1. A wise man once said, “You can’t predict baseball,” and no one could have predicted Elmer Rodriguez wildly exceeding expectations on Wednesday against the best slugging lineup in the American League. Here is what I wrote about Rodriguez before the game:
The Astros will be the best lineup Elmer Rodriguez has faced in his life, and Yordan Alvarez will be the best hitter he has ever pitched to. It’s hard to expect someone who has put 33 baserunners on in 17 innings (and has more walks than strikeouts) to pitch well against the American League’s highest slugging team, so it’s up to the offense to hit well against arguably the worst pitching staff in the AL.
Rodriguez stepped up with the best game of his career and the offense stepped up by scoring nine runs. The Yankees have now scored 16 runs in 17 innings against the truly awful Astros pitching staff.
2. Rodriguez finished with six-plus innings pitched and three earned runs allowed, but it should have been six innings pitched and two earned runs allowed because Aaron Boone should have never sent him out for the seventh and Trent Grisham’s poor defense cost him a run in the first.
“He was nasty,” Aaron Boone said. “That’s what we get excited about right there.”
3. After blowing three different leads on Tuesday, the Yankees blew two leads on Wednesday. Rodriguez blew an early 2-1 lead and Boone letting Rodriguez start the seventh led to blowing a late 3-2 lead. Why is Boone trying to steal outs with Rodriguez in the seventh inning of a one-run game with the Astros’ 4-5-6 hitters about to face him for a third time in the middle of a pennant race? Because he’s Aaron Boone, that’s why, and there’s no level of ineptitude he won’t stoop to. Boone was willing to use Paul Blackburn in the seventh, he just figured he would let Rodriguez face Jose Altuve again before going to him. So instead of Blackburn getting a clean inning to work with, he got a runner on first and no outs to work with and the Astros ended up tying the game.
4. But for the second straight game, Boone building a four-lefty-batter lane didn’t negatively impact the team as Grisham, Ben Rice, Luis Garcia and Cody Bellinger teed off on left-hander Bennett Sousa. The Yankees scored four runs in the seventh to break the tie and break the game open. Grisham singled, Rice walked, Garcia singled to load the bases and Bellinger hit a booming double off the wall in center. Lombard Jr. struck out before Spencer Jones singled and Jazz Chisholm doubled. Those four runs allowed Michael Fulmer to make his Yankees debut.
5. I have always disliked Fulmer for being named the 2016 AL Rookie of the Year over Gary Sanchez, and because he always pitched well against the Yankees. Fulmer entered the game having only thrown 10 1/3 innings in the majors since the end of the 2023 season. He’s nowhere near the front-end starter he was a decade ago with the Tigers, but he can certainly be useful. It was odd that the Angels released him after 3 2/3 scoreless innings in relief for them this season, then again that’s the Angels for you. After a scoreless inning as a Yankee on Wednesday, I’m excited to see what he can do in these final weeks of the season now that Fernando Cruz is on the injured list with right elbow discomfort (which likely explains why he has been so bad since the end of June).
6. It’s amazing what can happen when your 2-3-4 hitters produce and the combination of Rice, Garcia and Bellinger went 5-for-12 with a double, two home runs, five RBIs and three walks. Every Yankee except for George Lombard Jr. (who committed an error for the fifth straight game) had a hit as the Yankees went 13-for-36 with five walks and nine strikeouts. The Yankees have scored 24 runs in their last three games. They scored 24 runs in the six previous games. They scored 25 runs from July 29 to August 7. Rice choosing to no longer swing at every pitch, Garcia waking up and Bellinger returning has turned the offense around.
7. Rice’s first-inning home run ended the Yankees’ first-inning scoreless streak at 23 games. The record remains 24 from the 2021 season. That’s a record I never want to see broken. I never want to see a streak like the one we just painfully sat through dating back to late July.
8. Grisham’s first-inning misplay was further proof he isn’t the fielder Boone and the Yankees believe he is. They tell us he’s still elite when in actuality he’s not even the best center fielder on the team. He may not even be the third-best center fielder on the team. He gets poor reads, has below-average speed and is nonchalant about everything. Those are the kind of habits and tendencies you can’t have in a center fielder. That wasn’t a random bad play from Grisham, it was the type of miscue he makes too frequently for a starting center fielder in the majors. But there’s a better chance the Mets will make the playoffs than there is that Grisham won’t be starting in center field and batting leadoff in October.
9. It’s the series and season finale between the Yankees and Astros on Thursday and it will be Gerrit Cole against former Yankees prospect Hayden Wesneski. Wesneski was traded by the Yankees to the Cubs for Scott Effross four years ago and it’s safe to say the Yankees didn’t win that trade. Effross threw 12 2/3 innings for the Yankees after the trade and got hurt. He missed the entire 2023 season and then had a 7.71 ERA over 14 innings for the Yankees over the following two years. He’s been pitching poorly in Triple-A for the Tigers and Mariners this season. Wesneski has been 3 percent better than league average in 249 2/3 innings in the majors over five seasons. He’s made five starts for the Astros this season and has lasted at least five innings in all of them.
10. On paper, the Yankees have the advantage in this game, but as Rodriguez proved on Wednesday, on paper means nothing. With the Rays and Red Sox both off, and four games in three days against the Red Sox beginning on Friday, this is a game the Yankees have to have if they want to maintain their current lead over the Red Sox and want to keep their division-winning dream alive.
Last modified: Aug 27, 2026
