Batting Cleanup: Aw-Phil Weekend
Saturday’s game ended in heartbreaking fashion (The Day).
Tough series, tough weekend, tough season for the Yankees. A two game sweep in Philly brought the overall record to 33-32 and the prognosis gets bleaker with each series loss. Let’s jump into the recaps to see what positives we can take away from the mess that occurred in the City of Brotherly Love.
Game 1: Yankees Lose 8-7
The focus of our ire in Yankeeland this year has been the offense, so it’s strange to see the pitching staff be the ones on the hot seat. It’s been that kind of year for the Yankees - fix one thing and something else breaks in its place. A miraculous comeback quickly turned into a heartbreaking extra innings loss, with some concerning details along the way.
Taillon Troubles
For all intents and purposes, this game was over in the first inning. That’s when Jameson Taillon gave up four runs in one third of an inning and left the Yankees in a hole that was a bit too large for them to climb out of. Taillon did not have it in this game, giving up five hits and a walk before being pulled for Nestor Cortes Jr., who managed to keep the game at 4-0. Taillon again wasn’t able to put batters away and gave up quite a few hard hit balls, including this one by Alec Bohm (shoutout Alec) to knock him out of the game.
It’s been the same old story for Taillon, who now has an improbably bad 11.12 ERA in five road starts. He has allowed hitters to bat .385/.425/.628 against him, which is peak level Barry Bonds stuff. Taillon’s 3.22 Yankee Stadium ERA isn’t half bad, but his overall 5.74 ERA leaves something to be desired. His problem has been allowing hard contact, as he is in the bottom percentiles on his hard hit %, max exit velocity allowed, and average exit velocity allowed. A deeper dive into Taillon’s road struggles is probably warranted, but even at his best, Jameson just isn’t able to provide effective innings each time out and if the Yankees had more rotation options, he would probably be the first one bumped. It’s disappointing to see from a pitcher that had a ton of potential as a low cost pickup in the offseason.
LeMachine Strikes Again
The fact that the game wasn’t actually over in the first inning was thanks to the heroics of DJ LeMahieu, who pulled an 2019 ALCS maneuver and tied the game in the ninth inning with a three run home run. It was DJ’s first home run since early May and was a much needed hit for a batter who has been terrible this year compared to last year. His power has evaporated and we’ve seen far too many ground balls as compared to line drives for him. It’s not a problem solely resting on DJ’s shoulders, but his performance is the most notable example. DJ has had a good road trip, quietly hitting .300 with an .850 OPS, and if he can do that for the rest of the season, the complexion of the Yankee lineup changes quite a bit. No matter how much he struggles, you can usually count on DJ to give you a good at bat, and he proved that yesterday with his game tying shot.
Bats Are Back, Arms Are Not
As we said at the top, the offense and the pitching staff have quietly switched roles. In the last four games, the Yankees have scored 29 runs, but the pitchers have allowed 22. Today, Gary Sanchez and Rougned Odor hit the Yankee home runs, along with LeMahieu’s shot in the ninth. Hot Gary Summer, as we like to remind you all, is well underway.
A Gardner triple and a Sanchez RBI single accounted for the other Yankee runs. Usually seven runs would be enough to win, but Taillon’s poor first inning gave the bullpen 8.2 innings to cover, which they did while allowing three more runs. The game went to extras tied, but the Yankees failed to score and Aroldis Chapman took the loss without allowing a ball out of the infield. Manfred Ball strikes again. The most encouraging pitching moment was Zack Britton’s season debut, in which he threw a scoreless inning. A healthy Britton deepens an already strong bullpen and is a valuable weapon for Aaron Boone to deploy alongside Chapman, Chad Green, and Jonathan Loisiaga in the later innings.
It's really frustrating to see one side of the team fix its problems while the other side develops them, but it shows that if both halves of the equation can ever click, the Yankees do have the potential to be quite a good team. Here’s hoping that happens before too many more tough losses like this one.
Game 2: Yankees Lose 7-0
The Yankees needed to follow up their tough loss in the first game with something better than they showed today. They lost in noncompetitive fashion, gave up at least six runs for the fourth game in a row, and generally seemed like they were uninterested in doing much of anything well. It’s a long season, as we’ve said, but the execution and intensity needs to be better than it was this weekend. A rough effort all around.
Domingo on Domingo
Domingo German has certainly not been the problem this season, but this was his worst outing of the year and by any Yankee starter this season. German gave up seven runs on ten hits, becoming the first Yankee starter since James Paxton in 2019 to give up that many. Much like Taillon in the series opener, the Phillies were on everything that German was throwing, and although he gave the team more length than Taillon, he dug them in a deeper hole. The backbreaking hit was this two run double by Andrew McCutchen, which knocked German out of the game.
The Yankee bullpen came in and did its job, but it was too little, too late for the struggling Yankees pitchers. Given German’s success this year, I think it’s fair to give him a pass for this one, but it was certainly not what the Yankees needed today.
A-Nola-Ated
Aaron Nola is a very good pitcher and his mediocre season stats obscure that fact at times. However, he dazzled in his start today, going 7.2 innings and striking out nine while only allowing three hits and no runs. Aside from two LeMahieu singles and an Odor double, the Yankees offense had their worst game in a while. That is partly because Judge sat out with back spasms and Stanton sat out with can’t play the field-itis. The fact that the Yankees don’t feel comfortable sending Stanton into the field for even a few innings really handicaps this team’s depth, even when they’re not in a National League park. Oh well, at least we have the slick fielding Gleyber Torres holding down shortstop.
Another area of concern - the basepaths - was highlighted today when Rougned Odor was thrown out trying to get from second to third on a ball hit in front of him.
It was a boneheaded play and added to the Yankees’ league leading total of outs made on the basepaths - 31 in total, which is well above the league average of 18. This Yankees team hits into too many double plays, they get caught on the bases, they do most of the fundamental things of baseball wrong. It’s a tough look for a team that has consistently prided itself on executing on the basics for years now. The 2009 team set the MLB record for most errorless games; this Yankees team seems far from that mark both statistically and spiritually.
Tomorrow brings an off day and then the Yankees wrap up this road trip by taking on the slugging Blue Jays in Buffalo. Let’s hope the pitching figures it out before then, or it could be a long series.
