And there was rain… New York rain.
Yesterday, there was no game. Today, a 51 minute delay, but there was a game.
For 3 hours and 2 minutes we sat out in the rain. Before the game, at least we were able to have friendly conversation with Ed Alstrom, the Yankees organist of the day. That chat and the free food in the Stadium suites was more enjoyable than sitting in the rain and watching this game.
Continue readingThe Yankees went into their last home series of 2023. In reality, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ record on the season isn’t that much stronger than the Yankees, but they are in a much weaker division – and, therefore, whilst the Yankees will finish fourth or fifth, Arizona will finish second or third.
Today, the Yankees sent Luke Weaver to the mound, who is trying to rebuild his career, whilst Brandon Pfaadt (pronounced “Fought”) is trying first time around to establish a Major League career.
Weaver started the season at Cincinnati, and then when the Reds released him, he was signed by Seattle. The Mariners placed him on waivers, and the Yankees claimed a couple of days later. His career might seem to be on the garbage heap, if he can’t turn things around soon. His first game for the Yankees came in Pittsburgh where he pitched four innings for 3 runs. Tonight, he had a second opportunity to turn it all around and rebuild his career.
Pfaardt went into this game with a 2-8 record on the season, His Earned Run Average stood at 5.86.
It was not hard to predict that the outcome of the game depended primarily on the two teams’ batting performance on the night.
Continue readingThe Yankees came into this one 2-0 down in their series with the Toronto Blue Jays, and with their bullpen and batters struggling. Clarke Schmidt had struggled two days ago, but Michael King excelled and still lost yesterday. The weight was now on the outstanding Gerrit Cole to turn things around.
However with Cole comes Ben Rortvedt, the weakest batter in the Yankees’ camp, and what the Yankees do not need is another weak bat especially if it meant benching Austin Wells who looked like he might be just about to turn things around.
Continue reading
Well, the Yankees have returned to their losing ways. Yesterday, in the first game of their three games series against the Toronto Blue Jays, they lost 1-7 despite Clarke Schmidt (who has had a better than expected season) being on the mound.
Today, with another much improved pitcher, Michael King on the mound, they lost again – this time 1-6. This time, though, the starting pitcher had very little to do with the loss. The main feature of King’s season has been the way that the Yankees have been able to build his stamina, so he has gone from being a long reliever to one of the starters. In these days of many injured Yankees’ starters, this has proved a key element. Today, he delivered up 7 innings for only 1 run, and a career-high 13 strikeouts. And still the Yankees lost.
Continue readingAnd there was more rain…
Thankfully, it was nothing like the day before. The delay amounted to only 16 minutes. But there was added time for the fans – this one ran into extra innings.
More surprisingly, the Yankees limited the Brewers who had so dominated them over the previous two days, to a mere three hits over the regulation nine innings. Even more surprisingly, the Yankees didn’t get a hit at all until the 10th.
And so much of the weight of the Yankees staying in the game fell upon the able shoulders of Gerrit Cole, who if there is any justice in the baseball world will walk away with the American League Cy Young award for 2023.
Well, yesterday was yesterday, and today is today. And it couldn’t be more half-hearted, and worse. Right?
Wrong.
Austin Wells was restored to the catcher’s role. He continues to be defensively strong, but with the bat (0-for-3 today), he remains consistently weak. Oswaldo Cabrera who had come on to replace Aaron Judge in the field in the previous game, was now switched to leftfield. Everson Pereira was benched. The rather hopeless Giancarlo Stanton was also benched, with Judge taking over at designated hitter.
(Having been commissioned to be at Yankee Stadium for the home games during September, I kept a diary to submit to my publishers. I am now able to present some of my writings on the games here).
Before tonight’s game, the Yankees, who had been told in no uncertain terms in August by General Manager Brian Cashman that their season was a disaster, then had one of their best runs of the season winning 8 of their previous 10 games. Indeed, one of the two they had lost was due to a walkoff. They were pretty much in contention for every game.
So, you thought the July Yankees could not get any worse in August?
Wrong! 10 wins -15 losses in July, 10-18 in August.
At the beginning of the month, they had been deliberating whether to buy or sell at the trade deadline. At the deadline, they really did neither. Their only change was to bring in right-handed relief pitcher Keynan Middleton (from the Chicago White Sox) for another right-hander from their farm system, Juan Carela.
And by the end of August, as they were out of contention and the rosters were due to expand, they decide to do a little cleaning house. Predictably but expensively, they cut Josh Donaldson. Also going through the out door was Greg Allen, who wasn’t being used much, but did bring something to the team. More surprisingly, they placed Harrison Bader on waivers.
Let’s see what else happened:
So, continuing on with this theme of the Yankees appalling collapse in July – It is not appalling because the Yankees have a divine right to success. It’s is appalling because the Yankees’ roster is not the roster of the Kansas City Royals, or the Oakland Athletics. It is appalling because going into the season, it appeared that the Yankees had a roster which was the envy of everyone, and had a starting rotation which looked like one of the best, if not the best in the Majors.
Gerrit Cole – Carlos Rodon – Nestor Cortes – Luis Severino – Frankie Montas — and if injuries arose Domingo German and Clarke Schmidt to fall back on.
Injuries came – and too many. Even then the bullpen held up the weight, but by July the relievers were over-tired, and with Aaron Judge injured the team was going nowhere but down.
The Yankees needed to see a massive improvement in their performance in July, Instead, they went 10-15 on the month.
The Yankees wanted to narrow the gap on the teams ahead of them in the wild card race. Instead, they slipped out of contention and finished the month in fifth place in the American League East.
The logic had been that psychologically the Yankees were struggling without their captain, leader, and best player, Aaron Judge. His time out of the team went on and on and it was the 28th of July before he returned.
But the Yankees need to be more than just a one-man club, however significant that absentee was.
twilightdawning 