It's Labor Day, and the Yankees' season is over.
"What?" you say. "Didn't they just have a 13-game winning streak?" Yes. Since then, they are 2-6. And they just lost a series, at home, to the Baltimore Orioles, the team with the worst record in baseball.
They lost 2 out of 3. They deserved to lose them all.
Nelson Cortes started on Friday night, and pitched pretty well for 5 innings. He took a 2-0 lead into the 6th, thanks to a Giancarlo Stanton home run. But Jonathan Loaisiga blew it, and the game went into extra innings. As it turned out, Loaisiga was hurt, and was placed on the 10-Day Injured List.
Thanks to the Ghost Runner Rule, both teams scored in the 10th. The Orioles didn't score in the top of the 11th. Stanton led off the bottom of the 11th with a single that scored Aaron Judge. Yankees 4, Orioles 3. WP: Clay Holmes (6-2). No save. LP: Dillon Tate (0-6).
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Jordan Montgomery started the Saturday afternoon game, and, again, the Yankees didn't support him. He was down 1-0 when he left the game in the 5th, and Holmes got out of the jam.
Judge reached on an error in the 1st. Kyle Higashioka drew a walk in the 2nd. Higashioka and Tyler Wade both drew walks in the 5th. Over the 1st 6 innings, those were the only Yankee baserunners. Chris Ellis for 5 innings, and Tanner Scott in the 6th, were pitching a no-hitter against the Yankees. It got worse in the 7th. Wandy Peralta had nothing, and it became 3-0 Orioles.
It looked like the Yanks might break the game open in the bottom of the 7th. It began when Anthony Rizzo reached on an error. Brett Gardner drew a walk. Scott was relieved by Marcos Diplan. Gary Sanchez nearly hit one out, but it was caught. Gleyber Torres hit a grounder in the hole, and Oriole shortstop Jorge Mateo couldn't make a play. Rizzo scored, and Torres was awarded a hit on the play, breaking up the gem. But Luke Voit grounded into a double play to end it.
DJ LeMahieu led off the bottom of the 8th with a single. And Joey Gallo, who had really been struggling, crushed one to tie the game. But in the 9th, Cliche Alert: Aroldis gotta Aroldis. Despite it being a tie game, Aaron Boone -- perhaps, on Brian Cashman's orders -- sent Aroldis Chapman in to pitch. Result: Strikeout but wild pitch so the batter reached, single, walk to load the bases, strikeout, sacrifice fly, strikeout. The Yankees went down quietly in the bottom of the 9th.
Orioles 4, Yankees 3. WP: Cole Sulser (4-3). No save. LP: Chapman (5-4).
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Yesterday's game was an abomination, and Chapman had nothing to do with it. For the 2nd time since coming off the Injured List, Corey Kluber started. For the 2nd time, he was fine for 3 innings, and then couldn't get out of the 4th. Joely Rodriguez had to bail him out.
It was 5-2 Yankees going into the top of the 6th, thanks to a grand slam by Sanchez. But Albert Abreu had nothing, and the O's closed to within 5-4. Torres led off the bottom of the 6th with a hit, and Sanchez hit his 2nd home run of the game. It was 7-4 Yankees.
Then Boone -- or Cashman -- had Andrew Heaney pitch the 7th with a 3-run lead. Heaney couldn't hold it. Peter Clemenza didn't make this many meatballs in The Godfather. Here's the sequence: Hit by pitch, single, single, double, popup, single. Peralta came in, and allowed another single before getting the last 2 outs. 8-7 Orioles.
The Yankees got men on 1st and 2nd with 1 out in the 7th, and a man on 1st with 2 out in the 8th, but no one scored, and they went down quietly in the 9th. Orioles 8, Yankees 7. WP: Diplan (1-0). SV: Tyler Wells (1). LP: Heaney (8-9).
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Here is the Yankees' remaining schedule: 4 at home to Toronto including today's Labor Day matinee, 3 away to the Mets, a home makeup with Minnesota, 3 in Baltimore, 3 at home to Cleveland, 3 at home to Texas, 3 in Boston, 3 in Toronto, and closing with 3 at home to Tampa Bay. That last series looked, not that long ago, like it might decide the Division title.
In order for that to happen now, the Yankees would have to get serious again: Take 3 out of 4 against Toronto, sweep the freakin' Mets, win the makeup with Minnesota, treat Camden Yards like their personal vacation and sweep the 3 there, take 2 out of 3 against Cleveland, treat Texas like the lousy team they are and sweep, take 2 out of 3 in Boston, and take 2 out of 3 in Toronto. That would be a stretch of 19-4... and the Rays would still have to do no better than 14-8 for the Yankees to even have a chance at taking the East with a sweep at the end.
With 26 games to go, the Yankees are 7 1/2 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Eastern Division. The Rays' Magic Number to clinch is 19.
The Yankees currently lead the AL Wild Card race. But history shows that the Yankees can't win the Pennant unless they win the Division. They won Wild Card berths in 1995, 1997, 2007, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020. On none of those 8 occasions did they win the AL Championship Series. Only in 2010 and 2017 did they even get to it.
Why bring Kluber back so soon, instead of giving him more minor-league rehab starts? Why overuse Loaisiga, so that he misses time in September? Why continue to put Torres' struggling bat and awful glove at shortstop? Why trust Chapman as the closer? Why use Heaney at all?
This will be the 12th straight season, and the 18th in the last 19, that the Yankees don't win the Pennant. On this Labor Day, that is the fruit of the Yankees' labor -- including the labor of Brian Cashman.
The season is lost.
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