Absolutely the Worst

Last night, June 30, 2021, could have been a really good night for the Yankees. It was looking like it, even into the top of the 9th inning. 

Instead, it became a date which will live in infamy.

Let me put this another way: Last night, in the suburbs of Atlanta, the Mets lost to the Braves, 20-2. And that was not the ugliest game in New York baseball on the night. It may well have been the ugliest day in the history of New York baseball -- at least, competitively speaking.

Domingo Germán started for the Yankees, against Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese pitcher and slugger for the Los Angeles Angels. It was clear that Germán didn't have it, as he allowed 2 runs in the top of the 1st inning. 

And, with manager Aaron Boone having given both Aaron Judge and Gio Urshela the night off, with a day game the next day, there seemed to be little hope in coming back, even from this very early 2-run deficit.

But the bottom of the 1st was a nightmare for Ohtani and the Angels. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. And the early favorite for the American League's Most Valuable Player award walked the 1st 3 batters he faced: DJ LeMahieu, Luke Voit and Gary Sánchez. 

This was followed by RBI singles by Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres. Rougned Odor struck out, but a groundout by Miguel Andújar got a 3rd run home. Ohtani then hit Clint Frazier with a pitch. Given his control last night, and the fact that it reloaded the bases, this probably was not intentional. Then he walked Brett Gardner, forcing home another run.

Joe Maddon, former the dirty manager of the Tampa Bay Rays and the manager who won the World Series with the Chicago Cubs -- because he had a general manager, Theo Epstein, willing to trade 20 years of Torres for 3 months of Aroldis Chapman -- now manages the Angels. 

At this moment, he finally took Ohtani out, bringing in Aaron Slegers. He allowed a bases-clearing double to LeMahieu, runs charged to Ohtani, before allowing a long flyout to Voit that was nearly a home run for another 2 runs. The Yankees scored 7 runs on just 3 hits and no errors, but 4 walks and a hit batsman.

But, given a 5-run lead, Germán couldn't stand prosperity, allowing a run in the top of the 2nd. In the bottom of the 3rd, with the score still 7-3 in the Yankees' favor, there was a rain delay, and it began to look like that 7-run inning would be wasted. As it turned out, it would be, but not because of the rain.

When the delay ended, Boone refused to put Germán back out for the top of the 4th. Good choice. He brought Justin Wilson, newly returned from the Injured List, in to pitch. Good choice: He got the Angels out 1-2-3. Then Boone brought Luis Cessa in to pitch the top of the 5th. Bad choice: He allowed a home run, making it 7-4.

That inning was played with the rain falling again, but Cessa had just enough to get 3 outs. And then the tarp was brought back onto the field. Now, if the umpires had called the game, it would have been official.

The game was not called. It was announced that the game would be restarted at 11:30 PM. We were playing a team from the Pacific Coast, and now, it was looking like the game would end after 1:00 AM Eastern Time, as if we were playing them on the Pacific Coast.

Somebody on Twitter wrote, "They're actually resuming?" And I responded, "MLB wants theYankees to lose." That tweet got 2 "Likes" and a retweet. Apparently, some people figured it out that, however unintentionally, that tweet was not just an insult to MLB, it was a prediction.

Boone didn't bring Cessa back out to pitch the top of the 6th. Good choice. He brought in Darren O'Day, recently returned from the Injury List. Good choice: He got the Angels out 1-2-3. He didn't bring O'Day out to pitch the top of the 7th. Good choice. He brought in Jonathan Loáisiga. Good choice: He got the Angels out 1-2-3 in both the 7th and the 8th.

But here's the problem: It shouldn't have taken Wilson, Cessa, O'Day and Loáisiga to hold the Angels to 1 run over 5 innings. At the least, Wilson should have been kept in for the 5th. And maybe Loáisiga should have been held back, in case closer Aroldis Chapman didn't have it on the night.

Brett Gardner led off the bottom of the 8th with a home run. At 8-4 with 1 inning to go, and Chapman pitching the 9th, it looked like the Yankees had the game in the bag. According to Baseball-Reference.com, after the 1st inning, the Yankees had an 89 percent chance of winning the game. At the start of the 9th, 98 percent.

But there's that cliché again: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Chapman began by walking Taylor Ward. He got Juan Lagares to ground into a forceout. Then he walked Max Stassi. Then he walked Anthony Rendon. At this point, I tweeted, "Aroldis gotta Aroldis." New cliché? He always seems to make the game more interesting than it has to be.

Now, the tying run was at the plate, in the form of Jared Walsh. A YES Network camera focused on Boone, who was standing on the top step of the dugout, and broadcaster Michael Kay asked if Boone would now take Chapman out, given that Lucas Luetge -- with the more effective Loáisiga no longer available -- was now warming up in the bullpen. Boone left Chapman in.

I was worried that Chapman was going to walk him, too. I wish he had. Instead, he served up a perfectly juicy meatball that Walsh deposited over the right-center field fence. Home run. Grand slam. And we had ourselves a tie ballgame.

Only now did Boone come out to remove Chapman, and both were thoroughly booed, and bring in Luetge. A batter earlier, YES had put up a graphic showing the statistics of Chapman's 1st 18 appearances on the season, and his last 13.

Now, they showed it updated. His ERAs: 0.00 and 10.13. His opponents' batting average: .089 and .341. His strikeout-to-walk ratio: 36-7 to 13-12. Home runs allowed: 0 to 4.

What the hell happened to him between his 18th and 19th appearance? Did he suddenly turn into a Cuban version of 1973 Steve Blass?

So it was now 8-8. And to make matters worse, Luetge was as bad as Chapman. He walked Phil Gosselin, to start the process all over again. A chant of "Fire Boone!" went up in Yankee Stadium. He gave up a single to David Fletcher. Finally, he got the 2nd out, by striking José Iglesias out. Luetge got what Johnny Carson used to call "sympathy applause."

But Maddon decided on a little gamesmanship. With Gosselin on 3rd, he sent Fletcher to steal 2nd, hoping the Yankees would go after him, giving Gosselin the chance to pull off the double steal and score the go-ahead run. The Yankees didn't fall for it, but that put runners on 2nd and 3rd. That meant that, if Luis Rengifo got a hit, 2 runs would score instead of 1. And that's what happened. 10-8 Angels. And Taylor Ward hit a double to score Rengifo. 11-8.

Finally, Luetge struck Juan Lagares out. The booing was merciless. Now, the Yankees needed 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th, just to keep it going. And remember: Neither Judge nor Urshela was in the lineup, although both were, theoretically available for pinch-hitting duty.

Neither was brought to the plate. Stanton hit a weak grounder to short. Torres hit a weak grounder to 3rd. And Odor struck out. The Yankees' worst game of the season -- maybe the worst since that 16-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox in Game 3 of the 2018 AL Division Series -- was over: Angels 11, Yankees 8. WP: Mike Mayers (2-3). SV: Raisel Iglesias (15). LP: Luetge (2-1, although Chapman is getting most of the online blame.)

Blame the players, for not getting the job done. Blame Boone, for a few decisions that cost the team dearly.

And that's just for last night's game. Overall, with the season almost exactly at its halfway point, the Yankees are 41-39, 8 1/2 games behind the 1st place Red Sox, 8 in the loss column. Behind the Rays, who currently hold the 2nd AL Wild Card slot, the Yankees are 5 1/2 behind, 5 in the loss column.

Blame the players, for not getting the job done. Blame Boone, for many, many decisions that cost the team dearly. Blame general manager Brian Cashman, for having hired Boone, and for the orders he gives Boone that he must follow. Blame operating owner Hal Steinbrenner, for having hired Boone and Cashman.

It was announced that Hal would be having a Zoom meeting with the media this morning. That meeting has happened. And both Cashman and Boone still have their jobs.

Hal said that he is not "contemplating or even thinking about" the Yankees being sellers ahead of the July 30 Trade Deadline.

He said that he will “absolutely consider” exceeding the luxury tax if the Yankees need another piece to reach the playoffs. He used the Masahiro Tanaka signing as an example. But he also said that Aaron Boone and the current coaches are “absolutely” the right people to lead this team.

On firing personnel in-season, he said that his father George “certainly did that a lot. What people forget is that a lot of times, it didn’t work.” Well, on that, Hal is right.

He said, “Am I mad at what I see? Absolutely. I’m aggravated, frustrated, angry. But that’s not going to push me into a knee jerk reaction.”

He keeps using that word, "absolutely." I do not think it means what he thinks it means.

I know what it means. And last night's game was absolutely the worst the Yankees have played this season.

And you know the old saying: "Cheer up: The worst is yet to come."