About Last Night: The Yankees Were Massacred By the Braves

About Last Night: The Yankees Were Massacred By the Braves 8-1

By Tim Kabel

June 22, 2024

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The wheels on the bus just fell off

Just fell off

Just fell off

The wheels on the bus just fell off

All through the Bronx

With the way the Yankees played this week, it should have been called “Hopeless Week” instead of “Hope Week”.

Welcome to this week's episode of The Twilight Zone, starring Aaron Boone as “The Man with No Answers” in Return to 2022.

Yogi was right. It is deja vu all over again.

Quick Stats – 

·       The Yankees have lost six out of eight games for the first time this season. Something tells me it won't be the last time.

·       The Yankees mustered only three hits last night. Goodness gracious, Jim Nabors had more hits than that.

·       The Yankees struck out 12 times last night.

·       The Yankees remain in first place by 1/2 game over the Orioles. Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman should go to the post office and get change of address cards because I don't think they'll be staying there long.

·       Before the game, the Yankees signed someone named Phil Bickford. Wasn't he in The Big Country with Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston?.

·       On June 21, 2005, the Yankees overcame a 10-2 deficit to the Tampa Bay Rays and wound up winning the game 20-11. They should have showed that game last night rather than the one we had to watch.

Big Story –

It's OK to have a bad game. It's OK to have “just one of those days”. However when you start to have “just one of those days” almost every day, it is no longer “just one of those days.” Eventually, the good games become “just one of those days.” I'm not trying to hit the panic button, but this is eerily reminiscent of 2022. I have dusted off the panic button I know exactly how many steps I need to make to get to it. I have started having panic button drills. The worst part about this “June swoon” is that it is happening against division rivals and tough competition. 

If the late Donald Sutherland were reading this, he would say “Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves, Moriarty.”

Player of the Game – 

Yoendrys Gomez pitched 4.2 innings of scoreless relief to save the bullpen. His reward will be breakfast in Scranton.

Notable Performances –

Jahmai Jones hit his first career triple.

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Better to Forget – 

The whole enchilada. To paraphrase Archie Bunker, I will say this to the Yankees: “You have ruined another Friday night.”

My Take –  

I have several thoughts about last night's game and the Yankees’ play of late.

·       Jose Trevino is incapable of even throwing out the trash. He can't even throw a compliment. Yet, Aaron Boone continues to send him out to catch almost every day. Another thought: if we have concerns about Trevino’s throwing arm, why would you have him pitch an inning in a blowout loss? I know a reader requested I be banned from saying this but to quote the late Yul Brynner from The King and I, “Is a puzzlement.”

·       Many of us have complained about the Yankees constructing a bullpen out of castoffs and vagabonds. Their response to this? In the past two days, they added Tim Hill and Phil Bickford. They sound like supporting characters in a 1970’s sitcom.

·       DJ LeMahieu has gone from Silver Slugger to Silver Singles, since those are the only hits he gets these days.

·       Aaron Boone should go to high school graduations more often. When he did, that was the only game the Yankees won this week.

·       It was a good move to designate Victor Gonzalez for assignment but when you are replacing him with Tim Hill and or Phil Bickford, does it really make a difference? That would be like replacing Bob Denver with George Lindsey in a production of Twelve Angry Men.

·       With the alternative air conditioning system my landlord offered instead of installing the advertised central air, I feel like Sir Alec Guinness emerging from the hot box in The Bridge on the River Kwai. Being hot usually puts me in a foul mood. Watching last night's game didn't help.

·       I think that one day we will refer to the “Aaron Boone Era” in the same way that we now refer to the “Stump Merrill Era.” In fact, Boone could be known as “Stump, Jr..”

Next Up – 

Tonight, the Yankees will play the second game of the three-game series against the Atlanta Braves at 7:15 PM at Yankee Stadium. Marcus Stroman (6-3, 3.08 ERA) will face Atlanta’s Charlie Morton, (4-3, 3.91 ERA). Let's hope the Yankees are not served up for dinner at Morton’s.