Yanks Escape Chicago, Make Important Trades at Deadline

New Yankee Luis García Jr.

Seven days in Chicago, seven games for the Yankees. They split four with the White Sox, their fellow American Leaguers. Now, it was time for three with the National League's Cubs.

And the Thursday afternoon finale with the South Siders was followed by a Friday afternoon game on the North Side, at Wrigley Field.

The Yankees got solo home runs by Amed Rosario in the 4th inning and Spencer Jones in the 5th -- and that was it. Fortunately, they also got a fantastic start by Will Warren: 6 2/3rds innings, no runs, 4 hits, no walks, and 7 strikeouts. Paul Blackburn finished the 7th and pitched the 8th, and David Bednar finished a 5-hit shutout. Yankees 2, Cubs 0.

The Yankees would not be so fortunate on Saturday night. They got an RBI single by José Caballero in the 5th, and another Homer by Jones in the 7th. (Not to be confused with the late Homer Jones, the New York Giants receiver who invented spiking the football in the 1960s, or the character in Jerry Reed's 1971 country classic "When You're Hot, You're Hot.")

But a great start by Max Fried was wasted: 5 1/3rd innings (remember, he's still being worked back up after his injury), 1 run, 2 hits, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. But Fernando Cruz blew the game in the 7th inning. Cubs 5, Yankees 2.

So the Sunday afternoon game felt like a must-win. Gerrit Cole sure pitched like it, going 5 1/3rd innings, allowing 1 run on 4 hits and 3 walks, with 5 strikeouts. This time, the bullpen held, allowing no runs, no hits and 3 walks the rest of the way.

Ryan McMahon led off the top of the 3rd eith a single, and Caballero hit a home run. That was all the Yankees got, but, with that pitching, that was all they would need, beating the Cubs, 2-1.

So they won 2 out of 3 at Wrigley, despite scoring only 6 runs. I guess the famous wind there was blowing in, except when they needed it to blow out.

They won 5 of 7 in Chicago. Counting the earlier series in Philadelphia, they won 6 of 10 on the long roadtrip. Considering that Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger are all injured, that's not bad.

*

So here's how things stand as we come into August: The Yankees are 63-49, 2 1/2 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Eastern Division, 3 in (Cliché Alert) the all-important loss column. The Boston Red Sox are 5 games back, the Baltimore Orioles 11 1/2, and the Toronto Blue Jays 13 1/2.

Today was the trading deadline. Brian Cashman did some good: He got rid of relief pitchers Camilo Doval, Jake Bird and Yovanny Cruz. Cliché Alert: Great trades, who did we get?

For Doval, they got catcher-1st baseman Omar Alfonzo and outfielder Luis Cruz (no relation to Yovanny). Those two are at Somerset now, so they won't help this season. I'm just glad to be rid of Bird and, to a lesser extent, Cruz. To fill a bullpen spot, they called Kervin Castro up from Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Then, today, Cashman really filled a need, for a big bat. He got Luis García Jr., the 26-year-old 1st baseman for the Washington Nationals, who was leading the National League in slugging percentage, for Yovanny Cruz; Bird; Jack Cebert, a starting pitcher, who was at Class AA Somerset and looked like he wasn't going to make it; and Ben Grable, a reliever, who was also at Somerset, and had a better chance, but was unlikely to help this season. That is an absolute steal. Outfielder Max Schuemann was sent down to even out the roster slots. Cruz was given the Number 26, last worn on the team by DJ LeMahieu.

Also today, the Yankees made a trade with the San Francisco Giants, sending pitcher Henry Lalane and shortstop Kaeden Kent, both of them at Class A, for Heliot Ramos, a 26-year-old Puerto Rican left fielder with righthanded power. That should also help.

But there were other notable trades. The Los Angeles Dodgers got Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers, one of the best pitchers in the game, for next to nothing. That won't affect the Yankees much, but at least he didn't go to the Rays, the Red Sox, or the Houston Astros.

But the Red Sox did get Adley Rutschman, All-Star catcher, from the Orioles. That's going to hurt, as the Sox are on a tear. It's almost as if their new way to cheat has kicked in. The Astros got All-Star center fielder Daulton Varsho from the Jays. 

The Rays? They got Freddy Peralta from the Mets. Peralta was supposed to be the ace that was going to help the Mets get off the deck and back into the postseason. It didn't work out that way. Now, with him in their rotation, suddenly, the Rays look like less of a favorite to win the Division.

The Mets also traded former Yankee Clay Holmes to the Cubs. Cliché Alert: They may well be blowing it all up and starting over.

The Cleveland Guardians, another contender for the AL Pennant, also made a deal with the Nationals, getting pitcher Foster Griffin. And the Phillies got 3-time batting champion Luis Arraez from the Giants. Whether either will help remains to be seen.

There are 50 games left in the regular season. The Yankees start them at home, with an Interleague series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Come on you Pinstripes!

Yankees Struggle Against Dodgers

The Yankees began the official, though not numerical, 2nd half of the season by hosting the 2-time defending World Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. For a team riddled with injuries, it was not a good combination.

Gerrit Cole started on Friday night, and in 6 innings, he allowed 5 hits, no walks. He was brilliant. But the Yankee bats, depleted by injuries to Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, couldn't hit, either. Jazz Chisholm singled with 2 out in the 2nd. Trent Grisham drew a walk with 2 out in the 3rd. In the 4th, Jasson Domínguez doubled, reached 3rd on an error on the throw to 2nd, and scored on a passed ball with Chisholm up.

In the 6th, Ben Rice singled with 1 out, and Cody Bellinger singled with 2 out. But Domínguez, having giveth a run, now taketh away a chance, by striking out to end the inning. So, through 6 innings, the Yankees were lucky to have a 1-0 lead.

Cole had thrown 92 pitches. That's usually enough for manager Aaron Boone to take a starting pitcher out, possibly on orders from general manager Brian Cashman. This time, he made the opposite mistake: He left Cole in for the top of the 7th. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Cole hadn't walked anybody yet, but he started the inning by walking Mookie Betts. And then Max Muncy hit a home run.

As the great New York sportscaster Warner Wolf would say, "Turn your sets off right there." Three Yankee relievers allowed just 2 baserunners, and it didn't matter. The Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the 7th. They looked like they might have something going in the 8th. Grisham walked with 1 out, and Rice doubled, but Grisham was thrown out at the plate. Paul Goldschmidt was intentionally walked, with Max Schuemann sent as a pinch-runner. Bellinger just got under a pitch, and it didn't quite go out, and Andy Pages caught it in center field. The Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the 9th.

Dodgers 2, Yankees 1. I'd like to say this one is all on Boone, but the Yankees only needed to score 1 more run to at least send this game to extra innings.

The Saturday afternoon game was rained out, forcing a day-night, split-admission doubleheader for yesterday. The opener was a battle of aces. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was up to the task. He allowed a home run to Grisham in the 4th, and a double to Chisholm and an RBI single to Anthony Volpe in the 8th.

Schlittler was not up to it. He gave up 2 runs in the 3rd, including an RBI double by Shohei Ohtani. He gave up 2 more runs in the 5th, and, at 4-1, the game already felt over. In the 8th, Jake Bird allowed a double, 3 singles and a walk, and ended up with 5 runs charged to him. He should not be in the major leagues. The Dodgers won, 8-2.

So the nightcap became a must, to prevent a total humiliation, not quite on the same level as the Dodgers taking 2 out of 3 Yankee Stadium games in the 2024 World Series, but perhaps capable of preventing the Yankees from being taken seriously for the rest of this season.

Boone decided to go for a bullpen game. I shuddered. But Ryan Yarbrough pitched 2 2/3rds innings, Paul Blackburn pitched 2 1/3rd, and Brent Headrick pitched 2, so no runs through 7. With 2 outs in the 1st inning, Goldschmidt doubled and Bellinger singled, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

But Boone brought Fernando Cruz in to pitch the 8th, and he gave up a game-tying leadoff homer to Tommy Edman. After 2 walks, Boone got Cruz out of there, and brought in David Bednar, the closer. He got 5 outs, allowing just 1 walk. And Chisholm hit one out in the bottom of the 8th. Yankees 2, Dodgers 1, to salvage the finale, and restore some pride.

*

And yet, the Yankees actually benefited from their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, being on a hot streak. They swept the Tampa Bay Rays 4 straight at Fenway Park. They have now won 13 straight games, and 18 out of their last 20. So the Rays now lead the American League Eastern Division by a game and a half over the Yankees, with the Sox having gotten back into the race, 6 games back.

That's a little good news. There was also bad news on the injury front: Aaron Judge probably won't be back before August 1, and Max Fried's 1st injury-rehab start, at Class AA Somerset, was a bit shaky. But Clarke Schmidt had his 1st batting-practice session, and it apparently went well.

Tonight, the Yankees begin another 3-game home Interleague series, this one with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Paul Skenes pitched yesterday, so the Yankees won't be facing him. As Bill Murray would say, So we've got that going for us, which is nice.

The Real Yankee Bullpen Has Shown Up

This past Saturday night, at home to the Miami Marlins, the Yankees allowed as many runs as they did in the 1st 7 games combined... and they still won!

Ryan Weathers started, and he had nothing, allowing 3 runs in less than 4 innings. Paul Blackburn allowed another run before ending the top of the 4th. Fortunately, in the bottom of the 5th, Aaron Judge singled (yes, he gets hits that are not home runs), and Cody Bellinger hit a home run, to make it 4-2.

Tim Hill pitched a scoreless top of the 6th. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Paul Goldschmidt led off the bottom of the 6th with a walk. José Caballero was hit with a pitch. Ryan McMahon struck out, but Trent Grisham singled Goldschmidt home, Judge singled Caballero home, and Bellinger's sacrifice fly scored Grisham. The Yankees added a run on a passed ball in the 7th, and it was 6-4 Yankees.

But Camilo Doval couldn't hold the lead in the top of the 8th, and it was 6-6. Fortunately, again, walks, including a leadoff walk, worked in the Yankees' favor. McMahon led off the bottom of the 8th with a walk. Grisham flew out. Judge walked. Bellinger flew out. Ben Rice walked to load the bases. Giancarlo Stanton singled McMahon and Judge home. Another passed ball brought Chisholm home.

That made Brent Headrick the pitcher of record. But David Bednar allowed 3 singles and a walk to make it 9-7. Finally, he shut the door for the save.

Half the pitching staff injured, starting shortstop injured, starting 3rd baseman a genuine hole in the batting order, superstar still not hitting great, and the Yankees were still 7-1 -- and it really should have been 8-0.

*

And then, yesterday, after a long rain delay to start, the real Yankee bullpen finally showed up. A 3-run Rice homer in the 1st, and a fielder's choice with Rice up in the 3rd, made it 4-3 Yankees. Max Fried ran out of gas in the 7th, and Fernando Cruz had to finish the inning. But he walked a batter with 1 out in the top of the 8th. Aaron Boone brought Jake Bird in, and he allowed a walk, hit a batter, and gave up a lead-switching double. Ryan Yarbrough came in, and allowed a 2-run single before ending the mess. It was 7-4 Marlins.

With 1 out in the bottom of the 9th, the Yanks mounted a comeback. Bellinger and Rice drew walks. Stanton struck out. Chisholm doubled home both runners, and was thus the tying run. Austin Wells was intentionally walked to set up the play at any base. J.C. Escarra was sent up to pinch-hit for Caballero, and struck out to end it. Marlins 7, Yankees 6.

In other words: 1st 7 games, 7 runs; last 2 games, 14 runs. The bullpen, my biggest concern coming into the season, was bad for 2 games, and the Yankees only got away with it once.

*

So at the end of the 1st full week of play, here's where we stand:

* The Yankees are 7-2. They are tied with the defending World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in baseball. In the American League Eastern Division, they are 3 games ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays, 4 ahead of the Baltimore Orioles, and 5 ahead of the Boston Red Sox.

* Starting pitchers are 5-0 with a 1.78 ERA.

* Good OPS+'s: Rice, 299; Stanton, 184; Goldschmidt, 176; Bellinger, 162; Judge, 146.

So there is plenty of reason to to be encouraged. But also reason for worry:

* Relief pitchers are 2-2 with 3.52.

* Bad OPS+'s: Grisham, 92; Chisholm, 51; Wells, 36; McMahon, 11; Caballero, 0; Amed Rosario, -9 in 7 plate appearances; Escarra, -100 in 6 appearances; and Randal Grichuk, -100 in 2 appearances.

The Yankees have the night off. Tomorrow, they begin a home series with the Sacramento Athletics.

Yankees Start Season With Sweep of Giants

Barring inclement weather, or a more drastic reason for postponement, today will be the last Sunday without Yankee baseball until at least October 4. (That day could have a postseason game.) That gives me plenty of time to summarize the season-opening series away to the San Francisco Giants.

This past Wednesday, the Yankees opened the 2026 season at Oracle Park in San Francisco, and beat the Giants, 7-0. After a day off on Thursday, Cam Schlittler started. Through 5 1/3rd innings, he had allowed just 1 baserunner, a double by Heliot Ramos in the 2nd inning.

Aaron Judge continued to strike out, but he also hit his 369th career home run, tying him with Ralph Kiner, Todd Helton, and the still-active Manny Machado on the all-time list. And Giancarlo Stanton hit his 454th home run. He is Major League Baseball's active leader.

These homers gave Schlittler a 3-0 lead. He had thrown only 68 pitches, 49 of them for strikes. There was absolutely no good reason to take him out.

Boone took him out, and brought in Fernando Cruz. He walked a batter, but allowed no more baserunners. Tim Hill pitched a perfect 7th, Doval a perfect 8th, and David Bednar survived a leadoff walk and ended the game. So, how many Yankees does it take to pitch a one-hit shutout? This time, 5.

It was the 1st time the Yankees had opened the season with back-to-back shutout wins since 1967. But that wasn't a good sign: The Yankees finished 9th out of 10 teams in the single-division American League that year.

Nevertheless: 18 innings, no runs, 4 hits, 4 walks. Pretty snazzy pitching.

*

And then last night was the Fox Saturday Game of the Week. With Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt unavailable, and 2024 American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil apparently no longer trusted by Yankee management to be a starter, Will Warren was given the start. Between the game being on Fox, and the Yankees having a pitcher named Warren -- Adam Warren was even worse -- I was not optimistic.

In the top of the 5th, Judge hit his 370th home run, surpassing Kiner, Helton and Machado, and tying Gil Hodges. So far, this season, he is 2-for-13, a batting average of .154, an on-base percentage that is also .154, and 7 strikeouts. But both of those hits are home runs, so he has 3 RBIs, his slugging percentage is .615, and his OPS+ is 122.

Warren got through 4 1/3rd innings, allowing 1 run on 5 hits and 2 walks, the 2nd of those walks having just happened when Boone relieved him. Headrick finished the 5th inning with no damage. Bird pitched the 6th and most of the 7th, Hill pitched the rest of the 7th and all of the 8th, and Bednar allowed a hit and a walk in the 9th, bringing the winning run to the plate, but induced a double play to end it. Yankees 3, Giants 1. Bird was credited with the win.

So: 27 innings, 1 run, 13 hits, 7 walks. Cliché Alert: They say pitching is 75 percent of baseball. If so, then that's a very good reason why the Yankees are 3-0.

*

Next up on the all-time home run list: For Stanton, the next names are José Canseco and Adam Dunn, each with 462; for Judge, his own Yankee teammate, Paul Goldschmidt, with 372, followed by Rocky Colavito, with 374.

This day begans with the Los Angeles Dodgers also 3-0; while the Mets, the Atlanta Braves, the Miami Marlins, the Milwaukee Brewers, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Toronto Blue Jays have started 2-0.

The Yankees head up the coast to face the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. The Monday and Tuesday games start at 9:40 PM Eastern Time (6:40 Pacific/local), while the Wednesday game is at 4:10 PM (1:10 local). Then, after a day off, on Friday, at 1;35 PM, we have the home opener, against the Miami Marlins.

Let's see how far the Yankees can take this season-opening streak, and this season.

Yankees Barely Escape Texas

Ben Rice (left) and David Bednar

Most of the Yankees series away to the Texas Rangers was awful. Arguably, they deserved to get swept.

The Monday night game might have been their worst of the season, feel-wise. Max Fried, perhaps the front-runner for the American League Cy Young Award in the 1st half of the season, suffered from "onebadinningitis," allowing 4 runs in the bottom of the 2nd. Otherwise, he was fine, and the Yankees led, 5-4 after the top of the 4th inning. Thanks to a perfect inning each from Luke Weaver and new acquisitions Camilo Doval and David Bednar, they held that lead all the way to the bottom of the 9th.

But, as we have seen, Devin Williams can't handle being the Yankees' closer. He got the 1st out in the bottom of the 9th, then gave up a game-tying home run to former Los Angeles Dodgers star Joc Pederson, who had been struggling mightily lately.

In the top of the 10th, a grounder to short by Jazz Chisholm got ghost runner Jasson Domínguez to 3rd base, and Anthony Volpe drew a walk, but Austin Wells grounded into a double play. New acquisition Jake Bird got a strikeout and a groundout, but manager Aaron Boone ordered an intentional walk to Wyatt Langford, to set up the force play. Big mistake: Josh Jung crushed a home run to end it: Rangers 8, Yankees 5.

The reaction online was horrible, although Boone bore the brunt of it, rather than Williams. The "keyboard warriors" seemed to pity Williams, while demanding Boone's head.

*

Saturday's game brought what might be general manager Brian Cashman's worst transaction back to haunt us. Yes, worse than refusing to sign either Hideki Matsui or Johnny Damon after the 2009 World Series. Worse than trading for Jeff Weaver. Worse than signing Carl Pavano or Jacoby Ellsbury. Worse than bringing in Vázquez, Scott Proctor, and Adam Warren twice each. Worse than dismantling the bullpen in 2016 for a bunch of prospects, the best of whom turned out to be Gleyber Torres. (Which was predicted. But he failed, which was not -- except by me.)

From April 10 to August 30, 2015, Nathan Eovaldi went 14-2 for the Yankees. But he got hurt in a loss on September 5. He only went 9-8 in 2016, pitching just 1 inning on August 10. He had his 2nd Tommy John surgery, and would be out the rest of the way, and for all of 2017. He was 26 years old, and Cashman gave up on him, releasing him on November 23, 2016 -- the day before Thanksgiving. Happy Holidays, kid.

Eovaldi pitched and won the clinching game of the 2018 AL Division Series -- against the Yankees, for the Boston Red Sox. He has continued to pitch well against the Yankees, and did so again on Saturday, for the Rangers. He went 8 innings. Here's a list of the baserunners he allowed: A double to Volpe with 2 out in the 3rd. That's it. That's the list. Ryan McMahon singled off reliever Phil Maton to lead off the 9th, but we couldn't get him home. All that despite Aaron Judge coming off the Injured List: Not once did he look like he would reach base. (Hitting a home run counts as "reaching base," but he never looked like he would hit one, either.)

The thing is, this pathetic offensive output wasted some really good pitching. Will Warren allowed 3 hits and 3 walks over 5 innings, Doval pitched a scoreless 6th, and Luke Weaver a scoreless 7th. Of course, Williams was brought in to pitch the 8th, with the score 0-0. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. After starting with a groundout, he allowed double, walk, walk, single. Final score: Rangers 2, Yankees 0.

Eovaldi is 101-84 for his career -- 23-11 as a Yankee, 63-37 since Cashman dumped him.

*

Wednesday would be a day game after a night game, so the Yankees could fly home on Wednesday night, and then have the next day to rest. Former Yankee (and Met) Al Leiter and former Yankee Mark Leiter Sr. were at the game. Al's son Jack started for the Rangers, and Mark's son Mark Jr. relieved for the Yankees.

Carlos Rodón started for the Yankees, and was a little shaky through the 1st 3 innings, falling behind, 1-0 in the 3rd. The Yankees took a 2-1 lead in the 4th, but Rodón couldn't hold it, and the Rangers tied it in the 5th.

The hero would be Paul Goldschmidt: With 1 out in the top of the 7th, he cranked one to deep left field. Tim Hill and Yerry de los Santos pitched a scoreless 7th. de los Santos got the 1st out in the 8th, but then Boone took him out, which made no sense. He brought in Bednar to get a 5-out save. For the 1st 4, Bednar was fine. But with 2 outs in the 9th, he walked Corey Seager and gave up a single to the seriously struggling Marcus Semien. Finally, he showed some character, and struck Adolis García out.

Whew: Yankees 3, Rangers 2. They barely held off the sweep. And maybe, just maybe, we have a closer, in Bednar. Definitely not one in Williams.

*

With 47 games remaining in the regular season, the Yankees are 61-54, for a winning percentage of .530, which works out to 86 wins over a full season. They are in 3rd place in the AL Eastern Division, 6 1/2 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays, with the Red Sox 4 back. If the current standings hold to the end of the season, the Yankees would be the 6th and last seed in the AL Playoffs.

That is unacceptable, especially with the bullpen trades that Cashman made 2 weeks ago.

The Yankees have returned home, and will play a 3-game weekend series with the cheating Houston Astros. Tomorrow is Old-Timers Day. Hopefully, they won't embarrass the legends.

Is This Rock Bottom for the Yankees? I Hope So

"You know, Suyzn, you just can't predict baseball." Retired Yankee broadcaster John Sterling would say that to his broadcast partner, Suzyn Waldman, at least once a game.

Except the sport is more predictable than that. The Yankees, as a team and as an organization, even more so.

For example: This weekend's series against the Miami Marlins, at LoanDepot Park in Miami. In Friday night's game, Giancarlo Stanton, Trent Grisham and Anthony Volpe hit home runs for the Yankees. Volpe had maybe the best game of his career, going 4-for-5 with 2 RBIs. And, through 4 innings, Carlos Rodón had allowed 3 walks, but no hits. It was Yankees 6, Marlins 0.

Once that 6-0 lead began to crumble, it wasn't hard to predict that they would lose the game. In the bottom of the 5th, between them, Rodón and Jonathan Loáisiga allowed 4 runs on 3 hits, 2 walks and a hit batsman.

And those new relievers that Brian Cashman picked up? Three of them appeared in this game: Jake Bird, David Bednar and Camilo Doval. None of them got the job done. The Yankees led 9-4 going into the bottom of the 7th, and 12-10 going into the bottom of the 9th. Final score: Marlins 13, Yankees 12.

The Marlins' last 5 innings, they scored 4, 0, 6, 0 and 3 runs. 40603. That's a ZIP Code in Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky.

And once that game was lost, it wasn't hard to predict that the Yankees would lose the next 2 because they'd already used up all their runs.

Rookie Cam Schlittler allowed only 2 runs in 5 innings, while Bird, Luke Weaver and Tim Hill allowed only 1 baserunner the rest of the way. But here's all the baserunners the Yankees got: A walk and a stolen base by Grisham in the 1st, followed by a single by Stanton, on which Grisham was thrown out at home plate; a walk by Jazz Chisholm in the 2nd, and he was erased on a double play; a double by Ben Rice and a walk by Paul Goldschmidt in the 5th, but they got stranded; and then absolutely nothing the rest of the way. Marlins 2, Yankees 0.

Losing 13-12, then losing 2-0. If they could have just taken 3 of the previous day's runs and applied them to that day's, or taken some of Saturday's great pitching and apply it to Friday... Alas, it doesn't work that way.

Last season's Rookie of the Year, Luis Gil, had been injured all season. He made his debut yesterday. He could have used one more minor-league rehab start: He went 3 1/3rd innings, allowing 5 hits on 5 runs and 4 walks. The bullpen was okay after that, but it didn't matter. Grisham led off the game with a home run, and he drew a walk in the 3rd. Jasson Domínguez led off with a single in the 5th, followed by Marlins starter Edward Cabrera striking out the side.

Stanton led off the 7th with a single, and Chisholm hit a home run. After 2 strikeouts, Volpe hit a triple, and there seemed to be hope, but Austin Wells flew out. Grisham led off the 8th with a walk, and Chisholm led off the 9th with a single, but both were stranded. Marlins 6, Yankees 3. The sweep was complete.

After yesterday's game, Aaron Boone, in his capacity as Yankee press secretary, taking the hard questions so that actual manager Brian Cashman doesn't have to, spouted his share of platitudes:

* "Every year is different. Every group's a little bit different. I have a lot of confidence in our team."

* "I don't even know if we're necessarily that far into anything."

* "It's getting to be real gut-check time. It's getting late. It's certainly not too late for us, and I am confident that we're gonna get it together, but that's all it is right now. It's empty until we start doing it." (A variation on Yogi Berra's line, "It gets late early out there.")

On May 28, the Yankees led the American League Eastern Division by 7 games. Now, they are 4 1/2 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays, and a game and a half behind the Boston Red Sox. They lead the Seattle Mariners by just half a game for the last AL Wild Card berth, and 2 1/2 games over the Texas Rangers, with whom they start an away series tonight.

Since June 6, the Yankees have gone 22-29. The Chicago White Sox, the Sacramento Athletics and the Pittsburgh Pirates are each in last place in their respective Divisions, and all have played better than that since then. Not just record-wise, either: There's been swinging at bad pitches, lots of errors -- although Domínguez has significantly improved in left field, and Ryan McMahon has been the answer at 3rd base, at least defensively -- and baserunning blunders.

Sometimes a team has to "hit rock bottom" before it can work its way back up. I hope this is rock bottom for the Yankees.

But, as we have seen, it might not be.

One bit of good news: Aaron Judge is eligible to come off the Injured List tomorrow night. Hopefully, having his bat back in the lineup will help. Hopefully, the newly bulked-up bullpen will pitch like they did yesterday and the night before, and not like they did the night before that.

Enough hope. I want results. Starting tonight.

Right, that makes me sound like Leon Hess. In 1995, the owner of the Jets said, "I'm 80 years old. I want results now!" And he hired Rich Kotite. And he went 3-13. And 1-15 the next year. And he quit. And Hess hired Bill Parcells. And Parcells got the Jets into the AFC Championship Game in 2 years. And then Hess died.

Hey, Yankees: I want results. Would it help if I said, "Please?"