Last night in Houston, the Yankees lost 8-7 to the Astros. The loss happened for two distinct reasons:

1. The Yankees’ bullpen couldn’t hold things down in a close game.

2. The umpires made it impossible for the Yankees to win.

Last night in Houston, Framber Valdez was pitching to his catcher, César Salazar, with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the fifth inning. Trent Grisham stepped up to the plate, and with a 1-0 count, Salazar signaled to Valdez to step off the mound, but Valdez didn’t listen. Instead, he threw a sinker down the middle to Grisham, who deposited it into the left-field porch for a grand slam.

The grand slam was Grisham’s third of the season and his second in his last four games. It also marked his 29th home run of the season. “I was just talking to myself on deck, knowing it was going to be a big situation,” said Grisham. “Really getting excited for that, getting really calm, and really getting focused. Then just looking for a pitch I could handle.”

It had been 68 years since the top five members of the Yankees’ all-time home run leaderboard changed. But that changed in Chicago on Sunday when Aaron Judge hit his 358th career home run, tying Yogi Berra for the fifth most in Yankees history. Judge went 3-for-5 in the game, and his home run marked his 43rd of the season.

“To get a chance to tie one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Yankees in homers, it’s pretty special,” said the Yankees captain. “The way Yogi played the game, what he meant to pinstripes, you knew how much it meant being a New York Yankee to him. I feel the same way.”

Last night in Chicago, three more dingers propelled the Yankees past the 48-86 White Sox for a 10-4 win. Anthony Volpe broke out of his 1-for-37 jumbo slump with two hits, an RBI, and a run scored to help deliver the victory.

“It’s obviously [been] frustrating,” said Volpe, “because you want to get results and help the team, and [I wasn’t] not doing that. At the same time, I feel like I was close and in a good spot. I feel like I was taking good swings and putting together pretty good at-bats.”

Eight hits. Nine runs scored. Four home runs. 15 batters. 41 minutes. 77 pitches. That was the bottom of yesterday’s third inning as the Yankees followed Tuesday’s 5-1 win with an 11-2 beatdown of the Washington Nationals. With the victory, the Yankees swept the Nationals.

The third inning began with Ben Rice, who singled sharply to right field, and Aaron Judge plated him with a 424-foot home run to deep center field. Then, on the first pitch he saw, Cody Bellinger went back-to-back with Judge to make it 4-0 Yankees. Jazz Chisholm Jr. then walked and stole second base before Jasson Domínguez brought him home with a ground-rule double to right field. After Anthony Volpe lined out to second base, Austin Wells reached on catcher’s interference, which put two runners on base for Ryan McMahon.

Sometimes, the Yankees look really good. When they hit home runs, the Bombers look like an elite championship contender. But whenever they face a tough starting pitcher, they collapse and crumble. In those situations, it feels like the only thing that can help the Yankees is a home run.

The home run is baseball’s finest recipe for success, and the Yankees’ 218 long balls lead all of baseball this season (19 more than the Dodgers, with the second-most in the league). However, the Yankees tend to reserve their home runs for struggling pitchers, like Dustin May and Brad Lord on Sunday and Monday. As has been evident for the past several seasons, when the Yankees face a top starter or a streaking lesser-known arm, they tend to go down quickly and quietly.

Giancarlo Stanton… the animal!

Last night in Tampa, Big G played hero as the Yankees overcame a blown save to beat the Rays 6-4, finishing their road trip with a perfect 5-0 record. Trent Grisham and Austin Wells each hit two home runs for the Bombers, who belted 14 home runs across two games, tying the 1999 Reds for the most home runs in a two-game span in MLB history.

After Hunter Feduccia doubled off David Bednar to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth inning, Giancarlo Stanton pinch-hit to begin the top of the 10th. In the seventh pitch of his at-bat against the tough closer Pete Fairbanks, Stanton drove a fastball to deep left field, putting the Yankees ahead 5-3. The home run was Stanton’s second this season as a pinch-hitter. “He’s so good at the mental game now, preparing and knowing how to do it,” manager Aaron Boone remarked. “He has tremendous self-awareness of who he is as a hitter now. He’s an animal.”

What kind of team hits nine home runs in two different games in a single season? In case you were wondering, THAT IS NOT NORMAL!

The last time this happened was the second game of the 2025 season, and the Yankees hit nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers, setting a franchise record for the most home runs hit in a single game. The all-time MLB record for home runs in a single game is 10, a feat accomplished by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1987. Now, the New York Yankees aren’t just the first team in Major League history to have multiple nine-home run games in a single season, but the first franchise to ever record multiple nine-homer games in its history.

Do you see why this isn’t normal?

It really is all right in front of them.

This past weekend, the Yankees swept the St. Louis Cardinals, and they now find themselves tied with Boston for second place in the American League East (five games behind Toronto) and in a three-way tie with Boston and Seattle for the first AL Wild Card spot. With a four-game series against Boston approaching this weekend, plus three more games against them and Toronto in September, the Yankees have an excellent chance at securing not just the first Wild Card spot, but a second consecutive division title. The playoff push starts now.

On Wednesday night, the Yankees failed to sweep the Minnesota Twins, losing 4-1. The All-Star righty Joe Ryan shut down the Yankees’ lineup, which could only muster four runs on five hits. The loss marked the Yankees’ first to Minnesota in 10 games.

The then 11-5 Joe Ryan and his 2.79 ERA were too much for the Yankees to handle. They have been inconsistent offensively against the league’s best pitchers. Recently, they were able to overcome Zack Wheeler, Hunter Brown, and Framber Valdez, but they didn’t win all those games because of their bullpen. In early August in Miami, Eury Pérez and Edward Cabrera shut them down. The next week, they were no match for Nathan Eovaldi or Jason Alexander.

Last night, the Yankees achieved consecutive wins for the first time since July 31 as they defeated the Minnesota Twins 9-1. The Bombers crushed three home runs while allowing just one hit to Minnesota. They also walked 11 times with just five strikeouts.

Things were looking bleak early as Carlos Rodón couldn’t get an out in the first inning before he loaded the bases. “We were set up for disaster there,” said Rodón. “But we got through it.” Rodón managed to record two strikeouts and a groundout, allowing the Twins to plate just one run. After allowing a leadoff single to Austin Martin, walking Byron Buxton, and hitting Ryan Jeffers in a 31-pitch first inning, Rodón went on to retire 17 consecutive batters and pitch through seven innings. He walked two hitters and struck out five, efficiently finishing with 96 pitches.

Sure, it’s just the Twins. But the Yankees need wins, so anything counts.

Last night, the Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins 6-2, thanks to four solo home runs and a strong start from Will Warren. The win marked the Yankees’ first series-opener victory since the All-Star Break. Since 2002, the Yankees hold a 124-44 record against Minnesota, including a 30-5 mark at home since 2015. There is no better get-right series for the Yankees than this.

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?

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.

It was an awful week for Yankees manager Aaron Boone, so when his team was on the verge of losing their Wild Card spot on Wednesday, he knew he had to change his approach. The first change was removing Devin Williams as closer. The second was replacing him with David Bednar.

With the Yankees leading Texas 3-2 with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning yesterday, Boone selected Bednar to attempt a five-out save. Bednar walked Joc Pederson but struck out Kyle Higashioka and Josh Smith to end the inning. He started the bottom of the ninth with two strikeouts, but after a walk to Corey Seager and a single from Marcus Semien, Boone had a key decision to make.

Last night in Arlington, another costly decision by Aaron Boone led to a fifth straight Yankees loss as they got shut out 2-0 by the Texas Rangers. Before last night’s game, Boone said that in save situations, he’d be open to deploying pitchers other than Devin Williams.

Texas’s starter, Nathan Eovaldi, dominated the entire Yankees’ lineup, allowing just one hit through eight scoreless innings. Impressively, rookie starter Will Warren kept up with Eovaldi, permitting three hits and three walks across five scoreless innings. “Going back to last year and a little bit in the beginning of the year, there were some situations that happened today that I think in the past, a couple runs come out of,” said Warren, who stranded at least one runner in scoring position in four of his five innings pitched. His five scoreless starts this season are tied for the third most all-time among Yankees rookies.

Last night, the Yankees fell to the Rangers 8-5, and after their bullpen held it down for three innings, Devin Williams collapsed in the bottom of the ninth. He hung a changeup in the heart of the plate for the .126-hitting Joc Pederson, who tied the game with his third home run of the season.

“I’m trying to throw it down and away there, and missed middle – and obviously, [Pederson] did what he did,” said Williams, who has allowed at least one earned run in five of his last seven appearances. Also, for the first time in his career, he has allowed an earned run in three straight appearances, and he has blown a save in back-to-back games. “This game and the last one, it was really one pitch that hurt me; but that’s the difference between winning and losing sometimes, and I can’t let that happen.”

I have defended manager Aaron Boone for a long time.

I defended him two years ago when the Yankees went 82-80. I defended him last year when he chose Nestor Cortes over Tim Hill in Game 1 of the World Series. I even defended him when the Yankees made four errors in Toronto two weeks ago. But now, after getting swept in Miami for the first time in franchise history, Aaron Boone no longer seems fit to manage the New York Yankees.

The trade deadline has concluded, and the Yankees were successful. While they didn’t acquire a starting pitcher or a left-handed reliever, this deadline was a slam dunk. Brian Cashman gained a lot of tools, including three high-leverage bullpen arms, without giving up much.

Anthony Volpe is tied for the most errors in Major League Baseball. However, it isn’t due to a lack of defensive talent.

Last night in the Bronx, the Yankees rebounded from a poor offensive game with a 7-5 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. With the win, they gained 1.5 games in the American League East standings since Baltimore swept Toronto in a doubleheader. Max Fried was dominant for the Yankees, striking out nine batters while allowing four runs on a career-high 111 pitches. However, only two of the runs were earned.

The 2025 New York Yankees’ season was over. And then it wasn’t. On Saturday, the Yankees announced Aaron Judge was undergoing imaging for an “elbow issue.” Losing Aaron Judge for the year would mark the end of the Yankees’ season. In Tuesday’s game in Toronto, cameras caught Judge wincing after making a throw from right field. He served as the Yankees’ designated hitter the following day, the reason for which manager Aaron Boone later admitted was related to the discomfort Judge was feeling. He returned to right field on Friday night, but he struggled to make plays. The next morning, he was left out of the Yankees’ lineup.