About Last Night: The Yankees Beat the Orioles 4-1

About Last Night: The Yankees Beat the Orioles 4-1

By Tim Kabel

July 13, 2024

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The Yankee showed a little life last night, beating the Orioles behind their ace, Gerrit Cole. The Yankees have been struggling mightily for over a month now but, the Orioles have not been doing much better. It was important for the Yankees to win last night, to get off to a good start in this series and to hopefully end the nominal first half of the season on a high note. Well, they won that game, but there are still two more to go in this series and the Orioles will probably be fired up after last night. 

So far this season, the Yankees’ pitchers have hit 10 Baltimore batters while the Orioles have hit 3 Yankees. In the 9th inning, Clay Holmes hit Heston Kjerstad in the head with a pitch.  If the Orioles had come back after Heston was hurt, it would have been The Agony and the Ecstacy. Instead, Heston being hit led to a bench-clearing incident involving at least Three Violent People.

Quick Stats – 

·       The Yankees have lost seven of their last eight series, with one tie. Baseball experts always say that to win the championship, you have to win series. Things don't look that promising for the Yankees. They need to start winning games with regularity and winning series will follow. Last night may have been a step in the right direction.

·       Anthony Volpe was 4-44 heading into last night’s game.

·       Gerrit Cole reached a top velocity of 98.7 mph last might.  He also had an 8-pitch inning.

·       Aaron Judge had gone 8 straight games without an extra base hit before he hit his 33rd home run in the third inning. He also walked four times last night.

·       I knew Aaron Boone would eventually return DJ LeMahieu to the leadoff spot. He just can't help himself. Well, LeMahieu was predictably, 0-5 and is now batting.193 for the season.

·      On July 12,1951, “Super Chief”, Allie Reynolds threw the first of his two no-hitters that season, beating the Indians and Bob Feller, 1-0.

·      On July 12, 1989, Ron Guidry retired. He was the best Yankees’ pitcher I ever saw.

The Big Story –

The Yankees showed some fight last night in more ways than one. They won a game that they really had to win. There is still a lot of time left in this season but if they lost last night, especially with Gerrit Cole pitching, it would have put them in a tough spot as far as winning this series and making some headway against the Orioles. Before we get too excited, the Yankees still have been one of the worst teams in baseball for the last month. They have not won a series since the beginning of June. With the way the game ended, the Orioles could be very focused for the next two days, so who knows what will happen. What did happen last night was the Yankees showed some guts and won a game against the team they are trailing in the standings. How much that will mean, no one knows. It will only be important if it leads to a significant winning streak.

Player of the Game – 

Gerrit Cole returned to form, pitching six innings, allowing only one run while striking out seven and walking one.

Notable Performance –

Aaron Judge reached base all five times he came to the plate last night, including his 33rd home run of the season.

Better to Forget – 

DJ LeMahieu made a not-so-triumphant return to the leadoff spot, going 0-5 and reducing his batting average to .193 for the season.

My Take –  

The Yankees did win the game last night. However, that does not necessarily mean that there has to be joy in Mudville. There doesn't have to be. There should not be. Just because the Yankees won, that does not mean that Aaron Boone is suddenly a good manager. He isn't. Right now, DJ LeMahieu is the worst hitter on the team among the starters. He had a few hits earlier this week but, he is still hitting below .200 for the season. He appears to be washed up. So naturally, Boone put him in the leadoff spot. The goal is to get your leadoff hitter on base. LeMahieu was 0-5. He did nothing. Yet, Boone gave him an extra at-bat by hitting him at the top of the lineup. It made no sense.

When I saw that the lineup included LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres, Jose Trevino, and Jahmai Jones, I was not lamenting the fact that I was unable to attend the game. With Aaron Boone as the manager, common sense is not very common in the manager's office. Before we get too excited about last night's victory, remember the old adage “You can't win them all.” Conversely, “You can't lose them all,” either.

Despite last night's win, the Yankees could still lose this series. They have lost seven out of their last eight series. That is not a slide. That is not a losing streak. That is losing. That is a pattern of undesirable play that needs to stop. This collapse needs to be reversed. The way to do it is to win games and then win series. After that, stringing together series wins will start to turn things around. It won't happen in one night. This spate of losing games occurred over time; winning games over time is the only way to reverse it.

I have advocated for the Yankees to fire Boone at the All-Star break. One victory does not cancel that. He made some very dubious decisions last night, but the Yankees won the game anyway. The Yankees need to upgrade their personnel and they need to replace the manager headed into the nominal second half of the season. One win, as nice as it was, does not change that.

Next Up – 

Today, the Yankees will play the second game of a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles at 4:05 PM at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Luis Gil, (9-4, 3.41 ERA) will face Baltimore’s Grayson Rodriguez, (10-3 3.45 ERA).