Disaster In Toronto Drops Yanks From 1st

The Yankees just got swept in a 4-game series, away to those pesky Toronto Blue Jays. Not good.

Carlos Rodón started the Monday night game, allowing 2 runs over 5 innings. Thanks in part to a home run by Jazz Chisholm, he left with a 3-1 lead over the Jays and their starter, "warrior god" Max Scherzer. But because Carlos Rodón had thrown 96 pitches, Aaron Boone wasn't allowed to leave him in, and he replaced him with Mark Leither Jr., who allowed 3 runs in the 6th.

The Yankees stranded a runner on 1st with 1 out in the 7th. Cody Bellinger led off the 8th with a home run, and the Yankees had men on 1st & 2nd with 1 out, but scored no more. They got a runner on with 2 out in the 9th, but couldn't get him home. Blue Jays 5, Yankees 4.

Since July 1 is Canada Day, a holiday, the Yankees had the dreaded day game after a night game. Since it was Canada Day, the Blue Jays wore red jerseys and caps instead of their traditional blue. Max Fried was strong for the 1st 3 innings, but allowed 2 home runs to score 4 in the 4th.

He got through the 6th, but, because he had thrown 99 pitches, Boone wasn't allowed to leave him in, and he replaced him with Luke Weaver, who got an out, then allowed a single and a walk. Having reached the 3-batter minimum, Boone took Weaver out, and put Leiter in. This is not a recommended way to run a pitching staff. Leiter allowed an RBI single and a grand slam.

Geoff Hartlieb made his Yankee debut. The righthander from the Chicago suburbs is 31. He made 14 major league appearances over the previous 4 seasons. His career ERA coming into this appearance was 7.47. And Brian Cashman thought him worthy of acquisition? He pitched 1 inning, and allowed 2 singles and 3 walks, 1 of those with the bases loaded, allowing the Jays to score 3 runs, and raising his career ERA -- in 1 inning, mind you -- by 0.15.

The Yankees scored a run in the 9th, but it was meaningless. Blue Jays 12, Yankees 5.

Will Warren started on Wednesday night. Boone decided to save his bullpen, so he left Warren in to be abused by the Toronto bats. Here's the 1st inning's abuse: Single, single, walk, 2-RBI single, 3-run home run, groundout, walk, 2-run home run, flyout, single, strikeout. 7-0 Toronto.

He only allowed 1 more run over the next 3 innings. Ian Hamilton went 2, allowing none; Tim Hill, 1 in 1. The Yankees mounted a grand comeback, scoring 6 runs in the 5th inning, thanks to Giancarlo Stanton finally hitting his 1st home run of the season. They scored a run in the 6th. The Jays scored a run in the 7th, but the Yankees scored 2 in the 8th, including a home run by Aaron Judge. It was 9-9.

But Devin Williams, originally intended as the closer, allowed 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th, and the Yankees went down meekly in the 9th. Blue Jays 11, Yankees 9.

Clarke Schmidt started on Thursday night. But he left due to "forearm stiffness" after 3 innings. Great, just what the Yankees needed: Another injury to a starting pitcher, one who already missed his 1st 3 starts of the season due to injury.

Clayton Beeter allowed 2 runs in 2 innings. George Springer hit a home run off Schmidt, and one off Beeter. Trent Grisham hit a home run, but it proved of no use. Blue Jays 8, Yankees 5.

With that game, the Blue Jays took over 1st place in the American League Eastern Division. The Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays are both one game behind them.

And now, the Yankees have to go to Flushing Meadow to play the Mets. And, with today being the 4th of July, it's another day game after a night game. Seems a fitting punishment for such a lousy performance in Toronto.

Yankees Mess With Texas by Long Ball, Good Pitching

The Yankees followed up their 2-out-of-3 with The Other Team with a 3-game home series with the Texas Rangers. On Tuesday night, Will Warren took a 5-hit, 1-walk, 10-strikeout shutout into the 6th inning. But, because he'd thrown 101 pitches, and Aaron Boone uses a chart to handle pitchers, instead of, you know, common sense like a normal manager, he took Warren out. Fortunately for him, Mark Leiter Jr. finished the 6th and pitched the 7th, and Devin Williams pitched the 8th, without allowing a run.

For the Rangers, Patrick Corbin, who had given the Yankees trouble before, would not be so lucky this time. Ben Rice hit a home run in the 2nd inning, and he added an RBI with a sacrifice fly in the 4th. Anthony Volpe doubled home a run in the 6th. Trent Grisham singled to lead off the 8th, and Aaron Judge hit a home run to make it 5-0. Ian Hamilton ran into trouble in the 9th, and Boone had to bring Luke Weaver in to close it out, 5-2.

Ryan Yarbrough was permitted to throw only 81 pitches on Wednesday night. He went 5 full innings, allowing 1 run on 3 his and (I love typing these words for a Yankee pitcher) no walks, striking out 8. But 2 home runs by Jake Berger put the Yankees in a 3-1 hole going into the bottom of the 7th.

Time for the long ball again. Cody Bellinger hit one out in the 7th, Judge singled home a run in the 8th, and Jasson Domínguez won it with a long home run in the bottom of the 9th: Yankees 4, Rangers 3. Having pitched a perfect top of the 9th, Weaver was the winning pitcher.

Then came the dreaded DGANG: Day Game After a Night Game. After the night before, not an easy win, all signs pointed to a struggle for the Yankees.

Sometimes, you win the struggle.

Despite the weekday, a 12:35 PM start, and rainy weather, a crowd officially listed as 43,450 came out to the big ballyard in The Bronx. They saw a dandy of a pitching dule, between current Yankee Carlos Rodón and former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi. Rodón went 6 innings, allowing no runs on 2 hits and 2 walks, striking out 8. He was permitted to throw 105 pitches.

But the Yankees struggled against Eovaldi. Of course they did. They always do. He also went 6 innings, allowing only 1 run on 5 hits and 1 walk. But that 1 run was the 1st major league home run by Jorbit Vivas, off a 101-MPH fastball from Eovaldi to lead off the bottom of the 5th.

All right, you primitive screwheads, listen up! If Jorbit Vivas can hit a home run off a 101-MPH fastball, I don't want to hear one more damn word about how Babe Ruth wouldn't be able to hit today's pitchers! He would make physical therapy for whiplash more common than Tommy John surgery.

Anyway, the bullpen held up: Leiter pitched a scoreless 7th, Williams a perfect 8th, and Weaver a perfect 9th. Yankees 1, Rangers 0. The Yankees not only messed with Texas, they swept 'em. Yee ha.

The Yankees are now 30-19, on a pace for 99 wins. They lead the American League Eastern Division by 5 games over the Toronto Blue Jays, 6 over the Boston Red Sox, 7 over the Tampa Bay Rays, and 13 1/2 over the Baltimore Orioles.

This is despite not having one single appearance for Gerrit Cole (and they won't, all year), Luis Gil (might return to the starting rotation in mid-June), or Giancarlo Stanton (might be back in early June). Oswaldo Cabrera is likely out for the season. Jazz Chisholm Jr. might be back in early June. When Marcus Stroman will be available again is anybody's guess.

Tonight, the Yankees begin a roadtrip, in Denver to face the Colorado Rockies. As bad as the Chicago White Sox were last season, going 3-22 to start the season and 41-121 for the season -- setting a new AL record for losses in a season, and surpassing the 1962 Mets for the most since 1899 -- the Rockies have been even worse: They are 8-42, on a pace for 26-136 -- which would surpass the 1899 Cleveland Spiders for the most losses, if not quite the worst winning percentage, in major league history.

And the Yankees will be hitting in Coors Field, at altitude.

Then again, last year, the White Sox did win 1 of their 6 games against the Yankees, so, you never know.

Yankees Reach Halfway Mark With Many Question Marks

In the aftermath of the perfect game pitched by Domingo Germán, the Yankees could be forgiven a letdown in the last game of their 3-game series against the Oakland Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum. Especially since it was a dreaded day game after a night game. 

(The possibility that something might be worked out so that the Athletics' move to Las Vegas could happen next season, making this the last game the Yankees ever play in Oakland, rather than that happening next season, or the next, wouldn't enter into it.)

For the 1st time all season, the Yankees got both a decent performance from hole-in-the-rotation filler Clarke Schmidt and decent run support for it. Schmidt went 5 1/3rd innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks, striking out 3. The bullpen, well-rested since Germán's perfecto meant that nobody in it had been used the night before, allowed just 1 run the rest of the way. 

Isiah Kiner-Falefa drove in the 1st 2 Yankee runs, with a home run in the 2nd inning and a sacrifice fly in the 4th. Then came an 8-run explosion in the 6th: A 472-foot 2-run home run by Josh Donaldson, a 2-RBI single by Gleyber Torres, a 2-run double by Giancarlo Stanton, a single by Harrison Bader, and a single for another RBI for IKF. Scoring 21 runs in the last 2 games of this series, which was considerably more than was necessary, makes it all the more puzzling why the Yankees could only get 1 run in the series opener, thus denying them a sweep of the worst team in Major League Baseball this season.

At any rate, this one ended Yankees 10, A's 4. WP: Schmidt (3-6). No save. LP: Hogan Harris (2-2).

*

This was the Yankees' 81st game of the 2023 regular season, meaning it is now, at least numerically, half-over. They are 45-36, a pace to win 90 games. Since the start of the Divisional Play Era in 1969, the number of games needed to win the American League Eastern Division has been 93. That is, from 1969 to 2022, not counting partial seasons, the average number of games won by the teams finishing 2nd has been 92.

The Yankees are 9 1/2 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East, as the Rays are on a 112-win pace. However, the teams having played a different amount of games means the Yankees are only 8 games behind the Rays in the all-important loss column. If the current standings were to hold to the end of the regular season, the Yankees would receive the 5th seed in the AL Playoffs, which would not only not include the despised Boston Red Sox, but, by half a game, would n it including the "Red Sox South," the cheating Houston Astros.

On the plus side, the Yankees have, by and large, gotten good pitching. The team ERA is 3.62, 3rd in the AL; WHIP, 1.210, 5th. Nestor Cortés will return from the Injured List shortly, and if the Yankees have to go through the 2nd half of the regular season with a rotation -- not necessarily in this order chronologically, or of importance -- of Cortés, Germán, Schmidt, Gerrit Cole and Luis Severino, with Jhony Brito occasionally filling in, I think that side of things will be all right.

Carlos Rodón will make another minor-league rehab start tomorrow night. He could be ready after the All-Star Break, which would likely demote somebody -- possibly even perfect-game pitcher Germán, unless Severino fails to find a groove. And the bullpen has been pretty good, with Tommy Kahnle returning from injury to pitch with Clay Holmes, Ron Marinaccio and Michael King.

And one other plus: In spite of what has seemed like a lot of "Yankee RISPfail," failing to get runners in scoring position home, the Yankees actually have the fewest runners left on base of any team in the AL, 461.

On the minus side, the injuries remain a problem. We don't know when Aaron Judge is coming back. Same with Jonathan Loáisiga, who could have become the closer. Same with Scott Effross. Same with Ryan Weber. Same with Frankie Montas, who wasn't any good even before his injury. Oswald Peraza now seems like a long-term injury, as well. Willie Calhoun should be back by the All-Star Break. Lou Trivino had Tommy John surgery, and we'll be lucky to see him before next season's Opening Day.

Without Judge, who seems to make every hitter better, the Yankees really aren't hitting much. The currently injured Judge has an on-base percentage of .404. Otherwise: Anthony Rizzo .357, Gleyber Torres .323, Jake Bauers .312, Willie Calhoun .309, Billy McKinney .300, Harrison Bader .295, Anthony Volpe .290, DJ LeMahieu .289, Isiah Kiner-Falefa .288, Ginacarlo Stanton .260, Jose Trevino .253, Kyle Higashioka .252, Oswaldo Cabrera .243, Josh Donaldson .200 (and that's after heating up lately). Remember: These are on-base percentages, not batting averages. Overall, the Yankees are at .299, 12th in the AL.

The reliabilities of starters Germán, Schmidt and Severino remain uncertain. And the bullpen does remain another question mark. The Yankees have 4 or 5 guys who can pitch in the 7th or 8th innings, but no definitive closer. Wandy Peralta and Jimmy Cordero have both shown flashes of brilliance, but they're usually in clouds of mediocrity. And keeping Aroldis Chapman would not have been the answer: The Kansas City Royals haven't trusted him to be their closer, as he's only gotten 2 saves.

Fielding is also an issue: The Yankees have made 48 errors, 4th in the AL. But the amount of injuries and player substitutions means that the total is spread out a bit: Torres leads the team with 8, having played in 70 and started 66 of the 81 games. So that's not as bad as it looks. Next-worst is Volpe with 7, which is understandable, since he's a rookie and playing the most error-prone position, shortstop.

The Yankees can't worry about how the Rays or any other team is doing. All they can do is play the team that's in front of them, and concentrate on the business at hand on that day. Get that done, and that's more than half the battle. It seems like the Yankees will make the Playoffs. Once that's clinched, anything can happen, especially if Judge and the rotation both return, and to form.

The Yankees travel on, and begin an Interleague series with the St. Louis Cardinals tonight. Severino starts against Matthew Liberatore.