Well in another depressing loss, the New York Yankees are going home once again. In game 5 of the ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Yankees not only lost, but they were sent home with silent bats. They had given everything they had on the pitching side of it but came up short. As we sit here staring the offseason in the eye, we now ask ourselves, what’s wrong? Why did this happen again? Why can’t we win with this core? While the game seems like it was all negative, let’s get into the actual game itself and see what went right and wrong for the Bombers.
Good News: Gerrit Cole is the truth
Gerrit Cole came in there and gave us 5.1 innings of 1 run ball. He struck out 9 Tampa Bay Rays and absolutely dominated. 1 hit, 2 walks, 1 HBP, and 1 home run. That’s an insanely dominant stat line off of THREE DAYS of rest. Gerrit, I apologize on behalf of the Yankees for not winning tonight. You absolutely shoved and yet outside of the man himself Aaron Judge hitting a bomb, they did nothing. Let’s stay with the good though and give props to Zack (with a K) Britton who was on his hard carry mode too, and all postseason he was the guy. Those two deserve tips of the cap, and they deserve to be able to rest up this offseason.
For the rest of you guys? You’re gonna hear it from everywhere, starting with me in what went wrong.
Bad News: The New York Yankees need a wakeup call
Aaron Boone has a guy with a 151 wRC+ versus right-handers off of the bench waiting. Who does he bench Higgy for? The dude who has a 48 wRC+ versus righties this year. Frazier should demand a trade. We aren’t treating him the way we should treat a star-caliber outfielder. Now for DJ; dude where were you in Game 5? Seriously? 0-4? Stanton, Voit, and Gio all went cold too. We had no offensive contributions tonight. Aroldis Chapman also played around way too much against Brosseau and that was because he couldn’t get his swing and miss pitch. It fell apart with this team tonight in the end. Everyone should look at themselves in disgust. The New York Yankees lost another crucial series.
The Rays just dug your grave, shoved you in, then danced all over it. Get it together for once, or else the “Yankee” mantra will be gone from this core.
This a rough season, and it’s disgusting to watch this team get embarrassed by a division rival. They have to tighten it up, and they have a long offseason to think about what they’ve just done.