Yankees.com: Yankees stumble in bullpen game after pitching plans go awry

From Bryan Hoch:

This first game back from the All-Star break was supposed to be an event. It could have been a highlight of Max Fried’s excellent first season with the Yankees, a return to the Truist Park mound to take on the Braves, the club with which he authored the early chapters of a standout career.

A troublesome blister on Fried’s left index finger altered those plans. Fireballing rookie Cam Schlittler was the second choice, but he was scratched, too – dealing with discomfort near his right biceps that prompted an MRI during the All-Star break.

That led manager Aaron Boone to a less-than-ideal third choice: a bullpen game. New York’s gassed relievers had trudged into a well-deserved All-Star respite, and they went right back to the grind on Friday night, shouldering the load in a 7-3 loss to the Braves.

“We were in a little bit of a tough spot,” Boone said.

I’ll give Boone this much. It very much WAS a tough spot, with them forced to suddenly throw out a bullpen game against one of the best pitchers in baseball. So they were likely going to lose this game no matter what.

However, there was no excuse for HOW badly they lost this game. Ian Hamilton is not some top relief ace, and he also looked oddly nervous as an opener, but dude, you can’t just get PUMMELLED like that, which is what happened to him. They hit him hard for the first, like, five hitters of the game. Just absurdly bad pitching.

Rico Garcia is whatever, but hopefully he’s DFAed today.

Jorbit Vivas made one of the worst baserunning mistakes you’ll ever see, getting thrown out at third base from a throw by Acuna in DEEP right field, thus taking the bat out of Aaron Judge’s hands, in what would have been first and second and two outs, the Yankees down three. Granted, Judge has been awful this season batting with men on and two outs, so it probably wouldn’t have mattered, but dang, dude! Boone was even angry, and you know that dude never gets angry, telling Vivas that he can never let that happen again.

I mean, I dunno, man, I’m all for shitting on these guys for choking, but these injuries are getting ridiculous. Cam Schlittler now has arm soreness, Fried has the blister, Cruz and Yarbrough BOTH have oblique injuries, Leiter broke his fucking foot, Schmidt, Cole, Cousins and Hampton all have TJS, it’s really getting to be a LOT.

It’s so much that I don’t even know what you TRADE for. I don’t think you even go for a starter at this point, with these injuries. It would cost too much for a season that’s likely not worth it. I think they should concentrate on relief pitchers and a third baseman.

Featured image is the Vivas play. Note how the third base coach is pointing down for him to slide, and he doesn’t even fucking slide.