Batting Cleanup: Beantown Bust
This was only the beginning of the horrible moments for the Yankees this weekend (AP).
What an absolute terrible weekend of baseball for the New York Yankees. They entered their biggest series of the year and choked hard against the team directly in front of them. So it goes with this team - two steps forward, three steps back. Let’s look at some of the highlights and the many lowlights of this terrible baseball weekend, of which I was fortunate to attend multiple games. Lucky me.
Game 1: Yankees Lose 5-3
This was a frustrating way to open the series, as the Yankees had plenty of opportunities to break this game open against Martin Perez but couldn’t score enough off him before running into the buzzsaw Red Sox bullpen. It’s one of those that you wish you could have back. The Yankees are now 0-4 against Boston this year - INWYW.
Dicey Domingo
For the third time in a row, Domingo German struggled in the early innings and failed to give the team much length. German was extremely shaky in the first inning, giving up three runs off doubles by Xander Boegarts and Hunter Renfroe. He settled down after that but still allowed another run in the third thanks to his own fielding error. German was saddled with the loss and now has a 7.04 ERA in June. If it wasn’t clear already, the Yankees needed another starter like yesterday. German’s performance just isn’t cutting it, especially against good offenses like Oakland and Boston. At least he didn’t give up seven runs again, I suppose.
Sluggish, Not Slugging
The Yankees were set up to slug in this game and they couldn’t get it done against noted mediocre pitcher Martin Perez, who gave up 3 runs in 3.2 innings before being pulled. They had one rally of note in the second inning, when a Clint Frazier bases-loaded walk drove in one run and a DJ LeMahieu single drove in two more.
However, that would be all the scoring on the night for the Yankees. The team missed a golden opportunity to cash in another run when Phil Nevin sent Gio Urshela from second on a Miguel Andjuar single with no one out. The hobbled Urshela, who isn’t very fast to begin with, was predictably thrown out at home. This was a terrible send by Nevin, especially with no one out, and was merely characteristic of the baserunning ineptitude of the Yankees this year. It seems every routine play is an adventure on the basepaths for them.
Bullpen Battle
Once the game went to the respective bullpens, it was the Red Sox pen that outshone the Yankees pen. Boston got 5.1 scoreless innings of work from their relievers, including three from ex-Yankees Garrett Whitlock and Adam Ottavino (argh). Meanwhile, Zack Britton had to leave the game with a hamstring injury, which probably places him back on the IL. He hadn’t looked right in the week since his return and this wasn’t a huge surprise. Luis Cessa came in and gave up the inherited run, but the damage was already done. One positive bullpen performance for the Yankees came from Jonathan Loisaga, who became the third Yankee to strike out four batters in an inning, following AJ Burnett and Phil Hughes. Good stuff, Johnny.
Game 2: Yankees Lose 4-2
Friday and Saturday’s game were remarkably similar in their outcomes and details. The Yankees lost a winnable game, the offense was a no show again (aside from DJ LeMahieu) and a pair of former Yankees pitchers shut down the lineup. This is exactly the opposite of how this series should be going and it’s very disappointing to see. The 2021 Yankees, whose defining characteristic is wilting in the spotlight.
Revenge of the Ex-Yankees
In two seasons with the Yankees, Nathan Eovaldi had a 4.45 ERA. In 2020, Adam Ottavino had a 5.89 ERA. So why are they so good with the Red Sox? Ottavino is more frustrating than Eovaldi, given that Eovaldi was released by the Yankees five years ago because of injury and Ottavino was only just traded away for “cash considerations”, that notable player that has really helped the Yankees this season. However, to have these two players be the ones who are helping Boston beat New York is really tough to see. Eovaldi and Ottavino combined to pitch all nine innings, minus a few walks from Hirokazu Sawamura, and held the Yankees to two runs. Ottavino especially has been dominant on Friday and Saturday, neutralizing the Yankees’ righty bats effectively. It’s almost like the Yankees had a pitcher who used to do that. In all seriousness, the Ottavino trade was a prime example of how the motivation of staying under the luxury tax has cost the Yankees. They did sign Darren O’Day and Justin Wilson to replace Ottavino and it’s not ideal that those two signings haven’t worked out, but the resurgence of Ottavino with Boston is a stinging reminder of what the Yankees gave up and why they gave it up.
Return of LeMachine
One positive to take away from this game is that we’re in a full blown DJ LeMaheiu revival now. His OPS over the last two and a half weeks is close to 1.000 and Saturday’s four hit game included two RBI and a home run. The Yankees offense has been all DJ this weekend, as he’s driven in 80% of the runs scored (this isn’t a good thing). This week has shown the importance of LeMahieu and Voit to the Yankees lineup, as one might expect from the reigning home run and batting champion. Unfortunately, DJ did not receive much support from the rest of the lineup, as the 2-9 hitters had five combined hits. The offensive revival seems to have hit a bit of a snag - whether it’s the Red Sox pitching or a fall back to Earth after some hot hitting in the prior weeks, we can’t say. Regardless, as we’ve said many times on this blog, if the Yankees aren’t hitting, they aren’t winning - it’s as simple as that.
Montgomer-Eh
Jordan Montgomery was unmemorable in this game. Not good, not bad, just mediocre. He pitched a quality start, but gave up eight hits and two walks over six innings, allowing three runs. Having a 4.06 ERA isn’t bad, but it always seems like there’s something more there. Games like the White Sox game where he struck out 11 over seven shutout innings provide a tantalizing glimpse of what could be for Monty. However, six innings and three runs should be enough to win, given your offense actually remembers how to hit. Albert Abreu followed with two innings of one run ball, but the damage had already been done. No Red Sox players homered and only one had a double (Boegarts) but they still scored enough runs to win. It’s good to remember that although these losses are frustrating, holding the Red Sox to nine runs in two games usually will get you at least one win.
Game 3: Yankees Lose 9-2
In a weekend of poor performance, Sunday afternoon’s game was the worst of them. The Yankees lost by seven runs with their ace on the mound in a game they absolutely had to win. Cole pitched terrible, the offense was a no show, and the Fenway crowd smelled blood in the water from the first inning on. The series sweep was concluded anticlimactically and the Yankees were sent limping out of Fenway with an 0-6 record against their rivals. Let’s run through quickly before we cry ourselves to sleep.
Cole-Slog
The Yankees signed Gerrit Cole to be their ace in big games against division rivals, like this one. Today, Cole looked more like Cy Yuk than Cy Young. His very first pitch of the game was hit for a home run, one of three he would allow on the day. The score was 4-0 Boston after the first inning and although Cole settled down, it wasn’t enough. The game was lost when Devers hit a bomb into the left field bullpen for a three run homer. Blame the lack of Spider Tack if you want, but Gerrit Fucking Cole should be better than a pitcher who allows six runs in five innings to Boston. The Sox racked up some garbage time runs off of Luis Cessa and Brooks Kriske, but at point it didn’t really matter. If this is the Gerrit Cole who’s going to show up against the Red Sox in front of a packed Fenway house, the Yankees don’t really have a chance in this race.
Disappearing Bats and Gloves
Cole’s performance didn’t matter as much as it could have, because the offense was a no show for the third straight day. The Yankees only scored two runs, both off of a home run by Judge, but had opportunities for more. Their best chance came in the sixth inning, when DJ and Judge both came to the plate as the tying runs and neither one of them could get a run in. The defense wasn’t much better either, specifically Gleyber Torres at short. He airmailed two throws to first, one of them which led to a Red Sox run. Gleyber’s lack of arm strength is very apparent these days and it is painful to try to see him make some of these throws to first on the run. His lack of offense and his poor defense have made quickly made him a liability for this Yankees team. Whether in the box or on the field, the Yankee hitters had another rough day after needing to step up in the worst possible way. The Judge home run was at least consolation for the no-show from the rest of the team.
We’re in the final pre-All Star break stretch and the Yankees have a packed week of baseball ahead - they’ll take on the Angels and the Mets over the next seven days. We’ll see what happens after this, but it will be another Sunday night of reevaluation of this team. Tune in tomorrow for the series preview and to look at what comes next.
