1. The Yankees did enough on their end over the weekend at Fenway Park by winning two of three, but the Blue Jays swept the Orioles to end the division race. The Yankees are four games back in the loss column and five overall because of the head-to-head tiebreaker, and with 13 games to play, the AL East is no longer a possible postseason path for the team Jazz Chisholm called “the best team in the league” after Saturday’s win.
2. The Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1 on Friday and 5-3 on Saturday with their old “Score early and then hang on for dear life” formula. It was enough to create three games of separation in the loss column for the first wild card, but that lead was cut to two after Will Warren pooped his pants with yet another first-inning meltdown and the Yankees lost 6-4 on Sunday.
3. We all know Chisholm talks too much and rarely ever backs it up, so it came as no surprise that he decided to give his latest “the Yankees are the best” rant a night before Warren would oppose Garrett Crochet.
On June 25, after salvaging the third game of a series Cincinnati, Chisholm said, “I feel like we got a great team and I feel like we’re going to make the World Series again.” At the time the Yankees had lost nine of 12 and after that win they would lose 22 of their next 39.
Three weeks ago after beating up on the AL-worst White Sox, Chisholm said, “We want to win the division. Right now, it’s just like, we’re going to go out there and win that and then we’re going to go and win the World Series.”
Then on Saturday, he said, “We’re the best team in the league. Any team that thinks they’re better than us, they should know that when we step on the field, we’re coming with relentlessness. We’re coming to step on necks. We’re not here to play around.”
So in the three instances in which Chisholm ran his mouth this year, the Yankees went on to lose 22 of 39, lost a fourth game to Crochet this season and are now out of the division race. And who could forget when Chisholm called the Royals’ ALDS Game 2 win “lucky” in the postseason, while Chisholm went 2-for-15 in the ALDS, 3-for-19 in the ALCS and 5-for-21 in the World Series.
4. As long as the Yankees’ postseason position is unknown, if Anthony Volpe starts another game this season at shortstop over Jose Caballero, I will actively root against the Yankees. After going 3-for-6 with a walk and two stolen bases in the second and third games of the Tigers series, Caballero had two doubles, a home run and another stolen base against the Red Sox. Caballero is a tough at-bat at the plate, a menace on the bases and surehanded in the field. He does everything better than Volpe and if Volpe plays again in a meaningful game or in the postseason, I will have to go against the Yankees.
5. Austin Wells better never commit catcher’s interference or allow a passed ball or a stolen base because he needs to be the best defensive catcher in the game to justify his bat. Wells went 0-for-7 with a walk and six strikeouts against the Red Sox and is down to .210/.267/.437 on the season. We know he can’t hit postseason pitching since we watched him go down swinging on elevated fastballs in each round last year, so if he’s going to play (and he is) then he better be amazing behind the plate.
6. I criticize Aaron Judge for his performance in big games, and rightfully so, but he was awesome over the weekend: 5-for-10 with two home runs and four walks. Hopefully this is Judge returning to his pre-mid-June-Royals-series self since that version of Judge hit. 394/.490/.779 in 66 games before Aaron Boone gave him his only non-injured list day off of the season. Since Boone’s lineup decision, Judge has hit .258/.412/.575 in 74 games. The .987 OPS Judge has in the lsat 74 games of his “slump” would be the third-best OPS in the majors this season. But when you build an offense reliant on your star needing to be an all-time, historic great and not just Hall-of-Fame great like Brian Cashman has then the Yankees can’t afford to have Judge being anything less than one of the best right-handed hitters in history.
7. I don’t know if Luis Gil’s six no-hit innings on Friday were the most painful six no-hit innings of all time, but they have to be up there. Gil had runners on all game because of his lack of control with four walks and added in a balk and two wild pitches and somehow came away from the game unscathed: 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 4 K. Gil’s ERA is down to 2.83 in eight starts this season despite having put 58 runners on in 41 1/3 innings.
8. The Yankees will likely have to overpay for Cody Bellinger to re-sign him and the end of whatever deal he gets will likely be ugly like all free-agent contracts end up being, but the Yankees have no choice but to sign Bellinger. His RBI double off of Aroldis Chapman in the ninth inning on Saturday was one of the biggest hits of the season and it seems like Bellinger always comes through when needed, whether it’s at the plate or in the field. His ability to hit left-handed pitching like he’s Hideki Matusi and his versatility to play over the outfield and at first base makes him so valuable to the Yankees. Here’s to Bellinger being a Yankee for the rest of his career.
9. The 12-game gauntlet against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox is over and the Yankees finished 7-5. I wrote two weeks ago they needed to do no worse than 6-6 and they played one game better. It was the first time this season the team exceeded expectations. Unfortunately because the Blue Jays seemingly come back in the late innings every day the division race is over, so now the Yankees need to ensure they have home-field advantage in the best-of-3 wild-card series.
Sunday’s game was a glimpse into what could happen in said best-of-3. Face and lose to Crochet in Game 1 and you’re facing elimination immediately in Game 2. The Yankees didn’t miss Crochet in any of their four series this season against the Red Sox and went 0-4 in games he started. His 2025 line against them: 27.1 IP, 20 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 4 BB, 39 K, 5 HR, 3.29 ERA, 0.878 WHIP. The home run ball was their saving grace against him like it has been in nearly all of their wins this season, and it still wasn’t enough to win any of the games he started. Add in that they went 1-2 in games started by Brayan Bello and you’re looking at a 1-6 record in games against the starting pitchers the Red Sox will use in Games 1 and 2 of the wild-card series.
10. The Yankees need to use the glorious schedule they have over the last 13 games to stack wins and make sure they are playing at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 30. They already pissed away a once-eight-game lead over the Blue Jays to lose the division. They can’t lose the first wild-card spot too.
Last modified: Sep 16, 2025
