So, watch any good movies lately? I hear The Odyssey is pretty good.
It’s the original hero’s journey, you know? The template on which the most compelling stories humans tell each other are based. We search for that narrative everywhere we go, in every part of our lives. We seek it out in sports, an outlet which allows these tales of great challenges followed by heroic deeds to pour out before our eyes, unmediated by the artifice of the stage or the page.
The Yankees looked as if they had completed
the hero’s journey on Monday night in the Bronx. Tumbling to a 6-0 deficit after a clunker of a start from ace Cam Schlittler, the heretofore moribund Yankee offense appeared to rewrite their fate with an inspiring seven-run rally, capped off by a home run in the seventh from new arrival Luis García Jr. A sellout crowd which thought they had bought a ticket to a boring, tepid contest rose to their feet in delirium.
The bullpen did not get a single out in the eighth before all the offense’s accomplishments were but a pile of ash in the dumpster behind the nearby sandwich shop. Home run after home run left the Cardinals’ bats against Angel Chivilli in a seven-run eighth which sealed an ignominious and deeply unsatisfying fate for the Yankees: a 13-7 final score which wound up assuming the shape it had always promised to take, a laugher.
First, the initial deficit. Schlittler had nothing working on the mound tonight, allowing Cardinals to cross the plate in every inning of a meager three-frame performance. He walked five batters, struggled with his mechanics, and forced a heavily-taxed bullpen to try to summon 21 outs. First baseman Alec Burleson provided the first big blow with a first inning home run, the opening volley of what would wind up being a hat trick for him on the night.
In the second, Nathan Church scored on an RBI double from third baseman José Fermín. Close to a scoreless third, Schlittler let another run slip through his fingers as Church picked up a ribbie of his own. He departed having thrown 82 pitches, precious few of which looked dangerous to a Cardinal lineup which entered this series struggling mightily. And with the Yankee offense continuing to scuffle themselves, the 4-0 lead he left with felt nigh-insurmountable.
Well, try 6-0. After Schlittler handed his shovel to the bullpen, Tim Hill wasted little time helping him dig. Burleson’s second two-run homer of the night woke up a sleepy Yankee crowd, if only for long enough to see an absolute clothesline disappear over the right-field wall before they returned to commiserating with their fellow frustrated partisans.
The Yankee offense hasn’t looked particularly intimidating against anyone lately, and for the first four innings they had absolutely nothing cooking against Michael McGreevy. But in the fifth, they knocked the Cardinal starter out of the game thanks to a loud sound from a man with a lot to prove in the second half.
Before the game, GM Brian Cashman was stunningly unable to acquire a catcher ahead of the trade deadline. While the Red Sox acquired Adley Rutschman from the Orioles and the Rays added Liam Hicks from the Marlins, New York failed to make an upgrade behind the plate—meaning it’s up to Austin Wells to try and turn around his abysmal 2026. For what it’s worth, he took the first step on that odyssey of his own with an impressive two-run blast off McGreevy, waking up the crowd for real this time.
The first page of tonight’s heroic journey had been written, and the remainder of the script began to take shape when the next batter, Trent Grisham, greeted reliever Justin Bruihl with a left-on-left home run which whittled the deficit to 6-3. The second of those Burleson homers really loomed large, allowing St. Louis to withstand those two homers with half their lead intact—but at least the Yankees showed some vital signs halfway through the ballgame.
They’d have to scale some continued adveristy to remain in the fight.
Jasson Domínguez’ desire to galvanize the running game and use his speed as a weapon is admirable. He is unfortunately incapable of overcoming the fact that he is Jasson Domínguez. Roughly a week after turning a triple into an out in a scoreless game by comically oversliding third base, he attempted a steal of second in the bottom of the sixth. At first glance he appeared safe, but after the Cardinals challenged it became clear that Domínguez had once again come off the base long enough for Masyn Winn’s tag to stick.
But when your teammates make mistakes, you have to pick them up so they don’t linger. Ryan McMahon and José Caballero understood the assignment leading off the seventh, cracking the second pair of back-to-back homers on the night off longtime foe Ryne Stanek. McMahon’s blast challenged and cleared the right-center wall, while Caballero’s was gone on contact, soaring 400 feet out to left-center and staking the Bombers back to within one.
Grisham kept the belief thrumming with a one-out double, chasing Stanek and forcing a move for George Soriano. Ben Rice got underneath a ball, compelling the newcomer Garcia Jr. to keep the rally moving. I mean, it’s perfect, right? The new guy. The missing piece!
Luis fell behind in the count, then after he fouled off a couple tough pitches, Soriano tried firing a changeup away to retire the side. He yanked it to the inner half of the strike zone, and Garcia was ready to provide the punishment, slashing it on a line to the back of the Yankee bullpen. The 6-0 deficit was gone, and in its place stood an improbable 7-6 lead for New York.
What a climactic, exciting comeback! The heroic journey made manifest in front of a giant crowd of rapt spectators! Ready to see the Yankees toss it in the trash before recording a single out? No? Too bad! Here we go!
Aaron Boone’s first act of hubris came when he tried to steal an extra out with Ryan Yarbrough after a scoreless seventh, and pinch-hitter Blaze Jordan smacked a leadoff triple to punish him. His second act of hubris came when he inserted Angel Chivilli, who had not allowed an earned run since his callup from the minors. Chivilli proceeded to incinerate all his goodwill in one inning. He walked the first man he saw, then served up a batting practice pitch to Church, whose three-run homer decisively destroyed the Yankee lead in a matter of minutes.
In going all out to prevent the tying run from scoring, Chivilli had allowed everything the Yankees had built to that point to scatter into ashes.
Don’t think for a second that we’re done.
Chivilli allowed another single before facing catcher Jimmy Crooks. Crooks entered action with an OPS of .562. He nonetheless took Chivilli to the second deck in right field for another two runs and an 11-7 score.
But I just don’t think that was definitive enough. Can we get a cameo appearance from one of the guys we saw earlier in this story? Well, how about Burleson? He’s already got two two-run homers, so what’s the harm in giving him another?
It really is incredible. In the space of one inning, the Yankees’ methodically-built comeback was torched so thoroughly that by the end of the blaze, it was if their tower never stood. A six-run deficit became a one-run lead, then immediately rubber-banded back to a six-run deficit. Comically, YES had planned to show footage of Ryan Ruocco excitedly calling Garcia’s homer from inside the broadcast booth. By the time they finally got the chance, the Yankees had already completely blown the game away. Sorry, Ryan.
Needless to say, there was no more drama left to squeeze out of this tragicomedy. The Yankees went down quietly in the eighth and ninth. As SB Nation luminary Jon Bois once said, slap some postage on it and ship it to hell.
When your best players have bad days, it’s up to the rest of your team to pick them up so the bad days don’t loom and build into bad weeks, or months. The Yankees appeared to have done that, picking up Schlittler after one of his worst performances as a Big Leaguer by finding their collective power strokes, and flashing the ability to quickly put up runs which had been so prominently absent since Aaron Judge’s rib injury sent him to the IL.
I can’t pretend to know what a capitulation this instantaneous will do to a team’s psyche after it seemed as if they’d turned a corner, but it can’t be good. All they can do is try their best to pretend it never took place and take solace in the fact that the score will be 0-0 at first pitch tomorrow night. Ryan Weathers will throw that first pitch for New York, while we await word on who the Cardinals will start. The game gets underway at 7:05 PM on YES.
