Daily Report – 9/1/26
Yankees
From a 16-1 win to a 10-1 loss, these Yankees are as confusing and frustrating as any club in baseball.
It’s easy to reduce last night’s loss to a mere letdown, traveling to the West Coast to play the worst team in the American League after battling toe-to-toe with a competitive division rival. But that is no excuse for falling completely flat on all three sides of the baseball: hitting, pitching, and defense.
The Yankees committed three errors, including two on one play by José Caballero. Elmer Rodríguez, Michael Fulmer, Luis Gil, and David Bednar each allowed at least one run; Bednar was tagged for three.
Far too often this season, the Yankees have followed some of their best wins with some of their worst losses. Before yesterday, they lost 6-0 to Boston after winning 1-0. Before that, they lost 5-1 to Houston after winning 9-3, 1-0 to Seattle after winning 10-5, and 10-2 to Cincinnati after winning 5-0.
Before their miserable June swoon following Aaron Judge’s injury, the Yankees lost 5-1 to the White Sox the day after a 10-5 win. And even after an 11-10 win in the first of four games against the Angels in April, the Yankees lost 7-1 the very next day.
Sure, that’s baseball, Suzyn. But here’s the catch: If the Yankees struggle so much to maintain an offensive groove, how can they ever be trusted at the plate?
The Yankees lead the American League with 12 games with 10 runs scored or more. But they are tied with Houston in that area, and the Astros rank just two games over .500. So, how can offensive explosions signify whether the Yankees can win the World Series?
If anything, it further proves one key argument that Yankees haters frequently make: The Yankees’ World Series chances are based on how weak the AL is, not how good they are.
Granted, that argument is somewhat valid. But the Yankees have a more powerful lineup and a better starting rotation than their AL opponents. Their bullpen has plenty of question marks right now, but that’s generally the case around the league, minus a few star closers.
Coming off the best start of his career last week, Rodríguez followed with his worst. Barring any drastic changes, though, Rodríguez will not factor into the Yankees’ playoff rotation. Nevertheless, with 25 games left, the Yankees are quickly running out of time to catch the Rays in the standings, and Rodríguez didn’t help.
“Just falling behind a lot of hitters,” Rodríguez said. “Just not getting ahead in counts. When I was getting ahead, I was getting good results, but I was getting behind. They made adjustments and got the hits when they had the chance.”
After striking out a career-high six batters in six innings against Houston on Wednesday, Rodríguez allowed four runs in 3 2/3 innings yesterday. He gave up four hits, three walks, and two hit-by-pitches. He collapsed in the fourth inning when, with two outs, he hit two batters, and Zach Neto and Mike Trout drove them home to make it 4-0.
“It’s really frustrating,” Rodríguez said. “Ahead of guys, attacking, and then it’s two hit batters, and then you’ve got two straight hits, a couple runs. That’s the thing you don’t want.”
Spencer Jones homered in the top of the fifth to put the Yankees on the board, but that was their only source of offense. The home run was Jones’s third in his last 15 games, a span in which he is 14-for-47 (.298) with a .852 OPS.
Meanwhile, in his last 11 games, Trent Grisham is 2-for-37 (.054) with a .369 OPS. The Yankees’ starting center fielder, and their most frequent leadoff hitter, has a .209 batting average this season, the fifth-lowest in the league.
Also, according to Katie Sharp, Grisham’s -8 defensive runs saved are the second fewest among qualified center fielders.
Therefore, assuming Judge returns in the coming weeks, the Yankees will have a big decision to make at center field. The choice between Grisham and Jones is difficult because the Yankees owe Grisham $25 million this season, since they extended him the qualifying offer during the offseason.
But Grisham doesn’t have a leg to stand on if he can’t field his position effectively. In the fifth inning yesterday, Caballero couldn’t glove Michael Fulmer’s pickoff attempt at second base. The ball trickled out to Grisham, who slowly fired it to the cutoff man, allowing the runner at second to come all the way home.
Despite the excellent offensive numbers the Yankees put up in their third and fourth games against Boston this weekend, Grisham went 0-for-11 in the series. Last night, the Yankees went 0-for-1 with runners in scoring position (while Anaheim went 6-for-16) because, with runners at second and third in the opening frame, Grisham swung at an ankle-high changeup.
In the sixth inning, with Luis Gil back on the mound for the first time since April 26, he forced Vaughn Grissom to ground into what looked like an inning-ending double play. But Caballero dropped the ball on the transfer, and as he tried to settle for an out at first base, he threw wide, putting runners at the corners and making it 7-1.
“Obviously, an ugly one for us tonight,” Boone said. “It’s just a great reminder that in this league, you’ve got to play well, or you get it handed to you.”
After Grisham prevented hopes of a rally by grounding into a double play in the seventh inning, the Yankees went down in order in the top of the eighth. In the bottom half, David Bednar, pitching for the first time in three days and the second time in 10, gave up two singles and a double before securing an out. He gave up another RBI single before the inning ended.
Hopefully, that was just reduced effort by Bednar, the Yankees’ closer, in a low-leverage spot. He hadn’t given up more than two runs in an outing since that dreadful May 17 Subway Series game at Citi Field. The Yankees cannot afford for their closer to decline.
In other news, rosters expanded to 28 players today, so the Yankees reinstated Ryan McMahon from the injured list and added newly acquired right-handed reliever John Schreiber to their bullpen.
Also, the Angels just sold to Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Nuggets, and more. It’s great news for an Angels team with the 15th-highest payroll in Major League Baseball. Excluding Mike Trout, their total payroll is 2/5 of the Dodgers’.
Tonight, at 9:38 PM (8:38 PM CDT), RHP Gerrit Cole (7-7, 3.19 ERA) will start for the Yankees against RHP Grayson Rodriguez (4-5, 6.03 ERA).
Schedule
9:38 PM (8:38 PM CDT): NYY at LAA; YES, Gotham Sports; SP: RHP Gerrit Cole (7-7, 3.19 ERA) vs. RHP Grayson Rodriguez (4-5, 6.03 ERA)
