1. You know what I want on Thursday afternoon? I want Fried to go out and pitch seven-plus dominant innings, the offense to put up five-plus runs and a nice, clean, easy win to end this series and send Yankees fans into the weekend happy. Remember nice, clean, easy wins? The Yankees haven’t had one since the home opener back on April 3 against the Marlins. And after these last two weeks, April 3 feels like it was from a different season.
That’s how I ended yesterday’s Thoughts: wishing for a nice, clean, easy win to end the series against the Angels. What did I get in return? Max Fried’s shortest outing of the season (5 1/3 innings) as the ace failed to go at least 6 1/3 innings for the first time, another blown lead to the Angels, another dismal offensive performance, another bullpen implosion and another loss.
2. “We obviously haven’t been playing to our standards, but we know the kind of club that we are, especially the way we started off,” Fried said. “That standard that we have, we’re going to get back to it.”
The Yankees have now lost Fried’s last three starts as he couldn’t make a one-run lead stand up for the second straight start. Fernando Cruz couldn’t strand the baserunners he inherited from Fried, Angel Chivilli proved why the Rockies were willing to part with a 23-year-old with his velocity and Ryan Yarbrough got blasted for four earned runs in 2 1/3 innings.
The offense decided to take another day off as they have nearly every day for the last two weeks. Aaron Judge provided a solo home run in the first, Giancarlo Stanton crushed a two-run home run in the third and Ben Rice hit a solo home run in the sixth and that was the entirety of the Yankees’ offense as they were outhit for the 10th time in their last 12 games, falling to 4-8 in that span.
3. When Aaron Boone’s daily plan of getting seven innings from his starter or a bunch of three-run home runs from his offense failed once again, he turned to the only move he knows: getting ejected. The Yankees were already trailing by three runs and the balk call had no impact on the game, but Boone needed to hang his hat on something.
Boone called the 2025 Yankees “the best team” he has had as manager of the Yankees. Yes, he thought the “best team” he had was the one that had to play in the Wild Card Series and lost in four games in humiliating fashion in the ALDS. Not the 2024 team that featured Juan Soto and went to the World Series or the 2019 team that won 103 games. So if Boone believes the 2025 team was his best team and the Yankees ran it back this season with the same roster then that means he feels the 2026 team is also the best team he has been given to manage. At 10-8 with losses in eight of 12, a struggling offense, a top-heavy rotation and a bullpen full of fringe major leaguers, things aren’t going so well.
4. The Law of Ex-Yankees was on peak display this week as Oswald Peraza returned to beat up on his former team. Peraza hit a first-inning, two-run home run off of Fried and hit a game-tying double in the sixth inning. He went 5-for-10 in the series with a double, two home runs, four RBIs, two walks and two stolen bases. It may take his replacement Ryan McMahon until the Fourth of July to achieve those stats.
“He looked like what we were excited about several years ago,” Boone said. “He absolutely hurt us.”
It’s possible it was just one series for Peraza, but it’s also possible he has figured it out and put it together in his age 25 season. With the Yankees, he was never given consistent playing time, was asked to play three different positions, and unfortunately, wasn’t born in New York City and raised in New Jersey as the organization’s Golden Boy Anthony Volpe was. Could you imagine if Volpe had the kind of series Peraza just had against any team? His eventual place in Monument Park would already be roped off.
5. Volpe started his rehab assignment in Double-A and he’s 1-for-5 with three strikeouts, so he’s right on track. Meanwhile, George Lombard Jr., who is Yankees fans’ way out of the Volpe experience is hitting .415/.478/.707 in Double-A with eight extra-base hits in 10 games. Lombard will turn 21 in June and then he will be the same age Volpe was when the Yankees made him their everyday shortstop despite having only played 22 games at Triple-A with just a .718 OPS there. Here’s to hoping Peraza goes on to have an awesome career and that Lombard Jr. is the real deal and the future at shortstop for the Yankees.
6. If it’s true that Judge is responsible for the in-between-every-pitch music and sound effects at Yankee Stadium then it tops his postseason performances, dropping the ball in Game 5 of the World Series and continuing to vouch for Boone as manager as the worst thing he has done in his career. The Stadium music and sound effects have ruined attending games. You can’t hear the person next to you, kids are covering their ears and I can’t imagine any elderly person enjoys it. I can’t imagine anyone enjoys it, other than Judge who wants Yankee Stadium to present a preposterous NBA atmosphere where music is played while the play is going on. Does anyone really want to hear the Backstreet Boys shouting “EVERYBODY! YEAHHHH! ROCK YOUR BODY! YEAHHHH!” while Trent Grisham waits for a 2-2 pitch?
7. Next up is a three-game series with the Royals, who are off to a horrendous 7-12 start, so for them, they are coming to the right place at the right time. Need to get your season on track? Come play the Yankees! The Yankees launched a five-game winning streak for the Athletics, a six-game winning streak for the Rays and let the Angels achieve a .500 record through 20 games, which is like winning the pennant in Anaheim.
8. The Royals have one player with an OPS above .747 and that’s their 9-hitter Kyle Isbel (.822) who famously hit the ball that was wind-aided in the Yankees’ favor to prevent Gerrit Cole from blowing Game 4 of the 2024 ALDS. Maikel Garcia is at .747 and Bobby Witt Jr. is a miserable .709 with no home runs this season. No home runs, Bobby? No problem! The Yankees just set a franchise record against the Angels for the most home runs allowed in a series, so the player who many believe can stop Judge’s MVP run is coming to the right place to fix his season.
9. The Royals arrive in the Bronx riding a four-game losing streak after being swept by the Tigers. The Royals can’t hit. Only the White Sox have scored fewer runs than the Royals in the AL this season. They can pitch though and that’s what scares me about this series because the Angels’ pitching is a laughingstock aside from Jose Soriano, and the Yankees missed facing Soriano in a four-game series and still had trouble scoring against the Angels outside of Monday’s 10-run outburst.
10. It will be Cam Schlittler against Michael Wacha on Friday. No Royal has ever faced Schlittler. The Yankees have seen Wacha a lot from his time in the AL East the numbers are ugly. No Yankee has an OPS higher than .778 against Wacha and Judge has a .393 OPS against him without a home run. On Saturday and Sunday, the Yankees will face back-to-back lefties, so get ready for a weekend full of Ben Rice sitting on the bench, Jazz Chisholm flailing at sliders low and away and Randal Grichuk enhancing his case to be designated for assignment the second a roster spot is needed.
Last modified: Apr 17, 2026
