Daily Report – 8/11/25
Here is today’s report:
Yankees
What is it going to take for this Yankees team to start winning games? When do all the heartbreaking losses become too heavy to bear?
This weekend, the Yankees lost two of three games at home to the Houston Astros. On Friday night, Devin Williams blew a tie game in extra innings. On Saturday, Trent Grisham came up clutch with an eighth-inning home run to lead the Yankees to a win. But on Sunday, the Yankees went down silently against Jason Alexander and his 5.97 ERA, and Max Fried couldn’t give his team a chance to win.
The Yankees’ offense has been struggling lately, with a .216 batting average since the All-Star Break. However, their pitching has been worse. According to Katie Sharp, Yankees pitchers have allowed a total of 201 runs since the beginning of July, the third most in baseball in that span. Yet, manager Aaron Boone continues to dismiss the Yankees’ struggles, while comparing them to the rest of the league. “The game is littered with dead and buried teams,” said Boone after Sunday’s 7-1 loss. “We’re in playoff position right now. We’ve been through two bad months where we haven’t performed at a level we need to.”
Okay, maybe Boone isn’t completely dismissing the fact that his team has struggled recently. After all, they hold a 20-31 record since June 13, the worst record in the American League in that span. However, comparing the New York Yankees’ struggles to the rest of baseball is a crime against the franchise. The New York Yankees aren’t supposed to be like the rest of the league. They are supposed to be better. Not every team in baseball has as rich a history, nor as high a payroll, as the New York Yankees. But I suppose that doesn’t matter anymore.
Boone hasn’t exactly been managing his team well throughout their 20-31 stretch. On Friday night, he decided to use a struggling Devin Williams in extra innings of a tie game, after saying a few days before that he would begin exploring other options at closer. While this was not a save situation for Williams, it certainly resembled one, given the presence of the inherited runner during extra innings.
Quickly, Williams threw a wild pitch, so Jose Altuve advanced from second to third base. He then allowed Carlos Correa to drive Altuve home with a single. Following a couple of outs, he gave up a two-run home run to Taylor Trammell, just his third of the season, putting Houston ahead 5-2. Once again, Devin Williams and Aaron Boone were stuck answering questions about why the Yankees’ closer struggled again in a high-leverage situation. The simple answer: He doesn’t belong in high-leverage spots. But Boone should have known that after Williams’s awful week in Miami and Texas.
On Saturday, the Yankees secured a much-needed bounce-back win. In his second start since returning from the injured list, Luis Gil allowed two runs on 91 pitches, striking out seven. Jeremy Peña hit a leadoff solo home run in the first inning, but the Yankees scored two runs against Framber Valdez in the bottom of the frame to gain the lead. Houston eventually tied the game, but the Yankees scored twice in the fifth inning to take a 4-2 lead.
In the top of the eighth, Camilo Doval walked Victor Caratini and struck out Jeremy Peña before making an errant throw on a potential double-play ground ball. Houston then scored a run and loaded the bases before Boone pulled Doval for David Bednar. The new Yankees closer walked Christian Walker to tie the game. Fortunately, in the bottom of the eighth, Trent Grisham bailed his bullpen out of trouble with a two-out solo shot into the second deck in right field, and the Yankees beat the Astros 5-4.
On Sunday, the Yankees couldn’t capitalize on Saturday’s triumph. Max Fried allowed four runs on eight hits across five innings. In seven starts since the beginning of June, he holds a 6.00 ERA. He held a 1.92 ERA before that. Fried struggled with deep counts against Houston all afternoon, despite throwing a first-pitch strike to 23 of 26 hitters. “I tried to move the ball around a bunch,” said Fried. “They were able to battle, put the ball in play. I gave up a lot of hits, and there was a lot of traffic on the bases.”
In the first inning, Fried allowed a solo home run to Jose Altuve, marking the Yankee killer’s second first-inning home run of the series and the third straight game in which the Yankees allowed a first-inning home run. In the third inning, with two outs, Jose Altuve singled, and Christian Walker's RBI double to center field put Houston ahead 2-0. In the fifth inning, Fried threw 36 pitches. He loaded the bases with two outs as he hit Jesús Sánchez with a sweeper that missed inside. Then, with a 0-2 count to Cam Smith that became a 2-2 count, the batter chose not to swing on a fastball that hit the outside corner. However, home plate umpire Derek Thomas, who had ejected Aaron Boone in the third inning, did not call the pitch a strike.
With a full count, Smith fouled off a sweeper and drove a hanging seventh-pitch sinker to right field, plating Carlos Correa and Christian Walker for a 4-0 Astros lead. “Yeah, they really ground me down and put together some good at-bats in a game where I needed to come out,” said Fried, “and get better results.”
Meanwhile, the Yankees mustered just one hit against the 32-year-old Jason Alexander, who entered the game with a 5.97 ERA. Ben Rice notched the Yankees’ only hit off Alexander with a one-out single in the sixth inning. Aaron Judge then grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The Yankees got some traffic on the bases in the seventh inning as Jazz Chisholm Jr. and pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton each singled off Bennett Sousa. Anthony Volpe then loaded the bases with a one-out walk before Ryan McMahon hit a sacrifice fly off Bryan Abreu, and Austin Wells flied a first-pitch slider out to right field.
In the top of the ninth inning, with the Yankees trailing 4-1, Tim Hill gave up a solo home run to Carlos Correa, and he walked Jose Altuve before Christian Walker doubled, putting runners at second and third. With one out, pinch-hitter Ramón Urías singled to left field, and the ball slipped out of Cody Bellinger’s hand, preventing him from throwing Altuve out at home plate. In the top of that ninth inning, Houston ultimately extended their lead to 7-1, and in its bottom, Bryan King struck out the side – Jazz Chisholm Jr., Giancarlo Stanton, and Anthony Volpe – to end the game.
Amid these struggles, Aaron Boone continues to insist this is merely a blip on the radar and that his Yankees will find a way to get hot down the stretch and win in October. “Go back to the year before, the year before, you can pick out a number of teams that are sitting in a worse position than we are right now that go on a run,” said Boone. “We have the people to do that, no doubt in my mind. It’s just sitting here as I talk right now. We haven’t been good enough in the last two months. […] I believe we have the people to get it done.”
Fantasy: The Yankees miraculously break out of their slump and ride a hot streak to and through the playoffs, resulting in a World Series title.
Reality: The Yankees sit 0.5 games ahead of Cleveland for the third American League Wild Card spot and rank third in the AL East, while their offense holds a .216 batting average since the All-Star Break, their pitching has allowed an AL-worst 201 runs since July 1, and their record since June 13 is an AL-worst 20-31.
I’m not stupid. You’re not stupid. Now, answer me this: How do the 2025 New York Yankees win the World Series?
Tonight, at 7:05, the Yankees will kick off a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins (YES). RHP Will Warren (6-5, 4.44 ERA) will take the rock against RHP Zebby Matthews (3-3, 5.17 ERA).
Schedule
7:05 PM: NYY vs. MIN; YES; SP: RHP Will Warren (6-5, 4.44 ERA)
