1. Just when you think you can trust Gerrit Cole to win a big game and the offense (with or without Aaron Judge) to show up in a big game, they remind you of who they really are. Cole was mediocre (because that’s what three earned runs in six innings is), and with a chance to maintain their position in the division and wild-card standings, the offense disappeared, going 5-for-31 with 11 strikeouts.
“I thought we made a lot of really good pitches tonight,” Cole said. “I think in certain situations we executed and they beat us, so it’s just a bit unfortunate. But sometimes that’s the way it breaks.”
2. That’s the way it seems to break for Cole in every big game (and given the standings, every game is a big game from here on out). Cole talks about how good his pitches were and the Yankees lose. I’m sure he will do just fine against the American League-worst Angels next week.
3. Of course the loss isn’t only on Cole. Hayden Wesneski continued the undefeated Law of Ex-Yankees as the former prospect held the Yankees to one run over five innings with a season-high six strikeouts. (Which opposing starter hasn’t recorded their season high for strikeouts against the Yankees this season?)
4. Trent Grisham continued his between-homers-disappearing act with another 0-for-4. Grisham went 2-for-11 in Toronto then 4-for-12 in Baltimore then 2-for-10 against the Blue Jays and 1-for-12 against the Astros. This is what Grisham is and why he has no business batting leadoff. A true contender’s leadoff hitter can’t have one good series every couple of weeks sandwiched around shit.
Here are the leadoff hitters of teams with more wins than the Yankees:
Shohei Ohtani: .927 OPS
Pete Crow-Armstrong: .924
Yandy Diaz: .829 OPS
Jackson Chourio: .822 OPS
Ronald Acuna: .731 OPS
Acuna is having the worst season of his career with an OPS 151 points below his career average, and yet, he still has a higher OPS than Grisham and there isn’t a person in the world who would take Grisham in any plate appearance over Acuna. Then there’s Kyle Schwarber (.890 OPS) and Fernando Tatis (.801 OPS) and even Nick Sogard of the Red Sox at .772.
5. Ben Rice went 2-for-4 with a double and has a .954 OPS in the last 10 games after deciding his two-month experiment of swinging at every pitch thrown to him wasn’t a viable strategy.
Luis Garcia went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and Cody Bellinger went 0-for-2 with a walk. George Lombard Jr. went 1-for-4 with a triple and two strikeouts and also made an error for the sixth straight game, something no Yankees shortstop has done in 111 years.
Spencer Jones went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and Heliot Ramos struck out pinch hitting for Jones.
Jazz Chisholm went 1-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout and Amed Rosario made an out pinch hitting for Chisholm.
Austin Wells went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. YES has stopped showing the graphic of Wells’ first-half numbers compared to his second half as his second half is slowly looking like his first half. Wells has a .502 OPS over the last two weeks with 13 strikeouts in 33 at-bats.
Jose Caballero went 1-for-3 and didn’t add to his portfolio of worst plate appearances you’ll ever see as he holds the first-, second- and third-worst plate appearances of the year for the Yankees.
6. It was a bad loss. A really bad loss given the Yankees’ starting pitching advantage and the fact that the Astros’ pitching (as a whole) sucks. But it’s the kind of loss that happens over 162 games. The problem is when you give away two months of the season and then need every win possible to win a division race, you can’t afford to lose games in which you have a very clear edge.
7. The Rays and Red Sox both picked up a half-game on the Yankees by doing nothing. The math is really ugly once again for the division with the Yankees four games back with 29 games left to play. If the Rays go even 14-15 the rest of the way, the Yankees will have to go 19-10 to pass them. The Yankees are getting to the point where their only chance at the division is to win all four games against the Rays at Yankee Stadium in the last week of the season.
8. But the Yankees can’t worry about the Rays at the moment because they have to worry about the Red Sox who arrive in the Bronx for four games in three days with two games separating the teams in the loss column. The Yankees have lost four straight to the Red Sox and five of six. The Yankees need to win at least three games this weekend to clinch the head-to-head tiebreaker, which could be extremely important to determine the venue for a potential Wild Card Series matchup.
9. The Yankees pushed Cam Schlittler back to start on Friday against the team he owns, and that’s the only game of the weekend that the Yankees will have a clear starting pitching advantage in. Other than that, they’re going to use Max Fried (fresh off his second appearance on the injured list for a bone bruise), Carlos Rodon (who never pitches well against the Red Sox) and Will Warren (who never pitches well against anyone). The Red Sox are likely to use four left-handed starters in the series, which poses a problem because the Yankees’ only right-handed bats are Lombard Jr. and his 20 career games, Caballero and his .559 OPS since June 20, Rosario and his .611 OPS against lefties, Ramos and his .411 OPS as a Yankee, and Paul Goldschmidt, who has a .443 OPS since June 26 and has started two games since August 1. (The Yankees traded for Ramos specifically for a series like this, and he’s going to hit somewhere in the first five spots in the order and has to do damage. I would feel a lot better about the Yankees’ chances this weekend if Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were playing, but Judge just started swinging at overhand pitches and Stanton is home laughing at the $179,012.35 he is making each game to not play. Well, maybe not laughing since he would probably pull a rib cage muscle doing that. Meanwhile, the Red Sox may get Roman Anthony and Trevor Story back this weekend. Not ideal.
10. The Yankees are responsible for reviving the Red Sox’ season. When the two teams met for four games at Fenway Park in late June, the Red Sox were 14 games under .500 and the Yankees had a three-game division lead. Since then, the Red Sox are 41-14, while the Yankees have seen their three-game lead become a four-game deficit. The Yankees never let the Red Sox pass them during their insane two-month run, and that needs to remain true through this weekend.
Last modified: Aug 28, 2026
