Last night, the Yankees opened a 3-game weekend series with the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. The Tigers are struggling: In the American League, only the Baltimore Orioles have a worse record. And Gerrit Cole was a pitching for the Yankees. Cole went 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 6 hits and 1 walk, striking out 5. He did his job.
The Yankee batters didn't do theirs. Aaron Judge singled with 2 out in the 1st inning, and doubled with 1 out in the 4th. Those were their only baserunners in the 1st 4 innings. Rougned Odor led off the top of the 5th with a home run, to tie the game. The rest of the inning was a missed opportunity: Clint Frazier singled, Kyle Higashioka struck out, Brett Gardner singled, DJ LeMahieu struck out, and Giancarlo Stanton struck out.
The Yankees got men on 1st and 3rd with 2 out in the 6th, but didn't score. Gleyber Torres and Odor singled with 2 out in the 8th, but Frazier hit a ground ball right at Tiger shortstop Harold Castro, and that was that.
With 1 out in the 9th, Miguel Andujar pinch-hit for Gardner, and singled. Tyler Wade was sent in to pinch-run. A wild pitch got wade to 2nd base. LeMahieu drew a walk. Now, it was men on 1st and 2nd with 1 out, and 2 of the most dangerous hitters in the game coming up: Judge and Stanton. Both struck out.
That's where the Yankees lost the game: Having a glorious opportunity to win the game in the 9th inning, instead, they playing 9 innings against a team that is, to put it politely, struggling, and only scored 1 run.
Aroldis Chapman, having been sick for a couple of days, was brought into pitch the bottom of the 9th. He was due for a bad game, and he began by walking Jonathan Schoop. You know how you "just know"? Well, the cliche about walking the leadoff man hit me, and I was sure that Schoop -- or, rather, pinch-runner Akil Baddoo -- would score.
Except Gary Sanchez, much-maligned for his defensive play as a catcher, picked Baddoo off. Chapman took that gift, and got the next 2 batters out.
Extra innings. Meaning, the ghost runner on 2nd. For the Yankees, that would be Judge. Gio Urshela struck out. Torres hit a grounder that got Judge to 3rd. The Yankees didn't look like they wanted to win.
Then, Tiger reliever Bryan Garcia threw a bad pitch. Catcher Jake Rogers couldn't handle it. It was ruled a passed ball. Judge scored, and it was 2-1. The Yankees had seemingly refused to take the game, and the Tigers had seemingly given it to them, anyway.
Odor singled, so there was a chance for more. But Frazier struck out, and 2-1 it stayed.
Justin Wilson was brought in to pitch the bottom of the 10th. I can't fault Aaron Boone for this: Chapman had been sick, and Zack Britton and Darren O'Day are still on the injured list. Pickings were slim.
Wilson got the 1st out. He got the 2nd out. But there was still the ghost runner, Eric Haase, who had advanced to 3rd base.
The batter was Robbie Grossman. Wilson got to a 2-2 count on him. He threw an outside curveball that just missed the strike zone. Lots of #YankeesTwitter people were sure it was a strike. The replays on the YES Network proved it was a ball by the slimmest of margins.
The next pitch was hit by Grossman for a home run. Tigers 3, Yankees 2. WP: Bryan Garcia (1-1). No save. LP: Wilson (1-1).
I wrote on Twitter, "I got my 2nd Moderna vaccine 28 hours ago. I was fine all day today. Now, I feel sick. Than you SO much, @Yankees."
In this game, the Tigers were a convict that tripped and fell into the electric chair. And the Yankees were the warden, flipping the wrong switch, and executing themselves.
When an opponent is willing to give you the game, never, ever give it back. The problem was, the Yankees had already given the game back, and we just didn't know it.
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Brian Cashman lost this game, building a team designed to bomb opponents out of the yard, and ending up not being able to do so. In 31 games so far this season, in which they have scored 4 or fewer runs, the Yankees are 11-20. In 27 games scoring 3 or fewer, they are 10-17. In 18 games scoring 2 or fewer, they are 6-12. That includes 3 straight games (May 19-21) where they scored 2 and won.
And in 6 extra-inning games, they are 3-3.
A lot of people forget that losing is a team effort, just as winning is, and will say nasty things about Justin Wilson. The heck with 'em. This game wasn't lost because of one pitch he threw. It was lost because of several pitches the Yankees didn't hit.
The series continues this afternoon, with a first pitch of 4:10 PM. Deivi Garcia makes his 2nd major league appearance of the season, starting against Spencer Turnbull.
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