Yankees Get Bupkis In Oakland

The Yankees hadn't hit big in the 1st 2 games of their series away to the Oakland Athletics. But in last night's game, pardon my use of a technical term, but... Hoo, boy.

Domingo Germán started for the Yankees, and went 7 2/3rds innings, pitching shutout ball, allowing just 3 hits and no walks. It was his best performance in a long time. And what kind of support did he get? Pardon my use of a technical term, but... He got bupkis.

Adam Oller started for the A's. Here's all the baserunners the Yankees got off him in his 8 innings of work: A walk by Aaron Judge in the 1st inning, Andrew Benintendi reaching on an error in the 4th, a double by Oswaldo Cabrera in the 6th... and that's it. Three baserunners. One hit.

And yet, because Germán pitched so well, and Jonathan Loáisiga and Ron Marinaccio completed the 9-inning shutout, the game was 0-0 and went to extra innings.

I hate extra innings. Especially on the Pacific Coast. The games end late enough as it is.

Finally, in the top of the 10th inning, the Yankees got something going, with the help of the stupid "ghost runner" rule. Benintendi grounded into a fielder's choice, eliminating Kyle Higashioka at 3rd base but putting himself on 1st. Unwritten Rule of Baseball: Never make the 1st or last out of the inning at 3rd base. Judge struck out. Josh Donaldson was intentionally walked to set up the inning-ending double play. Unintentionally, Anthony Rizzo was hit with a pitch to load the bases. A wild pitch allowed Benintendi to score, and a bad throw to try to stop him allowed Donaldson to score. 2-0 Yankees.

But Marinaccio couldn't hold the lead, giving up a game-tying home run to Stephen Vogt. The Yankees couldn't score in the top of the 11th. And Gleyber Torres made an error in the bottom of the 11th, giving the A's the victory.

A's 3, Yankees 2. WP: Joel Prayamps (3-3). No save. LP: Lou Trivino (2-8). One hit in 11 innings.

The series concludes this afternoon, and the Yankees have got to do better than that. Clarke Schmidt starts for the Yankees, in the place of the injured (or is that "injured"?) Nestor Cortes, Adrián Martínez for the A's.

Could This Be the Spark the Yankees Have Needed?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe It's All Part of the Plan

Maybe it's all part of the plan. Play the games where you just don't get enough hits and just don't score enough runs now, in August, when you've got a big lead in the Division, so it doesn't hurt much, so you don't have them during the Playoffs in October. Get the bad games out of your system.

Does Brian Cashman look like a guy with a plan? No, he looks like a two-faced joker. But the Yankee bat-men aren't answering the bat-signal.

Even Aaron Judge isn't looking so super.

The Yankees started a homestand last night, against the Tampa Bay Rays, and continued to look pathetic. Don't blame Gerrit Cole: He allowed only 1 run over 6 innings. He pitched like an ace.

But when you hit so poorly that a starting pitcher for the other team goes from 0-7 to 1-7, then you have to change something. The Yankees did change something. Gleyber Torres, who was 0-for-his-last-22, was put in the leadoff position. This would not seem like a good plan, but it worked, as he got two hits. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Torres singled, and Anthony Rizzo doubled. But, in between, Judge grounded into a double play. Afterward, Josh Donaldson struck out, again.

In the 2nd inning, Jose Trevino singled, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa was hit with a pitch. Then Aaron Hicks struck out, again, to end the inning.

Judge singled in the 3rd, but, otherwise, Ryan Yarbrough struck out the side. In the 4th, Hicks deepened the ire of Yankee Fans. In the top half, he displayed a fly ball that led to the Rays' 1st run. In the bottom half, Miguel Andújar and IKF singled, but Hicks grounded into a double play.

The Yankees didn't have another base runner until the 8th, when, again, Torres led off with a single, and Judge grounded into a double play. In the 9th, what was still a game within reach fell apart due to the bullpen. Wandy Peralta blew it again, walking 2 batters, leading to Lou Trivino allowing 2 singles and a hit batsman, deepening the hole. Donaldson walked to lead off the bottom of the 9th, but, unlike the top half, there would be no Cliché Alert, as the Yankees went down meekly.

Rays 4, Yankees 0. WP: Yarbrough (1-7). No save. LP: Cole (9-5).

That's back-to-back shutout losses, and 21 losses in our last 31 games. That wasn't part of the plan, but it is a result of the plan.

The series continues tonight. Nestor Cortes starts against Jeffrey Springs. Let's see if things go according to plan.

Yankees Blow It vs. Sox, Leave Their Fans Ticked Off

At the risk of sounding like Vic DiBitetto, the "Gotta get the bread and milk" comedian -- who is a Yankee Fan, and does live in Central Jersey, 3 towns away from me, although he's originally from Brooklyn...

You know what ticks me off? The Yankee hitters not hitting, the Yankee bullpen blowing a great starting pitching performance, and losing to the Boston Red Sox. Last night, all 3 of those things happened. So, yeah, I'm pretty ticked off.

Sometimes, when the Yankees or the football Giants lose, Vic stages a "postgame press conference" for his YouTube Channel. It's usually prime "Ticked Off Vic."

I didn't expect Domingo Germán to have a good start, especially at Fenway Park, but he did: 6 innings, 1 run on 5 hits and 2 walks. I didn't expect Scott Effross to pitch well, but he did: A perfect 7th inning. I didn't expect Aroldis Chapman to pitch well, especially with a 1-run lead at Fenway, but he did: Strikeout, flyout, strikeout.

I did expect the Yankees to score some runs at that ballpark, which I've often likened to a pinball machine. But when they bat against former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi, whom general manager Brian Cashman let go for nothing, they just don't hit.

They started out all right: With 1 out in the 1st, Aaron Judge drew a walk, Anthony Rizzo got him home with a double, and Josh Donaldson singled. But Rizzo couldn't score on the single. Given the dimensions of Fenway, that would have been understandable if he'd singled to left, but he'd singled to right. And then Gleyber Torres, Brian Cashman's very lazy golden boy, grounded into a double play. And that run that Donaldson couldn't score loomed large.

Jose Trevino and Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled with 1 out in the 2nd. But Aaron Hicks struck out, and DJ LeMahieu grounded out. Judge hit a home run to lead off the 3rd, his 46th of the season. (Current pace: 66.) Donaldson drew a walk, but then he made his 2nd baserunning mistake: He tried to steal 2nd, and got caught, and no more runs were scored by the Yankees in the inning -- or in the game.

Trevino and Hicks both singled in the 4th, but neither scored. Andrew Benintendi singled in the 6th, but was stranded. With 1 out in the 7th, LeMahieu singled, and Judge was hit with a pitch. Now, we know the Red Sox have a history of hitting the Yankees on purpose, but to do that at this point would have been stupid: If they didn't want to pitch to Judge, they could have intentionally walked him. Given this great opportunity, Rizzo and Donaldson both struck out. The Yankees really could have used Giancarlo Stanton here, and there was a rumor that he would be activated in time for the game, but he wasn't.

As strong as Chapman was in the 8th inning, given his history, I wouldn't have risked him in the bottom of the 9th. Nor did Aaron Boone. He sent out the new closer, Clay Holmes, who's been shaky lately. He was shaky again, getting Rafael Devers to ground out, then walking Xander Bogaerts and Alex Verdugo. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. Then he gave up a game-tying single to J.D. Martinez.

Boone brought Wandy Peralta in, and he got out of the inning without further damage. But, as our old friend Phil Rizzuto would have said, "But the damage is done. I tell ya, Bill White, this is unbelievable, I'm gettin' agita over this. Holy cow."

With Tim Locastro as the ghost runner for the top of the 10th, the Sox gave Judge what they should have given him in the 7th: "The old unintentional intentional walk." It worked: Rizzo lined to 1st, and Donaldson and Torres struck out. In the bottom of the 10th, Trivino allowed back-to-back singles to end it.

Red Sox 3, Yankees 2. WP: Garrett Whitlock (3-2). No save. LP: Trivino (1-7, but it was really Holmes who deserved the goat horns).

Yeah, I'm pretty damn ticked off.

The series continues tonight. Frankie Montas starts against Kutter Crawford. It's Montas' 2nd start since coming to the Yankees, and he'd better pitch a hell of a lot better than he did in his 1st. They say Montas wasn't really with it in his start, because he'd just come off the bereavement list, as his mother-in-law had died. That's no excuse: Paul O'Neill found out his father had died on the morning of Game 4 of the World Series, and he played. And while he didn't get a hit, he did draw a walk and play an errorless game in the field. Anyway, we are counting on Montas to have his head in the game this time.

Another Disgraceful Loss That Can Be Blamed On Cashman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Disgraceful. Blame Cashman. Not any individual player.

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