Yanks Get Lame Split in Miami

The Yankees went down to Miami for 2 Interleague games against the Marlins, now "run" by Derek Jeter. Without Giancarlo Stanton (now with the Yankees) and Christian Yelich (Milwaukee Brewers), they are not a good team. Actually, they weren't a good team with those guys, but now, they're worse.

So the Yankees should have taken both games without trying very hard.

But these are Brian Cashman's Gutless Wonders, so they didn't.

Masahiro Tanaka started the Tuesday night game, and did very well, going 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk. He should have been allowed to pitch longer by manager Aaron Boone. After all, he'd only thrown 82 pitches.

But Boone is under the Cashman Pitch Count, so he took Tanaka out, and put in Zach Britton for the 7th inning, Dellin Betances for the 8th, and Chad Green for the 9th. That worked: Between them, in 3 innings, they allowed no runs on 2 hits and 2 walks.

But you gotta score runs to win. Neil Walker singled home a run in the 4th, but that was it for regulation, and then some: The Yankees grounded into a double play in the 1st, left 2 men on in the 2nd, left a man on in the 3rd, left the bases loaded in the 4th, squandered a leadoff double by Stanton in the 5th, went down 1-2-3 in the 6th, left a man on in the 7th, went down 1-2-3 in the 8th, and wasted a leadoff walk by Walker in the 9th. Cliche alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Except the Yankees didn't close in for the kill.

The game went to extra innings. The Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the 10th, and Jonathan Holder struck out the side. The Yankees left a man on in the 11th, and A.J. Cole loaded the bases with nobody out, but got out of the jam.

Finally, in the top of the 12th, Kyle Higashioka led off with a single to left. Brett Gardner drew a walk. 2 men on, nobody out, his former home park, perfect time for Stanton to come through. No, he struck out. But Aaron Hicks got hit by a pitch to loaded the bases, and Miguel Andujar's sacrifice fly to left scored Higgy to make it 2-1 Yanks. The Yankees got no more runs, and you could feel that those non-runs might have meant something.

They almost did. Aroldis Chapman triggered the cliche alert by walking the leadoff man. Boone immediately took out his closer for Tommy Kahnle, and Yankee Fans all over the world had the same thought: "Are you nuts?" As it turned out, the answer was, "No." Kahnle got out of it.

Yankees 2, Marlins 1. WP: Cole (4-1). SV: Kahnle (1). LP: Javy Guerra (1-1).

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The Yankees weren't so lucky on Wednesday night. A double by Walker opened the scoring in the 4th, and Walker struck again with a sac fly in the 6th. Thus far, Lance Lynn had a shutout going. But he fell apart in the bottom of the 6th, allowing 4 runs, and setting Kahnle up to allow another.

And, wouldn't you know it, a later Marlin run scored on a single by former Yankee All-Star 2nd baseman Starlin Castro, whom we traded to the Fish to get Stanton.

Marlins 9, Yankees 3. WP: Jarlin Garcia (2-2). No save. LP: Lynn (8-9).

It was the lamest of splits against a lame team. Series like this are why the Yankees aren't winning the Division this season.