Yankees Flop Against Astros, Again

This weekend, the Yankees faced the Red Sox South, the Houston Asterisks, at Yankee Stadium II. As usual, the Astros were in the Yankees' heads. In particular, that cheating midget José Altuve was.

Rookie Cam Schlitter started on Friday night, allowing 2 runs over 5 innings. Those 2 runs came on a home run by Altuve in the 1st inning, but Schlittler was fine the rest of the way. That should have been enough.

It wasn't: We only got 5 hits all night. That included no baserunners whatsoever in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. Aaron Boone brought Devin Williams in to pitch the top of the 10th. This was a very stupid thing to do. Carlos Correa singled "ghost runner" Altuve home. Williams got 2 outs, then allowed a home run to former Yankee Taylor Trammell to make it 5-2.

In the bottom of the 10th, Amed Rosario flew out. Anthony Volpe singled home ghost runner Jazz Chisholm. Paul Goldschmidt flew out. Giancarlo Stanton drew a walk, so the tying runs were on base. But Trent Grisham just got under one, and it was a long out. Astros 5, Yankees 3.

On social media, the blame seemed to go more to Boone than to Williams, because Williams is a known bad commodity that Boone should have avoided at all costs.

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Jeremy Peña led off the Saturday game with a home run off Luis Gil, who really needed a bounceback performance after his initial off-injury start was terrible. He was fine, getting into the 6th inning allowing only 1 more run.

The Yankees led 4-2 after 7 innings. This time, it was new acquisition Camilo Doval who blew the lead, and it was 4-4. But Grisham hit one out in the bottom of the 8th, and new acquisition David Bednar got a 5-out save. Yankees 5, Astros 4.

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There should have been some momentum going into the Sunday game, but it vanished quickly. Max Fried, who seemed to be the front-runner for the American League Cy Young Award in the 1st half of the season, allowed 4 runs in 5 innings, including another 1st inning home run to that little piece of shit, Altuve.

The Yankees never caught up, with not even their only run coming on a hit: New acquisition Ryan McMahon hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 7th. Astros 7, Yankees 1.

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It's bad, it's getting worse, and it's getting late. On June 12, the Yankees were 42-25. Over 162 games, that's a pace for 101-61. Since then, they are 20-31, on a pace for 63-99. We can blame the many injuries, but there has also been some stupid play: Stupid fielding, stupid baserunning, swing at stupid pitches, and stupid pitching choices by Boone.

They are 62-56. The Toronto Blue Jays currently lead the American League Eastern Division by 4 games over the Boston Red Sox, 6 1/2 over the Yankees -- 6 in (Cliché Alert) the all-important loss column. There are 44 games left to play. The Yankees would have to gain an average of 1 game a week to overtake the Jays for the Division title. If the current standings hold to the end of the season, the Yankees would be the 6th and final seed in the AL Playoffs -- barely.

The Minnesota Twins come in tonight. This is a team the Yankees usually handle. They're going to need to.