Nestor Cortes (#65, 29, LHP, 4-9, 3.99) vs. Brayan Bello (#66, 25, RHP, 10-5, 5.27)
YANKEES
RF Alex Verdugo L
LF Juan Soto L
DH Aaron Judge R
C Austin Wells L
2B G. Torres R
1B Ben Rice L
SS A. Volpe R
CF T. Grisham L
3B O. Cabrera S
RED SOX
CF Jarren Duran L
LF R. Refsnyder R
C Connor Wong R
3B R. Devers L
RF T. O’Neill R
DH M. Yoshida L
1B R. Gonzalez R
SS C. Rafaela R
2B J. Westbrook R
My brother was considering picking up Bello in his fantasy league, and I told him while the Yankees were clearly losing this game, it might very well be one of those games where Bello throws 96 pitches through four innings, walks ten, but the Yankees score one run, but Bello doesn’t get the win because he doesn’t go five.
In rare actual good news, The Martian is activated, so hopefully we’ll see him in the Majors very soon, and once Stanton is back, as well, Alex Verdugo can be moved to his proper position of left bench. Plus, the trade deadline is coming on Tuesday, so the Yankees will hopefully be adding a third good hitter to the lineup. Jonathan India would be ideal! This new parity makes it hard for any team to be willing to trade players, though, as five games under .500 in the NL still means you’re in the playoff race.
While Verdugo should not be leading off, at least he can’t ground into a double play in the first inning. That’s progress!
Do we have to do this? And of course Sunday is late on ESPN.
I repeat, do we have to do this? Can someone summon a plague of frogs to takeover Fenway for the weekend?
Right? And I’m comparatively optimistic about this team, and I still feel like we should just fast-forward to Thursday with the 1-5 record conceded.
Now Soto is getting sucked into the groundball suckfest.
I don’t begrudge batters for taking their timeout, of course, but it NEVER works out.
Last 28 days Vertigo is hitting 169 with a 216 OBP. In what opium fever dream does Boone think he should be leading off? Seems to me it should be Gleyber or Rice or even Wells. Boone is a total idiot but we know that.
Can’t wait until the Martian is batting behind Judge, and he doesn’t get walked so easily.
Maybe Cashman is simply unlucky but aside from a month, Vertigo has been a complete disaster. Cashman gets unlucky a lot. He makes some decisions that seem defensible but don’t work out. Why is he usually behind the curve.
The first inning is starting off well. Great job avoiding being terrible for a single batter, Nestor!
They have Ref to hit against LHPs. We have Davis and Jones.
I really think managers should be more willing to pull their starters when they clearly don’t have it. Why let Nestor give up five runs (or however much he’ll give up) in the first inning when you can just NOT do it?
Nestor was extremely lucky to only give up one run, but, well, you know, he still gave up a run in just the first inning. It’s crazy how shitty how almost all of their starters have become.
Cortes has a 7 era the last 28 days and 12.5 the last 14 days. Just like the hitters, when the pitchers go bad, Boone, Blake and Cash have no answers.
Groundouts for everyone!
Nobody on this team ever gets straightened out. Not DJ, not Vertigo, not Stroman, not Holmes, not Cortes and not phenom.
Do the Yankees even have a coaching staff? Or maybe they’d be better without a manager and a coaching staff.
Robo manager, robo coaches.
Weird that Volpe’s groundball went over the wall.
“Here, we tied the game, Nestor.” “Fuck, no, I don’t want that!”
I thought Waldo got a single there. Hit it too hard. Gonzales OTOH had a pop up fall in.
Shocked. Though strike 2 was ball four but at least it was close.
Even Judge is infected with groundball-itis.
Yankees 98, Padres 95,Rockies 90, Jays 87, Chisox 80.
Yankees Rule!
Boy, Nestor sucks.
Man on second, base hit, is that legal?
Bello 5.27 era, -0.3 WAR, 1.44 WHIP, era+81
Yera 3.27, YWAR 1.7, YWHIP 1.04, Yera+ 111
It’s unbelievable just HOW useless Nestor is.
I’ll take JD Davis or Jahmai over Ref any day of the week. I trust Cashman to provide the depth that will sustain is all season.
The weird thing to me about Refsnyder is that there was no market for him. The Red Sox have a CLUB OPTION of $2 million for him next season.
It’s weird how some players will just take shitty deals to be on the Red Sox.
Cabrera smoked it twice, got one hit.
Girardi a cockeyed optimist.
That Nestor sucks doesn’t take away from the fact that Bello is not good, either.
Verdugo driving in a run is better than nothing, but boy, his first pitch swinging sure is annoying.
Any game that Judge and Soto don’t produce were just about dead.
I have no idea why you bring in Kahnle NOW.
He really gave Cortes a lot of rope.
He did, so to take him out NOW seems so weird.
I booked a seat for Nestor on Elon Musk’s Mars mission. I believe it is one way. Bye, Nestor.
He’s clearly not, like, USELESS, but yes, as soon as they have anyone else who can start a game instead of him (Poteet, Schmidt, a trade) he should be heading to the bullpen.
This should be interesting, as in, how will they blow this.
One out, ground ball-itis.
Big time groundball there, Rice! Pluck defeat from the jaws of victory!
A 2-run single for Jasson Dominguez YES!
He is 1-for-4 with 2 RBI and 2 strikeouts.
https://x.com/mryclept/status/1816998263980974362
Mastering the art of the unproductive out.
Ground ball-itis part deux.
Now they get a fly ball. LOL
Quite possibly the worst team in baseball history. And Volpe is good until the men are on base then it’s total choke city.
They only hit flyballs when flyballs are useless.
Now is when the Red Sox pull away.
What a job by Wincowski? Not quite. This team has been choking for 6 weeks.
That was my third guess after DP and K
In all seriousness, imagine if Judge had the Martian and Stanton batting behind him.
Judge!
Wells!
I, for one, will savor the millisecond I thought they might actually win this one.
Tonkin seventh, Weaver for the 8th and 9th if they actually want to win.
So, how much has Holmes pitched since the Sunday before the ASB? More runs needed.
Excellent start to the seventh, Hill.
The idea of lifting Rice for defense in the SEVENTH is just mind-boggling.
Boone hasn’t learned a damn thing in his 6+ years of [mis]managing. And in that ballpark, no less.
Booking Boone a seat alongside Nestor on Elon Musks one-way rocket to Mars.
Walk the leadoff batter, why not. FFS
Why wife’s son stopped by and the Yankees scored. He’s 7/7 at games he’s attended the last 2 seasons.
How do you walk the leadoff hitter with a 3 run lead?
Weaver pitches great…except when it fucking counts.
I mean, again, I expected this shit, but I expected it from Holmes, ya know?
Just like how Tonkin pitches great…except when it matters.
Cousins has been great…except when it matters.
The bullpen is just blowing up so often, when it matters. Blake’s Magic© isn’t a thing.
Gleyber and phenom too.
Yep.
Blake has done wonders with these guys. It’s more just Murphy’s Law shit than anything. The STARTERS, though, they just suck.
They’re sure lucky that LeMahieu is in the game now. Definitely pull your #6 hitter in the seventh inning!
Verdugo was, like, “Wait, I can hit grounders to second for HITS?!”
After Waldo had the awesome 3-1 groundout, of course.
Almost as good of a start to the bottom of the 8th as the bottom of the 7th!
What is Weaver’s approach here? It’s just so frustrating.
Argh, are you fucking KIDDING ME with this shit, Weaver?! What is up with these stupid guys who get ahead with their good stuff, and then just…stop throwing good pitches until they walk the fucking go-ahead run on to first base with no outs with Rafael fucking Devers on-deck.
What are you DOING?!
I guess you bring in Cousins and cross your fingers.
A five-out save chance from Holmes….bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Boone is the biggest fucking moron in existence. What an amazing job here. And with Yoshida on deck, the guy who hit the home run off of Holmes THE LAST TIME HE FACED THESE GUYS.
It’s just amazing that he can be THIS bad of a manager.
I mean, obviously, fuck Holmes, for shitting the bed this much, but this is still an amazingly bad job by Boone.
The bullpen is hot garbage, no one can make a silk purse out of these sow’s ears.
Think about it, was there ANYONE ON THE YANKEES, outside of Ferguson, that the Red Sox would have PREFERRED to see there than Holmes?
At least LeMahieu will possibly get up in the ninth, so the Yankees have that going for them.
Holmes has barely pitched since the blown save the Sunday before the ASB, the Volpe error game. And that is on Boone.
Agreed. But think about it, WITH THAT IN MIND, why would you possibly try to get a five-out save from him here?
Thank god LeMahieu was hitting there instead of the guy who hit a three-run home run off of a closer a little while ago. Great managing, Boone. Great, great managing.
I was sadly pleased to see a strikeout rather than a double play from DJ.
And a fitting groundball to end what was probably the second-worst Yankee loss of the season.
The fact of the matter is that the Red Sox suck, too. They just suck less than the Yankees.
And since the Orioles ALSO suck, the Yankees remain just two games out of first place.
Fire Everyone.
It would be such an amazing move if they fired Boone at this point. Like just from a pure narrative position, firing Boone would be so, so helpful for them. He’s in the last year of his deal anyways.
Turned it off at 7-6 as sure of the outcome of anything I’ve ever been sure of in the past. This afternoon Olney said the Yankees most pressing need was a reliever. Hal and Cash seem to think you can stock your pen with other team’s reject relievers and you’ll be fine for the year.
RAB Can’t believe the team that showed it can’t handle adversity or pick itself up off the mat the last two years isn’t handling adversity or picking itself off the mat this year.
They may love Boone but they sure choke a lot for him. For whatever reason the last three years the Yankees have seemed so tight. If the hitter don’t hit or the starter doesn’t suck the pen will lose the game. Every reliever except Kahnle gave up earned runs. Thats not easy to accomplish.
I was sure of the outcome even when they went up 7-4, ya know?
I was optimistic but nervous at 7-4. Even for the Yankees that should be a decent lead.
I’ll concede that 7-6 was definitely more definite than 7-4, but even 7-4, I was nervous, since I have no faith in Holmes in this ballpark.
Weaver disappointed the shit out of me, while Holmes just did what i expected.
But yes, adding a closer would be very nice, so that Holmes can become a long man.
The Yankees would be transformed if they just added a closer and one good hitter. It’d be nice if they added MORE than that, but a closer and a good hitter would make the team a LOT better.
Obviously, a lot of that turns on Martian, Schmidt, Hamilton, Burdi, and Stanton returning, as well, of course.
Holmes with his SEVENTH BLOWN SAVE of the year moves into a tie with Beeks in Colorado. Holmes is an All Star.
Katie Sharp Nestor Cortes in the only pitcher in Yankees history to have a single-season span of 11 road games with
✅ 6.00 ERA or higher
✅ 0 wins
✅ 55+ IP
Records being set all over Yankees land.
They weren’t stupid enough to keep running someone out there who sucked that bad. Then Came Boone.
A lot of this team’s problems will be addressed by guys getting healthy who ARE almost healthy. Schmidt eliminates Nestor, Effross eliminates Ferguson (and probably eliminates Holmes as the closer), Martian eliminates Verdugo, Stanton eliminates Davis, Hamilton eliminates the next shitty reliever in the bullpen, and Burdi eliminates the NEXT shitty reliever.
Effross has a 7.45 era at Scranton, in his last game he gave up 4 runs on 3 hits and a walk in 1/3 ip. Don’t count on him.
Neely Scranton 8.1ip 1r 6h 10k. He’s not better than anybody in the pen?
Neely era drops to 0.93 tonight. Not as good as Caleb or Gomez?
I’d be fine with Neely, but I think there’s a fair concern that they’re going to be adding a bunch of guys soon, so the 40-man might get tight (Ferguson will be gone, but there might be MULTIPLE new guys).
I’m sure Neely’s time WILL come, though.
Volpe has 10 hits in the last 7 games and I think he’s 0/4 or 0/5 with RISP in that span.
It really is crazy. Maybe they should let him leadoff again, so he comes up with less guys in scoring position.
I will continue to say that if we praise Matt Blake for the insane April/May, it is fair to criticize for how they have pitched in June/July.
Doesn’t make him a bad or overrated pitching coach.
But it is fair to criticize.
https://x.com/mryclept/status/1817028532721319991
I don’t think Blake was responsible for the starters getting lucky early in the season, but yes, if I thought he was, then I would be irked at him for them now.
Pitching coaches basically have impact on young pitchers and reclamation projects. For instance, no one gave credit to Blake for Gerrit Cole last year, as well they shouldn’t.
Once a guy is a veteran, and not coming off a DFA or whatever, they are very hard to affect as a pitching coach. Stroman and Rodon are going to do what they’re going to do, no matter who their pitching coach is.
Blake getting Tonkin, Cousins, and Weaver to be productive relievers (following doing the same for Hamilton) is very impressive. Add in Gil and Schmidt (and PERHAPS Poteet – I really don’t know how much he worked with Poteet), and I think he should feel pleased with this season.
That Cashman just gave him a bunch of garbage to try to do something with is a major issue, to be sure, though.
And Holmes – I don’t know WHAT the fuck is up with that guy, but it doesn’t seem like a thing a coach can fix. A coach can’t make a guy throw strikes, ya know?
Cash got Verdugo, Boston laughed last.
https://x.com/riveraveblues/status/1817032129563210210?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg
No one asked Boone why he didn’t find Holmes more work before today.
https://x.com/AlBeachGuy/status/1817028315099611462