1. I wasn’t surprised that Tuesday’s Yankees-Mariners game was 0-0 through five innings. I wasn’t surprised when the Mariners took a 1-0 lead on a solo home run in the sixth, and I wasn’t surprised when the Yankees trailed 1-0 in the seventh. I was surprised when the Yankees rallied to tie the game and then take the lead in the seventh en route to a 4-1 win.
2. The four runs the Yankees scored in the seventh inning were more runs than they had scored in 10 of their previous 13 games. It was just the third time since July 27 that the Yankees scored four runs in an inning. To add to the unbelievability of the four-run outburst, the Yankees did it all without the long ball.
3. Luis Garcia doubled to lead off the seventh and Jazz Chisholm followed with a single to put runners on the corners with no outs. George Lombard Jr. — batting sixth for the second time as a major leaguer in his sixth career game — struck out for the first out. Spencer Jones walked to load the bases and Ryan McMahon singled in Garcia and Chisholm with a ground ball through the infield. Austin Wells followed with a bloop single to reload the bases, and Trent Grisham singled in Jones and McMahon with another ground ball through the infield. It’s crazy what can happen when the ball is put in play!
4. Ryan Weathers was very good again (5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 HR). It was Weathers’ fourth straight strong start and in those four starts, he has this line: 24.1 IP, 15 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 8 BB, 21 K, 1 HR, 0.74 ERA, 0.945 WHIP. Someone is going to have to come out of the rotation when Carlos Rodon is activated and that someone shouldn’t be Weathers.
5. Tim Hill rediscovered his ability to induce ground balls instead of allow home runs and retired all four batters he faced with grounders. Brent Headrick added to his major-league-leading scoreless appearance total with his 51st such appearance (stat from Katie Sharp), and David Bednar closed the door by working around an infield single that should have been ruled an error on Chisholm.
6. Grisham went 2-for-4, but led off the game with an out for the 51st time in 66 games. Rice went 0-for-3 with a walk and three strikeouts, as he’s down to .121/.237/.242 over the last three weeks. Heliot Ramos put up another 0-for, as he’s 2-for-21 with nine strikeouts as a Yankee. (Good thing two prospects got traded and Jasson Dominguez got sent down for Ramos!) Garcia went 2-for-4 and Chisholm went 1-for-3 with a walk. Lombard Jr. singled the other way in his first at-bat, grounded out in his second at-bat, struck out in this third at-bat and grounded out on the 12th pitch of his fourth at-bat, as the quality of his at-bats remains impressive. Jones went 0-for-2 with a walk, McMahon went 1-for-3 and Wells went 1-for-3. It was the most positive all-around offensive performance in weeks.
7. “Been a struggle several weeks now where it’s been difficult for us scoring runs,” Aaron Boone said. “We’ve had to play in a lot of really close games … and don’t do a good job against a lot of good teams winning those games.”
It hasn’t been a struggle to score runs for several weeks, it’s been several months now. And who exactly are the “good” teams the Yankees are beating in close games? The Braves? OK. The Mariners? They are eight games under .500. The Cardinals? They are .500 and sold at the deadline. The Cubs? OK. The White Sox? No. The Phillies? They are currently out of the playoff picture.
“I hope it serves us well in the end,” Boone said about playing close games every day. “I think that there’s value in playing these games and proving we can win in these games.”
I agree there is value in playing in and winning these games, however, it won’t serve them well when Headrick and Bednar have nothing left at the end of the season. If the Yankees as an organization care about whether or not they host the Wild Card series they will inevitably be playing in, then they are going to be playing with a purpose up until the final days of the season. There’s going to be no early clinch and treating the last weeks of the season like the end of spring training. The Yankees are going to be in a battle with the Red Sox for where the Wild Card series takes place up until the end.
8. Fortunately, there is once again some separation between the two teams as the Red Sox lost their fourth straight game on Tuesday. If the regression train and Baseball Gods are coming for the Red Sox’ insane run since the Yankees saved their season at the end of June, then they are due for many more losses. The Yankees once again have a three-game lead over the Red Sox. The head-to-head tiebreaker is going to be crucial in this matchup and the Red Sox currently have a 5-4 edge with a four-game series remaining between the two at the end of August.
Here are the schedules for both teams between now and their four-games-in-three-day series to close out the month:
Yankees: Mariners (2), Blue Jays (3), Orioles (3), Blue Jays (3), Astros (3)
Red Sox: Blue Jays (2), Pirates (3), Diamondbacks (3), Giants (3), Marlins (3)
9. As I wrote last week when the Red Sox tied the Yankees in the loss column, not allowing the Red Sox to officially pass the Yankees in the standings was important. There’s something to be said for the Red Sox having been as hot as they were only to tie the Yankees in the loss column. All of that work never got them past the Yankees. Had the Red Sox gotten past them, I think it would have been the end for the Yankees getting the first wild card.
And getting the first wild card is what it’s all about now. As I laid out yesterday, the math for the division just isn’t there unless the Rays have a monumental collapse, and all the Rays did last night was take an early 6-0 lead and go on to win their eighth straight game. Sadly, the division is theirs.
10. But that’s what happens when you fuck around for the middle two months of the season, like the Yankees do every year and then try to make it all up in the final two months. The math wasn’t in the Yankees’ favor at this time last year, but their easy schedule and the Blue Jays’ late-season slump led the Yankees to tie them with 94 wins, but the Blue Jays held the head-to-head tiebreaker and it changed the course of the postseason. The Yankees are the same six games back on August 12 that they were last August 12, but like last year, they are unlikely to hold the tiebreaker (the Rays need to win one of four against the Yankees to get it) even if everything unfolds their way.
Last modified: Aug 12, 2026
