Daily Report – 6/19/25
Yankees
Well, at least they scored two runs. Last night, the Yankees surrendered the series to the Los Angeles Angels with a 3-2 loss, and they have now lost each of their last six games. Their lead in the American League East is down to 1 1/2 games.
In the eighth inning, Anthony Volpe committed an error on a potential double-play ball that handed Anaheim the lead. The bases were loaded, and Tim Hill was on the mound. He got Adell to ground a pitch to shortstop, an easy play for Volpe. Except that it wasn’t so easy. The Yankees’ telecast caught Volpe glancing at the daisies behind home plate as he couldn’t glove the ball cleanly for an out at second. He then tried for the out at first, but his throw to Peraza was too hard and too far away, marking his ninth error of the season, the most among American League shortstops.
“Right off the bat, I’ve got to be aggressive,” said Volpe, who also struck out swinging for the final out of the ballgame. “Go get the ball and make the play. As far as that, that’s all it is. It’s the first read off the bat.”
Offensively, Volpe went 0-for-4 last night with three strikeouts, and he is 0-for-his-last-17. He was also caught stealing for the sixth time this season, on a run to second base in the second inning. His six instances of getting caught stealing are the second most in the American League. Volpe has struggled offensively all season, batting .235/.307/.419 with 73 strikeouts over 260 at-bats. At the plate, his swing angle appears steeper than it used to be, although Statcast suggests his swing tilt has reduced by three degrees since 2023.
The Yankees finished last night’s game with three hits, two of which went over the wall. “When you’re not scoring a lot of runs, you’ve got to execute at the highest level on little things, and we haven’t done that this week,” said manager Aaron Boone. Whether it’s defensive plays or tactics at the plate, the Yankees have been trying too hard to force big hits when small ball might be the way to go. But can the Yankees play small ball? Everybody in the organization, from Brian Cashman to Austin Wells, has said maintaining the same approach may be the best approach for this team to finally win a ballgame.
But then there’s Trent Grisham, whom, down 3-2 in the eighth inning, the Yankees initially instructed to bunt with runners at first and second. After grounding a bunt attempt foul, the Yankees’ telecast caught Aaron Boone instructing Grisham to square up on the ball, and the cameras also showed the communication chain used to deliver the message to the first and third-base coaches. Everyone was on the same page for Grisham to remove the bunt, but he popped out behind home plate.
Grisham’s instruction was to show a bunt against every pitch until the count read 2-1. Why would Boone change things midway through the at-bat? In such a critical situation? Either the Yankees don’t know how to bunt effectively, or the pressure was on Grisham to deliver a big hit when one wasn’t needed. Ultimately, the Angels would have walked Aaron Judge to load the bases with one out, making way for the 2-for-3 Cody Bellinger to deliver a hit.
Aaron Boone defended his decision to remove the bunt from Trent Grisham, saying, “With 2-1, I took it off just with as aggressive they were playing. They’re in a walk Judge situation, probably, but I was willing to live with that. And they were playing the bunt pretty aggressively there, so I felt like we had a little bit of an open field there and was going to take our shot at that point, once he was ahead in the count, especially with [Zeferjahn] struggling to throw strikes to the first two guys and Grish’s ability to control the zone.”
Ultimately, Aaron Judge flied out to center field in the eighth, allowing Jasson Domínguez to advance from second to third base. Cody Bellinger then popped out to third base to end the inning.
The Yankees’ only offensive production came via the long ball from Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Cody Bellinger. Meanwhile, Aaron Judge struck out twice, finding himself in a 3-for-28 mini-slump in which he has chased too much out of the strike zone, leading to 17 strikeouts in his last 28 at-bats. “Is it, though?” Aaron Boone rhetorically asked when questioned about Judge’s recent offensive struggles. “Monday night he hit two rockets and had a couple walks, and he goes 0-for and it’s a slump,” the manager sarcastically proclaimed.
“If you’re gonna play 162, you’re gonna hit a rut like this,” said Judge, who was flirting with a .400 average a week ago. “You can’t mope about it. It’s us not executing, us not doing our job. Maybe there’s some passiveness in certain situations.” If the Yankees are passive about anything, it can’t be winning today. No moping! The captain said so.
The Yankees must avoid a seven-game losing streak. They must maintain their lead in their division. They must avoid consecutive sweeps. They must win today.
Today, at 1:05 PM, the Yankees will try to win their first ballgame in nearly a week as LHP Carlos Rodón (8-5, 3.01 ERA) toes the slab (YES). He will face off against the lefty Tyler Anderson (2-4, 4.44 ERA).
Here is today’s starting lineup for the New York Yankees:
1B Paul Goldschmidt (R)
LF Cody Bellinger (L)
RF Aaron Judge (C) (R)
DH Giancarlo Stanton (R)
3B Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L)
SS Anthony Volpe (R)
C Austin Wells (L)
2B DJ LeMahieu (R)
CF Trent Grisham (L)
P: LHP Carlos Rodón (8-5, 3.01 ERA)
Schedule
1:05 PM: NYY vs. ANA; YES; SP: LHP Carlos Rodón (8-5, 3.01 ERA)
8:30 PM: 2025 NBA Finals, Game 6 – OKC (3-2) at IND (2-3); ABC
