Yankees will play as an organization for a long time. It may be the easiest three games they ever play for the rest of time. Three games against the 28-91 White Sox, a team that is on pace to win 38 games and finishes with the most losses (124) since the modern era dating back to the start of the 1900s. The White Sox have won one of their last 25 games and anything less than a sweep over the next three days won’t just be a disappointment, it will be a disgraceful failure.
The Yankees lost 9-4 to the Angels. They are now 8-16 in games started by Nestor Cortes and 60-32 in all other games. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
The Yankees lost 9-4 to the Angels. They are now 8-16 in games started by Nestor Cortes and 60-32 in all other games.
1. Does any Yankees fan feel confident in the starting rotation? I don’t know how you could. Aaron Boone said after Thursday’s second straight loss to the Angels that he feels confident about the rotation, but he’s the same person who continued to play Anthony Rizzo after Rizzo told him about his fogginess and head injury last summer.
Between Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman, 40 percent of the Yankees’ rotation is not worthy of being on the postseason roster. On days Carlos Rodon pitches, you pray the version of Rodon that pitched himself into a $162 million contract shows up, and on days Gerrit Cole pitches, you pray his elbow doesn’t tear and that he can be even a shell of his Cy Young self. And once every five days Luis Gil pitches, and even when he doesn’t have his best stuff (like he didn’t on Wednesday against the Angels and still pitched five scoreless innings), he’s still great. So one day every time through the rotation Yankees fans can feel confident in that day’s starting pitcher.
2. It’s been a long time since any Yankees fan could feel confident with Cortes getting the ball. After losing on Thursday, the Yankees are now 8-16 in games Cortes starts and 60-32 in all other games. Cortes has given the Yankees one quality start over the last seven weeks and has failed to get through five innings in four of his last five starts. Against the Angels, for the fourth time in his last five starts he put at least 10 baserunners on.
“To their credit they fought off a lot of good pitches that I threw tonight,” the delusional Cortes said after giving up six earned runs on nine hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings.
Over Cortes’ last five starts, he has pitched 23 1/3 innings and put 56 runners on base with a 9.26 ERA and 1.082 OPS. So he has turned every hitter over his last five starts into somewhere between Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.
3. During the All-Star break, Cortes tweeted the following:
“Everyone talks down about the yanks but they wanna be us. It’s a privilege to wear pinstripes. Every year we are in contention. I’m blessed to be able to compete for a playoff spot and always be contenders at the end.“
I don’t know who wants to be Cortes with his 9.26 ERA over his last five starts and one quality start since mid-June. But if wearing the pinstripes is such a privilege, you would think Cortes would do more to try to ensure he keeps wearing pinstripes, rather than just talking about how good he was despite his pitching line and the scoreboard suggesting otherwise.
4. It’s not entirely Cortes’ fault that he has trouble giving an honest evaluation of his starts since his manager continues to blow smoke up the left-hander’s ass.
“I actually thought Nestor threw the ball OK,” Boone said after his starter put 10 runners on in 4 2/3 innings and allowed six earned runs. “He wasn’t giving up a ton of hard contact.”
Just hard enough for the Angels to hang six runs on him.
5. After Cortes’ July 11 start against the Rays when he put 10 baserunners on in 4 1/3 innings, Boone said, “He pitched well.”
After Cortes’ July 20 start against the Rays when he put 10 baserunners on in 4 1/3 innings again, Boone said, “I thought the profile of the stuff was there.”
The start after that Cortes put 12 baserunners on in a loss to the Red Sox and the start after that he gave up three earned runs in 5 1/3 innings to the Phillies.
Despite all of that positivity from Boone after each failed outing, here is what Boone said after Thursday’s loss to the Angels about Cortes’ run of poor performances.
“There were a few starts there where it wasn’t great.”
What? You told everyone how well Cortes was pitching and good the profile of his stuff looked. Now it wasn’t great?
“A couple where he didn’t have that extra gear on his heater,” Boone said. “Felt like he got that last time in Philly.”
Cortes gave up three earned runs on 5 1/3 innings in Philadelphia. That’s a 5.09 ERA. That is Cortes having an extra gear on his heater?
6. “Felt like today, you look at the profile was good,” Boone said after Cortes lost to the Angels.
The Angels have the third-worst offense in the American League and scored six runs off Cortes in 4 2/3 innings and Boone thought the “profile” of his pitches was “good.” How can that be? What would a Cortes start look like if the profile of his pitches was bad?
The offense was also a problem over the last two-and-a-half games against the Angels. Over the last 23 innings of the series, the Yankees scored six runs. They didn’t score in the last five innings of the first game of the series, were held to two in the second game and scored three meaningless, garbage-time runs at the end of the third game, while the Angels blasted them for 17 runs in the second and third games.
7. Boone keeps mentioning “guys coming back from injury.” Who is coming back from injury? Clarke Schmidt is a ways away. Anthony Rizzo is swinging a bat. Jon Berti keeps getting hurt while hurt. The only potential difference-maker that could return is Schmidt because he pushes Cortes and Stroman out of the equation, but he’s not close to returning. Boone kept talking about Stanton returning before he returned and how that would seemingly fix everything and Stanton has been the bad version of himself and has fixed nothing as Judge keeps getting intentionally walked.
Boone loves to speak under the assumption that players will return from injury, but that no one will leave the roster to injury. He thinks the roster is what it is and will add pieces, forgetting that he could very well lose pieces. No team is ever at 100 percent, and the Yankees haven’t been at 100 percent late in the season or in the postseason in a long time.
8. With the loss the Yankees are now 9-18 in their last 27 home games, having won one of their last nine home series. That seems impossible for an organization that always puts up gaudy numbers at home and always has one of the best home records in the league, but it is.
The Orioles lost too so no ground was lost by the Yankees in the division. That’s both good and bad. It’s good because no ground was lost. It’s bad because the Orioles’ lack of winning continues to give the Yankees an excuse for a lack of urgency. The manager and players of the Yankees have preached about the great position they remain in since mid-June despite their wildly inconsistent play, even though the only reason they are in that position is because the Orioles have been equally as bad.
9. With the soft, cupcake schedule the Yankees have in August, I expected them to get fat in the win column and possibly even create separation from the Orioles. Through six August games, all at home, against a Blue Jays team that gave up and traded pieces off their major-league roster at the deadline and an Angels team that hasn’t been good since Opening Day, the Yankees are 3-3. It’s unacceptable for a team that has World Series aspirations.
10. An organization that has actually won the World Series within the last 14 years (and appeared in three of those 14) comes to town in the Rangers. The Rangers have been desperately trying to save their season and avoid missing out on the postseason a year after winning it all. It’s a team the Yankees should beat, It’s a series the Yankees should win. But I thought the same thing about the Angels series. This weekend would be a good time for the Yankees to begin to manage and play with urgency. If they know how to.
