To get right into it, the Yankees are down one game in the ALDS and outside of physically being present for the game, they straight up did not show up. It’s not a good feeling overall when your favorite team loses, but in the playoffs it’s obviously that much worse. Fortunately, they play again today with their 2025 ace on the mound going against a rookie with a chance to even things up. They were up to the challenge after going down a game in the Wild Card Series, hopefully they can do it again.
The problem with today’s loss was that it tugged at a lot of familiar trends that we’ve been accustomed to in the Aaron Boone era. It’s not that this loss is on him due to any costly mistakes he’s made, it’s just more a perfect encapsulation of his tenure.
This team looks like it can go the distance with anyone at times, and also look like they’d fail to score a run against a Low-A team at times. Again, I can’t point to anything specifically wrong that Boone did, in fact, he did some things actually right in this one, like pulling Luis Gil before it was too late, but the offense just looking putrid when it has so much on paper talent has been a recurring trend of his entire tenure as the Yankees manager.
In the early goings of the game, it was tough to get too upset at the offense because Kevin Gausman was just straight dealing. It wasn’t until the sixth inning that it finally looked like something big was about to happen, until it didn’t. With the memory of Game One loss in the Wild Card round a distant memory after the two thrilling victories that followed it, the offense did their best to remind everyone about that disaster by getting into a bases loaded, nobody out situation in the sixth inning. And of course, arguably the best hitter on the planet was up coming off another season where he’ll at least finish top two in MVP voting. Of course, Aaron Judge struck out.
Now I don’t have numbers to back this up, but I know I’m 100% right. In a bases loaded, nobody out situation, if the first guy does nothing, the rest of the offense will follow suit. If Judge had done anything there, I feel confident that the offense would’ve piled it on. But where he goes, this team follows. They ended up just getting one run in that situation, which was walked in by Gausman, but it was an improvement on last Tuesday night, at least.
Now the second string I’d like to pull on here is that sure the offense as a whole did nothing, but the two main culprits here are the biggest and most obvious ones. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Now Stanton earns a little bit of grace in my book because his history of postseason heroics is profound. Still though, he’s had one loud double and almost TOOTBLAN and outside of that has been quiet in the postseason thus far. Judge, on the other hand, his postseason woes are also infamous, and while he’s been hitting the ball and getting on base, slapping singles with authority isn’t the reason he might be winning an MVP again this year. Him doing anything productive in that sixth inning at-bat likely changes a lot of things about the direction of the game.
This song has been sung countless times, many of those times by me, but Judge and Stanton are going to need to lead the way if this wants to have a parade down the Canyon of Heroes. The bullpen implosion doesn’t even matter if the offense chose to take the night off. Gausman scored the Yankees only run of the night, that’s simply unacceptable.
Now earlier this year, I wrote about how I was taking a break from baseball. Between the combination of last year’s World Series, losing Juan Soto in free agency, and the annual Boone June Swoon, I had separated myself from the Yankees. This break was healthy, but this postseason I was back like I never left. Yet this year away from baseball was very good because that coupled with the annual experience of heartbreaking postseason exits have numbed me to these kinds of losses. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not happy about it, but when the same person breaks your heart over and over again, the same exact way, you learn some coping strategies. It also obviously helps that this was just the first game in the series. If the trend continues, ask me again when the 2025 movie is actually over, and I might not be able to cope as well.
For now though, you hate to see it, but you also move on and forget about it quicker than ever. We’re back at it tonight, Max Fried is on the mound, and hopefully some sense of duty to repay him after doing him dirty his last time out gets this team back on track. Win today, and you steal home-field, and have a chance to win at home with Carlos Rodón and Cam Schlittler going the next two days.
