1. For most of Friday’s game against the Braves, it felt like an inevitable loss. The Yankees once again couldn’t score and could barely “muster” (an Aaron Boone buzzword) any offense. It felt like only a matter of time until the Braves broke through with a home run and they eventually did in the eighth and again in the ninth. Trailing 2-0, when Raisel Iglesias struck out Spencer Jones to begin the ninth, another Yankees loss was on its way.
Not just any loss either. With the Red Sox having won already, a Yankees loss would mean the Red Sox would pass the Yankees in the standings, a feat that seemed impossible when they trailed by 15 games at the end of June. Not only that, but the Rays were working on closing out the Mariners in the ninth in Seattle. The Yankees were going to fall farther behind the Rays, get passed by the Red Sox and finish the night in third place in the AL East.
2. George Lombard Jr. was able to beat out a slow roller in the infield that Iglesias picked up and launched well past first base, allowing Lombard Jr. to move to third. The tying run was on base with two cracks at potentially tying the game, the only problem was that the two cracks belonged to Ryan McMahon and Austin Wells.
Having yet to strike out in the game, McMahon made sure to do so in the ninth for the second out of the inning, leaving the final out of the game in the hands of Wells — the worst offensive player in all of baseball. Somehow, Wells managed to double to right field to score Lombard Jr. and extend the game. The only problem was that the game was being extended for Amed Rosario.
The improbability of the inning continued when Rosario worked an eight-pitch walk against Iglesias. Now the Yankees really had something with Ben Rice coming to the plate. Rice came through with the biggest hit of the season to date, drilling the ball off the base of the wall in right field to score Wells and tie the game. Because nothing has been going the Yankees’ way the past two months, the ball couldn’t have gone over the wall to end the game or bounced away from Ronald Acuna to end the game. Instead, the ball stayed in and Acuna played it perfectly to hold Rosario at third, and eventually the game moved to extra innings.
3. The Yankees are the worst road extra-inning team since the implementation of the automatic runner, but they’re also the best home team during the same time. David Bednar pitched around the automatic runner in the 10th to set up a scenario in which the Yankees could walk off the Braves without recording a hit.
Easier said than done for the clown show that is the Yankees when it comes to baseball fundamentals. With Luis Garcia serving as the automatic runner, Jose Caballero stepped up to the plate with a myriad of options available to him to handle his at-bat. Caballero attempted to bunt the first pitch of the at-bat in what was one of the worst bunt attempts anyone has ever seen. Behind 0-1 in the count, Caballero then decided to swing away at the next pitch, a pitch that was at least a foot off the plate and he swung through it wildly to push the count to 0-2. Prior to the third pitch of the bat, Caballero showed bunt, but it was obviously only going to be for show to try to throw off Braves relier Tyler Kinley. Or not. Caballero did indeed try to bunt with two strikes and fouled the pitch away for an out. With the strikeout on a foul bunt, given the process of the at-bat, the situation and the magnitude of the game, Caballero officially clinched worst plate appearance of the season for the Yankees. It won’t be topped. It can’t be topped.
4. The Braves then did the Yankees a favor by walking Jones to put runners on first and second with one out. No, Jones’ run didn’t mean anything other than to set up a potentially double play and let Kinley face the right-handed rookie Lombard Jr. But if Kinley was going to strike anyone out in the inning, it was going to be Jones, and the Braves foolishly put him on. Lombard Jr. followed with a walk to load the bases and McMahon followed with a walk-off sacrifice fly for a 3-2 win.
5. Rice’s game-tying hit was the biggest moment of the game, until Luis Garcia made an over-the-shoulder-catch in right field with his back to the infield to keep the game tied at 2 in the 10th. Without that play, the Braves take a lead in extra innings and who knows how the bottom of the inning plays out. Actually, I think we all know how it plays out if the Yankees fall behind.
6. “It’s good to come out on top,” McMahon said. “We’ve got to get going a little more. It’s not from a lack of work or effort.”
No, it’s not from a lack of work or effort. It’s from a lack of talent. The Yankees have a lack of offensive talent, but they knew that last season and ran it back with the same offense this season. The below-league-average hitters like McMahon (and Wells and Caballero) are living up to their career track records. Goldschmidt was always going to fade as the season wore on, just like he did last year. Grisham was never going to replicate his 2025 season, and Chisholm being the head case he is, was always going to crumble under the pressure of being an impending free agent, just like he has crumbled in his two postseasons as a Yankee. Every offensive problem the Yankees have isn’t a surprise. It was to be expected. Add in injuries and you get the kind of disgraceful offensive performances the team provides on a daily basis.
7. It was another hitless game for leadoff-hitter-no-matter-what Trent Grisham. Grisham is down to 6-for-55 with nine walks leading off a game. I don’t see a need for a lineup change. Having a leadoff hitter who has started 40 of 55 games with an out is exactly what you want.
Rice was only 1-for-5 with three strikeouts, but the one was enormous. Jazz Chisholm went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts before he was pulled for a pinch hitter and then showed up back in the dugout in a T-shirt, as did Grisham. Paul O’Neill was quick to call them out for it. It wouldn’t surprise me if O’Neill is suddenly not on the broadcast this weekend. When Michael Kay said he had people in the Yankees tell him Anthony Volpe refused to play second base in the minors back in May, Kay did an about-face a day later and said it was not true. How dare O’Neill question how Boone manages his team, clubhouse and dugout. If Chisholm wants to pout after being removed from a game and wear a T-shirt in the dugout, so be it. When you’re nine percent worse than league average, you can do whatever you want: suck on lollipops in the field or in the batter’s box, make unhinged and emotional challenges on called strikes, get ejected from games, get tagged up on infield pop-ups, say your teammates told you you’re the greatest player in the world. Do whatever you want!
8. Fernando Cruz and Tim Hill both gave up solo home runs in the game as both have fallen far in terms of trustworthiness in recent weeks. Cruz has allowed 16 baserunners and three home runs in his last nine innings over the last three weeks. Hill has allowed six home runs and has a 5.84 ERA over the last month (12 1/3 innings).
Here is my current order of trust in the bullpen with gaps in between:
David Bednar
…
Brent Headrick
…
…
…
Paul Blackburn
…
…
…
…
…
Fernando Cruz
…
Tim Hill (much higher on the list if he’s entering with two outs in an inning and a lefty up)
…
…
…
Ryan Yarbrough
That’s not great for a team that didn’t trade for a single reliever at the deadline.
9. Max Fried was really good (6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K) because Max Fried is really good. I expect greatness out of him every time he takes the ball. And for the most part, as a Yankee, he has delivered. (Outside of the biggest start of his Yankees career in Game 2 of the ALDS.)
10. Not allowing the Red Sox to officially pass the Yankees in the standings is important. There’s something to be said for the Red Sox going 32-5 in their last 37 games only to tie the Yankees in the loss column. All of that work hasn’t even gotten them past the Yankees. Maybe that happens on Saturday. The Red Sox are paying the embarrassing Athletics, while the Yankees are facing Chris Sale. But at least there’s still the possibility now that it doesn’t happen and never happens.
If the Red Sox do end up passing the Yankees, I think the Yankees won’t recover in the standings and will end up as the second wild card. That can’t happen. It’s Gerrit Cole’s job to make sure it doesn’t happen on Saturday. He’s going to need some help from an offense that hasn’t been able to hit Colin Rea or Andre Pallante or Tyler Mahle of late, so I don’t know how they plan on scoring against the future Hall of Famer in Sale ,who is experiencing the highest average fastball velocity of his career at age 37.
Last modified: Aug 8, 2026
