Yankees.com: Facing old pal, Yanks blow golden opportunity as road swoon continues

From Bryan Hoch:

The ball fell to the outfield grass after smacking the side of Carson Benge’s glove, and for a moment it felt like a Subway Series flashback – one ballpark across town, a night when Alex Rodriguez teamed with Luis Castillo as the co-authors of an improbable Yankees comeback.

Aaron Judge played the part of Mark Teixeira this time, alertly chugging around the bases. But this wasn’t 2009. The similarities ended there as the Yankees were unable to capitalize, silenced the rest of the way in their 6-3 loss to the Mets on Saturday evening at Citi Field.

Even though they’re now sleeping in their own beds, it continued a rough road trip for the Yankees, who have lost six of eight on a trip through Milwaukee, Baltimore and Flushing.

“We’re not panicking,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “We’re out here, just working and grinding and pushing through it. We all know we have some dry spots here and there, but we’ll just work through it and keep pushing to get back in that groove.”

The defeats have come in differing fashions. This one turned after the Yankees were set up for damage following Benge’s miscue.

Brooks Raley plunked Paul Goldschmidt before Chisholm popped up a bunt that cleared the mound, plopping on the infield turf for an unlikely hit.

In sprinted Luke Weaver, who became a quirky fan favorite as a standout reliever for the pennant-winning 2024 Yankees but struggled at times last season before switching boroughs this past offseason.

Weaver was in 2024 form: buzzing through Amed Rosario on six pitches, striking out Trent Grisham on three then inducing an Anthony Volpe groundout to escape. Volpe said it was “a spot that we wanted to be in,” acknowledging, “Yeah, he executed.”

You could argue that Carlos Rodon should be the featured image, as he put the Yankees into a hole early on (and forced the exhausted bullpen to throw even more innings than normal). However, I think the bigger moment was when they loaded the bases in the 7th inning with no outs, trailing 5-3, and Rosario and Grisham both struck out before automatic out Volpe grounded out to end the inning without the Yankees adding a run.

Then Tim Hill had a bad inning, and the Mets added on an insurance run.

Trent Grisham for the first month and a half or so was dealing with some EXTREME bad luck. He probably should have had an .800 OPS instead of a .670 OPS. That said, while before he was dealing with bad luck, now he’s just outright slumping. I think Weaver pitched him really well, so I’m not that mad about that specific at-bat, but just in general, the last few games he’s been dogshit, both in results AND in his “under the hood” numbers. He has to get his shit together.

I’d say the same for Austin Wells, but are we too far past that? He doesn’t look even REMOTELY like he can salvage his season. Grisham at least had the good batted ball data from the first month and a half of the season to turn to. Wells doesn’t have ANYthing to turn to.

That said, don’t think I forgot how much Rodon sucked, too. He is the biggest headcase on the whole team, and this team has Camilo Doval on it (Okay, I guess maybe Doval is a bigger headcase. It’s close, though!). I dread his starts right now. And, to be fair, I sort of dreaded his starts even when he was an All-Star last season, but I dread them even MORE now.

And now the road trip will end with Elmer freakin’ Rodriguez instead of Ryan Weathers? Seems like an odd decision.

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Brian Cronin

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