Yankees Thoughts: A Disgraceful Loss

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.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Embarrassing. Disturbing. Upsetting. Humiliating. The Yankees’ 12-2 loss to the White Sox on Monday was all that and more.

Here is what I wrote in the Yankees Thoughts on Monday:

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.