From Bryan Hoch:
Gerrit Cole stepped off the mound, flashing four fingers wide to point Rafael Devers toward first base. After years of being hit hard by the Red Sox slugger, the Yankees’ ace seemed ready to try a new strategy.
Cole walked Devers intentionally with the bases empty and one out in the fourth inning on Saturday, an unorthodox nod of respect from the hurler toward his arch-nemesis. Devers looked back quizzically at home plate umpire Marvin Hudson, then tossed his bat aside.
The decision soon backfired for Cole and the Yankees, setting up a three-run Boston inning that unraveled the hurler’s afternoon and prompted numerous questions following New York’s 7-1 loss at Yankee Stadium.
“Clearly, that was a mistake,” Cole said. “I think that I bought into the plan going into it, but afterward, it was the wrong move.”
Was that the MOST embarrassed I’ve ever been watching a Yankee game as a Yankee fan? Probably not, but it’s waaaaay up there.
Just a pathetic performance by Gerrit Cole. That’ll probably be a lasting image that will haunt him for the rest of his career, the sight of him putting up four fingers against Rafael Devers with one out and no one on base in the third inning of a game the Yankees were leading 1-0 at the time.
Clearly, what happened was that Cole, Matt Blake, and Aaron Boone had discussed the idea of intentionally walking Devers if it made sense in the moment, and Cole thought that that made sense, and obviously no one else did, because, well, you know, it didn’t make any sense.
But anyhow, almost just as bad from a pure baseball perspective was the bats disappearing YET AGAIN. They’re getting dominated by EVERYone, and once this was 7-1, they clearly just stopped trying. Pathetic bullshit.
AND the Orioles won, so the three-game lead was very short lived.
Third worst BA in baseball last 7 days after being shut down by 8 straight starters,10th worst over the last 15 days. A championship team? They could easily be looking at avoiding a sweep today the way they played.
Martian LF, Waldo 1B, Trevi in against Kutter who totally dominated us last time.
Yankee 1B Rice 75 OPS+, Rizzo 74, DJ 51
I have to say – you can’t blame the FO for a whole slew of players performing radically below any rational person’s expectations.
For that, though, you certainly CAN blame the way they handle the players they have, given a clear pattern. And you can blame the FO for persisting with putting together and (worse) sticking with the staff that produces that outcome.
Also, I’m not sure Brian’s right that coaching doesn’t have much of an effect when it comes to veterans. Look at individual sports – boxing, tennis. Coaches can tank or turn around a veteran’s career. So I don’t think we should give them a pass here when it comes to radically underperforming veterans.
To me acquiring Donaldson and reupping DJ were clearly wrong. Beyond that he’s made moves that were defensible but didn’t work out. Is he just unlucky?
And I can only agree with the overall sentiment – what got into Cole? Was he always like that and we only saw it yesterday?
Depressing, really.
Don’t know if Cole reluctantly went along with Boone or the other way. But why was this a discussion in the first place?
Kirschner Alex Cora basically admitted that Brayan Bello tried plunking Aaron Judge on purpose. He was asked if he considered yesterday’s IBB/HBP fiasco closed:
“It was closed yesterday around the sixth inning. We had our chance. It didn’t happen.”
https://x.com/chriskirschner/status/1835352554021998724?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg
And the Yankees go down meekly because of course they do.
It’s a movement.
Stanton and Soto came into the game hitting barely over 100, phenom under 100.
There’s a game thread up, btw
Except it says Saturday.
First and 3rd no out, 2nd and 3rd 1out, 2nd and 3rd 2 out, TYMs. We suck so much.