Last night the New York Yankees lost their fifth straight game. The Atlanta Braves swept a day-night doubleheader against the Yankees at Truist Stadium in Atlanta. So, what’s wrong? The Yankees offense has been dead. They have scored just twelve runs in five games. The Tampa Bay Rays swept the Yankees in three games at the Stadium, and now the Atlanta Braves has swept them at Atlanta. The Yankees have not pitched particularly well, but the offense is the problem. In the losses yesterday the Yankees only scored two runs in fourteen innings. You don’t win many games with that type of offense.
In the day game, the Braves Ian Anderson, a triple-A replacement, the Yankees just couldn’t figure him out. He put down the Yankees, one, two, three, in several innings. Meanwhile, New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, had his worst outing of the year, giving up three home runs for four runs in his five innings, and ended up giving up five runs in his 103 pitch effort. Looking at all six of his outings, although pitching relatively well, he has seemed at times to struggle and lacking the demeanor and confidence he exhibited last year for the Astros.
Game two had some confusing storylines. Masahiro Tanaka seemed to have his best outing of the year, mowing down one Atlanta Brave after another. After just 66 pitches Tanaka was relieved by manager Aaron Boone. In favor of Chad Green, arguably the best Yankee reliever, that hadn’t pitched in ten days. As it turned out, Green ended up giving up a two-run homer to the Braves Freddie Freeman, which turned out to be the winning runs. The second storyline was when Aaron Judge was pulled from the game in the sixth inning with calf tightness.
Earlier in the game Judge was running from first to second base and “felt something.” He stayed in the game but was removed in the sixth inning. The second game last night was Aaron Judge’s first game coming off the IL. Earlier at Tropicana Field, Judge had a slight hamstring pull running the bases. He under protest went on the IL, with the utmost caution of the Yankee trainers. Judge going into last night’s game claimed to be 100% heathy. Now, after running the bases only once, he has been pulled. That is problematic for the Yankees as he is a key piece in the lineup.
After the games, manager, Aaron Boone was interviewed about both Tanaka and Judge. On the subject of Judge, he really couldn’t give any information, other than to say that he felt something and will see how he is tomorrow. Boone is seldom forthcoming with injury information until it is after the fact, leading to the possibility that Judge will go on the IL again.
On the subject as to why he removed Tanaka after only 66 pitches, he was far more evasive. He said he thought that Tanaka, even after putting down seven straight Braves, was running on empty. In a later interview with Tanaka, he seemed to indicate that he was running out of gas. What this writer finds suspect, is why a veteran pitcher, in his fifth start of the season, would run out of gas while throwing just 66 pitchers. That is somewhat concerning for a pitcher that should be throwing 100 pitches in a game.
The bottom line in the last five games is that the Yankee offense is greatly lacking. DJ LeMahieu the Yankees hitting machine, Giancarlo Stanton a home runs slugger and Gleyber Torres are all out of the lineup, an on the IL. The New York Yankees have to hope as these players re-enter the lineup, that the offense will greatly improve.
As an ardent follower and life long New York Yankee fan, it appears to me that in this bizarre coronavirus season, the Yankees don’t seem to be having fun, and are not playing with the same energy and purpose as they exhibited last year.
In other important news from last night, the NBA postponed all three of their playoff games last night in response to the killing of an unarmed black man, Jacob Blake. Blake was shot in the back by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin. What started out as a protest by the Milwaukee Bucks’ decision to boycott their playoff game, cascaded across multiple sports. After the NBA announced all playoff games would be postponed, soccer followed and some MLB players refused to play in last night’s games. Three MLB games were postponed: Cincinnati Reds- Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners-San Diego Padres, and the Los Angeles Dodgers-San Francisco Giants. The MLB issued the following statement:
“Given the pain in the communities of Wisconsin and beyond, following the shooting of Jacob Blake, we respect the decisions of a number of players not to play tonight,†MLB said. “(MLB) remains united for change in our society, and we will be allies in the fight to end racism and injustice.â€