Yankees Struggle vs. San Francisco Giants

The Yankees came home to play the San Francisco Giants in a 3-game Interleague series. It rained all day Friday, and perhaps the game should have been postponed. They played anyway, and reached a conclusion. A pathetic conclusion.

Marcus Stroman started, mainly because the Yankees' top 3 starters are all on the Injured List. He allowed double, walk, home run, walk, walk, double. That's 5 runs without getting a single out. Then he got a strikeout and a flyout, then allowed another single. Aaron Boone took him out, and replaced him with Ryan Yarbrough, who struck out Carl's grandson Mike Yastrzemski to end the disastrous inning.

Bottom of the 1st. Robbie Ray struck out Paul Goldschmidt and Ben Rice. Two outs, 1st base open? Of course, you walk Aaron Judge, although, officially, this one wasn't intentional. Then Ray struck out Cody Bellinger.

Austin Wells doubled a run home in the 2nd. But in the 5th, Ian Hamilton, just off the Injured List, walked the bases loaded with 1 out. Sidearm pitcher Tim Hill insured that all 3 runs scored. The Giants made it 9-1 in the top of the 6th, at which point the rain became too much, and the umpires called it. The Giants were the winners.

Will Warren started on Saturday afternoon, and was a lot better, allowing 2 runs in 5 innings. Boone fiddled with the lineup, and it worked: The Yankees got an RBI triple and an RBI single from Bellinger, a sacrifice fly and an RBI double from Goldschmidt, a sacrifice fly from Anthony Volpe, a 2-RBI single from Jasson Domínguez, and a home run from Ben Rice. They beat the Giants, 8-4.

Yesterday's game wasn't as good. Carlos Rodón was staked to a 3-0 lead in the 1st 2 innings, thanks to a Goldschmidt RBI single, a double by J.C. Escarra, and an RBI single by Rice. But he allowed 4 runs in 5 2/3rds innings, including 2 home runs by Jung Hoo Lee. If Phil Rizzuto were still around, he might have said, "Hoo Lee Cow!" Mark Leiter Jr. allowed an unearned run in the 7th, as Goldschmidt, the Yankees' best hitter during the series, made a costly error.

Jazz Chisholm led off the bottom of the 8th with a home run. It was a "Curse of Kay" moment: Broacaster Michael Kay mentioned that Jazz was 0-for-his-last-24, then came the home run. But the Yankees couldn't find a tying run. With 2 out in the bottom of the 9th, Judge took a strike 2 that was clearly low, and a strike 3 that was clearly outside, and that was it. Giants 5, Yankees 4.

Judge has the biggest strike zone in baseball. Opposing pitchers don't need any help from the umpires. I'm not saying he would have hit a home run, but if home plate umpire Ryan Willis had called those pitches correctly, he would have been the tying run on 1st base.

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Going into today's games, the Yankees are 8-7, 1 game over .500 -- not an unexpected turn of events, given their pitching injuries. But they're only half a game behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Eastern Division, and even with them in (Cliché Alert) the all-important loss column.

Tonight, the Yankees start a 3-game home series with the Kansas City Royals, before starting a roadtrip to Tampa Bay and Cleveland.