From Bryan Hoch:
For those who were in the Yankees’ clubhouse at that time, memories of the 2024 World Series are looked upon as “one of those things that leaves a scar,” as manager Aaron Boone was saying before Friday’s game against the Dodgers.
Gerrit Cole knows a thing or two about scars; after all, he’s sporting a relatively fresh one on his pitching elbow.
Aiming to turn the page from the last time his club hosted Los Angeles in the Bronx, Cole twirled a gem but hung around one batter too long, serving up a go-ahead home run to Max Muncy in the seventh inning of the Yankees’ 2-1 loss.
“In hindsight, I probably should grab him there,” Boone said. “He pitched so well. I felt like he had enough to get Max. That’s on me: I should probably get him there, even though I felt like he was in a good place and he obviously threw the ball great tonight.”
People often look to scapegoat dudes after tough losses, and let me tell you, there are PLENTY of times when I am very glad to say, “Fucking Boone is an idiot,” but there are other times when shit is just “Gerrit Cole got beat on a home run” and “Trent Grisham is just not that fast anymore.”
The idea that Trent Grisham wasn’t “hustling” is absurd. The dude is just not that fast anymore. We see it in his defensive numbers. He doesn’t cover a ton of ground out there because he’s not that fast anymore. With that in mind, should they not have sent him? That, I really don’t know. But it was certainly a close enough call that I’m not going to beat anyone up about it. It was an outstanding play by Mookie Betts, who is an outstanding player.
Should Boone have gone to Cruz against Muncy? I wouldn’t have hated it, but I don’t think it was wrong to stick with Cole, either.
The biggest possible scapegoat would be Wells for being wimpy with the challenge against Muncy. Yes, the Yankees only had one left, but it was the seventh inning, ya know? If you lose it, you lose it.
But anyhow, this was generally a well played game that they barely lost to a really good team. If you want to knock the offense, that’s fair enough. The pitching, though, has been so good that this team will win plenty of games, especially as they’re about to add Max Fried to the mix, and Carlos Rodon, as well.
Now, if Cashman would like to add another righthanded bat, that would be swell, as well.
About the Author
I clicked on this article and started reading it without seeing who wrote it, assuming it was a Bryan Hoch piece about stuff he was hearing from the team. You know, an informed piece of journalism.
Instead, it was clear that this was some weird opinion piece, and the writing got so purple I was, like, “This is like a parody of an old Mike Lupica type article.”
Then I saw that it was indeed a 2026 Mike Lupica article. Holy shit, talk about losing your fastball in older age. This dude is a goddamn parody now.
https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/yankees-trade-deadline-plans-hinge-on-aaron-judge
“If you want to knock the offense, that’s fair enough.”
I would like to knock the offense.
Actually, what I’d really like is a better offense. But if this is the one we have, then yes, I’d like to knock it.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
That’s totally fair.
LOL
The 2026 NY Yankees, our CF can’t run, but we will keep playing him there because we gave him a 1-year deal. // Brian Cashman
Makes sense to me just like having six middle/corner sub 700 infielders.
Moving the deck chairs
NYY Lineup
TBD
T Grisham (L) CF
B Rice (L) 1B
J Domínguez (S) DH
C Bellinger (L) LF
J Chisholm Jr. (L) 2B
M Schuemann (R) RF
R McMahon (L) 3B
A Wells (L) C
J Caballero (R) SS
Exactly. Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic Costs Fallacy.
At least Goldschmidt gets a day off. Though what he really needs is a month or two.
I kind of like Grisham as a hitter. More than I thought I would at this point.
Keeping him in center, though, seems problematic.
I like him as a person, i don’t like the one year deal and hoped that cashman would dump him so we could bring up jones and the .321 .406 .536 he has been raking in AAA (this july)
They get to lose two tomorrow instead of one today and one tomorrow.
Postponed.
The Red Sox win again.
Hoch Aaron Boone on Aaron Judge: “There’s healing going on, which is good, but he’s still not able to start any baseball activities or anything. He needs to get to a point where he’s asymptomatic, where you really start ramping up more upper-body stuff. The good news is, the pain is subsiding somewhat over the last couple weeks and changing from that sharp [pain] to more dull.”
The season from Hell.
In other words kiss the season goodbye and root for LA to beat Boston in the World Series. Boston 2-0 vs The Dodgers in the World Series.
Schlittler Yamamoto game 1. Should’ve saved Cam for game 2 to avoid the sweep.
Yeah, I don’t get that either.
It’s not what they should do according to a calculus like that, but it’s what I’d want them to do. You want them to win, but you want THEM to WANT to face the best opponent, to hunger for the toughest matchups.
It’s why Turner’s reason for wanting to go to LA really soured me on him.
Yankees added Bradley Hanner to the 40-man to keep him from leaving the organization. I assume that means that Cash thinks there’s something there to have him put on to the MLB team.