Last night, the Yankees finished up their season-opening home series against the hated Boston Red Sox. It would have been nice to start off the season 3-0, especially against, as English soccer fans would say of their arch-rivals, "that lot."
The pattern seemed to hold. The Red Sox scored 2 runs in the top of the 1st inning, just as they had in the 1st 2 games. And the Yankees began a comeback, and tied it up. Cliché Alert: The pattern held, until it didn't.
Jordan Montgomery fell victim to general manager Brian Cashman's order to compensate for the shortened Spring Training with a reduced pitch count, and was allowed to throw only 58 pitches in less than 4 innings before manager Aaron Boone was forced to take him out.
In the 1st 2 games, with Gerrit Cole and Luis Severino starting, it ended up not mattering. And when an Anthony Rizzo single tied the game 3-3 in the bottom of the 4th, it looked like it might not matter this time, either.
Clarke Schmidt ended the Boston threat in the 4th, and pitched a perfect 5th. But, unlike the starters, he was left in too long. Bobby Dalbec led off the top of the 6th with a home run, and despite the bullpen going the rest of the way, 4 innings, allowing no runs, no hits, and 3 walks, that was the ballgame.
It was the same old story for the Yankees: They wasted a single and 2 walks in the 1st inning, wasted a single and a wild pitch in the 2nd, left a man on 2nd with 1 out after already scoring a run in the 3rd, stranded men on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out in the 5th, wasted a leadoff single in the 7th, wasted a leadoff walk in the 8th (no Cliché Alert here); and, in the 9th, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Joey Gallo -- who, between them, have 665 career home runs -- all struck out.
Red Sox 4, Yankees 3. WP: Kutter Crawford (1-1). SV: Jake Diekman (1). LP: Schmidt (0-1). A frustrating end to a good opening series.
Don't blame Stanton: In these 3 games, against our most hated opponents, he went 5-for-13 for a .385 batting average, hit 2 home runs, and batted in 4 runs. This is what we pay him the big bucks to do.
Don't blame Judge, either: He's batting .308 to start the season. Don't blame Rizzo: .300. Don't blame Josh Donaldson: He's only at .267, but he got the winning hit in the opener.
But Gallo is an atrocious .100. New shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa is only at .167. So is Gleyber Torres. So is DJ LeMahieu. Between them, the catching duo of Kyle Higashioka and Jose Trevino are .200. And Cashman was warned by the fans that shortstop and catcher were 2 weak spots. (We don't have Gary Sánchez to kick around anymore: He's started the season .250 in Minnesota. Nor do we, or anybody else for that matter, have Brett Gardner: For the 1st time since 1996, we have no players who have ever won a World Series with the Yankees.)
Changes have to be made: Either the guys who aren't hitting have to start, or they must be replaced; and if Cashman won't replace them, then he must be replaced.
As Vince Lombardi, a great New Yorker in another sport, once put it, "We might not win, but we won't be losing with the same people."
Or will we?
At any rate, 2-1 is still better than 3-0.
Tonight, the Yankees begin a home series against those pesky Toronto Blue Jays. As currently scheduled, Jameson Taillon will make his 2022 regular-season debut, against Alek Menoah.
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