1. The Yankees won on Sunday. They had Monday off. They won on Tuesday. That means the Yankees won two games in a row. It was the first time since June 25 and June 27 they had won back-to-back games and just the third time since June 12. For a team whose manager calls them “the best in baseball” despite having the ninth-best record and despite having lost 11 1/2 games of ground to the Blue Jays, you would think the “best team in baseball” would win back-to-back games more than three times in a month.
2. If you were wondering how long the Yankees would be comfortable with Jazz Chisholm playing a shaky third base and DJ LeMahieu being unable to get to balls within reach of him at second base, well, we received out answer on Tuesday. The answer is going from an eight-game lead over the Blue Jays to trailing the Blue Jays by 3 1/2 games.
The best part of the Yankees staying with Chisholm at third as long as the Yankees did is that he was given the day off on Sunday because of a shoulder issue that was affecting his throwing. Aaron Boone said it had been going on a for a while. So for a while, Boone knowingly was starting Chisholm at third base every day even though he had an issue throwing. Chisholm said he didn’t want to use it as an excuse for his poor throws across the diamond (of which there was at least one a game for an extended period), but by saying he didn’t want to use it as an excuse, he was using it as an excuse.
3. I don’t fault Chisholm for playing a bad third base, considering he has never been a third baseman in his career outside of his time with the Yankees — the only team in the majors that takes pride in playing multiple players out of position on a daily basis. But with Oswald Peraza at third base on Tuesday, you could see the glaring difference between having an elite left-side infielder on the field compared to a player being asked to do something he wasn’t asked to do with his previous organization and to do something he wasn’t even told to prepare for in spring training. Peraza made roughly four plays on Tuesday that Chisholm wouldn’t have made.
4. It turns out when you play a clean game defensively it makes it easier to win. It also helps when you get a strong starting effort like the Yankees got from Will Warren (5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K) and when you hit with runners in scoring position, which the Yankees did going 5-for-7 (I don’t think they had five hits with runners in scoring position over the last five weeks). The Yankees got to Logan Gilbert — the league leader in strikeout percentage — for five runs in 5 1/3 innings and then torched Casey Legumina for five runs in an inning of work. The 10-3 rout was a big win for the “Lookout the Yankees’ run differential!” crowd.
5. I like LeMahieu. I was all for re-signing him after 2020 before he started to break down. He should be happy every day he wakes up and is still in the majors at this point. Boone said LeMahieu took the news of going to the bench, “Not great, necessarily.” LeMahieu can’t be even a little upset he’s not going to be anything more than a bench player for the time being. He should be grateful he’s still on the team.
6. Aside from Chisholm back at second, Peraza at third and LeMahieu on the bench, Jasson Dominguez was batting leadoff. Dominguez had a big game out of the leadoff spot on Saturday and then was batting sixth on Sunday. He should be the leadoff hitter moving forward, though, unfortunately, because Boone is trying to overcorrect for not playing Trent Grisham over Alex Verdugo last year, and in doing so is doing everything he can to stunt Dominguez’s development by playing Grisham as much as possible. I’m sure Dominguez will sit on Wednesday so Grisham can play.
7. Tim Hill, Ian Hamilton and Scott Effross combined to throw three scoreless innings of relief and Geoff Hartlieb gave up three runs while recording just one out. Hartlieb couldn’t have done less with his two appearances this season (1.1 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 1 HR).
8. Aaron Judge went 2-for-5 with a solo home run with the Yankees up 6-0 in the seventh. Cody Bellinger went 3-for-4, Giancarlo Stanton hit the game-opening three-run home run, Jazz Chisholm had a double, Paul Goldschmidt had three hits, Austin Wells homered and Peraza singled in the first run of the game. Anthony Volpe — as expected — went 0-for-4. The “really good” and “productive” offensive player Boone spoke about last week is down to .217/.293/.393 on the season. The “above league average” offensive player Boone talked about is now nine percent worse than league average.
9. Because the Yankees blew a sizable division lead and because they have lost 16 of their last 24 game, there has been the annual midsummer call for Boone to be fired. (It’s as expected each summer as the Fourth of July is at this point.) As a leader of the movement in recent years, I wish I could take part in this year’s edition, but it’s a waste of energy. Boone survived finishing third in the division and fifth in the AL in 2021 when his team was the favorite to win the AL. He survived missing the postseason completely in 2023 when 40 percent of the league gets in. There is nothing he could do to get fired this season, especially off a World Series appearance, even if that appearance was embarrassing, humiliating and disturbing.
Because of the annual midsummer call for Boone to lose his job, there has been this narrative — led by Michael Kay — that Boone shouldn’t be fired because he doesn’t tell it like it is. That’s not the reason Boone should be removed. It’s one of the reasons, but it’s second at best to his in-game strategy and decision-making. Boone shouldn’t be the manager of the Yankees because he routinely fails to put his players in the best possible position to succeed (like playing Chisholm at third base every day or having Jayvien Sandridge make his major-league debut against Juan Soto and Pete Alonso) and because he’s incapable of making consistent logical in-game decisions. His lack of urgency, misevaluation of performance, defense of underperformance and telling everyone how good the Yankees are when they aren’t is second to all of that.
One day Boone will no longer be the Yankees’ manager. That day is not any time soon. He will never be fired. Hal Steinbrenner would rather have the team finish in last place for a decade than pay two people at the same time for one job. One day Boone’s contract will end and the Yankees won’t offer him a new one. That’s the only way he will no longer be the Yankees’ manger. (This doesn’t mean I won’t take every opportunity I get to criticize him. I just know it won’t lead to anything until his contract expires.)
10. Cam Schlitter gets the ball on Wednesday in his major-league debut. With Luis Gil and Ryan Yarbrough on the injured list and Clarke Schmidt out for this season and next, Schlitter has an opportunity to be a part of the rotation for the long haul if he pitches well. Right now, the Yankees’ No. 3 starter is Warren and the No. 4 is Marcus Stroman, so yeah, Schlitter has an amazing opportunity here and the bar is just be better than Stroman.
Can the Yankees win a third straight game on Wednesday? If they do, it will be the first time since June 10-12.
Last modified: Jul 9, 2025
