Yankees Take 2 of 3 From Resurgent White Sox

Two years ago, the Chicago White Sox lost 121 games, the most in American League history, and the most in Major League Baseball since 1899. Last season, they lost 102.

This past Tuesday night, they came into Yankee Stadium II with a record of 38-32, enough to lead the American League Central Division. The White Sox are no longer a joke. The Yankees had to take them seriously.

They did. Spencer Jones, Ben Rice, Paul Goldschmidt and José Caballero all hit home runs, in support of Gerrit Cole, who went 6 innings, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks, striking out 6. The Yankees won, 12-2.

Also of note: As they had done on the weekend at Fenway Park in Boston, where their national team are playing their World Cup Group Stage games, Scotland fans, "the Tartan Army," came in, wearing their full regalia, sat in the upper deck in left field, and cheered the Yankees on as if Yankee Stadium were Hampden Park in Glasgow.

On Wednesday night, World Champion Knicks Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart threw out ceremonial first balls. Carlos Rodón went 5 innings, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits and 1 walk, striking out 7. Goldschmidt homered again, giving him 383 for his career. In this series, he has passed Albert Belle and the still-active Manny Machado, who each have 381; and Frank Howard, Jim Rice and Ryan Howard, who each have 382; and tied Larry Walker. Next up: Harold Baines with 384. At 385 are Dwight Evans and the still-active... but injured Aaron Judge. Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm also homered for the Yankees, who won, 10-5.

Yesterday afternoon saw the Yankees' best start of the series, by Ryan Weathers: 6 1/3rd innings, 1 run, 3 hits, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts. But he left with the score just 1-1, as Ryan McMahon had hit a home run. In the top of the 8th inning, the bullpen blew it. Fernando Cruz started by allowing a double. Aaron Boone brought Tim Hill in, and he hit the 1st 2 batters he faced. He got a strikeout, but, having faced the minimum 3 batters, Boone didn't want to take any further chances, and brought in Camilo Doval. He completed the collective SNAFU, allowing a home run to former Yankee Andrew Benintendi. He got the last 2 outs, but it was too late.

Over the last 2 innings, the Yankees got only a single by Goldschmidt, with 1 out in the 9th. White Sox 5, Yankees 1.

Still, taking 2 out of 3 from a good team is good. The Yankees lead the AL Eastern Division by 3 games, 2 in the loss column, over the Tampa Bay Rays. At 45-28, they have the best record in the AL. The only teams in the NL with a better record are the Los Angeles Dodgers at 48-27, the Atlanta Braves at 46-27, and the Milwaukee Brewers at 45-27.

Tonight, they start a home Interleague series with the Cincinnati Reds.

Yankees Win, But Sustain Another Injury

At the rate the Yankees are going, they're going to go into the Playoffs with no starting pitchers at all.

Jameson Taillon started last night's game against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, and he only pitched 2 innings, allowing 2 runs, before he had to leave the game due to an injury. So, who's left to start? Gerrit Cole and a cast of thousands?

So how many Yankee pitchers did it take to finish off the win? 7. The last of them was Wandy Peralta. And he didn't blow it.

At any rate, those 7 pitchers got the run support they needed. Andrew Benintendi hit a home run in the 1st inning, Anthony Rizzo hit one in the 2nd, and Aaron Judge hit one in the 5th, his 51st of the season. He's on a pace for 63.

Yankees 7, Angels 4. WP: Greg Weissert, who pitched the 3rd and 4th innings, both of them perfect, and was credited as the winning pitcher, his 1st major league win (so, 1-0). No save. LP: Mike Mayers (1-1).

The series continues tonight. The aforementioned Gerrit Cole starts against Patrick Sandoval. If we're lucky, he'll leave the game under his own power.

 

I'm Not Sayin', I'm Just Sayin'

I'm not saying sweeping a brief 2-game series with The Other Team has solved all of the Yankees' recent problems. After all, they had their chances to throw both games away.

I am saying what my grandmother, who started out as a Brooklyn Dodger fan in Queens, and became a Met fan on the Jersey Shore, used to say: "It's not how good you are when you play good, it's how good you are when you play bad." I know: It sounds like something Yogi Berra would have said.

But, in this case, she would have been right. Because, while the Yankees had their chances to throw both games away, they didn't.

Frankie Montas started for the Yankees, and Tajuan Walker started for the Mets. Each kept the other's team off the scoreboard until the bottom of the 4th, when Walker served an absolute meatball up to Aaron Judge, right in his kitchen, and he cooked it, sending it 453 feet to the rear bleachers in left-center field. This was followed by back-to-back singles by Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres, which were followed by back-to-back walks by Josh Donaldson and Oswaldo Cabrera, the former loading the bases and the latter forcing in another run. 2-0 Yankees.

Things got a little bizarre in the top of the 5th. Mark Canha led off with a double. Brett Baty reached 1st base on catcher's interference. Tomás Nido bunted the runners over. Brandon Nimmo hit a liner to 3rd base that DJ LeMahieu caught.

Then Starling Marte singled to right. That scored Canha, and should have scored Baty. But the rookie Cabrera, who set a Yankee record by starting at 4 different positions in his 1st 7 games for the team, threw home from right field to nail Baty, and keep the Yankees on top.

Then came the top of the 6th, and the kind of play that has summed up Torres' career with the Yankees thus far. With 2 out, and Pete Alonso on 1st, Jeff McNeil hit a double to right. Now, Alonso is not the most athletic-looking of men. (Like I should talk. The difference is, he is actually paid to play baseball, so he should at least be more athletic than he looks.) And he tripped rounding 3rd base. He should have been a dead duck. McNeil, expecting a throw home and thus a 2nd out, tried for 3rd base.

Torres took Cabrera's relay throw, and instead of throwing home, saw McNeil off the bag, and ran to tag him out. McNeil got back to the base before Torres, Alonso got up and headed for the plate, and both runners were safe. Tie ballgame.

Torres, the man for whom Brian Cashman threw away a chance at the 2016 postseason in the hope that he could help the Yankees win Pennants starting in 2019, still hasn't helped the Yankees win one, partly because of dumb fielding like this. All together now: "How dumb was it?"

As it turned out, not as dumb as a play that happened in the bottom of the 7th. Because this game was on Amazon Prime, the only way for Yankee Fans who don't have it to watch it was to watch the Mets' broadcast on SNY. Gary Cohen, the Queens native who grew up a Met fan and has broadcast for them since 1989 -- and is no relation to new team owner Steve Cohen, the alleged richest team owner in MLB, whose billions were supposed to help the Mets "take over New York" and win multiple titles -- mentioned the Luis Castillo Game in 2009.

Remember? Yankees were trailing the Mets and down to their last out, when Alex Rodriguez popped up, and Castillo dropped it, and the tying and winning runs scored.

Cohen mentioned this after Cabrera led off the inning with a single, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa bunted him over. The batter was Jose Trevino, and he popped one up, close to the spot where Castillo dropped the ball 13 years earlier. 1st baseman Alonso could have caught it. 2nd baseman McNeil could have caught it. Right fielder Marte could have caught it. But, because the Mets are a fucking joke and always will be a fucking joke, none of them caught it. A ball dropping between 2 players is bad enough, but it takes a special brand of incompetence, however temporary, to allow a ball to drop between 3 players.

Cabrera couldn't try to score, since he didn't know the ball wasn't going to be caught, but he did make it to 3rd, Trevino to 1st. Andrew Benintendi grounded a ball through the shortstop-3rd base hole, and Cabrera scored. After LeMahieu struck out, Judge singled, making it 4-2 Pinstripes.

Aaron Boone trusted Clarke Schmidt for a 10-out save. He got the 1st 9 of those outs. Then he walked Tyler Naquin, who was pinch-hitting for Nido. That brought Nimmo to the plate with the tying run. Naquin stole 2nd. Nimmo grounded up the middle. It would have been a tough play for any 2nd baseman, and Torres, for once making a wise decision, made no throw. And Schmidt walked Marte. 

Naquin's run, on 3rd, meant nothing. But now, Nimmo, the tying run, was on 2nd; and Marte, the go-ahead run, was on 1st. Bases loaded. And Francisco Lindor was coming up. This past Sunday, in his weekly column in the Daily News, Mike Lupica, as usual bigging up the Mets and mocking the Yankees, wrote, "The Mets have never had a more talented all-around player than Francisco Lindor." (Darryl Strawberry, who won 1 World Series as a Met phenom and 3 as a Yankee veteran, was at Yankee Stadium for both of these games.)

Schmidt, who had twice gone the last 3 innings in blowouts, and thus qualified for the save both times under the least restrictive part of the rule, and was now in line to be the winning pitcher, was out of gas. Boone took him out, and brought in Wandy Peralta. Oh no.

But before I could unleash the Star Wars quote and say, "I've got a bad feeling about this," Peralta induced Lindor to fly to center, where Estevan Florial caught it. (Boone had moved Judge over to right in place of Cabrera, and put Florial in center.)

Yankees 4, Mets 2. WP: Schmidt (5-2). SV: Peralta (2). LP: Joely Rodríguez (0-3).

With 38 games to go, the Yankees, having once led the American League Eastern Division by 15 1/2 games, now lead it by 8 games over the Tampa Bay Rays, and 8 1/2 over the Toronto Blue Jays. In each case, the lead is 7 in the all-important loss column. The Magic Number to clinch the Division is 33. 

They trail the Houston Astros for best record in the League, and thus top seed in the Playoffs, by 3 games.

With 37 games to go, the Mets, having once led the National League Eastern Division by 10 1/2 games, now lead it by 2 games over the Atlanta Braves. With all the talk about how the Yankees playing poorly since July 8, hardly anybody seems to have noticed that the Mets could well be in an epic choke. After all, the Braves are the defending World Champions, so they do know how to win.

For the top seed in the NL Playoffs, the Mets trail the Los Angeles Dodgers by 7 1/2, 9 in the loss column, and catching the former Brooklyn team seems unlikely, although hardly necessary: The Mets need to avoid a Game 7 at Chavez Ravine a whole lot less than the Yankees need to avoid a Game 7 at Minute Maid Park.

The Yankees have today off, and begin a long roadtrip: 4 games in Oakland, 3 in Anaheim, 3 in St. Petersburg, before coming home on September 5, Labor Day, for 4 games against Minnesota and 3 against Tampa Bay.

I'm not saying the Yankees are out of the woods yet. I am saying that beating the Mets twice feels damn good. I'm not saying that I'm looking forward to the Yankees playing in California in August, which has been problematic at least since the 1980s. I am saying that taking 2 from the Mets should put them in a better frame of mind for it.

I'm not saying the Mets are done. I am saying the Yankees are better than the Mets, and always have been, and that the Mets, as always, are a joke. I'm not saying the Yankees will go all the way. I am saying the Mets will fall.

As the old saying goes, "I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'."

To Tell the Truth, Yanks Needed That Win Over Mets, Badly

Going into last night's opener of a 2-game Citi Series game with the disgusting Mets and their even more disgusting fans, no Yankee Fan could have been faulted for asking, in the tradition of the old TV game show To Tell the Truth, "Will the real New York Yankees please stand up?" Or wondering if they could.

All the signs for an embarrassment were there. Domingo Germán was starting against Max Scherzer. Giancarlo Stanton still wasn't available. The rest of the Yankee lineup was still mired in a slump. And while the Mets had seen their lead in the National League Eastern Division, as high as 10 1/2 games on June 1, fall to just half a game on July 23, it was back up to 4 games after Sunday's contests.

Besides, since the Yankees had seen their American League Eastern Division lead fall from 15 1/2 games on July 8 to 7 games on Saturday, nobody was noticing that the Mets were doing their usual "Oh, that's right, we're the Mets, and we're supposed to stink and look like idiots while doing it" routine.

Except the starting pitchers flipped the script. In the 1st inning, Scherzer hit Andrew Benintendi with a pitch, gave up a single to Anthony Rizzo, and gave up a sacrifice fly to DJ LeMahieu.

In the 3rd, he gave up a home run to Aaron Judge. This was a case of The Curse of Kay: Broadcaster Michael Kay mentioned an overwhelming stat, in this case that Judge was in the longest home run drought of his career, and the opposite happened. It was Judge's 47th home run of the season, and, even with the drought, he's on pace to tie Roger Maris' real major league record of 61 home runs in a season.

In the 5th, Scherzer gave up a ground-rule double to Isiah Kiner-Falefa, a sacrifice bunt to Marwin González, and a double to Benintendi. It was 3-0 Yankees.

It was 3-0 Yankees because both starting pitchers had flipped the script: Germán was perfect over the 1st 3 innings, and, through 6 innings, had allowed only 2 baserunners, singles to Brandon Nimmo and James McCann. The sellout crowd of 48,670 was roaring. They seemed to have gotten their Yankees back.

Aaron Boone left Germán in to start the 7th. He struck Francisco Lindor out. Then came a play which reminded every fan of both teams not just of the Yankees' poor play since July 8, but of the infamous Luis Castillo Game of 2009. Pete Alonso popped up. Rookie 2nd baseman Oswaldo Cabrera could have gotten it. Right fielder González could have gotten it. Neither got it: They crashed into each other, and the ball dropped. Given this chance, Daniel Vogelbach hit a home run, and the Mets were within 3-2. 

Boone took Germán out, and Ron Marinaccio got out of the inning without further damage, but now, every Yankee Fan watching, in the stands or at home, was nervous: Was this the game that would symbolize the season turning from glory to disaster?

As he already had in this game, Benintendi provided the answer: No. With 1 out in the bottom of the 7th, IKF singled, and when Lindor mishandled the ball, he got to 2nd. After González popped up, failing to redeem himself, Benintendi singled IKF home.

Marinaccio and Jonathan Loáisiga pitched hitless ball the rest of the way. Yankees 4, Mets 2. WP: Germán (2-2). SV: Loáisiga (1). LP: Scherzer (9-3).

To tell the truth, the Yankees needed that win, very badly. It was a reminder that the Yankees should be, if not are, the best team in New York, and the best team in baseball.

The brief series concludes tonight. Frankie Montas starts against Tajuan Walker. Come on you Pinstripes!

Could This Be the Spark the Yankees Have Needed?

The Yankees needed a win in yesterday's series finale with the Toronto Blue Jays about as badly as we Yankee Fans needed an Alka-Seltzer after the game before.

Nestor Cortes started, and was strong, going 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits and 1 walk. That should have been enough for the Yankee bats to get the job done.

With 2 out in the bottom of the 1st, Anthony Rizzo singled. So did DJ LeMahieu, and Jays left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. mishandled it, allowing Rizzo to score. In the 3rd, that combination struck again: First, Andrew Benintendi drew a walk, then Aaron Judge struck out, then Rizzo walked, and LeMahieu singled.

That made it 2-1 Yankees, and that score held after 6. Then Aaron Boone did something dumb. (How dumb was it?) He decided -- or, maybe, Brian Cashman decided for him -- that 103 pitches was too many to send Cortes back out to start the top of the 7th. So he compounded this dumb decision with another one: He brought Jonathan Loáisiga in to pitch. He allowed single, groundout, walk.

Boone took Loáisiga out, which was a smart decision. Then he compounded his 2 dumb decisions with a 3rd dumb decision: He brought Wandy Peralta in. He allowed a single that loaded the bases, and then he walked home the tying run. (What have I told everyone about walks? They can kill you.) Fortunately, Peralta got an out on his 3rd batter. Having fulfilled the 3-batter rule, Boone replaced him with Lou Trivino, who got the Yankees out of the inning without further damage.

Jose Trevino led off the bottom of the 7th with a single. Marwin González bunted him over to 2nd. This ended up not mattering, because Benintendi hit his 1st home run as a Yankee. Could this late clutch hit be the spark the Yankees have needed?

Trivino had his best game as a  Yankee so far: He pitched a perfect 8th, and allowed a walk but no hits in the 9th. Yankees 4, Blue Jays 2. WP: Trivino (2-7). No save. LP: Adam Cimber (9-5).

The Yankees did not embarrass anybody who was on hand for the retirement of Number 21 for Paul O'Neill. They included Tino Martinez, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and former longtime head athletic trainer Gene Monahan. Video messages were played from David Cone, Joe Torre, Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, and Roberto Clemente Jr., who formerly broadcast for the Yankees on Spanish radio station WADO.

With 40 games to go, the Yankees lead the American League Eastern Division by 8 games, 7 in the loss column, over both the Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays. Their Magic Number to clinch the Division is 34. They trail the Houston Astros by 3 1/2 games, 3 in the loss column, for home-field advantage in the AL Playoffs.

Next up: A pair of Citi Series games against The Other Team. Tonight, Domingo Germán starts against Max Scherzer. Tomorrow night, Frankie Montas starts for us, and the Flushing outfit haven't yet named a starter. Giancarlo Stanton will still not be available: Yesterday, he began his injury rehab with Double-A Somerset. And several players, including Aaron Judge, are still in slumps.

The Yankees' Sleep Walk Continues

Yesterday was August 16. The anniversary of the deaths of Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat, in 1948; and Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, in 1977. The Yankees paid tribute to them by playing as if they were dead.

Or maybe they paid tribute to the guitar duo of Santo and Johnny, who had a Number 1 instrumental in 1959, with a song titled "Sleep Walk."

Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, but not as much as sleep walks can.

Two games of this homestand, both against the Tampa Bay Rays. Two decent performances by the starting pitchers, first Gerrit Cole, now Nestor Cortes: 7 innings, 3 runs, 4 hits, no walks. That should be enough for a team with the Yankees' kind of hitting ability to get the job done.

Instead, here's what was done:

* 2nd inning: Andrew Bentintendi singled with 2 out, and was stranded.

* 5th inning: With 1 out, Benintendi tripled. He scored on an error that allowed Miguel Andújar to reach 1st base. Isiah Kiner-Faelfa drew a walk. And Marwin González grounded into a double play.

* 7th inning:  Josh Donaldson led off with a single, and advanced to 2nd on a groundout. He was stranded.

* 8th inning: Gleyber Torres singled with 2 out, and was stranded.

That's it: Just 6 baserunners, 3 of them in 1 inning. Another pathetic performance at bat. Another good pitching performance wasted. Hell, we even got a scoreless inning of relief from Albert Abreu, for nothing.

Rays 3, Yankees 1. WP: Jeffrey Springs (5-3). SV: Jason Adam (7). LP: Cortes (9-4). That's 22 losses in our last 32 games. Now 9 games, 8 in the loss column, ahead of the Rays. Forget the Toronto Blue Jays: It's always been the Rays we should have been worried about.

The series concludes tonight. Domingo Germán starts against last year's Yankee no-hitter pitcher, Corey Kluber. Will it be another no-hitter for him? I wouldn't put it past these sleepwalking Yankees. Then the Jays come in for a 4-game weekend series.

Another Disgraceful Loss That Can Be Blamed On Cashman

Last night, just after the trade deadline, 2 of Brian Cashman's newest Yankee acquisitions made their Pinstriped debuts. Neither did anything noteworthy. A 3rd came up small.

But it was the signature Cashman trade that ended the game -- and not in the Yankees' favor.

Jameson Taillon started, and, while he only gave up 2 hits, he didn't get out of the 5th inning. You see, those 2 hits were both home runs. And in that 5th inning, well, Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. And Taillon walked 2 batters in the 5th. And since the 2nd of those walks got him to 98 pitches, Cashman's pitch limit kicked in, and "manager" Aaron Boone was "forced" to take him out.

Boone put in Lucas Luetge, and Luetge should have been the pitcher Cashman traded away this week, not Jordan Montgomery. He gave up a double that allowed both of Taillon's walks to score.

Jose Trevino hit his 3rd home run in 2 days in the 4th inning. Anthony Rizzo hit his 3rd in 3 days in the 6th, and Josh Donaldson added one that inning. Donaldson needed it: With Joey Gallo having been traded, he has become the focus of Yankee Fans' ire, as he is batting just .223.

Luetge gave up a home run in the 7th. He was replaced by Yankee debutant Scott Effross, who got out of the inning with no further damage. Albert Abreu allowed a run in the 9th, and another debutant, Lou Trivino (not to be confused with Jose Trevino, or old-time golfer Lee Trevino) ended the inning without further ado.

You'd think that, scoring 6 runs, the Yankees did okay. But they didn't. They had men on 2nd & 3rd in the 3rd inning, but DJ LeMahieu was thrown out at the plate, the kind of play that hurt the team so often last season, but not much this season, until now. They had men on 2nd & 3rd with 1 out in the 6th, but Aaron Hicks grounded into a double play. They had Tim LoCastro on 3rd in the 8th, but Trevino struck out. And Andrew Benintendi, the new acquisition who "rarely strikes out," went 0-for-4 with 3 strikeouts.

In the bottom of the 9th, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Hicks struck out. But LeMahieu singled, and Aaron Judge and Rizzo drew walks. (The Mariners didn't want to face Judge. It was obviously that this was one of those "unintentional intentional walks.") They had the baserunners they needed. The bases were loaded. A runner on 3rd. The tying run on 2nd. The winning run on 1st.

But, instead of sending LoCastro back up, Boone sent up Gleyber Torres to pinch-hit. (LeMahieu had started at 2nd base, with Rizzo at 1st, Matt Carpenter in right field and Judge as the DH.)

Torres, of course, is the man Cashman traded 3 months of Aroldis Chapman for to get 20 years of, the greatest "prospect" of them all. This is his 7th year in the organization, and his 5th year on the big club. He has yet to help the Yankees win a Pennant. And he ended this game with a very poor-looking strikeout.

Mariners 8, Yankees 6. WP: Penn Murfee (yes, that's his real name, 2-0). SV: Andres Munoz (2). LP: Luetge (3-4).

Disgraceful. Blame Cashman. Not any individual player.

The series concludes this afternoon. It's a battle of alleged aces: Gerrit Cole against the Mariners' big acquisition in his debut for them, Luis Castillo, whom Cashman apparently didn't lift a finger in trying to get. Also, Judge is getting the day off, although he may appear as a pinch-hitter later.

Disgrace In Flushing, But Benintendi In Bronx

So the Yankees went out to Flushing, for 2 games against The Other Team. On Tuesday night, they got back-to-back home runs from Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo in the 1st inning. Last night, they got a home run from Gleyber Torres in the 8th inning. Between that, they had 69 men come to the plate, and scored exactly one run.

You can't do that, and expect to win.

Look, I don't care if Max Scherzer, a future Hall-of-Famer, is on the mound. And I don't care if Giancarlo Stanton is on the Injured List. Even with injuries, the New York Yankees should have enough offense on their active roster to beat Walter Johnson or Randy Johnson. Bob Feller or Bob Gibson. Sandy Koufax or Jacob deGrom. They should have enough offense to beat any pitcher, in any ballpark, at any time.

But they don't. And that is on general manager Brian Cashman.

Domingo Germán didn't have a good start, not getting out of the 5th inning. But after Torres' homer, it was Wandy Peralta who blew it in the 9th, allowing a double by Eduardo Escobar, a sacrifice bunt by Tomás Nido, a grounder that Peralta himself bobbled and allowed Brandon Nimmo to get to 1st, and a walkoff single by Starling Marte.

Mets 3, Yankees 2. WP: Seth Lugo (2-2). No save. LP: Peralta (2-3). Over 2 games, the Yankees 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position over the two games in Queens. That is a disgrace, even before you consider it was against the Mets.

However, Cashman did his job today -- or, at least, made the effort. He sent 3 pitching prospects to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for Andrew Benintendi. You don't need to know their names: They were never going to do anything for the Yankees, anyway. Whether they do anything for any other team doesn't matter: Cashman and his flunkies would have found a way to screw them up.

Benintendi just turned 28. He's a native of Cincinnati, and grew up in its suburbs. In 2015, at the University of Arkansas, he won the Dick Howser Trophy, baseball's Heisman, as national player of the year. He helped the Boston Red Sox win * the 2018 World Series. Last year, with the Royals, he won his 1st Gold Glove. He just played in his 1st All-Star Game.

He's a career .280 hitter, but, this season, he's batting .320 with a 123 OPS+. Kauffman Stadium and the Royals' difficulties with getting men on base in front of him has kept his power numbers down: He's only got 3 home runs and 39 RBIs. But he's hit 13 or more homers, and 68 or more RBIs, 4 times each, peaking at at 20 homers and 90 RBIs with Boston in 2017. With the Yankees' lineup and the short porch in right field, he should have much better RBI chances than he had as a Royal.

Certainly, there will be no more excuse to put Joey Gallo in left field, and Benintendi would be a much better choice for the 2nd spot in the batting order, allowing Judge to finally be put in the 4th spot, where he belongs -- or, at least, in the 3rd spot when Stanton comes back, and he would then be in the 4th spot.

Whether Benentendi turns out to be part of the solution or not, this is exactly the style I want to see from the Yankees: As the 1970s Washington Redskins football coach George Allen, a friend of then-Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, would put it, "The future is now." Or, to quote his contemporary, Hank Stram, "Yesterday is a cancelled check, today is cash on hand, tomorrow is a promissory note." In other words, win now, and worry about the future later. It's worked for the Yankees so many times before.

The Yankees come home, and the Royals are the Yankees' next opponent, so Benintendi is already here. Tonight, Jameson Taillon starts against Brady Singer.