In yet another disappointing performance, the New York Yankees fell to the Tampa Bay Rays for a second consecutive time. Once again, the offense was nowhere to be found, as the Yankees recorded nine strikeouts and just five hits in a scoreless effort. Starting pitcher Domingo German picked up the loss, allowing four runs over four innings, including eight hits and two homers. Luckily, the bullpen performed well, racking up seven strikeouts over the last four innings of play.
The Yankees have started off the 2021 season playing very sloppy baseball, as skipper Aaron Boone stated that the Yankees are a better team than the Rays but simply haven’t been able to get things going.
“We’ll see. They’re one of the teams that we got to compete with in this division. They’re obviously a good team and the defending American league champions. We have expectations of being that and more this year, so they’re one of the teams we have to go through. And I’ll take our chances. But we got a long way to go between here and then. So I think it’s silly to answer that question right now. We got to go out and prove it.”
Good news and bad news for the Yankees:
The negatives are endless from Saturday’s loss, as German was optioned from the fifth spot in the starting rotation. German currently has a 9.00 ERA on the season with two losses, despite dominating during spring ball. German will head over to the alternate site, and we can only imagine the Yankees will elevate his counterpart, Deivi Garcia.
Garcia had flashes of star power in 2020 during his limited action but struggled at times. During spring training, Garcia finished with a 3.86 ERA over five games, allowing six runs and 12 hits, while accumulating 14 strikeouts. He actually performed quite well, but German was simply dominant — he clearly was not ready to face off against starting-level talent.
I think the Yankees should give Garcia an opportunity as the fifth man, as he showed up big at times last season. As for the offense, they simply couldn’t get anything going, as DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton totaled six strikeouts. The Yankees need more from their top hitters, especially since they are paying them an exorbitant amount of money to produce on offense.
The Yankees will take on the Rays on Sunday afternoon in the final game of a three-game series, and they need to walk away with a victory to end this hopeless drought.