Last night, the Yankees began a roadtrip, playing the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. It turned out to be yet another loss that can be pinned on Aaron Boone's following of Brian Cashman's stupid orders.
Nestor Cortes started, and he was fine for 5 1/3rd innings, allowing 2 runs on 1 hit, albeit with 4 walks. Boone took him out after just 83 pitches. As it turns out, Cortes is now 2 1/3rd innings short of his career high for a season, and Cashman wants what the NBA calls "load management."
If Cashman is so afraid that a starting pitcher can't handle 200 innings a season, then either that pitcher or Cashman himself shouldn't be here. Personally, I'd like to trust Cortes to keep pitching well, and get rid of the idiot Cashman.
Josh Donaldson doubled a run home in the 1st inning, and singled home another in the 3rd. Gleyber Torres singled one home in the 5th. The Yankees led, 3-1.
But because Boone had to take Cortes out in the 6th (not really), he needed both Albert Abreu and Scott Effross to finish the inning at 3-2. Effross pitched a scoreless 7th. The Yankees stranded men on 1st and 2nd in the 8th.
And then Cashman trusted Clay Holmes to get a 2-inning save. If he'd let Cortes pitch through the 7th, he could have avoided Abreu, and let Effross pitch the 8th and Holmes only the 9th, and it would have stood a better chance of working than what he actually tried.
Holmes got the dangerous Paul Goldschmidt to ground out to start the 8th. Then he gave up a weak grounder to Nolan Arenado, and Donaldson couldn't throw him out in time. He struck Nolan Gorman out, and it looked like he would be okay. Well, Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. Holmes walked Tyler O'Neill. Then he gave up a double to Paul DeJong that gave the Cards the lead.
DJ LeMahieu drew a walk with 1 out in the 9th, but he was stranded, and his walk didn't kill anything. Cardinals 4, Yankees 3. WP: Andre Pallante (5-4). SV: Ryan Helsley (10). LP: Holmes (5-3). This was his 4th blown save. After giving up just 2 earned runs in his 1st 39 1/3rd innings (for an ERA of 0.46), and taking the closer's job away from the mercurial Aroldis Chapman, Holmes has allowed 9 in his last 7 1/3rd (11.05 -- overall, 2.12). Once again, the Yankees were betrayed by the bad bullpen management of Cashman and Boone.
And with their win last night, the Houston Astros are now just half a game behind the Yankees, 1 game in the loss column, for home-field advantage in the American League Playoffs. The Yankees have now lost 13 of their last 23, and if they continue at this rate, they'll win just 88 games, and might not even make the Playoffs. Is the choke on? It would be the biggest regular-season choke in Yankee history. And if it's completed, how does Hal Steinbrenner justify keeping Cashman as general manager?
The series continues tonight. Domingo Germán starts against Jordan Montgomery, facing the Yankees in his Cardinal debut. Already, online doomsayers are predicting not only that Montgomery will get the run support he hardly ever got from the Yankee bats, but that he'll pitch a no-hitter, and that Germán will "spit the bit," to use a favorite expression of horse-racing fan George Steinbrenner. We shall see.
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