For the New York Yankees, it just wasn’t their day, they lost both games that they were leading in when the bullpen failed to hold the lead. The Yankees have now lost their last seven games in a row. In a regular-season, that’s the equivalent of a 19 game losing streak. The Yankees have not had a seven-game losing streak since 2017 when Joe Girardi was leading the team. The Yankees are now four games behind the Rays and have slipped to third place in the East Division. All this on a day that all of baseball celebrated Jackie Robinson Day.
In game one the Yankees got off to an early 4-0 lead. Yankee pitcher Jordan Montgomery pitched a masterful five innings allowing only one run, but in the sixth, he allowed two runners on base. Manager Aaron Boone took Montgomery out and replaced him with Yankee reliever Chad Green, who had previously pitched 12.2 innings of scoreless ball. In an unbelievable turn of events, Green gave up 3 home runs for 4 Met runs, in one inning.
The final score in the first game was 6-4 with the New York Mets scoring six unanswered runs in the game. Chad Green took the loss. Lockett got the win for the Mets, and Diaz got the save.
The bad luck didn’t end in game one, In game two the Yankees had the lead through six and a half innings. The second game was a home game for the Mets at the Stadium. At the bottom of the seventh inning, with the Mets backs up against the wall, Aroldis Chapman took the mound to close it out for the Yankees. Chapman did not have it, and threw seven fastballs, five of which were out of the zone.  To set it up, McNeil hit a single. The Mets sent in Billy Hamilton into pinch run. Hamilton stole second. Aroldis Chapman threw a slider to Amed Rosario and Rosario homered to left, and it was game over. Mets 4 Yankees 3, for the second Yankee loss of the day. Chapman took the loss, and Hughes got the win for the Mets.
With seven losses in a row, it isn’t necessary to say that the Yankees are playing horribly. If the pitching is good, the bullpen isn’t. If pitching is good the lineup is unproductive. In the last seven games, the Yankees have only scored 22 runs, that just over 3 runs per game, while the Yankee pitching has allowed 37 runs in the last seven games.
The pitching problem of the Yankees is well known, what isn’t expected is that the bullpen, lacking Tommy Kahnle, and Zack Britton, just isn’t getting the job done. The Yankees minus key players put forth a lineup in game one with six players batting at .185 or less. One of the biggest problems is Gary Sanchez. His batting average is just .139. He is totally unproductive in the three-hole. Twice in game one, once with the bases loaded and once with two on, he struck out both times. Right now Sanchez is swinging at everything no matter how far out of the zone the balls are.
Almost every day the New York Yankees can not escape more bad news. With Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, DJ, LeMahieu, and Gleyber Torres on the IL, now Gio Urshela has been reported to have bone spurs and is listed as day to day.
The New York Yankees will again try to turn it around tomorrow when J.A. Happ takes the mound in a matinee game at the Stadium. Happ has pitched poorly this season with an ERA north of 6. However, in his last outing, he pitched six solid innings, giving the Yankees hope that he can pitch well tomorrow and stop the Yankees slide.