From Byron Kerr:
Jazz Chisholm Jr. belted a late two-run shot, highlighting a three-run ninth-inning comeback for the Yankees in a 5-3 thriller over the Nationals on Friday night.
With one out in the ninth, Jasson Domínguez singled on a line drive to left field off Nationals reliever Matt Krook.
Chisholm followed with his 13th homer of the season, erasing a 3-2 deficit, hitting it high into the second deck of right field as a sellout crowd of 38,085 erupted at Nationals Park.
“I was just looking for my pitch and I got it, and I connected well,” Chisholm said. “I feel like I’ve been hitting a lot of balls hard and not getting the results that I needed. It was good to finally get one.
“I thought I missed it, I’m not going to lie. I thought I hit it too high again. I’m just happy that it just kept going.”
Earlier this season, the Yankees had basically two guys they trusted late in games other than their closer (and even then, their closer, David Bednar, was not exactly lockdown himself), Fernando Cruz and Tim Hill. One of them, Cruz, was excelling on some really good pitches. The other, Tim Hill, was excelling on junk that was working out really well.
Now, in mid-July, Cruz continues to excel (except for that one game against Boston when he was inexplicably dogshit right when the Yankees needed him the most), but Hill’s junk has been very much caught up to by the rest of the Majors, and he might actually be the Yankees’ worst current reliever.
He’s had a nice run here since getting claimed off waivers in 2024, but he’ a lefty groundball pitcher who is getting crushed by lefties for home runs. If he can’t get out lefties, he’s basically useless. As bad as Jake Bird and Camilo Doval are, they are morons who can’t take advantage of their respective really good assortment of pitches (the stuff that both guys WASTE is simply MADDENING). Hill is a guy with BAD stuff who is now failing to fool anyone. He is not a young man, and he might just be washed.
Luckily, Brent Headrick has stepped up in Hill’s absence, and it is why the Yankee bullpen is actually pretty darn good, because Cruz and Headrick have both been outstanding, and Bednar has become a lockdown closer since he has abandoned the curveball (he allowed one run in a save the day after his curveball was crushed for a three-run home run on May 17th, and hasn’t allowed a single run since that point, as he has almost completely dropped the use of his curveball). His ERA was at 5.14 after that Blue Jays save on May 18th (one of the more inexplicable Yankee wins, as it seemed like Bednar was DEFINITELY going to blow the game with one out, a one run lead, and the bases loaded against George Springer and Vlad Guerrero, with a 3-0 count against Springer, but he then struck out Springer on three straight balls that Springer swung at, and then got Vlad to ground out to end the game), and after his TWO scoreless innings in this one, his ERA is down to 2.77.
So Boone relies HEAVILY on those three pitchers to patch over the other shitty relievers in the bullpen, which now includes Tim Hill, who turned a 2-1 lead into a 3-2 deficit in the 7th. Again, dude is a lefty groundball pitcher who gave up a home run to the #9 hitter and a home run to the lefty leadoff hitter (who, granted, IS a great hitter overall). Cashman is going to need to get a lefty reliever at the trade deadline, as Headrick, the other lefty in the pen, is too valuable as a general short man.
The bigger deal was Cruz coming in to get two HUGE outs in the sixth inning (stranding first and third and one out. Ryan Weathers actually pitched well, but obviously he should have given up at least two runs in this one, and Cruz kept it to just one), but then not pitching at all in the seventh. The rested Cruz probably should have gone one more inning. Then Headrick for the 8th and Bednar for the 9th.
As noted in the comments, the Yankees have faced an inordinate amount of good pitchers in their recent poor stretch of play (four good Boston starters, then three good Detroit starters, then Joe Ryan in the Minnesota series, probably the second-best pitcher they faced in this whole stretch, then four good Tampa Bay starters), but there was no excuse against the shitty pitchers the Nationals threw out there on Friday, but luckily, the Nationals manager decided to not use their one good reliever, Clayton Beeter, for more than one batter, and instead threw out Matt Krook in the ninth, who they had just picked up on waivers a few days ago, to try to get his first career save. And Cody Bellinger than pathetically was retired on two pitches, so it looked like that idiotic managing decision was going to pay off, but then Dominguez singled, and Jazz put the Yankees ahead with a home run. After a pitching change, Austin Wells then hit his second home run in as many days and the Yankees had an improbable 5-3 win.
The Yankees get another bad pitcher on Saturday, while sending Cam Schlittler to the mound, so they REALLY need to win that one.
About the Author
From the previous thread:
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A. The Wells home runs, of course… is it good that they’ll garner him another 300 plate appearances? I mean, I hope he’s recovering from that weird illness and will really hit, of course. But how likely is that?
I suppose given the current options it can’t be that big a mistake.
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B. “It truly was a move so bad that not even Boone would have made it.”
First of all, come on, there IS no such move.
But second – they’ve lost so many they shouldn’t have lost that I’ll take a win they shouldn’t have (although there’ve been to many of those, too.)
“but obviously he should have given up at least two runs in this one”
Not sure I agree with this – I mean, I completely agree with the math for that inning and want a weighted distribution of blame for inherited runners, yes. On the other hand, though, Weathers could easily have crumbled with all those preposterous errors earlier in the game, and he didn’t, not even a little, and it made him throw more pitches, so his last inning could in part be on that. He was really good.
Sorry, I forgot to go into further detail. CJ Abrams tripped rounding third on the hit before Cruz came in
He had to return to the bag, instead of easily scoring. That’s why Weathers really should have given up two runs.
Still, even with two runs, it would have been a strong outing for Weathers. He seems like the less dumb pitcher between him and Warren. Warren has been having terrible game plans, while Weathers just seems to sometimes get beat on his secondary stuff. It is why you prooooobably want Warren to start between the two, because his problems are easier to fix in theory.
The turning point?
Jazz Chisholm could sense the vibes were off for the struggling Yankees.
They weren’t hanging out together off the field as much. Teammates seemed to be pressuring themselves to be the ones to get the team out of their rut.
So, Jazz spoke — first with his words then his bat.
Sure!
So fucking stupid. I meant to also note how silly the above headline is, too.
Lineup
https://x.com/i/status/2075990544736539070