I Don't Trust This Long Season

Going back to their founding in 1977, a trip west to face the Seattle Mariners has usually meant trouble for the Yankees. This time, with both teams struggling, it looked like such a visit was, Cliche Alert, just what the doctor ordered.

But the Yankees' recent slump was like organized crime, as described by Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in The Godfather Part III (set in 1979, a bad year for the Yankees): "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

The series began on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Park, formerly Safeco Field. Justus Sheffield, a former Yankee "prospect" that Brian Cashman was actually willing to admit wasn't going to work out, and trade away, starting for the M's, leading some people to think he was going to do what so many former Yankees, especially pitchers, do when we give up on them: Turn into, for this 1 game, the kind of player we'd hoped they would become.

Jameson Taillon, a weak link in the Yankees' starting rotation thus far, pitched his best game with the team, going 7 innings, allowing just 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk, striking out 9. A performance like that deserved a lot of support, and he got it. Cliche Alert: The Yankees scored early and often. And Sheffield did not have the steel necessary to stop it.

The game began with a single by DJ LeMahieu, a flyout by Aaron Judge that was deep enough for DJLM to tag up and go to 2nd base, a walk by Gary Sanchez, and a home run by Giancarlo Stanton. In the 2nd inning, the Yankees loaded the bases, got a wild pitch, and got a 2-RBI single by Luke Voit. 6-0.

3rd inning: A walk by Rougned Odor, a single by Miguel Andujar, a popup by Tim Locastro, and RBI single by DJLM, and RBI double by Judge. 8-0 Yankees. They didn't score again in the 4th, but another Voit RBI single in the 5th made it 9-0.

Over the 1st 5 innings, the Yankees' scoreline was 33201. That ZIP Code is not in use. If it was, it would be in Miami.

In the 8th, the Yankees added a 3-run homer by Odor. Having an 11-run lead in the 8th is a good time to help a struggling reliever work the kinks out. Although he walked the leadoff man in the bottom of the 8th, Wandy Peralta got the next 3 men out.

Having an 11-run lead in the 9th is a good time to help a struggling reliever work the kinks out. But Aaron Boone did not leave Peralta in. Instead, he brought in the pitcher most in need of a strong outing, the closer who began the year so brilliantly, but has pitched horridly of late: Aroldis Chapman.

He put on the kind of performance that, had it happened earlier in the year, we would have said, "Well, at least he got the job done in the end. But, given his recent outings, this was worrying. He allowed a single, then got a strikeout. He walked a better, then got a strikeout. He delivered another walk to load the bases, bringing a lot of us to ask, "He can't blow an 11-run lead in a pitcher's park, can he?" And then he got another strikeout to end it.

He walked the bases loaded and struck out the side. This is where John Sterling might say to Suzyn Waldman, "You know, Suzyn, you just can't predict baseball." But with Aroldis Chapman, such an occurrence wouldn't be all that hard to predict.

At any rate, it was over: Yankees 12, Mariners 1. WP: Taillon (3-4). No save, not with an 11-run lead. LP: Sheffield (5-8).

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The Wednesday night game would be less comfortable, on more than one level. Domingo German was supposed to start, but he had to undergo an emergency root canal. So that's 3 times in this turn of the rotation that the Yankees needed an unintended starter. In this case, it was Nick Nelson.

Back-to-back singles in the 1st by Voit and Gleyber Torres gave Nelson a 3-0 lead before he even took the mound, but he couldn't handle it. He started with a strikeout, but then hit a batter, walked the next, nearly allowed a game-tying home run that turned into a long flyout, walked a batter and allowed a run on a wild pitch at the same time, and walked another batter to load the bases.

Boone had seen enough, and brought in Luis Cessa. It seemed a good time to worry. It wasn't: Not only did Cessa get out of this jam, he pitched 3 more innings without allowing a runner past 1st base. It might have been his best performance as a Yankee. And he was rewarded in the 2nd inning with a double by Locastro and a homer by Judge.

With his anesthesia worn off, German was brought in to pitch the 5th. He got 2 strikeouts, then a flyout. So it remained 5-1 in the Yankees' favor into the 6th. But that inning began with an error by Gio Urshela, and that unsettled German, until he allowed a home run that made it 5-4.

But that would be the Mariners' last baserunner. German pitched a perfect 7th, Jonathan Loaisiga a perfect 8th, and Chad Green a perfect 9th. Yankees 5, Mariners 4. WP: Cessa (2-1). SV: Green (3). LP: Yusei Kikuchi (6-4).

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So that was 3 games in a row that the Yankees, both at the plate and on the mound, had gotten the job done. Things were looking up. Little did anyone know that the Yankees' output in the 1st inning of Game 1 of the series would be greater than their entire output in Game 3.

Jordan Montgomery started the Thursday afternoon finale. He had an average game, getting into the 7th inning and allowing 3 runs. The Yankees should have been able to overcome that.

They didn't. Starting the 2nd inning, Stanton doubled, and Voit was hit by a pitch. And LeMahieu was hit by a pitch in the 9th -- which led to the exchanges of some words and dirty looks. Those were the only baserunneres of the game.

It was reminiscent of an exchange from the move Major League, where Bob Uecker plays Harry Doyle, a broadcaster for the Cleveland Indians, a character based less on his real-life persona and more on Harry Caray of the Chicago Cubs, and says, on the air, "That's all we got? One goddamned hit?" His broadcast partner covers the microphone, and says, "You can't say, 'goddamned' on the air." And Harry says, "That's okay, nobody's listening, anyway."

Peralta gave up a home run in the 8th to make the final score Mariners 4, Yankees 0. WP: Logan Gilbert (3-2). No save. LP: A hard-luck Montgomery (3-4).

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So the Yankees are 44-42, 9 games (8 in the loss column) behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League Eastern Division, and 4 1/2 games out of the 2nd AL Wild Card slot. According to FanGraphs, the Yankees now have an 8 percent chance of winning the Division, and a 37 percent chance of making the Playoffs.

And now, we have to close out the official 1st half of the season, before the All-Star Break, by going to Houston to play the cheating Astros, who are currently tied with the Red Sox and the Los Angeles Baseball Team for the best record in the major leagues.

This could be a long weekend, especially if the weather predictions hold up, although that won't affect the Yankees, who will be playing under a dome. Throw in the Break, and it could be a long week.

It's already been a long season. In Bull Durham, Susan Sarandon's character, Annie Savoy, said, "It's a long season, and you've got to trust it." And we've heard many times, so I have to say, "Cliche Alert": A baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint.

The New York City Marathon has been canceled twice in the last 9 years.

The Yankees' championship parade has been canceled 11 years in a row. It looks like it will be 12. Because I don't trust Cashman, I don't trust Boone, I don't trust these players, and I don't trust this long season. Do you?