About Last Night: NYY 4, TBR 5

By Ethan Semendinger

July 12th, 2024

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It's now 8 series in a row without a win. At this point, I'm just wondering when Boone will get fired.

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Quick Stats -

• Winning Pitcher: Kevin Kelly (3-1, 3.83 ERA)

• Losing Pitcher: Nestor Cortes (4-8, 3.67 ERA)

• Save: Pete Fairbanks (16)

• Home Runs (New York): Austin Wells (5), Juan Soto (22)

• Home Runs (Tampa Bay): Randy Arozarena (12)

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Big Story - The Yankees dropped the first game of this series against the Rays by a score of 5-3. They then won, on the backs of clutch defense and good bullpen pitching, by a score of 2-1 in game two of three.

In the rubber-match, last night they had the ability to win their first series since June 10th-13th, when they took 3 of 4 against the Kansas City Royals.

That was the big story: Could the Yankees, finally, win another series?

However- and this may be something fun to talk about instead of the game- the Yankees as a team just ranked best in the MLB for team defense on Fangraphs. Here is a link to the article. It's a good and interesting read.

Anyway, here was the line-up for the final game of the three-game series against the Rays:

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Player of the Game -

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

Notable Performances -

• Michael Tonkin: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 3 K's

• Nick Cousins: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 3 K's

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

• Austin Wells: 2-3, Run, Home Run, K

• Ben Rice: 1-3, 2 RBI's, BB, K

• Oswaldo Cabrera: 1-3, 2 Runs, BB, K

Better to Forget -

• Nestor Cortes: 4.1 IP, 7 H, 5 R (5 ER), 2 BB's, 4 K's

• Aaron Judge: 0-4, BB, K

• Anthony Volpe: 0-3, BB, K

• Trent Grisham: 0-4, K

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The Game - Nestor Cortes cannot play on the road. After the game today, his road ERA jumped over 6. And, only pitching 4.1 innings while allowing 5 runs will do that.

In the first inning, the Yankees threatened with runners on 2nd and 3rd from an Alex Verdugo single and a Juan Soto double, but they couldn't capitalize. Aaron Judge's flyout resulted in no tagging up from Verdugo, and then Ben Rice and Gleyber Torres both struck out to end the inning.

Meanwhile, the Rays quickly grabbed a 2-0 lead after near back-to-back home runs. Nestor got lucky that Yandy Diaz's lead-off hit missed being a homer (did it hit the catwalk?)...but then Randy Arozarena made the double a moot point anyway, and hit a rocket of a homerun right over the tiny porch in left field. (And they say Yankee Stadium has a short porch.)

The Yankees responded in the 2nd with an Austin Wells solo home-run (2-1, Rays). And then Juan Soto joined the show and hit a solo home-run of his own to tie the game in the 3rd (2-2, Tie). The Yankees were right back in it...until the Rays answered.

In the 3rd inning, Yandy Diaz hit another lead-off double, and then scored on a 1-out Brandon Lowe single (3-2, Rays). Following this, Isaac Paredes walked and Amed Rosario brought home Lowe with an RBI double (4-2, Rays). Then, Jose Siri hit a sacrifice fly to score Paredes (5-2, Rays).

The Yankees would challenge again in the 5th, working the bases loaded with 1-out from a single from Oswaldo Cabrera and walks from Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, but they only plated one run on a Ben Rice sacrifice fly (5-3, Rays). Then, the Yankees escaped a 1-out bases loaded situation in the bottom of the 5th after a single, walk, hit-by-pitch combo ended Nestor Cortes' night. Thankfully, the Rays didn't score and instead Jose Siri hit into a double-play.

The Yankees kept the Rays quiet for the rest of the night after that scare. The 6th and 7th innings didn't bring any new excitement, but the Yankees did have a rally going in the 8th inning. Judge struck out, but Ben Rice walked, and Gleyber Torres singled to put them in a good spot for LHB Austin Wells against LHP Colin Poche. (Mind you, Colin Poche has reverse splits, and Austin Wells was 2-3 on the day with a home run.) So, Aaron Boone went to Jose Trevino, who struck out. Volpe then walked the bases loaded, and Grisham flied out to end the threat.

Now, Jose Trevino got screwed by the umpire. On the 3-0 count, the umpire called a very high pitch (above the letters) a strike. Then, he called a regular strike a strike. Then, he called a pitch that barely hit the bottom of the zone as strike three. Trevino should've walked. With robot umps, he would have. HOWEVER, Jose Trevino had been hitting to a .132 clip (5-38) in his last 15 games. This was a DISASTER of a move by Boone, regardless of the outcome. This was just terrible.

The Yankees again challenged in the top of the 9th, after Oswaldo Cabrera worked a lead-off walk and Juan Soto did the same after a Verdugo ground-out. Up steps Aaron Judge...who popped out to first (this was a great play by Yandy Diaz). Then, Ben Rice scored Cabrera with a single to right field, and Soto (the tying run) moved to third.

And then Gleyber Torres popped out to end the game. (Yes, it was 100% a catch.)

Yankees lose again.

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My dad had faith at the end of the game that the Yankees were going to pull it off. I didn't. Judge is now hitting .200 in July with just 1 extra base hit in 9 games. Juan Soto is in obvious pain when he swings the bat. Outside of those two, the only Yankees hitting above .250 after this game are Ben Rice (whose played 21 MLB games) and Jahmai Jones (whose played 28 games this year just 64 MLB games in his career).

In their last 20 games, the Yankees have scored 95 runs. That's 4.75 runs per game, and in-line with the best in the league. (That would slot in 11th, behind the Astros and in front of the Red Sox). However, that includes both a 16 run and a 14 run game. Let's eliminate those oddities and recalculate a more telling number.

In 18 of their last 20 games, the Yankees have scored 65 runs, or 3.61 runs per game. That would be the 3rd worst in the MLB, behind the Mariners and ahead of the Marlins.

In their last 20 games, the Yankees have allowed 4+ runs, 16 times. It is no surprise they have lost 14 of those games, and the two wins during that stretch where the aforementioned 16 and 14 run games.

Everything about this team is bad. (Except, maybe defense. Again, we should just talk about this Fangraphs article instead of the game last night.)

My only question now is: When does this finally come back and result in Boone getting fired?

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Next Up - Tonight, the Yankees (56-39) begin a three-game road series (the last before the All-Star Break) against the incredibly strong Baltimore Orioles (57-36). The Yankees will hope that their starter, Gerrit Cole (1-1, 6.75 ERA), can find himself back into 2023 form, while the Orioles will send out rookie pitcher Cade Povich (1-3, 6.51 ERA) for his 7th career MLB game. Coverage begins at 7:05 PM on YES.

And, let's also not forget this morning: Happy Birthday, Dad! Thanks for all you do with running this site!