Yanks' Best Pitcher In Horrible Loss to Rays Is Marwin González

The Yankees began September the way they played most of July and pretty much all of August: Making complete fools of themselves.

It didn't start out that way: Domingo Germán started the opener of this more-important-than-it-should-have-been series away to the Tampa Bay Rays, and allowed 1 unearned run on 5 hits and 1 walk over the 1st 6 1/3rd innings.

Unfortunately, the Yankees didn't hit, again: They wasted men on 1st & 2nd in the 1st inning, went down 1-2-3 in the 2nd, wasted men on 1st & 2nd with 1 out in the 3rd, wasted a man on 1st in the 4th, wasted 1 leadoff double and a 1-out walk in the 5th, wasted 1st & 2nd in the 6th, and went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th. It was 1-0 Rays at the stretch.

Germán got the 1st out in the bottom of the 7th, then he walked a batter. You know the Cliché about what walks can do: The next batter hit a home run. It was 3-0 Rays, and, while Germán still hadn't pitched badly, it felt like game over.

And it was. The Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the 8th. And then Greg Weissert fell apart in the bottom of the 8th, allowing 2 runs. Aaron Boone brought Anthony Banda in, and he imploded, allowing walk, bases-loading single, bases-loaded walk, bases-loaded walk, 2-run single, and finally he hit a batter. Boone actually sent a position player in to pitch at this point: Marwin González, who finally got the 3rd out.

Aaron Hicks hit a single with 1 out in the top of the 9th, but it wasn't followed up. Rays 9, Yankees 0. WP: Jeffrey Springs (7-4). No save. LP: Germán (2-3).

Here are the career earned run averages of the pitchers the Yankees used last night: Germán, 4.36; Weissert, 10.13; Banda, 5.64; Marwin González, 0.00. He had previously pitched a full scoreless inning for the Boston Red Sox in 2021.

Aside from Germán, there is no reason for any of those men to ever pitch for the Yankees again.

The Yankees, once in 1st place in the American League Eastern Division by 15 1/2 games, are now just 5 games ahead of the Rays, 4 in the all-important loss column. And they are 6 games behind the Houston Astros for home-field advantage in the Playoffs. There are 30 games to go.

After the game, Boone said, "It's just embarrassing when you get beat like that and you're going through the struggles you are. I'm in charge of this team, what we're going through right now, I know better than anyone, there's going to be hard moments and hard times. I do think the effort is there, I think the care is there. But, we've set a much better standard in that room that we've got to start living up to it."

No shit, Sherlock.

The series continues tonight. Clarke Schmidt, who shouldn't be starting for the Yankees, does, against Corey Kluber, who should be starting for the Yankees, except Brian Cashman let him go. And you know what happens when Cashman lets a pitcher go, most notoriously with Nathan Eovaldi. I can feel another unacceptable loss coming on.