The Yankees Are Not Out of the Woods Yet

The expression "We're not out of the woods yet" was probably first used by a camp counselor who got his charges away from a bear, and realize that the danger was far from over as long as they hadn't yet gotten back to their campsite.

The Yankees slaughtered the Baltimore Orioles 4 straight, but the Orioles are a very bad team. Last night, the Cleveland Indians came into Yankee Stadium II, and it was a very different story. They made the Yankees look like the Orioles, minus the garish orange and black uniforms.

It was Opener Night, because Brian Cashman did not make a trade to make sure that the Yankees have a full 5-man rotation, which is, you know, a pretty important part of his job. Chad Green started, and the Indians quickly finished him. He got only 1 out and allowed 5 runs.

Jonathan Loaisiga had just come off the Injured List. He may wish he'd stayed on it one more night, because he pitched through to the end of the 3rd, allowing 4 more runs. After 1 inning, the Yankees were down 7-0; 2, 9-1.

Chance Adams was no better, allowing 5 runs in 3 2/3rds innings. Nestor Cortes closed the 7th, and was the only Yankee pitcher who didn't allow a run.

Someone on Twitter told me Ford was coming in to pitch for the 8th. I said, "Well, he's had 52 years of rest, so he should be fresh." Of course, that was a joke. I knew it wasn't Whitey Ford. It was Mike Ford, who grew up in the ritzy Belle Mead section of Montgomery, Somerset County, Central Jersey. Someone altered his Wikipedia page to list his position  as "First baseman, Pitcher, and all around great guy."

He may well be an all-around great guy, but when a position player comes in as a pitcher, it means 1 of 2 things: Either the game is hopelessly lost, and you don't want to burn any more relievers, to keep them rested for the rest of the series; or you've got an injury crisis. Unfortunately, for the Yankees, both were true last night. And he allowed 5 runs in 2 innings.

Didi Gregorius hit a home run in the 5th inning, Gary Sanchez came off the IL to hit one in the 6th, and Gleyber Torres hit one in the 8th. But it was no use: In one of their worst losses of the season, the Yankees fell 19-5.

As manager Aaron Boone would say, "It is what it is." As his predecessor, Joe Girardi, would say, "It's not what you want." And as his predecessor, Joe Torre, would say, "I think I need some green tea."

And yet, the Tampa Bay Rays also lost, so the Yankees remain in 1st place in the American League Eastern Division by 9 1/2 games. Their Magic Number to clinch the Division is 31.

The Indians are half a game behind the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central. There is a chance that they could face the Yankees in the Playoffs. So this was a statement game for them.

The Yankees will have to come back with a statement of their own tomorrow night. Masahiro Tanaka starts against Aaron Civale.

The Yankees are not out of the woods yet.

*

Days until Arsenal play again: 1, tomorrow, at 7:30 AM New York time, their new season's home opener, against Lancashire team Burnley.

Days until the New York Red Bulls play again: 1, tomorrow night at 7, home to the New England Revolution at Red Bull Arena.

Days until the Red Bulls next play a "derby": See the previous answer. It will be the last game against the Revs this regular season. The next game against D.C. United will be on Wednesday night, August 21, at Audi Field in Washington. The next game against New York City FC will be on Saturday night, August 24, at Yankee Stadium II. The next game against the Philadelphia Union will be on Sunday night, September 22, at Red Bull Arena. All 4 of these rival teams remain potential Playoff opponents.

Days until Rutgers University plays football again: 14, on Friday night, August 30, at 7:15 PM, home to the University of Massachusetts. Just 2 weeks. This game was moved back from the previous afternoon.

Days until the next North London Derby: 16, on Sunday, September 1, at the Emirates Stadium. It is unusual for Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur to play each other so early in the season, but not unprecedented: As recently as the 2013-14 season, they did so on September 1. As it was on that occasion, to get higher TV ratings, the game was moved from Saturday to Sunday.

Days until the next Yankees-Red Sox series begins: 20, on Thursday night, September 5, at Fenway Park. Under 3 weeks.

Days until East Brunswick High School plays football again: 21, on Friday night, September 6, at 7:00 PM, home to arch-rival Old Bridge. Just over 1 month. Like most of the local rivalries that were once played on Thanksgiving Day, this one has been moved back to the opening game. It will also be the head coaching debut of Andy Steinfeld, a longtime assistant and a two-way lineman on the school's 1984 Conference Champions. It will also be the start of a Yankees-Red Sox series. So I'm getting a double dose of "Scum" on the night. Lucky me. At least it'll be at Jay Doyle's Green Grove off Cranbury Road, instead of at the purple shit pit on Route 9.

Days until the U.S. national soccer team plays again: 21, on Friday night, September 6, at 8:30, against Mexico, at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands. This will be their 1st match of any kind since their bottlejob against Mexico in the Final of the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The women's national team, of course, won their 4th World Cup, their 2nd in a row, defeating the Netherlands in Lyon, France. Their next game is against Portugal on Thursday, August 29, at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Days until the New Jersey Devils play again: 49, on Friday night, October 4, at the Prudential Center, against the Winnipeg Jets. Just 7 weeks.

Days until the New Jersey Devils next play a local rival: 54, on Wednesday night, October 9, against the Philadelphia Flyers, a.k.a. The Philth, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The season's 1st game against the New York Rangers, a.k.a. The Scum, will be on Thursday, October 17, at the Prudential Center. The 1st game against the New York Islanders will be on Thursday, January 2, 2020, at the Barclays Center.

Days until the next Rutgers-Penn State football game: 106, on Saturday, November 30, at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. A little over 3 months.

Days until my 50th Birthday, at which point I can join AARP and get discounts for travel and game tickets: 124, on December 18, 2019. A little over 4 months.

Days until the premiere of the final Star Wars film, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker: 126, on December 20, 2019.

Days until the Baseball Hall of Fame vote is announced, electing Derek Jeter: 158, on January 21, 2020. A little over 5 months.

Days until Euro 2020 begins, a tournament being held all over Europe instead of in a single host nation: 301, on Friday, June 12, 2020. Under 10 months.

Days until the next Summer Olympics begins in Tokyo, Japan: 343, on July 24, 2020. Under a year, or a little over 11 months.

Days until the next Presidential election, when we can dump the Trump-Pence regime and elect a real Administration: 445, on November 3, 2020. A little over a year, or under 15 months.

Days until a fully-Democratic-controlled Congress can convene, and the Republicans can do nothing about it: 506, on January 3, 2021. Under a year and a half, or under 17 months.

Days until Liberation Day: 523, at noon on January 20, 2021. Under a year and a half, or a little over 17 months. Note that this is liberation from the Republican Party, not just from Donald Trump. Having Mike Pence as President wouldn't be better, just differently bad, mixing theocracy with plutocracy, rather than mixing kleptocracy with plutocracy.

Days until the next Winter Olympics begins in Beijing, China: 903, on February 4, 2022. Under 3 years, or under 30 months.

Days until the next World Cup is scheduled to kick off: 1,193, on November 21, 2022, in Qatar. A little over 3 years, or a little over 39 months. The charges of corruption against Qatar may yet mean that they will lose the tournament, in which case it will be moved to a nation where it would not be too hot to play it in June and July.

Days until the next Women's World Cup is scheduled to kick off: As yet unknown, but probably on the 2nd Friday in June 2023, which would be June 9. That would be 1,3939 days, a little under 4 years, under 46 months. A host nation is expected to be chosen on March 20, 2020. Since 2 of the last 3 host nations have been in Europe, North America (Canada) hosted in 2015, and Asia (China) hosted in 2007, my guess is that it will be in either Asia (Japan, possibly Korea, but not China) or Oceania (Australia, possibly a joint bid with New Zealand).

Sweep Sensation, Yes. Season Saved, Maybe.

When the trading deadline closed on July 31, and Brian Cashman had failed to come up with a new starting pitcher for the Yankees, most of us thought that was it.

Oh, sure, we might finally end up winning the American League Eastern Division for the 1st time in 7 years, but did anybody really think we can compete with Houston, or Minnesota, or Cleveland, or Tampa Bay, or Boston in the Playoffs? We all figured it would be Division Series, and out.

Let's take a look and see what the Yankees starting pitchers have done in the 5 games since, shall we?

* July 31, Masahiro Tanaka: Only 4 innings, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks, 4 strikeouts. Not good enough, perhaps, but we've seen him prove more than the others. The bullpen and the bats got the job done from there. Yankees 7, Arizona Diamondbacks 5.

* August 1: Day off. Then The Scum came to town, having taken the 1st 3 from us the previous weekend, before we salvaged the finale at Fenway Park.

* August 2, James Paxton: 6 innings, 2 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks, 6 strikeouts. Yankees 4, Red Sox 2. Not unusual for a Yanks-Sox game, it was already 4-2 at the end of 1 inning. Very unusual for a Yanks-Sox game, there was no scoring after the 1st inning. Paxton settled down and pitched very well. If "The Big Maple" (he's Canadian) can do that the rest of the way, then, as an Arsenal fan might say, "He's like a new signing."

* August 3, in the opener of a rain-forced doubleheader, Domingo German: 7 innings, 2 runs on 5 hits and no walks, 7 strikeouts. Yankees 9, Red Sox 2. Given what little he'd done coming into this season, he absolutely is like a new signing.

* August 3, and although this was the nightcap, it was the "opener" game: Between them, Chad Green, Nestor Cortes and Chance Adams went 5 innings, 4 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks, 5 strikeouts. Yankees 6, Red Sox 4. If we can't have CC Sabathia (hopefully, a short-term injury), Luis Severino (seems to be getting close to returning from a long-term injury) or Jordan Montgomery (who knows when he'll be back from his long-term injury), then this is fine.

August 4, J.A. Happ: 5 2/3rds innings, 4 runs on 7 hits and 1 walk, 2 strikeouts. Not great, but, with good bullpen work, enough. Yankees 7, Red Sox 4.

*

Does any of this mean at the Yankees can now out-pitch the Houston Astros' trio of Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke? Not necessarily. But it does make their chances look a lot better.

There are legitimate concerns. Aaron Judge was in a rough slump, but he seems to have broken out of it. Gleyber Torres and Gio Urshela both looked like they were injured last night, but Torres is okay, and Urshela says he is.

So here's when the injured players could come back, as we have been led to believe:

* Day-to-day: Gleyber Torres, Gio Urshela, Didi Gregorius.

* This coming weekend, August 9 or so: Gary Sanchez.

* The following weekend, August 16 or so: Aaron Hicks, Edwin Encarnacion.

* September 1 (expansion of rosters fro 25 to 40 players): CC Sabathia, Luis Severino, Jonathan Loaisiga, David Hale, Ben Heller.

* Late September, if at all this season: Luke Voit, Dellin Betances.

* Probably out for the season: Giancarlo Stanton.

* Definitely out for the season, should be fine for next year's Spring Training: Miguel Andujar.

* Will probably never play for the Yankees again: Jacoby Ellsbury.

Where do we stand? The Yankees lead the American League Eastern Division by 8 games over the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Red Sox are 14 1/2 back. They could get a Wild Card slot, but they're 6 1/2 behind that with 58 to play. They're probably done. The Yankees' Magic Number to clinch the AL East is 42.

Tonight, they begin a series in Baltimore against the woeful Orioles.

*

Days until Arsenal play again: 6, at 9:00 AM New York time, away to Newcastle United, in the Premier League season opener. Under 1 week.

Days until the New York Red Bulls play again: 7, this Sunday night at 10:00 PM Eastern Time (7:00 local, Pacific Time), away to Los Angeles FC.

Days until the Red Bulls next play a "derby": 12, on Saturday night, August 17, against the New England Revolution, at Red Bull Arena. The next game against D.C. United will be on Wednesday night, August 21, at Audi Field in Washington. The next game against New York City FC will be on Saturday night, August 24, at Yankee Stadium II. The next game against the Philadelphia Union will be on Sunday night, September 22, at Red Bull Arena.

Days until Rutgers University plays football again: 25, on Friday night, August 30, at 7:15 PM, home to the University of Massachusetts. Under 4 weeks. This game was moved back from the previous afternoon.

Days until the next North London Derby: 27, on Sunday, September 1, at the Emirates Stadium. It is unusual for Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur to play each other so early in the season, but not unprecedented: As recently as the 2013-14 season, they did so on September 1. As it was on that occasion, to get higher TV ratings, the game was moved from Saturday to Sunday.

Days until the next Yankees-Red Sox series begins: 31, on Thursday night, September 5, at Fenway Park. Just 1 month.

Days until East Brunswick High School plays football again: 32, on Friday night, September 6, at 7:00 PM, home to arch-rival Old Bridge. Just over 1 month. Like most of the local rivalries that were once played on Thanksgiving Day, this one has been moved back to the opening game. It will also be the head coaching debut of Andy Steinfeld, a longtime assistant and a two-way lineman on the school's 1984 Conference Champions. It will also be the start of a Yankees-Red Sox series. So I'm getting a double dose of "Scum" on the night. Lucky me. At least it'll be at Jay Doyle's Green Grove off Cranbury Road, instead of at the purple shit pit on Route 9.

Days until the U.S. national soccer team plays again: 32, on Friday night, September 6, at 8:30, against Mexico, at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands. This will be their 1st match of any kind since their bottlejob against Mexico in the Final of the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The women's national team, of course, won their 4th World Cup, their 2nd in a row, defeating the Netherlands in Lyon, France. Their next game is against Ireland on August 3, at the Rose Bowl.

Days until the New Jersey Devils play again: 60, on Friday night, October 4, at the Prudential Center, against the Winnipeg Jets. Just 2 months.

Days until the New Jersey Devils next play a local rival: 65, on Wednesday night, October 9, against the Philadelphia Flyers, a.k.a. The Philth, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The season's 1st game against the New York Rangers, a.k.a. The Scum, will be on Thursday, October 17, at the Prudential Center. The 1st game against the New York Islanders will be on Thursday, January 2, 2020, at the Barclays Center.

Days until the next Rutgers-Penn State football game: 117, on Saturday, November 30, at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. Under 4 months.

Days until my 50th Birthday, at which point I can join AARP and get discounts for travel and game tickets: 135, on December 18, 2019. A little over 4 months.

Day until the premiere of the final Star Wars film, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker: 137, on December 20, 2019.

Days until the Baseball Hall of Fame vote is announced, electing Derek Jeter: 169, on January 21, 2020. Under 6 months.

Days until the next Summer Olympics begins in Tokyo, Japan: 354, on July 24, 2020. Under a year, or under 12 months.

Days until the next Presidential election, when we can dump the Trump-Pence regime and elect a real Administration: 456, on November 3, 2020. A little over a year, or under 15 months.

Days until a fully-Democratic-controlled Congress can convene, and the Republicans can do nothing about it: 517, on January 3, 2021. Under a year and a half, or under 17 months.

Days until Liberation Day: 534, at noon on January 20, 2021. Under a year and a half, or under 18 months. Note that this is liberation from the Republican Party, not just from Donald Trump. Having Mike Pence as President wouldn't be better, just differently bad, mixing theocracy with plutocracy, rather than mixing kleptocracy with plutocracy.

Days until the next Winter Olympics begins in Beijing, China: 914, on February 4, 2022. Under 3 years, or under 30 months.

Days until the next World Cup is scheduled to kick off: 1,204, on November 21, 2022, in Qatar. Under 3 1/2 years, or under 40 months. The charges of corruption against Qatar may yet mean that they will lose the tournament, in which case it will be moved to a nation where it would not be too hot to play it in June and July.

Days until the next Women's World Cup is scheduled to kick off: As yet unknown, but probably on the 2nd Friday in June 2023, which would be June 9. That would be 1,404 days, a little under 4 years, a little over 46 months. A host nation is expected to be chosen on March 20, 2020. Since 2 of the last 3 host nations have been in Europe, North America (Canada) hosted in 2015, and Asia (China) hosted in 2007, my guess is that it will be in either Asia (Japan, possibly Korea) or Oceania (Australia, possibly a joint bid with New Zealand).

Yankees Complete Doubleheader Sweep In Kansas City

The Yankees took the 1st game of a rain-forced doubleheader with the Royals in Kansas City, and went after the 2nd game with gusto. They fell behind 1-0 after the 1st inning, with reliever Chad Green acting as an "opener," but broke the game wide open in the 2nd.

Kendrys Morales led off with a single, Clint Frazier drew a walk, and Gio Urshela singled to load the bases with nobody out. Austin Romine singled home Morales and Frazier, and Urshela got to 3rd. Cameron Maybin doubled home Romine and Urshela. DJ LeMahieu singled home Maybin.

So that was 5 runs in the inning. As it turned out, the Yankees would need all of them, and 1 more. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you. Frazier drew another walk in the 3rd. After Urshela flew out, Romine and Maybin singled, and that got Frazier home with what turned out to be the decisive run. But with the score 6-1 Yankees, nobody figured on that at the time.

Rookie Chance Adams was sent out for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th innings, and he wasn't much better than Green, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, although he gave up just 1 walk. Nevertheless, the Yankees made him the pitcher of record, since Green couldn't get the win because he started, but did not go 5 innings. Jonathan Holder pitched a perfect 6th, Tommy Kahnle a perfect 7th, and Zack Britton a scoreless 8th.

The Royals got a run back in the 3rd, and 2 in the 4th, to make it 6-4. But, as I said, the Yankee bullpen held through the 8th. In the 9th, Aroldis Chapman once again made things a little too interesting. He got the 1st out, then walked a batter. That run meant nothing, but he tried to pick him off anyway, and threw it far enough away that the runner could get to 3rd base. A sacrifice fly got him home. Finally, Chapman got serious, and ended the game with a strikeout.

Yankees 6, Royals 5. WP: Adams (1-0, his 1st major league win). SV: Chapman (14). LP: Jorge Lopez (0-6). The Yankees have now won 6 straight games, and lead the AL East by 3 games over the Tampa Bay Rays, 2 in the loss column.

The series concludes this afternoon. Having survived both a doubleheader and the slot in the starting rotation that should never have gone to Chad Green, the Yankees send Domingo German to the hill today, against Danny Duffy for the Royals.

Yanks Regain 1st Despite Bad Green Start

What if I had told you, at 1:00 yesterday afternoon, a few minutes before first pitch of the series finale against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium, that Chad Green would start for the Yankees, and that the Yankees would win?

As Joe Torre might say, You'd have looked at me like I had 2 heads.

And yet.

Kendrys Morales singled home DJ LeMahieu in the bottom of the 1st, staking Green to a 1-0 lead. But in the top of the 2nd, he allowed back-to-back home runs to Kevin Kiermaier and Willy Adames.

Then he hit the next batter, Daniel Robertson, in the head with a pitch. A 94-mile-per-hour fastball.

In Green's defense, it was with the 4th pitch of the at-bat. If he was going to hit a batter on purpose, to send the opposing team a message after back-to-back homers, it would have been on the 1st pitch, and probably someplace less dangerous. And his control didn't seem to be good enough to hit a batter where he would have wanted to.

Robertson was able to stay in the game, and Aaron Boone took the opportunity of a break in the action to relieve the hopeless Green, with rookie Nestor Cortes Jr.

Cortes got out of the inning, and then Rays starter Charlie Morton, the winning pitcher for the Houston Astros in the Yankees' loss in Game 7 of the 2017 American League Championship Series, walked Gio Urshela to start the bottom of the 2nd. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Brett Gardner was up next, and he gave the Yankees back the lead with a home run.

But Cortes was no better than Green. For the 2nd game in a row, Brandon Lowe hit a home run for the Rays, a 3-run job, and that gave them a 5-3 lead. It was looking like another long day in The Bronx.

But it was all Yankees from that point onward. In the bottom of the 4th, Rays 3rd baseman Yandy Diaz made an error, allowing LeMahieu on base with 2 outs. Aaron Hicks, not really known as a power hitter, crushed a 416-foot drive to right field, tying the game.

Cortes allowed a walk and a single in the top of the 6th, and Boone pulled him for Adam Ottavino, who got out of the jam. And then came the bottom of the 6th, an inning that could loom very large at the end of the regular season.

Diego Castillo was pitching for the Rays. Gardner hit a shot back to him, and he couldn't handle it, and couldn't quite throw him out at 1st. It was hard enough of a liner, and difficult enough of a fielding play, to be scored as a hit.

Gardner stole 2nd. Clint Frazier drew a walk. LeMahieu tried to bunt the runners over, but popped up to 1st. Hicks drew a walk to load the bases with 1 out. Luke Voit drew another walk to force in the go-ahead run with Gardner.

Rays manager Kevin Cash had seen enough. He brought Ryne Stanek in to pitch. Stanek was named for Chicago Cubs Hall-of-Famer Ryne Sandberg -- who was named for Ryne Duren, the Yankees' relief ace of the late 1950s.

With Gary Sanchez up, Stanek tried to pick Voit off 1st, but the ball got away. The runners all tried to advance, but Frazier was thrown out at home. That opened 1st base, and Sanchez was intentionally walked to set up the play at any base. It didn't work: Morales worked Stanek for a walk, forcing home Hicks. Gleyber Torres grounded to 3rd, and there was no play. Voit scored.

Boone sent Thairo Estrada to pinch-hit for Urshela. Pinch-hit for your hottest hitter? What was he thinking? Whatever it was, it worked: Cash lifted Stanek, and brought in Casey Sadler. Estrada justified his managers decision with a double to left. The Yankees had batted around. Gardner came up again, and made it back-to-back RBI doubles. 7 runs in the inning, on just 4 hits.

LeMahieu led off the 7th with a home run, to cap the scoring. Ottavino got just that 1 out, but the 7-run inning made him the winning pitcher. Chance Adams went the rest of the way, 3 innings, a hit, a walk, and a hit batter, but no runs.

Yankees 13, Rays 5. WP: Ottavino (2-1). SV: Adams (1, the 1st career save for the 24-year-old righthanded native of Scottsdale, Arizona). LP: Castillo (0-3)

With the win, the Yankees are once again half a game ahead of the Rays, in 1st place in the American League Eastern Division, albeit even in the all-important loss column.

The Yankees go down to Baltimore. Maybe that bandbox by the Inner Harbor will result in more big innings.

Week of Mondays

You've heard of the expression "a month of Sundays"? It's not that long: 30 or 31 weeks.

Well, to me, this week was a week of Mondays. All kinds of things went wrong for me, at home, at work, and certainly on the ballfield.

The Yankees went into the belly of the beast. They walked into Mordor. Into a wretched hive of scum and villainy. I speak, of course, of Fenway Park, home of their despised and despicable rivals, the Boston Red Sox.

The Yankees began this 4-game weekend series 5 1/2 games behind the Red Sox, with 56 games to play, including 10 against the Sox. If they could take 3 out of 4 in this series, or even sweep, they would be back in business. Otherwise, it would be the Wild Card or bust.

At this point, the likeliest scenario is "bust." The Yankees had been doing so well for so long, but they reverted to the "gutless wonders" status they forged for themselves earlier in the season.

*

The Yankees couldn't have gotten off to a better start. Brian Johnson -- no, not the lead singer for AC/DC -- started for the Sox, and here's the 1st 3 batters of the game: Aaron Hicks reached on an error, Giancarlo Stanton singled, and Didi Gregorius blasted a home run to right-center, the deepest part of the 106-year old Back Back ballyard. That's 3 runs in the top of the 1st inning.

Hicks added a homer in the top of the 2nd. 4-0 Yankees, which should have been a great boost to starting pitcher CC Sabathia. But he allowed a home run to Steve Pearce in the 2nd, and another run in the 3rd, and then left the game without taking the mound for the bottom of the 4th. (UPDATE: We now know that his knee was bothering him.)

Aaron Boone sent Jonathan Holder as an emergency long reliever. "Long"? This was one of the longest innings in Yankee history. Walk. Double. Run-scoring fielders choice. Another home run by Pearce, for 3 runs. Double. RBI single. RBI double. Boone mercifully lifts Holder, and sends in Chad Green. Strikeout. Lineout. Bleeding stopped? Not yet. RBI double. Single. RBI single. Boone lifts Green, and brings in Luis Cessa, who gets a groundout to finally end the inning.

It was 10-4, and there were no good buddies.

8 runs, 8 hits, no errors 2 men left on base. In just 1 inning. Not a game, not a game, not a game. We talkin' 'bout an inning. According to Baseball-Reference.com, when the inning began, there was a 69 percent chance the Yankees would win it. Right before Cessa got that last out, the chance of winning was 97 percent to the Red Sox.

When baseball historians look back on the 2018 Boston Red Sox, however far they go in the postseason, they can point to this inning, on August 2, as when they won the AL East.

And it was only the 4th inning. Didi homered again in the 5th, but the Sox got the run back in the bottom of the inning. Pearce hit his 3rd homer of the game in the 6th. Stanton hit one out in the 7th, but no one was thinking that this would be one of those famous Yankee comebacks.

Final score: Red Sox 15, Yankees 7. WP: Johnson (2-3). No save. LP: Holder (1-2).

*

Luis Severino started the Friday night game, and Pearce made it 4 homers in 2 nights in the 1st inning. For all intents and purposes, this game was already over. Rick Porcello allowed just 1 baserunner. Actually, Miguel Andujar hit a home run off him in the 3rd inning, so, since he wasn't exactly running the bases, does he count as a "baserunner"?

Red Sox 4, Yankees 1. WP: Porcello (14-4). No save. LP: Severino (14-5).

*

The Saturday afternoon game, and every game thereafter for the 2018 Yankees, was, essentially pointless, but they were scheduled, so they had to be played.

Nathan Eovaldi pitched very well. Unfortunately, he no longer pitches for the Yankees. The Red Sox picked him up near the trading deadline, in the kind of deal that Brian Cashman should be making.

With the Yankee rotation riddled with injury, Chance Adams was brought up from Scranton, and made his major league debut. The righhander from the Phoenix suburbs, about to turn 24 and wearing Number 43, was put into the cauldron of the Yanks-Sox rivalry, and at Fenway, no less. The pressure didn't seem to get to him -- or maybe, after the preceding 2 games, there was no more pressure. He wasn't terrible, allowing 3 runs on 3 hits and 1 walk, with 2 strikeouts, in 5 innings.

But Eovaldi was brilliant, going 8 innings, allowing 2 doubles to Stanton, another double to Gregorius, 2 walks to Hicks and another to Gleyber Torres, and that was it. Again, the final score was Red Sox 4, Yankees 1. WP: Eovaldi (5-4). No save. LP: Adams (0-1).

*

ESPN was hoping for a classic game in a classic Yanks-Sox race when they scheduled Sunday Night Baseball for August 5. Well, they got half of what they wanted. The race didn't become a classic, but this game sure did.

Masahiro Tanaka and David Price traded goose eggs until the bottom of the 5th, when Tanaka's gopher spoke up and demanded to be fed, and Mookie Betts took advantage. But Tanaka settled down after that, and it was still 1-0 Boston going into the top of the 7th, and that's when the Yankees appeared to snap out of their funk. Walks, an error and a wild pitch aided the Bronx cause, and when it was over, it was 4-1 to the Good Guys.

Zach Britton pitched a scoreless 7th. Dellin Betances pitched a scoreless 8th. Things were looking up. The Yankees would come away from this horrible series with some consolation, and some hope that they could still catch the Sox for the Division if they kept winning and the Sox got cold later on.

Aroldis Chapman took the mound for the bottom of the 9th. His mission was simple: Get 3 outs, and don't allow any more than 2 runs. It shouldn't have been hard, even in Fenway, even with the Sox using whatever steroids may have been left in David Ortiz' locker.

Chapman struck Brock Holt out, to start the inning right. But... Cliche alert: Walks can kill you. Chapman walked Sandy Leon. He walked Betts. Uh-oh... He struck Andrew Benintendi out, then he walked Pearce. Jackie Bradley Jr. was sent in to pinch-run for Pearce.

Okay, there's only 1 more out to go, and (not a cliche, but it should be) it is better to give a hot hitter like Pearce four balls for one base than one ball for four bases. But the bases are loaded. And this was Fenway.

J.D. Martinez singled home Leon and Betts. 4-3. You could feel defeat coming, you just weren't sure how.

The batter was Xander Bogaerts. He hit a ground ball to Andujar, the only saving grace on Friday. But he threw it away, and Bradley scored the tying run. Chapman then struck Mitch Moreland out. He had struck out the side, but also allowed 3 runs to blow the save.

The Yankees went down weakly in the top of the 10th, 1-2-3. Boone sent Holder, the melter-downer of Thursday night, to pitch the bottom of the 10th, and if any Yankee Fan from Poughkeepsie to Atlantic City, from Scranton to Montauk, said he was optimistic at this point, he was kidding himself and all others.

Holder got the 1st 2 outs. But he gave up a single to Leon. He threw a wild pitch, sending the winning run to 2nd. Seeing that 1st base was no open, Boone ordered an intentional walk to Betts, to set up an inning-ending force play at 2nd.

It didn't matter. Benintendi hit a grounder up the middle, and Leon scored. Red Sox 5, Yankees 4. WP: Matt Barnes (4-3). The Sox swept the Yankees 4 straight, without recording a single save. LP: Holder (1-3), but the real fault is with Chapman for blowing the save in the 9th, and Boone for not figuring out that Holder shouldn't be pitching in Fenway Park.

The Yankees skulked out of Boston 9 1/2 games out, with 52 games to go.

The ghost of Yogi Berra called. He said, "It's over."

So was my Week of Mondays. And, as the Mamas & the Papas taught us, "Monday, Monday, can't trust that day. Monday, Monday, sometimes, it just turns out that way."

Loss to Sox Gives Yankees Big Decisions to Make

Last night, the Yankees began a 3-game home series against the Boston Red Sox. If you're going to have a bad game, against The Scum at Yankee Stadium is not the game in which to have it.

But it looks like Masahiro Tanaka doesn't have it at all anymore. Like Matt Harvey of the Mets, he was once, arguably, the best pitcher in baseball, let alone in New York, but now can't win to save his life.

He pitched 5 innings, allowing 5 runs on 5 hits, 3 of them home runs, although he did walk only 1 batter. His ERA for this season is now 6.55. It's not that he has no control, he's just getting hit hard.

The bullpen did its job: Between them, Tommy Layne, Chad Green (most of it, 3 1/3rd innings) and Chasen Shreve pitched 4 shutout innings, allowing only 1 hit and 1 walk. But the Yankee bats couldn't quite back him up.

At the top of the order, Brett Gardner and Gary Sanchez went 0-for-9 between them, although Gardner did draw a walk. After a great run late last season, Sanchez is now batting .248. Chase Headley went 0-for-3 with a walk, dropping his batting average to .225 and his on-base percentage to .300.

Chris Carter hit a home run in the 5th, his 5th of the season. But he's another guy who's really dropped off: He hit 41 home runs for the Milwaukee Brewers last season, to lead the National League; but, in the American League this season, he's batting .183 with a .278 on-base percentage.

Don't ever again tell me the NL is the better League: The AL is a lot harder.

Carter's home run was a grand slam, but it provided all the Yankee runs last night. The Yankees stranded a man on 1st with 2 out in the 1st inning and again in the 3rd, a man on 1st with 1 out in the 2nd and again in the 4th, a man on 2nd with 2 out in the 5th and again in the 7th, a man on 3rd with 1 out and 1st & 3rd with 2 out in the 8th, and blew men on 1st & 2nd with nobody out with a double play in the 6th. And, needing 1 run to send the game to extra innings, they went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th.

Final score: Red Sox 5, Yankees 4. WP: Drew Pomeranz (6-3). SV: Craig Kimbrel (17). LP: Tanaka (5-6).

With Chance Adams pitching very well at Triple-A Scranton, much-hyped prospect Gleyber Torres getting off to a good start while playing 3rd base there, and Greg Bird now there as he works he way through injury rehab, the Yankees have decisions to make soon. Adams to replace Tanaka in the rotation, at least for a while? Torres to replace Headley? Bird to replace Carter?

Meanwhile, we have 2 more games with The Scum this week. Tonight, CC Sabathia starts against Rick Porcello. I saw a stat a few minutes ago that says that CC is 5-0 this season after a Yankee loss. That's starting to sound like 1978 Ron Guidry. Except that CC weighs twice as much as Guidry: 320 as opposed to 160.

Then again, he pitches better when he eats well, so let the big dog eat, and let's get some runs! Beat The Scum!