An Interview with Randy Matthews

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Getting to understand a classic Jesus rocker

In September of 2025, I met with Randy Matthews and we did the interview that follows. We flew Randy to New York City and we sat in Bryant Park in Manhattan and talked about his career.

There was Randy, his son Ash, my wife Isobel and myself, Darren Hirst.

The plan at the time was that we would get to know each other and then work on remastering his old albums and getting those re-released and then work on some new recordings, At this point, it looks like the rest of that will now never happen.

But I don’t want to get morose, here’s the interview:

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The New York Yankees in May – Part Two – The Pitchers (2026)

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In May, the Yankees went 16-12 and despite Gerrit Cole returning to the roster and Cam Schlittler maintaining his excellent form, the starting rotation was worse than it had been in the months of March and April. Something of a mystery!

Two relievers who were called up briefly did very well – Yovanny Cruz and Yerry De Los Santos – but because of the strength of the bullpen they were soon returned to the minors.

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The New York Yankees in May – Part One – The Batters (2026)

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In May, the Yankees won 16 and lost 12. This was a slight decline on their April perrformance and with the Tampa Bay Rays really hitting their stride the Yankees went from 1.5 games ahead in the American League East to 1.5 games behind. The division was tied by May 9. They then drifted out to five and a half games behind by the 22nd.

They then won 6 of the next 7 games and closed that gap.

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The New York Yankees in March / April – Part Two – The Pitchers (2026)

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The Yankees’ starting rotation. even with Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon out injured, looked really strong on opening day. Despite Ryan Weathers not having a great Spring Training, he is a good addition.

The bullpen looked more questionable, but the hope was with strong starting and David Bednar to finish out the games, it was hoped it would be strong enough.

By the end of April, the rotation was carrying the weight with some batters and some relievers struggling, but the Yankees reached the end of the month with a 1.5 lead at the head of the American League East.

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The New York Yankees in March / April – Part One – The Batters (2026)

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New York Yankees – March 4-1.

New York Yankees – April 16-10

At the end of March, they were in a tie for first place in the American League. By the end of April, they had opened a lead of 1.5 games.

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The Best New York Yankees of 2025

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Each season, we award to players’ rankings according to outstanding performances during the season. Using this system, here’s how the Batters and Pitchers of the New York Yankees placed:

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The New York Yankees in October – Part Two – The Pitchers (2025)

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The Yankees’ batting almost completely stalled (with the exception of Aaron Judge) which left the pitching staff with way too much weight to carry. Sadly the starters also hit a slump and in the Division series they were swept aside.

Very, very easily indeed.

Only a couple of the relievers (one of them amazingly being Devin Williams) and one starter were up to the task and this left the Yankees all at sea.

Let’s see who were the ones who fell apart and who stood up to the task:

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The New York Yankees in October – Part One – The Batters (2025)

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The Yankees only just failed to win the American League East. And if they had done, they would have achieved a bye through the wild card playoffs and progressed straight through to the American League Division Series.

As it worked out, they did get to that Division series, but when they arrived they found themselves hopelessly over-matched by the Toronto Blue Jays – the very team that they had tied for the top position in the American League Eastern division. Let’s look at which players left them in that position, first considering the guys with the bats.

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The New York Yankees in September – Part Two – The Pitchers (2025)

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As we have seen in our first article, the Yankees had their best month of the season in September, but their loss of form in previous months meant that it was too little, too late to catch the Toronto Blue Jays.

There were a few players on the pitching staff who lost their way in September and others who simply weren’t available because of its injury. This meant that youth had its day and the batting of Aaron Judge and the outstanding starters resulted in that 18-7 September record.

Let’s see who led the way:

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The New York Yankees in September – Part One – The Batters (2025)

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March & April – 18-13

May – 17-9

June – 13-14

July – 12-13

August – 16-12

September? Who knew…

But this was a crucial time for the Yankees to produce a month like May or August and certainly not like June or July.

It was during those months that they had let the Toronto Blue Jays narrow the gap and eventually pass them.

Now they needed to more than match the Canadian team blow-for-blow and in so doing take the division and also earn a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

Let’s look at who did well in September – firstly among the batters…

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