1. Sometimes you can predict baseball. The Yankees’ 6-1 loss on Wednesday night was as predictable as a baseball game could be, as they were shut down by Nathan Eovaldi for the second time in a week. After throwing seven scoreless innings last Wednesday, Eovaldi followed it up with eight innings of one-run ball this Wednesday. The one run was Aaron Judge’s 15th home run of the season. Other than that the Yankees mustered two baserunners: a single from Cody Bellinger and one from Austin Wells.
2. The Yankees did beat Eovaldi a year ago in a 1-0 game on a Jorbit Vivas solo home run, but Eovaldi has owned them ever since he left. In his last nine games against the Yankees, Eovaldi has a 1.65 ERA over 59 2/3 innings with 53 strikeouts and 11 walks (stat from Katie Sharp). Eovaldi and Chris Sale (two ex-Red Sox, of course) are the only pitchers in the last 40 seasons to produce those numbers over any nine-game span with a minimum of 50 innings pitched (stat from Katie Sharp.)
3. As I wrote last week and have written many times, I despise Eovaldi. At this point, though, the Yankees may have to trade for him just to ensure he can’t pitch against them. I would hate every second of him being a Yankee again (unless he did for them what he did for the Red Sox and Rangers), but if the Yankees were to face him in the postseason, whether as a Ranger or a member of another team, it would mean an automatic loss.
4. Will Warren had been good this year before getting torched by the Rangers: 4 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 2 HR. It was Warren’s eighth start of the season and the fourth time he failed to go at least five innings. There’s been too much inconsistency like last season from Warren.
5. Here is where Warren and Ryan Weathers stand in the battle for the fifth rotation spot:
Starts: Warren 8, Weathers 7
IP: Warren 41.2, Weathers 38.2
IP/Start: Weathers 5.52, Warren 5.21
H: Weathers 36, Warren 39
ER: Weathers 13, Warren 16
BB: Weathers 10, Warren 11
K: Warren 53, Weathers 45
HR: Warren 6, Weathers 6
ERA: Weathers 3.03, Warren 3.46
WHIP: Weathers 1.190, Warren 1.200
6. It’s close, but right now, I would choose Weathers over Warren for the fifth spot. I just think he has the better chance to go out and dominate on a given night. The Yankees made Warren the fourth starter over Weathers to start the season, but Cashman has been chasing a young, controllable starter through trade for his entire tenure as general manager and after failing in every other instance, you know he wants Weathers to work out.
7. Please be OK, Jose Caballero. Caballero was hit by a pitch in the game and was in some pain and I started to envision Anthony Volpe starting at shortstop for the Yankees on Thursday afternoon. Volpe must have been watching the game in Worcester and been aware of the Caballero hit by pitch after his 0-for-6 day against the Red Sox’ Triple-A team.
8. I don’t know what it’s going to take for the Yankees to remove Trent Grisham from the leadoff spot, but with each 0-for-4, I would like to think it’s drawing closer. Grisham is hitting .164/.298/.353 on the season, and always seems to do just enough to reset his place atop the order. After a bad week, he’ll hit a ball out or pick up a pair of doubles to maintain his place in the lineup and then suck for the next week and then do something positive, over and over.
9. Grisham loves to beat up on bad pitching. He had a career year doing it last season, hitting 34 home runs. But none of those 34 home runs came against a pitcher who started a postseason game. He had a big weekend against a bunch of bad Orioles pitchers (5-for-15 with four doubles, a home run and three walks) and then in two games started by Jacob deGrom and Eovaldi, he went 0-for-8. Grisham will always hit bad pitching and then be an automatic out against elite starters, the kind of starters you see in October.
10. Thursday’s early afternoon game is the series and season finale against the Rangers. Weathers won’t have a chance to upstage Warren for the fifth starter spot a day after Warren laid an egg against the Rangers as he is recovering from an illness, so Paul Blackburn gets the ball for the Yankees. I have no idea what to expect from Blackburn. He could go out and give the Yankees a surprising five or six good innings, or he could get lit up in the first inning like Elmer Rodriguez and the Yankees could lose their first series since in nearly four weeks. The bats will likely need to show up against the left-handed MacKenzie Gore.
Last modified: May 7, 2026
