I don’t personally believe in the “June Swoon.” I do believe that the Yankees play genuinely poor baseball for about 30-50 games every summer, but I don’t subscribe to it just being a June thing, so I think it’s odd when a loss or two makes people immediately say “June Swoon” regardless of the bigger picture.
But the summer swoon is very real, and it usually starts in Fenway Park. Each of the last four seasons, the Yankees have started their summer swoons with a bad series loss in June in Boston.
Now, those swoons usually bleed badly into July and August, but they start at some point in late June. Here’s a stat I found yesterday that’s genuinely jarring:
Yankees in Fenway Park since 2019:
June: 1-15
Every other month: 23-15
That doesn’t really make sense, especially when the Sox haven’t finished with a definitively better record once since their last World Series title in 2018. Unfortunately, they just can’t win here in this month. So it goes.
The first hour-plus was exclusively on Peacock due to a non-major golf tournament hogging NBC’s airspace, which is surely a great sign for MLB’s new partnership with the network. If you didn’t watch it, you didn’t miss much early. Sonny Gray dominated a bruised and battered Yankees’ lineup for seven no-hit innings, and despite a passable game by Carlos Rodón and good bullpen work, it looked like another sleepy loss.
And then, they showed life. They took advantage of Boston’s mistakes and got back off the mat, taking a 4-2 lead in the 10th. But of course, Fernando Cruz got hammered by the bottom of the order and allowed three runs, losing a back-breaker in extras. They did everything right on both ends to tie it in the ninth and get the lead, but Boston’s struggling offense put together great at-bats and swings to get it done to beat the Yanks, 5-4.
Gray got things started for the BoSox with a strong first inning, winning a long battle with known leadoff hitter Jazz Chisholm Jr. before retiring the next two hitters quickly. Rodón walked Wilyer Abreu with two out, but responded with a strikeout of Willson Contreras to get through the first.
The second and third were more of the same. Gray went 1-2-3 in both innings, while Rodón held serve. After another shutdown inning by the former Yankee wearing red and white, the Sox finally got to Rodón. An error by Oswaldo Cabrera at third base and a swinging bunt that moved the runners over allowed Caleb Durbin to continue coming up big with a two-run single to center field to open the scoring.
Things nearly spiraled way out of control for the All-Star lefty, but Rodón bounced back to strike out Tsung-Che Cheng. Meanwhile, the Yankees continued to not be able to touch Gray, only mustering an Amed Rosario walk with two outs in the fifth in the next two innings. Rodón bounced back to toss a scoreless fifth, continuing a streak of solid outings for him, but the offense was giving him nothing.
If you want a sequence that describes how things are going, the top of the sixth ended with Gray striking out Chisholm on a check swing on a ball in the dirt. The home plate umpire, Todd Tichenor, didn’t even defer to the third-base umpire, ruling he went around on his own. The replay showed he probably didn’t even swing, let alone go around enough to not ask the base umpire. Chisholm argued and got ejected. Not fun.
Paul Blackburn got the ball to relieve Rodón and showed him how it’s done, retiring the side in order on seven pitches against the same hitters who gave Rodón fits in the fourth. Gray kept on keeping on in the seventh, officially going on no-no watch, while Blackburn once again worked efficiently.
Finally, someone got on base. Rosario, who had the only walk against Gray in two strong at-bats, lined a single up the middle to break up the no-hit bid after 7.1 innings. Chad Tracy pulled the plug on his starter, inserting Tayron Guerrero to face Cabrera and Austin Wells, who both went down quietly. Wells has had a few long fly balls today, but he hit them to dead center instead of plunking them off the Green Monster about 15 feet to the right. Rats.
David Bednar needed some work with the recent uncompetitive ninth innings, so he went out there and tossed a 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth. Former Yankee and recent nemesis Aroldis Chapman came on for the ninth, and as he does so often, made it interesting.
José Caballero got it started with a single to left field before a walk to Anthony Volpe put the tying run on base. Chapman, pitching his third game in four days, was tipping badly and fell behind Ben Rice 3-0. While he induced a flyout after that, his defense decided to take the rest of the play off, scoring Caballero and moving Volpe to third in a circus play.
Paul Goldschmidt came on to pinch-hit for Jones and fought back from 0-2 to hit a Baltimore chop with the infield in. A slightly off-line throw from Durbin and a nifty slide by Volpe tied the game at two and handed Chapman his second blown save of the year and first ever in 12 opportunities against the Yankees.
Bednar stayed on for the bottom of the ninth and worked around a Contreras single with a 6-4-3 double play to send this game to extras. An extra-innings game on the road? Usually no bueno.
Justin Slaten took over for Boston and got ahead of Rosario quickly, but ripped a 1-2 pitch to right field, where Wilyer Abreu couldn’t make the play on a snowcone effort, booting the ball and allowing Max Schuemann to score as the ghost runner.
Another defensive miscue by the Sox on the throw to the plate there allowed Rosario to get into scoring position, which meant a sac bunt by Cabrera and a swinging bunt by Wells were all they needed to push a crucial second run across, making it 4-2 heading to the bottom of the tenth.
Fernando Cruz would be tasked with locking things down in the bottom of the inning against the bottom of the order, which he did not do. Anthony Seigler led off with a single, Masataka Yoshida ripped a double down the line, and Cheng tied it with a sac fly. Jarren Duran took advantage of the five-man infield and hit the ball where nobody was in right field to walk it off.
That encapsulates the series. The best of the Yankees not executing against the worst of the Red Sox. The four men who conducted that rally are either Triple-A call-ups or were deeply struggling. They were facing arguably the Yankees’ best reliever. They seemed perfectly positioned to salvage the finale by doing what Boston did on Thursday, capitalizing on defensive miscues and shutting the door.
But that’s June in Fenway for the Yanks: what can go wrong, will go wrong.
There’s no time to lick their wounds, as the Yankees return home for another three-game set with the Tigers that will hopefully help wake them up. It’s Ryan Weathers against Casey Mize at 7:05 pm tomorrow on YES.
