From Bryan Hoch:
If there were a higher league to hit in, Aaron Judge would belong there.
The Yankees’ captain put the finishing touches on a sensational first month-plus on Wednesday evening, homering as part of a three-hit, three-RBI performance, though he was left waiting on deck at the conclusion of a 5-4 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards.
“I’ve got a job to do every time I step up to the plate,” said Judge, who is hitting a Major League-best .427 with 10 home runs, which is tied for the MLB lead. “You try to block out the past and focus on the situation at hand. I try not to look at that stuff until after the season is over.”
I get why they do it this way, but it is absurd that Bryan Hoch’s articles about Yankee losses are all peppy and upbeat.
But yes, Aaron Judge is fucking amazing.
The tricky thing, though, is how to handle games against lefties. What you absolutely should NOT do is what Boone did, which was to start BOTH Ben Rice and Jason Dominguez, who BOTH struggle against lefties. Both players had some nice at-bats (Rice came close to giving the Yankees the lead in the seventh with a flyball that just missed being a home run, and Dominguez was robbed on one of his liners), but sure enough, when the game was close late, the Orioles just used their strong lefthanded high leverage relievers to shut the Yankees down, with Keeagan Akin and Gregory Soto both shutting the Yankees down. More importantly, though, Rice and Dominguez’s problems kept the Yankees from beating up Cade Povich, who is a terrible starter.
On the Yankee side, honestly, I could live with 4 runs from Cookie Carrasco, but the real killer was Tim Hill bizarrely walking the leadoff batters in the sixth, with the Orioles getting a run in that inning on NO hits, and the score of the game ended up being decided by that one run, so…yeah.
In any event, this was a shitty series, but I’m not too concerned, as the Orioles knocked around the Yankees’ two worst starters and then still only barely won each of those two games, while the Yankees destroyed them in the middle game. So it’s more a bad luck series than anything, but it still sucked big time.
At least the Red Sox lost last night. Jonathan Loaisiga is nearing a return, which is nice. I have no idea who gets cut when he returns.
The featured image is Jason Dominguez getting frozen on a strikeout with two men on in the sixth (oh, I should also mention Judge getting picked off while Ben Rice faced a righty, and since that ended the inning, the Orioles were able to bring in a lefty to start the next inning, who got Rice out easily. BOO!). I feature it just to spotlight how dumb it was for Boone to start both The Martian AND Rice in this game, while sitting Dominguez against the right in the second game of the series. Bellinger was actually hitting well recently, so he sits, and both guys who can’t hit lefties started. Make it make sense!
Yankees claimed Bryan De La Cruz from the Braves, sent him to the minors (put Stanton on the 60-Day IL to make the space on the 40-man).
Basically just a free player, and if they have to DFA him at the end of the month, no big deal (he’s actually a useful righthanded hitter, but they have no room on the roster at the moment).
Hmmm…let’s say Stanton returns, and Rice becomes the backup catcher. LeMahieu also returns. Is there room for De La Cruz then?
Bench of:
Rice (Escarra sent down)
LeMahieu (Reyes DFAed)
Grisham
Peraza
So, nope, no room. I guess if you give up on Peraza, there could be a spot for De La Cruz. Having him available to pinch-hit for the Martian or Rice late in the game would be really nice.
Or they could, you know, carry 12 fucking pitchers
I don’t believe there’s a single team in the Majors that carries less than 13 pitchers. Remember, they had to make a rule that says you can’t carry MORE than 13 because a larger percentage of teams were carrying FOURTEEN pitchers three years ago.
I know it, I just think they shouldn’t. Nine pitchers is fine
Over parts of five Major League seasons with the Miami Marlins (2021-24), Pittsburgh Pirates (2024) and Atlanta Braves (2025), the right-handed batter has hit .251 (436-for-1,738) with 177 R, 85 doubles, 2 triples, 58 HR, 208 RBI, 109 BB and 15 SB in 491 career games.
https://www.mlb.com/news/giancarlo-stanton-60-day-injured-list-2025
Career BABIP v. LHP, 341.
Bah. If he were an infielder I’d be interested. Maybe.
Pereira 2/4 with 2 home runs, J C Rodriguez 375/971 (is he a prospect?)
Like that the BoSox lost.
cruz’s number against lefties by ops are pedestrian. 50 at bats as a rookie years ago with a 950, a 733 in a complete season, and the others all worse.
i’d rather give extra at bats to waldo, martian, and rice (and even reyes) than let this guy have a roster spot.
unfortunately we can’t replace the guy that fills out the batting order and makes those decisions
Agree.
I’m playing Wolfenstein 2 now, it’s an older game but I’m just getting into it. My favorite weapon is the one that shoots diesel grenades at the bad guys, causing them to explode in smithereens. Bringing this up for no particular reason
Great game, I remember when it came out in the early stages of “gamergate” and those idiots were all up in arms about how the Nazis were the bad guys. Just… incredible.
Ha I didn’t know that but it makes sense
Jazz IL right oblique, Vivas up.
Maybe this time the idiot manager will give some at bats
Reyes is so bad that I think Vivas will finally get to play.
Unfortunately Vivas is also a lefty hitter
Well, there are more righthanded pitchers, right?
So I could see a straight platoon.
Waldo/Vivas vs. righties, Peraza/Reyes vs. righties.
Is Jorbit Vivas some hot prospect or just a fresh face?
He was a decent prospect when the Yankees swapped Trey Sweeney for him in the Caleb Ferguson deal.
In very important nickname news, did you all know that Waldo’s nickname is hilariously “Cabby.”
What the fuck, right? I guess having another Oswald on the team made them go to the last name instead.
Ozzy and Waldo would have worked, but I guess you gotta have a Y at the end
Shouldn’t JC Escarra be cabbie?
Well done.
+1, YC, that made my day
Ye of little faith DJ back tonight. He’s as healthy as a broken down horse.
https://x.com/SOMPatriots/status/1918372515879240157?t=6DLx8de_Ld44HwTSs94nVg&s=19
12:09 Thoughts on Jorbit Vivas? Just called up to replace Jazz.
Eric A Longenhagen
12:09 Fringe 40-man type, above replacement player but not a lot of impact.
Above replacement level is better than Reyes!
for sure
Jomboy has a breakdown on the Gausman freakout, and it’s hilarious seeing him get SO mad about maybe, like, ONE blown strike the whole inning.
Jorbit to finally make his MLB debut! Starting at second, batting ninth tonight.
Fascinatingly, they removed Fried’s earned run from the Blue Jays game. I think that that was a mistake. They now say that Bo Bichette reached on an error, not an infield single and an error to allow him to reach second. That was definitely an infield single.
Oh well, good for Fried! Now his ERA dropped down to 1.19 heading into tonight.
T Grisham (L) CF
A Judge (R) RF
B Rice (L) DH
P Goldschmidt (R) 1B
C Bellinger (L) LF
A Volpe (R) SS
A Wells (L) C
O Cabrera (S) 3B
J Vivas (L) 2B
The funny thing to me is that, all things considered, I think they are very happy and we should be very happy with how The Martian has played so far.
And yet, you just can’t play him that much with Grisham playing so well.
It’s a good problem to have, I guess.
When was the last time the yanks had a starting pitcher with an ERA as low as Fried after 6 starts? (Even Guidry 1978 was higher!) Hard to imagine a better start after signing a big free agent contract.
All of the obvious guys had higher ERAs after six games (Ford in 1958, Cole’s sticky start in 2021, and Guidry), so…I dunno, great question!
Okay, Jimmy Key was 1.16 after six starts in 1993.
Key ended that year with a 3.00 ERA somehow!
Phil Niekro was 0.99 after six starts in 1984 (including going TEN innings in his fifth start). He, too, ended the season with an ERA over 3!
Clay, what do you think of the other Wolfenstein games, if you’ve played them? I finished the story and I’m working through the additional missions.