Not With a Bang, But With a Whimper

Remember back in July? On July 8, to be specific? When the Yankees were 61-23, on a pace for 117 wins, and leading the American League Eastern Division by 15 1/2 games, and the AL overall, 5 1/2 games ahead of the Houston Astros for home-field advantage in the Playoffs? When they were hitting like crazy, and getting good pitching and good defense? Remember when it looked like nothing and no one could stop the Yankees?

Of course, there is one team that can always beat the Yankees. I don't mean the Astros, or the Boston Red Sox. The team that always manages to beat the Yankees is, of course, the Yankees themselves. They beat themselves.

Once again, the template for the Yankee season was not 1998, or even 2009 . It was 2002, or 2006, or perhaps 2011, seasons which they looked great in the regular season, and won the Division, but completely flopped in the Playoffs.

Last night, the Yankees beat themselves every which way. They beat themselves defensively. With 2 out in the top of the 2nd inning, and the game scoreless, Christian Vázquez popped the ball up into right-center field. It should have been Aaron Judge's ball. But Harrison Bader, the one Yankee who'd looked decent at the plate in the 1st 2 games of this series, ran over, called it, crossed over Judge, and dropped the ball.

The Yankees beat themselves with the pitching. Gerrit Cole got flustered by this very stupid error, and gave up a home run to the next batter, Chas McCormick. Funny how nobody complains about a short-porch drive that wouldn't be a home run in any other ballpark when it's hit against the Yankees.

At any rate, if we presume that the game was not already out of reach (and, let's face it, it was), then Cole lost his control in the 6th inning, leading to 3 more runs that Lou Trivino couldn't stop. At least Cole got a nice hand when he was taken out, the only Yankee who wasn't booed last night.

And the Yankees beat themselves with the batting. They only got 1 hit through the 1st 8 innings, a double by Giancarlo Stanton in the 4th inning. Other than that, and walks by Gleyber Torres in the 2nd, Bader in the 5th, Anthony Rizzo in the 6th, they were completely ineffective.

They put some hope together in the 8th, with leadoff walks from Josh Donaldson and Oswaldo Cabrera, but couldn't advance them. Down to their last out in the 9th, they got singles from Matt Carpenter and Bader, but Donaldson struck out to end it. Astros 5, Yankees 0. There was a considerable amount of booing at the end, and all through the game, and even Judge did not escape. (He's still having a better postseason that Shohei Ohtani, simply because he's in one.)

This is where, in Peanuts, Charlie Brown would say, "Lucy, tell your statistics to shut up." But it is also where Franklin Delano Roosevelt would say, "Let the facts be known to a candid world." Look at these on-base percentages for the ALCS:

Harrison Bader, .417, 3-for-10, including a solo home run and 2 walks

Josh Donaldson, .333, just 1-for-9 but has 3 walks

Anthony Rizzo, .333., also 1-for-9 but has 2 walks, a hit-by-pitch, and a 2-run homer

Giancarlo Stanton, .250, 3-for-12

Isiah Kiner-Falefa, .250, 1-for-4

Gleyber Torres, .167, 1-for-11 with a walk and an RBI

Oswaldo Cabrera, .167, 0-for-5 with a walk

Matt Carpenter, .111, 1-for-9

Aaron Judge, .083, 1-for-12

Jose Trevino, .000, 0-for-7

Kyle Higashioka, .000, 0-for-3

Oswald Peraza, .000, 0-for-3

In this series, the Astros have scored 4, 3 and 5 runs. If the Yankees had scored 5 runs in each game, not an unreasonable expectation with their lineup, they'd have won 2 and sent the 3rd at least to extra innings. This series could have been won. But the Astros are in the Yankees' heads, just as the Red Sox used to be. The Yankees have convinced themselves that they can't beat these guys. And so, they can't.

A season with so many bangs is 27 outs away from going out with a whimper. Even if we win tonight, and avoid the sweep, there's little hope. No team has ever fallen behind three games to none in a postseason baseball series and won it. Not without cheating, anyway.

The line comes from poet T.S. Eliot: "This is the way the world ends: Not with a bang but with a whimper." Then again, he also wrote, "April is the cruelest month." He was wrong: It's October. Or, as George Carlin put it, "Baseball begins in the Spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the Fall, when everything is dying!"

And so, with the other major sports in full swing, the Yankees' season could come to an end tonight.

Which means a major overhaul is necessary. Players with the mentality that they can't beat the Astros have to go. Players with the mentality that they can beat any team, at any time, need to be brought in. Throw the analytics out the window. Throw Brian Cashman out the window. Throw Aaron Boone out the window.

Judge? How much do you offer him, for one of the best regular seasons in baseball history, followed by another postseason failure? Do you treat him like the Alex Rodriguez of April through September of 2007? Or do you treat him like the A-Rod of October 2005, 2006 and 2007? And if you don't re-sign him, what happens if he becomes the A-Rod of May through November 2009 for another team?

I would do whatever it takes to keep him, and then get him the support he needs. That includes never, ever batting him anywhere other than 3rd or 4th again, and getting legitimate 1-slot and 2-slot hitters. Maybe looking at the kids to see if we already have such hitters.

But the season could end tonight. Let the analytics end tonight, too.