From Craig Forde:
For the second straight night, Aaron Judge absolutely obliterated a baseball at Fenway Park, sending a first-inning solo shot — his 37th of the season — over everything in left field and onto Landsdowne Street.
The first-inning spark set the tone for a wild one between the division rivals, as the Yankees scored a run apiece in the eighth and ninth innings to tie the game before winning it, 11-8, in 10 innings, snapping a three-game losing streak in the process.
Well, I think we all knew that they were going to win this one.
The interesting thing to me is that Waldo hit a home run that was LITERALLY IN ABREU’S GLOVE when he went into the stands, but he dropped it as he fell to the ground (why in the world didn’t a Red Sox fan try to help the guy?), and then Trent Grisham tied the game with a double that PROBABLY should have been caught by Tyler O’Neil. And the game went to extra innings, of course, so those turned out to be important plays.
In any event, Marcus Stroman’s pitches were not being located at ALL tonight. Looking back at it, his stuff wasn’t even BAD, he just wasn’t locating AT ALL. Sinkers were up, etc. Just a pathetic job by him, but at least his stuff wasn’t awful, so I wouldn’t take TOO much from this TERRIBLE performance by him.
The bullpen had a maddening game for the most part. Jake Cousins looked good, but 0-2, he missed with a slider, and it was basically a batting practice pitch, and O’Neil hit a homer. Michael Tonkin just pitched poorly period, getting tagged for two runs.
Luckily, Tommy Kahnle and Tim Hill were both great, and Clay Holmes was tremendous in the ninth and tenth (although walking Abreu in front of Yoshida was shockingly dumb). I think Holmes can still help this team as an important setup man. You just can’t have him closing games anymore.
With the Orioles losing AGAIN, the Yankees are somehow just a game out of first place, and now assure themselves that they’ll leave Boston at WORST 3.5 games ahead of the BoSox. And like I said in the game, the Red Sox having been playing such terrible baseball lately (2-6 since the All-Star Break, with two of those losses coming to one of the worst teams in baseball, the Colorado Rockies) that I’m not OVERLY worried about them. The Yankees just need to get past Boston and Philly, and their schedule loosens up CONSIDERABLY in August and September.
What a crazy win.
The featured image is Trent Grisham after he tied the game in the ninth, which we all saw coming, of course.
They got lucky on that Wells sac fly.
You could argue that the Red Sox got lucky that it didn’t fall in, though, no?
Kind of looks like Boone has given up on DJ.
Agreed. I think he’ll stick around in the super-sub role, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see him get another start any time soon.
I didn’t think that was possible. It only took geological era.
And don’t be too sure even now.
Well, that was a surprising… a surprising… what do you call it when the game accidentally ends when you have more runs than the other team?
.
To be fair, even the Yankee’s creativity in finding ways to lose must have its limits.
What do they do with jazz? Play 2b with Gleyber at 3b? Play CF (badly) and benching vertugo?
And batting leadoff even though his OBP is blah?
I don’t get cashman at all.
Chisholm’s .323 OBP is higher than every non-Soto/Judge Yankee except Wells (but I think we all agree that Wells is a bit of an odd fit as a leadoff hitter).
But I think Cashman mostly sees him as Gleyber’s cost-controlled replacement for the next two seasons more than some major upgrade NOW, so I think he’s still looking for a bat. We’ll really have to see what the roster looks like Tuesday night to know for sure what the deal is with Cashman’s moves.
Remember that time he traded a lefty starting pitcher for a CF in a boot because another move was coming?
But there WAS another move coming! Then the Marlins suddenly insisted on Peraza AND Gleyber for Pablo Lopez.
That said, sure, if they DON’T make another move, then it’s very fair to say, “What’s up with that?”
Meanwhile for those who didn’t know, IKF has an ops of 114.. Rotvert 110. . Bader 102.
It’s amazing how every move Cashman makes is a bad one.
If they have success, wouldn’t that suggest that he was RIGHT to want to acquire them?
It can’t be “IKF was a terrible acquisition, but you also shouldn’t have let him leave.”
Now, if the question is whether it is very annoying seeing players suck here, and then succeed elsewhere, then I would agree, that IS very annoying. Especially when the guy they got for Rortvedt promptly got hurt twice.
That’s true, Brian. What it DOES suggest is a problem with how the team is run internally – with the Boone part rather than the Cashman part. If players consistently perform better before they get here and better after they leave… you’d think it would raise a question.
100%
I think we all know the team was HYPED by the Chisholm deal
Hyped? PR-ed?
also Peraza and Gleyber for Pablo Lopez seems like a pretty good deal now
The Yankees valuation and usage of Peraza has never lined up. I don’t get it.
At the time of the deal, Peraza had the inside track to be the starter at shortstop in 2023. Trading him AND Gleyber for Lopez would have left them with…uhm…Marwin Gonzalez playing second, I guess?
But yes, since Peraza has been a dumpster fire since then, it looks like a worthwhile deal NOW.
Peraza might, unlikely but possible, be coming around. Last 14 days 351/1036, last 21 315/893
Apparently the Yankees and the Dodgers are in a bidding war for Parades. I guess the idea must be to trade Gleyber then if they get Parades.
The Yankees and Padres are two of the teams expressing interest in left-hander Blake Snell, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman writes.
Passan: Paredes to Cubbies
Fascinating. The fucking NL is hilarious, they’re all KIND of good, so ANY team could “go for it” this year.
O’s winning, even with their bullpen they should win. Meanwhile, when the Yankees lose tonight, in creative fashion, they will give back a hard-earned 1 game pickup from last night.
Former Yankee Randy Vasquez fucking over his old team.
Padres acquire Jason Adam, a 2.30 ERA with 24 saves and 194 strikeouts in 164 2/3 innings over three seasons with Tampa Bay.
They gave up a HAUL for him.
Lesko, though young, has shown nothing to date (how he is the #76 prospect overall is interesting; if he was doing what he’s done so far as a Yankees prospect he wouldn’t sniff the top 100). Homer Bush Jr. is in high A. So high rankings within the Padres farm system, but they sound a long way off.
Bosox lineup out a while ago, still no Yankees lineup.
Jazz hitting 5th and playing CF
https://x.com/garyhphillips/status/1817664869736259727?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg
How do you keep an OBP stud, like Vertigo (290) out of the leadoff spot?
By by JD, Jones safe for another day.
The O’s bullpen tried mightily to lose another one, but after leading 6-0 they hang on and win 8-6.
Aaron Boone said he sees Jazz Chisholm Jr. hitting in the middle of the order, since they are seeing good signs from Alex Verdugo & Gleyber Torres at leadoff (taking a minute to catch my breath after a long laughing fit). Chisholm will soon begin working out at 3B, as will Torres.
Chisholm is a bad CF isn’t he? So
Sure let’s put him there!
When Stanton returns I assume he’ll be primarily an infielder. Meanwhile Grisham has been much better than Vertigo over the last month 746-542
Details, details.
We have an f*ing LEAGUE AVERAGE PLAYER in the line-up now!
With his OPS+ of essentially 100.
Break out the champagne!
That’s what I’d be trading my prospects for!
But he’s a spark plug like Verdugo and Stroman.
This is Bizarro Yankees World.
The Rays are 3 out and they’re holding a fire sale,