Tanaka Bright, Sonny Very Gray vs. Orioles

Well, this past Tuesday, July 31, was the Major League Baseball trading deadline. My great fear, that Yankee general manager Brian Cashman would trade a productive player for one thousand, seven hundred and forty-six "prospects" did not come to pass.

That's a bit of an exaggeration. My original thought was that it would be Gary Sanchez for 4 of them, seeing as how everyone fawns over Aaron Judge. But Sanchez went on the Disabled List the preceding Tuesday. For once, an injury may have been lucky.

Also on Tuesday, the Yankees started a home series against the Baltimore Orioles. Masahiro Tanka avoided giving up a home run in the 1st inning, and thus was brilliant: 6 innings, no runs, 3 hits, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts. Of course, it took him 105 pitches to do that, so Aaron Boone sent A.J. Cole out to pitch the 7th, and while he cruised through that inning, he allowed 3 runs in the 8th, before Dellin Betances got out of the jam.

But that didn't matter, because the Yankees got a run on a Gleyber Torres RBI single in the 1st inning, another on a Didi Gregorius RBI single in the 3rd, another on a Greg Bird bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the 5th, and then, in the very next at-bat, a 3-run home run by Miguel Andujar.

Yankees 6, Orioles 3. WP: Tanaka (9-2). SV: Chapman (29). LP: Yefry Ramirez (1-4).

Meanwhile, down in Washington, the Nationals pounded the Mets, 16-0 and 25-1, before a 9th inning rally got the Amazins back to a final score of 25-4.

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Sonny Gray started on Wednesday night. This is how his season he's gone: He lost to an opposing pitcher who came into the game 2-14.

Gray didn't get out of the 3rd inning. Lance Lynn, newly-acquired from the Minnesota Twins for 1st baseman Tyler Austin and minor-league pitcher Luis Rijo, pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings in his Yankee debut, allowing 5 hits, but no walks, and no strikeouts. Maybe he should have been the starter. Chad Green pitched a perfect 8th, Jonathan Holder a scoreless 9th. So that's 6 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. But Gray got rocked.

Gleyber Torres did a great impersonation of Alex Rodriguez, hitting 2 home runs for 4 RBIs in a lost cause. Orioles 7, Yankees 5. WP: Alex Cobb (3-14). No save. LP: Gray (8-8).

Lynn and J.A. Happ were essentially brought in to take the rotation places of Gray and whoever might be hurt down the stretch. But how much does it matter? It's now August.

The Yankees play the Red Sox next. They are 5 1/2 games behind The Scum in the American League East, with 56 to play. Four days at Fenway. If the Yankees are to get back into the race for the Division title, they have to win at least 3 of the 4.

Otherwise, it's another failed season, and this one isn't on Joe Girardi, because, as Richard Nixon would have said, we don't have him to kick around anymore. And it's not on Aaron Boone, because he hasn't had much of a chance to leave his mark.

If this season goes into the books as a failure, it is all on Brian Cashman. He'd better hope that Happ and Lynn are part of the solution, not part of the problem.