I don’t know what I expect anyone to do about this. I am not sure there is anything that realistically can be done about this. But ye gods, the Yankee offense is putrid. Rancid. Foul. Pick your adjective. Regression and injury have laid waste to the Yankees and there is no 6-foot-7, three-time MVP and single-season home run king riding to the rescue any time soon.
We’ll see what if anything the Yankees do at the deadline to bolster the offense (live editing update: hello, Luis Garcia Jr.) but I have
strong doubts it will be enough to make a meaningful difference. Too many automatic outs litter the lineup. Accordingly, the pressure on the pitching staff is extraordinary. Sunday, Gerrit Cole and the Yankee bullpen were up to the challenge and got just enough offense to eke out a series win.
Cubs starter Colin Rea entered today with one of the worst K% in all of baseball – in the 12th percentile, to be exact. So of course, a lineup that only a 2013 Yankees fan could love proceeded to strike out five consecutive times to start. Not until Jazz Chisholm put a ball in play to end the second inning did a Yankee hitter manage to square up Rea. It’s not what you want.
In the third, we got an all-too-brief glimpse of what happens when you make contact with the baseball. After Ryan McMahon led off the frame with a single to right, José Caballero demolished a Rea offering to center field. Suddenly, the Yanks led 2-0.
It was the first time in 42 innings that New York scored more than one run in an inning. Gross.
Gerrit Cole, meanwhile, picked up where he left off in his last start. He spun three scoreless innings to start Sunday, finally yielding a run when Michael Busch hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.
Unfortunately, the offense went back to its factory setting… feckless… after the Cabby home run. So, Cole had no room for error. In the sixth, that looked like it would haunt the Yankees. Pete Crow-Armstrong walked and Seiya Suzuki singled, putting runners on first and third with no one out. Cole retired Busch on a fly out but a terrible throw from Jasson Dominguez allowed both runners to advance, killing the possibility of a double play.
Cole struck out Alex Bregman but a walk to Ian Happ ended Cole’s Day, after 99 pitches with the bases loaded and two outs. Brent Headrick entered and, after falling behind Nico Hoerner, 3-0, induced a harmless fly ball to center. Crisis averted. Cole’s final line: a perfectly cromulent 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K.
Headrick came back out for the seventh and struck out the side, passing the ball to Paul Blackburn, who’d also have to be flawless given the Yankees’ narrow lead. Blackburn managed to get a pair of outs but also walked two Cubs, including PCA, who drew his third free pass of the day. It feels like a year ago you would have had to physically restrain PCA in the batter’s box to get him to walk multiple times in a game. That extension looks more like a steal for the Cubs every day.
But with runners on the corners and needing four more outs to escape Chicago with the win, Boone went to David Bednar. Facing childhood friend Ian Happ, Bednar got the first of the four, extinguishing the threat and sending the contest to the ninth.
The Cubs’ last gasp got a bit sticky with the tying run at second and two out. But Bednar struck out pinch-hitter Michael Conforto to earn the four-out save. Breathe, everyone. The man continues to be nails in the ninth as his first calendar year as a Yankee comes to a close.
Join us tomorrow back in the Bronx after this 10-game road trip. The Cardinals come to town for a three-game set. Michael McGreevy versus the presumptive favorite for the AL Cy Young Award, Cam Schlittler. First pitch is at 7:05 pm ET. (And stay tuned for more on Luis Garcia Jr.!)
