August 10, 2026

146 thoughts on “Yankees (61-48) @ Cubs (62-47), Friday, July 31, 2026, 2:20 PM EDT”

  4. Curry says he would’ve been safe standing up. If true shouldn’t the 3rd base coach have signaled don’t slide.
    Nevertheless if he doesn’t know how to slide as Binder implied WTF is wrong with the Yankees.

    1. He definitely would have been safe standing up, but in the moment, it’s hard to tell. So I don’t mind him sliding. He just can’t slide SO BADLY.

      It wasn’t like he barely overshot the bag, he slid waaaaaaaaaaaay past it. It was just unbelievably bad.

  9. A Friday day game???

    Controversial opinion: the Yankees should sell. They’re not gonna see Judge, Bellinger, or Stanton again this year.

    1. With pitching this good, no way you sell. Just an AVERAGE offense would make this a very good team.

      Cashman could pick up a few mediocre hitters and improve the team a lot.

  15. Warren has the stuff to be really good as a multi-inning reliever when Rodon gets back, but I don’t know if I would ever trust him in high leverage situations.

    1. Okay, fair enough. Keep doing that, things will start looking better.

  31. How could Goldy have been THAT GOOD… and now THAT BAD (instead of just regressing towards his norm). I mean, SO BAD! So weird.

  37. • 55.4 WAR, OPS 855, OPS+ 123;
    • 62.7 WAR, 823 OPS, OPS+ 111;
    • 70 WAR, OPS 837, OPS+ 119;
    • 66.2 WAR, OPS 878, OPS+ 136.

    The first three were just inducted into the HoF. The fourth one is Paul Goldschmidt.

  43. Wait, did Girardi as manager start that trend?
    “And he’ll take a lot of strike threes, he’s so patient.”
    That’s not patient, Joe, that’s STUPID. Did you come up with the Yankees trademark “not defending the strike zone with two strikes” strategy? DID YOU?????

    2. But you’re the one who always goes on about how he falls to pieces the minute he hits a spot of trouble!

  49. By the way, Brian, I have zero problem with the replay people checking whether they want to challenge. The point isn’t to test their eyesight, and it’s not to make it some gambling game overlayed on the sport. The point is to get the call right. If they look at the replay and DON’T challenge, we’ve wasted less time. If they challenge because they clearly see the call was wrong – that’s what we want, the right call on the field.

    1. It was SUCH a bad bunt. They will improve this team so much by just making sure that Volpe and Cabby aren’t both regular players in the lineup. One is fine. Two is dumb.

    3. I don’t like the bunt with PGold up next. I would rather take two shots to get a hit. And he’s not a great bunter.

    1. I really think we need to take that Antonacci home run out of our equation on Blackburn. That was an EXTREMELY fluky home run. The Murakami home run was legit, but that’s a really good hitter.

    1. Grisham is back to BABIP bad luck. He has something like a .057 BABIP in the second half so far. That’s not even REMOTELY normal. He hit that hard, just right at a dude.

    2. Maybe and he stopped hitting home runs which was his lone offensive value.

    1. Henry Lalane over his last five starts:

      16 Hits
      5 Runs
      5 Earned Runs
      3 Home Runs Allowed
      4 Walks
      40 Strikeouts

      Talk about helping one’s trade value!

  63. And what bugs me is this: after this game, Cabby should be consigned to 10 straight hours of bunting practice. Okay, well, a BIG SESSION of bunting practice. All the time. Until he figures it out.
    How is CABALLERO, of all players, not a great, great bunter?
    But a real team would make sure he fixed that problem. The Yankees have no notion of fixing anything.

    1. I mean, I want someone to ask that: Surely, Mr. Boone, you agree that Cabby has to be a much better bunter given his game. We are all presuming you’re going throw him into a compulsory intensive regime to fix that problem… that’s what you’re going to do, right?
      RIGHT?

  64. Also, given the strikeout rate, I thought the shift to the majors for Jones would be an unmitigated disaster.
    It’s been anything but. I’m liking the guy more than I’d imagined. I really don’t want him to be traded.

    1. They can’t trade him now. Hes probably the best outfielder on this squad. A home run and walk after an 0-2 count. Power and control of the strike zone is something that can be built on.

    2. Small sample, but Jones looks like he might actually have the ability to learn and make adjustments, even at the big league level. If so, that’s a massive advantage over other recent graduates of the Yankees farm system (Volpe, Wells). I don’t see Jones reaching Judge’s heights (career 177 OPS+), but as a three true outcomes guy with some actual pop, I could see him competing with Kyle Schwarber (career OPS+ 128), if not Reggie Jackson (career OPS+ 139).

      Lombard also seems like he has made adjustments at each level of the minors, and it would be great if he could have a couple months to actually learn MLB pitching before October.

  65. Let’s not forget phenom made a bad flip that could’ve easily cost the game. His dropped pop up possibly cost us a game Wednesday.

    1. That’s a great post, but that’s basically a defense of Grisham, right?

      That yes, he is genuinely slumping, but he’s also been extremely unlucky for the SECOND big stretch of the season. In other words, his slump should be knocking him down to .750 from .820, ya know?

    2. He hit 34 home runs last year. That was his value. He’s nowhere near on pace to match that.

  68. Jones is not going to be Aaron Judge, and that’s okay. You don’t need to be Aaron Judge to be better than 90% of this team. But you do need to get outside coaching.

    3. VJ, when Judge was in the minors nobody, but nobody thought he’d be Judge.
      Mattingly was like that, even moreso.
      You (none of us) have no idea what Spencer might be.
      Of course, the odds are on your side, as surely fewer than 20 (POOMA) players in the history of baseball have hit anywhere near Judge’s level.

    4. You’re exactly right, Pete. I feel comfortable saying Jones won’t be Judge, not because I can accurately project how a guy will play, but because it’s unreasonable to project any one guy to be the guy with the 99.9th percentile outcome across history. Someone usually will become that guy, in the pool of thousands who play every decade, but I wouldn’t dare put money on any one player to do it after just a cup of coffee.

      Incidentally, your estimate of 20 players ever rivaling Judge seems quite accurate after some cursory reading of the JAWS rankings at Baseball Reference. Judge’s 7-year peak of 56.9 WAR is exceeded only by 3 RF’s (Ruth, Musial, Aaron); 5 CF’s (Mays, Cobb, Mantle, Trout, Speaker); 3 LF’s (Bonds, Williams, Henderson); 2 SS’s (Wagner, Rodriguez), 1 3B (Schmidt), 4 2B’s (Hornsby, Collins, Lajoie, Morgan), and 3 1B’s (Gehrig, Pujols, Foxx). No catchers have come close (Gary Carter’s WAR7 is 48.4). So that’s 21 position players ahead of Judge, all legends. And in the past 80 years (ie, since ’47) it’s just 12, Judge is 13th. So, really good guess, POOYA or not.

    5. VJ, thanks for that!
      I might have known this at some point, but – WAR includes defense, right? How do they compensate in comparisons like these for the absence of defensive stats for the older players?
      And there are a few players there I’d have underestimated. As great as Rickey was, I didn’t have him with more prime WAR than Judge. And a few others.
      I vaguely remember an old piece by… Tom House? …proposing Wagner as the greatest ballplayer of all. Pretty persuasive.

  69. Re: Grisham, at some point you are what your OPS and counting stats say you are.
    Or, as a doctor (pediatric oncologist) once told my dad (an actuary), “Probabilities are for spectators. Participants care about outcomes.”

    1. Didn’t think we’d see that. Maybe he’s hurt, and dealing with it like a True Yankee?

  71. From Katie S —

    Fernando Cruz has pitched in Extra Innings in 5 games this season. In those extra innings:

    21 batters faced
    7-15 (.467), 1 SF, 5 BB, 7 RBI allowed.

    ********************

    Will Warren: 1st career game with 6+ IP and 0 runs allowed.

    1. I’ll give Boone this much. He TRIED to avoid Cruz. He tried to get two innings out of Chivilli. The real problem was ruling Bednar out for the game.

  72. They could void his remaining contract.

    Former Phillies outfielder Harrison Bader is out for the season with the San Francisco Giants. He was in a scooter accident where he reportedly drove his scooter into the back of a fire truck and that fire truck then ran over his injured foot. Witnesses are saying that he was seen drinking at various points during the night before the scooter accident.

    https://x.com/JClarkNBCS/status/2083178683792011327

  74. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports that there are “long-term concerns” about the state of Bader’s foot.

    7:03pm: The Giants announced they will suspend payments to Harrison Bader after the outfielder reinjured his left foot over the weekend in a scooter accident. Neither Bader nor the MLB Players Association has yet commented.

  76. Tom’s Sports Blog LHP Henry Lalane: 6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, HR
    Since promotion: 2.87 ERA (15.2 IP, 12 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 HR, 4 BB, 17 K). Overall, he owns a 2.77 ERA over 78 innings with 52 hits allowed and a 98/26 K/BB. He will be a big name to watch on the trade market this weekend. He is one of those prospects that you don’t mind giving up when they are struggling, but now that they are figuring things out, you are nervous to trade them

  80. If the Giants offered Arraez for some subset of Dominguez, ERC, Hess, and Lalane, but only on the condition that you also take Bader’s disputed contract off their hands, would you do it? I mean, Hal wouldn’t want the extra $10M/year for a Bader who won’t play, but if that’s what it takes to get a decent contact hitter this year?
    Asking because I’m sure Cashman would consider it a win to get Bader as part of any deal.

    1. No. Thats a lot for Arraez who’s a free agent next year and is primarily a 2b. He’d be worth more as a 3b or if Jazz would/could switch to 3B.

      In any case this team is not a championship team. Judge is not even ready to be reexamined. Stanton even if he returns will probably not be good.

    2. I think that with acquisitions of Arraez, Mason Miller, and a catcher; with a recovered and healthy Bellinger and Stanton, allowing Goldschmidt to become a bench bat, and with subtraction of Volpe / Rosario / Grisham / Sanchez, this would resemble a championship team even without Judge, just because the pitching could be that good. But they would not actually become a championship team without firing Boone first.

    3. If you trade that much for Arraez, what are you trading for Miller and your catcher?
      …
      They might find one sucker, but we’ve had years and years of articles showing that the sparkly batting average doesn’t prevent him from being a pretty bad player. I think that’s in everybody’s minds. I don’t think Arraez is getting that kind of haul.

  81. In the World Series preview the American League team came back from a run down to open up a 4 run lead against the Dodgers at LA. Rooting for LA to get Skubal.

    2. Yankees might’ve scored two against him in six innings. I still make LA a slight favorite over Boston in the WS.

  82. Sarah Langs

    @slangsonsports.bsky.social
    The Red Sox went 21-4 in July (Cx The World Series champion Boston Red Sox)

    That .840 win pct is the highest in a calendar month in franchise history, min 15 games.

  83. After hitting for a 997 OPS in June, Toms Sports blog:

    SS George Lombard Jr.: 1-for-4, R, SB (10), 2 BB, K
    Not including his rehab stint, Lombard Jr. goes 15-for-43 (.349) with ten walks in July. That’s a 431 OBP.

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