About Last Night: CIN 8, NYY 4

By Ethan Semendinger

July 5th, 2024

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First, they lost the National Anthem stand-off. Then, they lost the game. At least Ben Rice hit his first MLB Home Run.

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Quick Stats -

• Winning Pitcher: Frankie Montas (4-6, 4.19 ERA)

• Losing Pitcher: Marcus Stroman (7-4, 3.58 ERA)

• Save: N/A

• Home Runs (Cincinnati): Nick Martini (5), Jonathan India (6), Spencer Steer (11)

• Home Runs (New York): Austin Wells (4), Ben Rice (1), Juan Soto (21)

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Big Story - Going into this year, there was a hope amongst many of us here at SSTN that Anthony Volpe would be allowed to develop as a hitter in the 9-hole. It was a strategy used a lot: having a high-contact, speedy guy as your "second lead-off" hitter.

The Yankees instead placed him in 5th, 6th, and 7th in the line-up. And, after just 11 games, they moved him full-time into the lead-off spot. Volpe had been hitting to a .375 AVG with a .444 OBP, .600 SLG, and a 1.044 OPS...but this was also after just 46 plate appearances.

For the next 76 games, Volpe was the lead-off hitter, and he produced to a triple-slash of .242/.293/.358 with a .650 OPS. (This is barely better than Gleyber Torres this year- who has an OPS of .642 and an OPS+ of 82.)

Yesterday, the Yankees finally moved him down. Except, now they're trying the same game again with Ben Rice...after just 14 games (and 45 PA's), as he's been hitting to a .270/.378/.351 triple-slash with a .729 OPS.

When will they learn?

Here was the line-up for the final game of the three-game series against the Reds:

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Player of the Game -

• Juan Soto: 1-3, Run, Home Run, 2 RBI's, BB

Notable Performances -

• Austin Wells: 1-4, Run, Home Run, RBI

• Ben Rice: 1-5, Run, Home Run, RBI, 2 K's

• Alex Verdugo: 3-4, Double

• Trent Grisham: 1-2, Run, Double, BB

• Caleb Ferguson: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's

Better to Forget -

• Marcus Stroman: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 5 R (5 ER), 2 BB's, 6 K's

• Tim Hill: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R (2 ER), 0 BB's, 0 K's

• Aaron Judge: 0-4, 2 K's

• Anthony Volpe: 0-4

• Oswaldo Cabrera: 0-3, K

• Trent Grisham loafing after a ground ball single, bobbling it, and turning it into a "double."

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The Game - Do you want to know a quick and easy way to see if a game stunk? Go to the Yankees Twitter ("X") page and see how many times the social media manager posted about the game.

Between the line-up card and the final score, the Yankees posted just 4 tweets. The first was for the ceremonial first pitch, thrown by Bronx-native and Olympic-bound triple-jumper Salif Mane. The second was the singing of the national anthem by US Air Force Technical Sergeant Melissa Lackore. The third was for the anniversary of Lou Gehrig's "Luckiest Man" speech and the honoring of some local ALS organizations. The fourth was for Ben Rice's first MLB home run.

No shame to the non-game tweets- those are all great tweets and great use of the social media platform- but, when a baseball team posts only one tweet about the game itself, that's a troubling sign.

The Yankees lost 8-4 and got swept in 3 games by the Cincinnati Reds yesterday afternoon.

The day started with the Yankees losing a "stand-off" after the National Anthem, because manager Aron Boone told the Yankees players to "step down" and then quickly fell apart after Will Benson robbed Juan Soto of a 1st inning home run, and then Nick Martini hit a 2nd inning home run.

And then Jonathan India hit a home run in the 3rd. And Spencer Steer hit a 3-run home run in the 5th. At this point, the Reds were up 5-0.

The Yankees did start to mount a comeback in the bottom of the 5th, starting with an Austin Wells home run and followed up quickly by a Ben Rice home run (his first in the MLB!). The Yankees were challenging the Reds again the 6th inning, but the contact play with Alex Verdugo on third resulted in an out at home off an Anthony Volpe groundball.

Then the Reds stuck again in the 7th inning with a bases-loaded and bases-clearing triple from Jake Fraley. The Yankees would answer with a 2-run home run from Juan Soto in the bottom of the 7th to make the score 8-4, and that was pretty much the end of it.

The 8th and 9th innings brought little excitement, and the Yankees lost.

Trent Grisham loafed after a ball. This happens when the Yankees start to lose. Aaron Boone did nothing about Grisham's play.

This just isn't fun.

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Next Up - The Yankees (54-35) will start a three-game weekend series against the Boston Red Sox (47-39). The Yankees will be putting Nestor Cortes (4-7, 3.51 ERA) on the mound against Tanner Houck (7-6, 2.67 ERA). It is George Constanza Bobblehead Night! (It's quite sad that this is the most exciting thing for the Yankees recently.) Television coverage will begin at 7:05 PM on YES.