Last night’s game with the New York Yankees against the Tampa Bay Rays couldn’t have been worse, as the Yankees lost the game in the first inning, with Yankees starter Jordan Montgomery giving up four runs without getting an out in the first inning. The Yankee’s worst nightmare was coming true. Montgomery was knocked out in the first inning, replaced by Nick Nelson, who got the last out, replacing Montgomery.
In more 2020 strange happenings, at the bottom of the first inning, the umpires removed both teams from the field, when a drone appeared over the field. There have been rain delays, but never before a drone delay. It’s against the law to fly a drone over a sports venue. Luckily for both teams, the drone left the field and the game resumed, after a few minutes.
In the bottom of the fifth, in a high tension game, reliever Ben Heller is thrown out by the empires for an obvious errant throw, but the umpires were taking no chances in this one, and Luis Cessa takes over for the New York Yankees and records the final out. At the bottom of the fifth inning, the Rays brought in reliever Diego Castillo facing DJ LeMahieu, he got the final two outs of the inning.
The Yankees used seven pitchers in the game, but in the end, the Yankees offense was silent with the exception of Clint Frazier’s home run. The final score was the Rays 5 and the Yankees 2. The losing pitcher was Montgomery, who now has an elevated 5.76 ERA, and has lost his fWAR battle with Gerrit Cole.
Unfortunately, the good news in the game, for the New York Yankees was that there was none. Only bad news in the Yankees loss. The starting pitching was awful, the offense was nonexistent, and the relief pitching even allowed a run. The entire bottom half of the Yankees’ batting order is hitting below 2.00. The only offense for the Yankees was Clint Frazier’s home run.
They will take on the New York Mets on Thursday, and then move on to the Baltimore Orioles. They will have a doubleheader on Friday and two more games with the Orioles over the weekend. The loss last night was a totally deflating loss, proving that the Tampa Bay Rays are the team to beat in the East Division and maybe even in all of baseball.
I said earlier today that the Yankees had to win this series, to remain able to take the East Division, which now seems not likely. The Yankees poor pitching and the lack of offense was again on display last night in the Yankee loss. The Yankees can only hope for a win against the Mets that will be followed by four with the Baltimore Orioles. Following that, the Yankees will have ten games with the Toronto Blue Jays of the remaining 22 games. Only a miracle will allow the Yankees to take the division, they now can only hope to get to the postseason.
If they can do that, they will have to hope, they can somehow right the ship, with the starters and bullpen to have any chance. Hopefully, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Gleyber Torres can return in time to make a difference.
The one thing we know about the Yankees is that they are never out of it, there is always a chance, and the Yankees will start on that mission tomorrow at Citi Field.