About Last Night - The Winning Streak Ended

May 21, 2024

***

Well, you can't win them all. And neither can the Yankees.

Last night, though, the Yankees looked primed for a win. They brought a 4-1 lead into the 9th inning - and lost. That's never a fun way to lose.

About Last Night - The Seattle Mariners won 5-4.

Quick Stats:

• WP - Eduard Bazardo

• LP - Clay Holmes

• HR - Dominic Canzone (Seattle)

The Big Story - Sometimes a fan can see a loss coming. I felt that way watching this game. When teams have chances to break the game open and they fail, it seems inevitable that they will regret letting those chances pass. It seems to always come back, badly, in the end. (I understand this is selective memory bias, but it feels true, and it played out to be true last night.)

The Yankees scored twice in the first, but they had a man in scoring position with one out (Alex Verdugo on second base) and didn't score him.

The Yankees had the bases loaded in the fourth inning and didn't score.

The Yankees had first and third with one out in the fifth inning and didn't get another run in. (They did score one run before that spot in the inning.)

In the seventh inning, Anthony Volpe singled. He was thrown out stealing. Then the Yankees loaded the bases with one out and didn't score.

The Yankees hit into 3 double plays. They left nine men on base. Those are recipes for losing. And lose they did.

Clay Holmes failed to hold the lead in the ninth inning. It happens. Life moves on.

Player of the Game - Marcus Stroman deserved better. He should have earned the W. Stroman went 7.1 innings allowing just three hits, and allowing one run. A performance like that is all one can ask for from the starting pitcher.

Notable Performances:

• Alex Verdugo - 3 runs batted in and 3 hits

• Every Yankee except Gleyber Torres and Jose Trevino had at least one hit.

• Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, and Anthony Rizzo had two hits each

Better to Forget - Clay Holmes: With one out in the ninth inning, with a three run lead, he allowed:

• an infield single

• a walk

• another infield single

• a single

• a walk

• a sacrifice fly

• a single

and from there he went to the showers.

My Take - Teams lose games. The Yankees lost. The Yankees had won seven games in a row. I'll take them winning 7 of 8 all of the time.

The key for teams that look to have great seasons is they don't let tough loses turn into losing streaks. Good teams bounce back from a loss and win again. The best thing is to run off another series of wins.

Next Up - Clarke Schmidt looks to end the Yankees' one game losing streak tonight at 7:05 p.m.