Yankees Barely Escape Texas

Ben Rice (left) and David Bednar

Most of the Yankees series away to the Texas Rangers was awful. Arguably, they deserved to get swept.

The Monday night game might have been their worst of the season, feel-wise. Max Fried, perhaps the front-runner for the American League Cy Young Award in the 1st half of the season, suffered from "onebadinningitis," allowing 4 runs in the bottom of the 2nd. Otherwise, he was fine, and the Yankees led, 5-4 after the top of the 4th inning. Thanks to a perfect inning each from Luke Weaver and new acquisitions Camilo Doval and David Bednar, they held that lead all the way to the bottom of the 9th.

But, as we have seen, Devin Williams can't handle being the Yankees' closer. He got the 1st out in the bottom of the 9th, then gave up a game-tying home run to former Los Angeles Dodgers star Joc Pederson, who had been struggling mightily lately.

In the top of the 10th, a grounder to short by Jazz Chisholm got ghost runner Jasson Domínguez to 3rd base, and Anthony Volpe drew a walk, but Austin Wells grounded into a double play. New acquisition Jake Bird got a strikeout and a groundout, but manager Aaron Boone ordered an intentional walk to Wyatt Langford, to set up the force play. Big mistake: Josh Jung crushed a home run to end it: Rangers 8, Yankees 5.

The reaction online was horrible, although Boone bore the brunt of it, rather than Williams. The "keyboard warriors" seemed to pity Williams, while demanding Boone's head.

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Saturday's game brought what might be general manager Brian Cashman's worst transaction back to haunt us. Yes, worse than refusing to sign either Hideki Matsui or Johnny Damon after the 2009 World Series. Worse than trading for Jeff Weaver. Worse than signing Carl Pavano or Jacoby Ellsbury. Worse than bringing in Vázquez, Scott Proctor, and Adam Warren twice each. Worse than dismantling the bullpen in 2016 for a bunch of prospects, the best of whom turned out to be Gleyber Torres. (Which was predicted. But he failed, which was not -- except by me.)

From April 10 to August 30, 2015, Nathan Eovaldi went 14-2 for the Yankees. But he got hurt in a loss on September 5. He only went 9-8 in 2016, pitching just 1 inning on August 10. He had his 2nd Tommy John surgery, and would be out the rest of the way, and for all of 2017. He was 26 years old, and Cashman gave up on him, releasing him on November 23, 2016 -- the day before Thanksgiving. Happy Holidays, kid.

Eovaldi pitched and won the clinching game of the 2018 AL Division Series -- against the Yankees, for the Boston Red Sox. He has continued to pitch well against the Yankees, and did so again on Saturday, for the Rangers. He went 8 innings. Here's a list of the baserunners he allowed: A double to Volpe with 2 out in the 3rd. That's it. That's the list. Ryan McMahon singled off reliever Phil Maton to lead off the 9th, but we couldn't get him home. All that despite Aaron Judge coming off the Injured List: Not once did he look like he would reach base. (Hitting a home run counts as "reaching base," but he never looked like he would hit one, either.)

The thing is, this pathetic offensive output wasted some really good pitching. Will Warren allowed 3 hits and 3 walks over 5 innings, Doval pitched a scoreless 6th, and Luke Weaver a scoreless 7th. Of course, Williams was brought in to pitch the 8th, with the score 0-0. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. After starting with a groundout, he allowed double, walk, walk, single. Final score: Rangers 2, Yankees 0.

Eovaldi is 101-84 for his career -- 23-11 as a Yankee, 63-37 since Cashman dumped him.

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Wednesday would be a day game after a night game, so the Yankees could fly home on Wednesday night, and then have the next day to rest. Former Yankee (and Met) Al Leiter and former Yankee Mark Leiter Sr. were at the game. Al's son Jack started for the Rangers, and Mark's son Mark Jr. relieved for the Yankees.

Carlos Rodón started for the Yankees, and was a little shaky through the 1st 3 innings, falling behind, 1-0 in the 3rd. The Yankees took a 2-1 lead in the 4th, but Rodón couldn't hold it, and the Rangers tied it in the 5th.

The hero would be Paul Goldschmidt: With 1 out in the top of the 7th, he cranked one to deep left field. Tim Hill and Yerry de los Santos pitched a scoreless 7th. de los Santos got the 1st out in the 8th, but then Boone took him out, which made no sense. He brought in Bednar to get a 5-out save. For the 1st 4, Bednar was fine. But with 2 outs in the 9th, he walked Corey Seager and gave up a single to the seriously struggling Marcus Semien. Finally, he showed some character, and struck Adolis García out.

Whew: Yankees 3, Rangers 2. They barely held off the sweep. And maybe, just maybe, we have a closer, in Bednar. Definitely not one in Williams.

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With 47 games remaining in the regular season, the Yankees are 61-54, for a winning percentage of .530, which works out to 86 wins over a full season. They are in 3rd place in the AL Eastern Division, 6 1/2 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays, with the Red Sox 4 back. If the current standings hold to the end of the season, the Yankees would be the 6th and last seed in the AL Playoffs.

That is unacceptable, especially with the bullpen trades that Cashman made 2 weeks ago.

The Yankees have returned home, and will play a 3-game weekend series with the cheating Houston Astros. Tomorrow is Old-Timers Day. Hopefully, they won't embarrass the legends.