Yanks Turn Hopeless Series vs. Braves Around

The Yankees began the official, if not numerical, 2nd half of the regular season with a 3-game Interleague series against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park in suburban Cumberland, Georgia.

For the 1st 14 innings, it was a disaster.

Starting pitchers Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt are out for the season. Luis Gil is only now making rehab appearances in the minor leagues.

General manager Brian Cashman hasn't seen fit to acquire a new starter, or to promote one from the minor leagues. And field manager Aaron Boone refused to accept that Will Warrem was on 4 days' rest, and Max Fried was on 5.

Put it all together, and the Friday night game was planned as a "bullpen game." And it was awful. Ian Hamilton allowed 3 runs in the 1st innings. Rico Garcia, 31 years old and newly selected off waivers from the Mets, made his Yankee debut, and allowed 3 runs in less than 2 innings.

A 7th-inning comeback was woefully sufficient, and the Braves won, 7-3.

The Saturday afternoon game began worse. Will Warren was okay for 3 innings, then fell apart. And nobody in the bullpen seemed to ha e anything, either. It was 5-0 Atlanta after 4 innings, and 7-2 after 5.

Then the Yankees once again proved that they can turn any stadium into a "little league field." Anthony Volpe hit 2 home runs, and homers were also hit by Cody Bellinger and, as a grand slam in the 9th, Trent Grisham. Yankees 12, Braves 9. Luke Weaver pitched a scorless inning and 2/3rds for the win.

Yesterday, Marcus Stroman had his best start of the season so far, allowing just 1 run over 6 innings. Aaron Judge hit his 36th home runs of the season, and the Yankees won, 4-2, to take a series that looked hopeless and make it 2 out of 3 on the road.

Judge's home run was the 351st of his career. That ties him for 6th on the Yankees' all-time list:

1. Babe Ruth 659

2. Mickey Mantle 536

3. Lou Gehrig 493

4. Joe DiMaggio 361

5. Yogi Berra 359

6. Aaron Judge 351

T. Alex Rodriguez 351

As broadcaster Michael Kay would say, Those are not just big names, those are iconic names.

*

The Yankees now head to Canada to play the Toronto Blue Jays, who lead them by 3 games in the American League Eastern Division, with 63 games to play. Here are the projected starting pitchers for the series, with all games having a scheduled starting time of 7:07 PM:

* Tonight: Carlos Rodón vs. Kevin Gausman.

* Tomorrow: Cam Schlittler (in his 2nd major league game) vs. Mark Scherzer (in his 472nd).

* Wednesday: Max Fried vs. Chris Bassitt.

Thursday will be an off day, and then the Yankees come home to face the Philadelphia Phillies, who are leading the National League East by a game over the Mets. So it doesn't get any easier.

Throwing Games Away Ticks Me Off

I hate losing. Even more, I hate games that are absolutely thrown away.

Domingo Germán started the Yankees' pre-All-Star-Break finale, against the Chicago Cubs at Yankee Stadium. While he wasn't perfect, as he was 2 starts ago, he was strong: Over the 1st 6 innings, he allowed 2 runs, only 1 earned, on 1 hit and 3 walks, striking out 9. He had thrown only 74 pitches. A manager with a lick of sense, or enough of a spine to stand up to a general manager who didn't have a lick of sense, would have let him pitch the 7th inning.

Aaron Boone did not let him pitch the 7th inning. Whether this was due to a lack of sense or a lack of spine, God only knows.

This time, instead of bailing out a starter in trouble, the bullpen betrayed a starter who was pitching well. Ian Hamilton, Tommy Kahnle, Ron Marinaccio and Clay Holmes each pitched to the minimum 3 batters. Hamilton and Marinaccio each allowed 2 runs. Nick Ramirez also allowed a run, having pitched to 4 batters.

Boone could do this because, the day before, Gerrit Cole had pitched into the 8th inning, and Michael King had gone the rest of the way. Yesterday, he used pretty much everybody but King, and his musical chairs with the bullpen was, yet again, a disaster.

Anthony Rizzo doubled home a run in the 1st inning. Anthony Volpe, with Billy McKinney on 1st, and Kyle Higashioka hit back-to-back home runs in the 6th. The way that Germán was pitching, 4 runs should have been enough. Maybe it would have been if he'd been allowed to stay in, or maybe he would have run out of gas and blown it without the bullpen's "help."

But we'll never know, because Boone, probably on orders from Cashman, wouldn't give him the chance. What was he been saved for? Today starts the All-Star Break. He won't be pitching again for a week, anyway!

Cubs 7, Yankees 4. WP: Julian Merryweather (2-0). SV: Adbert Alzolay (7). LP: Marinaccio (4-4). A game that Boone completely threw away. To paraphrase Vic DiBitetto, New Yorker, comedian and Yankee Fan, that's what ticks me off!

Give the Cubs credit for taking advantage, but the advantage never should have been given. 

The Yankees threw something else away, too: Their hitting instructor, firing Dillon Lawson. They say they hope to have a new hitting instructor in place by Friday.

Cashman goes through hitting instructors the way George Steinbrenner used to go through managers, pitching coaches, and general managers. And Cashman has changed managers, going from Joe Girardi to Aaron Boone. The one constant has been Cashman himself.

Yankees Get Comeback Win vs. Orioles

The Yankees came home, and began a 4-game series with the Baltimore Orioles. Aaron Hicks made his return to Yankee Stadium, and got the hell booed out of him.

John Sterling, the longtime Yankee broadcaster celebrating his 85th birthday on this 4th of July, might have said to his WCBS radio partner Suzyn Waldman, "You know, Suzyn, you just can't predict baseball." Well, the easy thing to predict would have been that Hicks would have a big day, maybe even get the game-winning hit for the Orioles. But no, he only went 1-for-4, raising his batting average to a whopping .229.

On the other hand, Domingo Germán was far from perfect in his 1st start since his perfect game. He allowed 3 runs, 1 of them unearned, and didn't get out of the 5th inning. Fortunately, the Yankee bullpen got the job done the rest of the way: Nick Ramirez finished the 5th and got through the 6th, Ian Hamilton in the 7th, Tommy Kahnle in the 8th, and Clay Holmes in the 9th.

Anthony Volpe and Kyle Higashioka hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the 5th, to close the Yankees within 3-2. Volpe scored the tying run on a wild pitch in the 7th. And in the 8th, Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo singled, and Harrison Bader hit a home run.

Yankees 6, Orioles 3. WP: Kahnle (1-0). SV: Holmes (10). LP: Yennier Canó (1-1, and no relation to Robinson).

The series continues this afternoon, with a 4th of July matinee. Clarke Schmidt starts against Kyle Gibson. Celebrate safely, everyone: Be careful on the grill, don't drink too much, and leave the fireworks to the professionals.

Yankees Get Away With "Opener Game"

Having had a rainout the day before, the Yankees were able to use pretty much any pitcher they wanted to use in the 1st game of yesterday's doubleheader with the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch stadium. And they did, including Josh Donaldson, in an 11-4 loss.

That meant that, in the 2nd game, they could still use any number of relievers, but they didn't really have a starting pitcher available. So they had to go the "opener" route.

They got away with it, probably because the opponent wasn't the Houston Astros.

Ian Hamilton pitched the 1st inning, and he allowed a run. Ron Marinaccio pitched the 2nd and most of the 3rd, and he allowed another run.

Michael King pitched the rest of the 3rd, and all of the 4th, and all the 5th, and all of the 6th. He really saved the Yankees bacon. Of course, according to the rules of the game, since he wasn't the final pitcher, he didn't get the save. But he got the win, which was more important.

Wandy Peralta pitched the 7th, Tommy Kahnle the 8th, and Clay Holmes the 9th. Like King's innings, theirs were all scoreless.

Of course, you also need to score your own runs. Harrison Bader gave the Yankees a sacrifice fly in the 1st inning. A triple by Anthony Volpe and a sac fly by DJ LeMahieu gave them 2 more runs in the 2nd. In the 9th, they got a run on a fielder's choice by Jose Trevino, and Gleyber Torres singled home 2 more runs.

Yankees 6, Cardinals 2. WP: King (2-4). No save. LP: Matthew Liberatore (1-3).

The series concludes this afternoon. Gerrit Cole starts against former Yankee Jordan Montgomery.

Good Injury News Can't Score in 9 Innings, Yanks Lose In 10

After making the Toronto Blue Jays look bad 2 nights in a row, the Yankees tried to make it 3 straight at the Rogers Centre last night. And they had the right starting pitcher for it, too: Gerrit Cole. He pitched 6 shutout innings, allowing 7 hits and 2 walks, striking out 6.

Clay Holmes pitched a perfect 7th. Jimmy Cordero pitched a scoreless, 8th. Michael King pitched a scoreless 9th. Put it all together, and it's a 9-hit shutout. All we needed was 1 run.

We didn't get it. The Yankees stranded a man on 2nd base in the 2nd inning, a man on 1st in the 3rd, a man on 2nd with 1 out in the 4th, and a man on 1st with 1 out in the 6th. With 2 out in the top of the 8th, they got 3 straight walks, from Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu. But Anthony Volpe struck out. After 9 innings, it was 0-0.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa was the ghost runner in the top of the 10. Oswaldo Cabrera grounded out, getting him to 3rd. It says a lot about Aaron Judge that they intentionally walked him. It says just as much about Gleyber Torres that he batted before Judge, and they were willing to pitch to him with the go-ahead run on 3rd and less than 2 outs. He justified their thoughts by striking out. After Judge walked, he stole 2nd, to try to draw a throw and let IKF score, but the Jays weren't fooled. And Rizzo struck out.

Wandy Peralta, coming off back-to-back strong performances, was sent out to pitch the bottom of the 10th. Cavan Biggio was the Toronto ghost runner. Whit Merrifield grounded to short, and Volpe mishandled it, allowing Biggio to reach 3rd. To be fair, it was a tough play: If he'd been able to pick the ball up but not throw Merrifield out in time, it would have been scored as a hit. "I gotta back up the pitcher there," he said after the game. "No excuses."

Cabrera was brought in to play the middle of the infield, as a second shortstop, leaving 2 outfielders. The idea was to guard against a ground ball, and hold Biggio at 3rd -- or, if he broke for home, throw him out, or catch him in a rundown. Either way, to make sure the winning run did not score on a grounder.

The umpires met to determine whether this was against MLB's new rule banning infield shifts. They determined that it wasn't: According to the new rule, there must be at least 2 infielders on each side of 2nd base, and there was.

Yogi Berra once said that one of the great things about baseball is that, "It ain't like football: You can't make up no trick plays." But that's far from true. This was, much more so than the so-called "no-doubles defense" (the outfielders playing more deeply than usual), is baseball's answer to football's "prevent defense" (the defensive backs, and sometimes even the linebackers, playing far back, to discourage a last-minute long-distance touchdown pass).

At first, it worked: Alejandro Kirk grounded, appropriately enough, to Volpe, who checked Biggio at 3rd, holding him, and threw Kirk out. This allowed Merrifield to get to 2nd, but his run didn't matter: Only Biggio's did.

That left runners on 2nd & 3rd with 1 out: Any ball out of the infield could still win the game. The sensible move would be to walk the next batter, to load the bases, and set up an out at any base, and maybe even an inning-ending double play; and pitch to the following batter, Santiago Espinal, who was batting just .172. That's Aaron Hicks territory. (Hicks was batting .159 when he went on the Injured List.)

That would have been the sensible move. But because the Yankees' manager is Aaron Boone, and he does whatever Brian Cashman and the analytics boys tell him to do, he decided not to walk the next batter. That was Danny Jansen, and he was batting .185. His lifetime batting average is .219. Kenley Jansen (no relation) has a higher lifetime batting average, and he's a relief pitcher! (He's 3-for-9, for .333.)

Or maybe, just maybe, Boone was ignoring the analytics, and decided, "If Peralta can't get this bum out, maybe he doesn't belong in the major leagues." Well, maybe I would have thought that. But I still would have walked Jansen.

Boone didn't order him walked. Peralta threw him one pitch. It was obvious: Jake Bauers, in left field, turned around, took a couple of steps, and turned back around, because it was hopeless. Home run. Blue Jays 3, Yankees 0. WP: Jordan Romano (3-2). No save. LP: Peralta (2-1).

I could blame Peralta. But those runs were unearned. I could blame Volpe. But he's a rookie. I could blame Boone, for bad strategy. But who's kidding who? In 10 innings, the Yankees got only 3 hits, and drew 5 walks, but scored no runs. This, after scoring 35 runs in their previous 5 games.

More bad news: As expected, Domingo Germán received a 10-game suspension for using "sticky stuff" on the mound on Monday night. He will miss 2 starts. That gives the Yankees 3 holes in the rotation: His slot, and the slots of the injured Luis Severino and Carlos Rodón. And Ian Hamilton also went on the 15-Day Injured List, so he should be back in early June.

But there is some good news: Severino has made progress, and is expected to be activated in time for Sunday's game in Cincinnati. And Boone said that Giancarlo Stanton may return in about a week. But good injury news won't get the Yankees any runs over last night's 1st 9 innings.

So, in the interim -- 1 more game against the Jays tonight, then 2 away to the Cincinnati Reds -- the rotation will be Nestor Cortés tonight, Clarke Schmidt tomorrow, and the starter for Saturday's game is undecided. Looks like another "opener game," so, maybe, on 3 days' rest, Jhony Brito will start, pitch 2 or 3 innings, and then let the bullpen fly. My confidence level for that game is... actually, it's higher than it is for the Schmidt start.

That's More Like It

How badly did the Yankees need to bounce back against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field yesterday afternoon? Very badly. They needed to win, if for no other reason than to show the Rays that somebody in the American League Eastern Division wasn't going to put up with them.

Domingo Germán started, and, as much as any pitcher who only goes 5 innings can, got the job done. He allowed 2 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks. He deserved to be the winning pitcher.

He wasn't, because, again, the Yankees weren't hitting. They stranded men on 1st & 2nd with 1 out in the 2nd inning, a man on 1st with 1 out in the 5th, a man on 2nd with 2 out in the 6th, and men on 1st & 2nd with nobody out in the 7th. That is not productive baseball.

In the meantime, Wandy Peralta got into trouble in the 6th, and had to get bailed out by Ron Marinaccio, who also pitched a scoreless 7th. Peralta isn't quite the Aaron Hicks of pitchers, but he looks like he's working on it. Still, after 7, the Yankees trailed 2-0. Close enough that it can be overcome -- Cliché Alert, John Sterling Edition: That's just a bloop and a blast, or a walk and a wallop -- but far enough that the current Yankees looked like they couldn't do it.

But with 1 out in the top of the 8th, Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres singled. DJ LeMahieu doubled Rizzo home. Harrison Bader singled Torres and LeMahieu home. The Yankees had the lead!

Clay Holmes pitched a scoreless 8th. Aaron Boone didn't trust him to do the same in the 9th. He trusted Ian Hamilton to do that, and he did. That's more like it: Yankees 3, Rays 2. WP: Marinaccio (1-1). SV: Hamilton (the 1st of his career). LP: Kevin Kelly (3-1).

The rubber game of this series will be played this afternoon, with a first pitch of 1:40. Gerrit Cole starts and Javy Guerra.

Also: Having been humiliated in the Playoffs by the Devils, the Rangers fired head coach Gerard Gallant. And a 15-1 shot named Mage won the Kentucky Derby. I understand there was something going on in London, too...

Yanks Came In Like a Lion, Went Out Like a Lamb

The Yankees opened a series away to the Cleveland Guardians last night. They got off to a great start, as Gleyber Torres doubled to lead off the game, Aaron Judge walked, Anthony Rizzo singled to load the bases with nobody out, and Giancarlo Stanton doubled 2 runs home.

But that was all the Yankees would get, all night long. They stranded men on 2nd & 3rd with 1 out that inning, a man on 2nd in the 2nd, a man on 2nd in the 6th, and Torres after a leadoff triple in the 8th. A very weak offensive effort: They came in like a lion, and went out like a lamb.

Of course, a good pitching effort could have made 2-0 stand up for 9 innings. The Yankees didn't get one. Starter Domingo Germán couldn't get his curveball working. He walked 5 batters, had allowed a run in the bottom of the 2nd, and had allowed the tying run in the top of the 4th, and had men on 1st and 2nd with nobody out in that inning, when manager Aaron Boone took him out.

Colton Brewer got out of that jam, and kept the Guardians off the board through the 6th. Boone brought Ian Hamilton in to pitch the 7th. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Hamilton walked the 1st 2 batters he faced, which led to a sacrifice fly that put Cleveland on top.

That's how it ended: Guardians 3, Yankees 2. WP: Shane Bieber (1-1). SV: Emmanuel Clase (3). LP: Hamilton (0-1).

The series continues tonight. Gerrit Cole starts against Hunter Gaddis.