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.
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: 1, 1, 1, 7, 1, 1, 1, 4, 9, 1, 1, 1
Player B: 6, 7, 6, 1, 7, 5, 1, 1, 1, 5, 6, 6
Player C: 5, 6, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 7
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.
Last modified: Aug 12, 2024
