Sports people, especially baseball people, tend to be superstitious. Hence, Boston Red Sox fans believed, even when they said they didn't, in "The Curse of the Bambino," until they finally killed it with steroids in 2004.
Well, this past Friday was the start of a series between the Yankees and the Red Sox at Fenway Park, and also a Friday the 13th. Did I expect a start of bad luck for the Yankees? No.
And they didn't get it. It wasn't bad luck at all. It was bad performance.
Not from the pitching, for the most part. On Friday night, Ryan Yarbrough and 3 relievers allowed 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. On Saturday night, Carlos Rodón allowed 4 runs in 6 innings, though only 2 over the 1st 4. And last night, Max Fried allowed 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks, with 9 strikeouts, over 7 innings.
Results: Red Sox 2, Yankees 1; Red Sox 4, Yankees 3; Red Sox 2, Yankees 0. On aggregate -- not that baseball does it this way, but I think it's worth reporting -- Red Sox 8, Yankees 4.
These were the stats on the series for the Yankee players in this Yankees. Read 'em and weep:
* Anthony Volpe, 3-for-11, 1 walk, 1 RBI.
* Jasson Domínguez, 2-for-11, 1 RBI.
* Paul Goldschmidt, 2-for-8, 1 walk.
* Trent Grisham, 2-for-8.
* Jazz Chisholm, 1-for-6, 2 walks.
* Austin Wells, 1-for-7, 1 RBI.
* Cody Bellinger, 1-for-7, 1 walk.
* DJ LeMahieu, 1-for-8.
* Ben Rice, 1-for-11.
* Aaron Judge, 1-for-12, 1 RBI, 9 strikeouts.
* J.C. Escarra, 0-for-2, 1 walk.
* Oswald Peraza, 0-for-4, 1 walk.
* Pablo Reyes, played in field, did not bat.
Total: 15-for-93, a batting average of .161; 7 walks, for an on-base percentage of .220; 4 runs.
With a lineup like that, in Fenway Park, against the current Red Sox, especially their bullpen, this is like Led Zeppelin going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and leaving on Ash Wednesday totally sober and with not one new notch on their combined bedposts.
In the 9th inning yesterday, Michael Kay noted that the fewest runs the Yankees had ever scored in a 3-game series at Fenway Park was 4, having done so in 1916 and 1922. Now, they had done it again. It didn't occur to me until this morning that this could have been an instance of "The Curse of Kay": Every time Kay announces an overwhelming stat, the opposite occurs. You know: A batter who's 3-for-his-last-34 hits a home run, a pitcher averaging fewer than 2 walks per game walks a batter, a player who hasn't committed an error all season commits one, and so on. But that didn't happen.
Rafael Devers hit another home run against the Yankees yesterday. And then, the Red Sox traded him to the San Francisco Giants, for 4 guys I never heard of, 1 of whom hasn't yet reached the major leagues. Maybe they thought June 15 was still the trading deadline (it was moved to July 31 in 1986), and saw that they were struggling at about .500 the whole season thus far, and got desperate, trading their best player for a package of multiple players that could help them in the near future.
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Anyway, after this embarrassment -- and it would have been embarrassing even if it were not against our greatest rivals -- the Yankees still lead the American League Eastern Division by 3 1/2 games over the Tampa Bay Rays, 4 1/2 over the Toronto Blue Jays, 6 1/2 over the Red Sox (meaning they were 9 1/2 back before the series began), and 12 over the Baltimore Orioles.
Would the addition of another big bat help? Maybe: Giancarlo Stanton has been activated from the Injured List, and is set to make his season debut in tonight's series opener at Yankee Stadium II, against the Los Angeles Angels. Hopefully, he will provide both production and protection for the other hitters.
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