The Yankees lost to the Orioles 9-7 on Wednesday and failed to clinch the division title in their second attempt at it.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
1. 0-for-2. That’s what the Yankees are in opportunities to clinch and win the AL East. Add two more missed opportunities and it will read like an Alex Verdugo batting line. But if the Yankees miss two more opportunities they could possibly be in a world of shit.
One Yankees win or one Orioles loss over the next four days will give the Yankees the division. It would be nice if they could get it out of the way with a win on Thursday, rendering the three remaining games of the regular season against the Pirates rather meaningless. But given the way the Yankees have played in the first two games of this three-game series against the Orioles, it wouldn’t surprise me (and shouldn’t surprise anyone) if the division is not over by the end of play on Thursday.
2. Prior to Wednesday’s 9-7 loss to the Orioles (to drop the Yankees to 4-8 on the season against the Orioles), Nestor Cortes was placed on the 15-day injured list, taking him out of the equation for the ALDS. In his place, Marcus Stroman made his first start in 15 days and second in 21 days. The Yankees have done everything they can to avoid giving Stroman the ball in September and rightfully so.
Stroman was awful once again, needing 66 pitches to get 10 outs, while giving up six earned runs on 10 hits. Since July 4, Stroman has started 64 innings and only nine of them have been 1-2-3 innings, which is outrageous. Every seven-plus innings Stroman will give you a clean frame. He didn’t have one on Wednesday.
3. “It’s frustrating,” Stroman said. “I didn’t execute and do my job out there to keep my team in position to win.”
The last pitch Stroman threw should be the last pitch he throws in 2024 outside of maybe some innings eating this weekend against the Pirates (as long as the division is wrapped up). Stroman can’t be trusted to nibble in October and he can’t be trusted out of the bullpen either without swing-and-miss stuff. Balls in play (even ones on the ground) lead to bad things (just ask Clay Holmes) and Stroman relies on balls in play more than anyone in baseball.
4. In a game in which Juan Soto and Aaron Judge both hit multi-run home runs and the Yankees scored seven runs, they lost. That’s how bad Stroman was and then how bad Clayton Beeter was in relief of Stroman (1.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K).
Soto and Judge combined to go 4-for-8 with three runs, two home runs, six RBIs and two walks. The rest of the lineup went 6-for-28 with no extra-base hits. It was the type of offensive performance the Yankees have to have in October to succeed since no one in the lineup outside of those two can be trusted with any regularity. Despite Gleyber Torres’ last month, he’s only now a league-average hitter for the season. Austin Wells has a .410 OPS in September and looks like the April version of himself. Giancarlo Stanton is either extremely hot or extremely cold with no in between and there’s no knowing what he will be in October. Jazz Chisholm has a .446 OPS over the last three weeks. Any plate appearance for Anthony Rizzo or Anthony Volpe resulting in them getting on base is a magnificent surprise. Alex Verdugo is a lost cause and Jasson Dominguez plays too infrequently to get into an extended groove.
5. Dominguez was back in the lineup after an unnecessary day off on Tuesday. He misplayed a ball in left field in the first inning that looked to be tailing away from him in the corner and then came back into the field of play.
“I have no excuse,” Dominguez said. “That ball needs to be caught, 100 percent of the time.”
Almost 100 percent of the time since it had a catch probability of 95 percent.
6. “He’s missed some plays that he should make,” Aaron Boone said of Dominguez. I can count on one hand (I may need a finger or two from my other hand) to count the times Boone has been somewhat critical of one of his players in seven seasons and this is one of those instances. Boone defended Torres’ game-altering baserunning gaffe just 24 hours earlier (when Torres himself couldn’t defend it), but there was Boone not having the same type of defense for Dominguez, who is playing a position he has little experience playing. Dominguez has played 20 total games in left field this season between the majors and minors.
“I haven’t played a ton of games in left field,” Dominguez said, “but I feel I can do it.”
Unfortunately, for Dominguez, the Yankees only have four games remaining, so there’s not much time to learn in actual games. Boone wants to play Verdugo over Dominguez and Dominguez is giving him a reason to.
7. “You try to take it all in, what gives you the best chance to win on a given night,” Boone said of his ongoing left-field competition. “We’re trying to give a good look to Jasson here down the stretch.”
That second part is telling. “We’re trying” is Boone foreshadowing him telling the media “they tried” when Dominguez is on the bench or not on the postseason roster next Saturday night at Yankee Stadium.
On Wednesday, Dominguez hit balls 109.3 mph, 106.5 mph and 109.2 mph. Verdugo has hit one ball over 100 mph in the last two weeks. It doesn’t matter to the Yankees that Dominguez is the far superior hitter to Verdugo. Boone wants to play Verdugo and Dominguez’s defense is going to be what Boone uses to play one of his favorites.
8. I fear Verdugo will be the Yankees’ starting left fielder to begin the postseason. Then if the team is having trouble scoring in the postseason the way they do every October, they will insert Dominguez into the lineup in place of Verdugo to try to get a jolt out of his bat after he has been sitting cold and not playing. When that doesn’t work out, everyone will say Dominguez sucks. It’s almost too easy to predict.
9. I pray that doesn’t happen. I pray if Verdugo plays over Dominguez that he hits, and that if it’s Dominguez over Verdugo that he catches fly balls. You can’t afford to play with automatic outs in the lineup (like Verdugo) in October and the Yankees will already be playing Rizzo and Volpe since they are immune to losing playing time for their lack of offense. And you can’t afford to be misplaying easy outs and giving the opposition extra outs to work with in October either.
10. For now, the Yankees need to worry about getting to October with a bye. That can be resolved with one more win. It wasn’t resolved on Tuesday or Wednesday. Thursday will be their third chance at it. I don’t want to have to write about them going for it for a fourth time tomorrow.
Last modified: Sep 26, 2024
