From Zach Worden:
As the Yankees and Blue Jays battled for the American League East title and in the AL Division Series in 2025, New York did so with a main piece of its rotation sidelined.
That, of course, was Gerrit Cole, who spent last summer recovering from Tommy John surgery, unable to leave his mark on the intradivision rivalry.
In Friday night’s 3-1 loss at Rogers Centre, Cole and the Blue Jays renewed acquaintances for the first time since Aug. 4, 2024, with the veteran right-hander working six innings of two-run (one earned) ball with five strikeouts on 87 pitches (57 strikes).
As we all know, since the 2024 World Series, there has been this stereotype about the Yankees that if you just put the ball in play, they’ll find a way to fuck it up, and that was sadly true in this game against the red-hot Blue Jays, where I “sadly” missed as I had to help my dad with something at the last minute. I’m so sorry that I couldn’t see the offense hit like shit again, and them making errors to blow the game, with Luis Garcia being unable to pick a low throw from Ryan McMahon to get the final out of the inning, and instead then throwing the ball wildly away trying to nab Vladdy going to third, allowing Vladdy to score the tying run (the featured image). So, so sorry.
And I’m SO sad that I missed another out on the basepaths for the Yankees, with George Lombard making too big of a turn at second going from first to second on a single, so he got thrown out.
In any event, the upside continues to be that if the starters keep pitching this well, they’re bound to be a dangerous team if they get ANY offense back for the playoffs. And since the AL is so pathetic that the fucking Blue Jays are in the hunt for the Wild Card with a losing record, I’m sure the Yankees will be fine for making the playoffs.
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“Asking for a team that, to my eye, seems to lack a two strike approach.”
Every time another team comes in and drives up NY’s pitcher’s pitch count fouling off a ton of pitches with two strikes, it drives me nuts. That’s the NORM, right? Didn’t Rizzo choke up on the bat by over an inch with two strikes? Isn’t every batter supposed to protect the plate with two strikes?
The Yankees take strike three infuriatingly often – as if their mission is life is to prove that (a) they all have Ted Williams’ eye (when they don’t), and (b) that they have an insane certainty that a close pitch will never be called against them.
Or the swing on strike three, coming out of their shoes – not looking to make contact, but hoping to hit a 700 foot home run.
How does this go on for years with no one (Boone) doing anything about it?
You may not like this, but as it’s the first year of ABS, it could just be a learning curve. Now that the strike zone is standardized from a relative standpoint, the Yankees may be instituting a standardized approach which I am in strong favor of. It’s almost like sending them all to catcher school. But, we may be witness to the adjustment period.
As in: don’t protect the strike zone so you learn how those pitches and calls work in the ABS era? That would be interesting, but if, as I’m pretty sure is the case, the lack of discipline with two strikes goes back years, then it’s a pre-ABS problem. And other teams seem to have a consistent approach that’s a lot better then their consistent approach!
But maybe I’m missing your point.
I think it might be about honing their attenuation to the strike zone which, unfortunately, is happening at the major league level.
I guess it didn’t occur to me that it wasn’t the lack of a policy of protecting the plate with two strikes, but the presence of a policy of NOT doing so.
Possibe, I suppose!
Gotta do it somehow. Ultimately, I think putting the trust in the hands of the hitters who, let’s be honest, at present aren’t the most contact heavy group. They walk a fair amount, so, I guess, the premise is to emphasize their strengths. I will admit, however, that that might completely screw them in the playoffs as the repose cultivated in the regular season may not translate under the intensity of the post-season.
There are a lot of candidates to choose from.
River Ave. Blues
@riveraveblues.bsky.social
The Yankees have had a lot of stupid teams in the Boone era but this is by far the stupidest.
I don’t think that this team is nearly as dumb as the 2023-24 team, and that 2024 team made it to the World Series!!
is that anti-Soto slander?
As I said there are a lot of contenders.
“I don’t think that this team is nearly as dumb as the 2023-24 team”
As a fan, I have to say: this is the kind of narrative I want to be involved in!
YankeesMuse
Yankees last three losses:
Cole — 6.0 IP, 1 ER
Fried — 5.0 IP, 1 ER
Schlittler — 7.0 IP, 1 ER
Offense — 2 runs
As a smart man recently wrote – the pitchers may be saying all the right things, but they have to be fuming behind the scenes.
Codify Baseball
@codifybaseball.bsky.social
Since the pitcher’s mound was lowered in 1969, the only MLB hitter to have an 85-game home span with an:
👉 AVG below .182
👉 OBP below .288
👉 SLG below .266
(in at least 338 plate appearances)
is Kyle Tucker.
He was so eager to not be the center of attention in the line-up, right, so he chose the Dodgers?
Mission accomplished!
Another very clever Boone mini lineup shuffle to optimize production
3pm start
T Grisham (L) CF
B Rice (L) DH
H Ramos (R) LF 071 as a Yankee but he hit a couple of hard fly ball yesterday.
L García Jr. (L) 1B
S Jones (L) RF
J Chisholm Jr. (L) 2B
G Lombard Jr. (R) SS
R McMahon (L) 3B
A Wells (L) C
Sadly, “Hit a couple of hard fly balls” is more than most of them can say.
LInguists officially announce that the most oft-used word in discussions of New York Yankees baseball over the past three months is, in fact, “sadly.”
Abbott and Costello Sadly is the DH.
Also, while it is a bit tacky to knock the guy when the team fucked him over, it’s also worth noting that Cole reverted to his worst impulses when Garcia made the error. Cole had been doing a better job in recent years of not letting errors get to him (even Game 5 of the World Series, he buckled down and got two huge strikeouts and a groundball that should have ended the inning with no runs scored).
Leadoff walk-then Dick Buptlkus