About Last Night: The Yankees Were Shut Out by the Orioles 1-0.

About Last Night: The Yankees Were Shut Out by the Orioles 1-0

By Tim Kabel

July 29, 2023

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The last-place Yankees opened a three-game series against the first-place Orioles last night, after going 4-1 in their last five games. It must be noted that three of those wins came against the Royals, the second-worst team in the Major Leagues.

Aaron Judge returned to the lineup for the first time since June 6th, after being on the IL with a torn ligament in his toe. The Yankees have missed him tremendously, going 19-23 without him. However, it is unrealistic and unfair to expect him to immediately begin carrying this team now that he is back.

Gerrit Cole pitched 7 shutout innings but, the Yankees wasted his effort.

The Orioles have truly turned things around by developing and playing their young talent. The Yankees have refused to do this, except for Anthony Volpe. The Orioles are clearly the better team now. They made outstanding defensive plays throughout the game, and their pitching was stellar. They waited until the opportunity to score a run presented itself, and they took advantage of it. Anthony Santander hit the 8th changeup. in a row thrown by Tommy Kahnle over the fence for a home run to win the game.

Unfortunately, many fans bought into the sweep against Royals and felt the Yankees were headed for a hot streak that would lead them into the playoffs. Realistically, they just took advantage of one of the few teams that is actually worse than they are. I have this image of Aaron Boone wandering through the woods with a little dog in a basket, saying, "We're not playing Kansas City anymore, Toto. Home runs, and defense, and pitching, oh my."

Quick Stats -

• This was Gerrit Cole's 17th start this season in which he allowed two runs or fewer.

• The Orioles went into play last night with the second-best record (62-40), and the best road record (32-20), in the Majors. The Orioles are not a joke anymore.

• Aaron Judge has 38 career home runs against the Orioles.

• Grayson Rodriguez became the 38th starting pitcher this year to hold the Yankees to three or fewer runs this season.

• The Yankees and the Orioles will play in the Sunday night game this week. It will be the first time that the Orioles played in the ESPN Sunday night game since 2018, which interestingly, was the last game I attended.

• Prior to yesterday's game, the Yankees reactivated Aaron Judge. To make room for him on the roster, they sent Oswald Peraza to Scranton Wilkes-Barre. Peraza was brought up to replace Josh Donaldson on the roster. The Yankees kept Jake Bauers, Billy McKinney, and Greg Allen, all outfielders, over Peraza. They also kept Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The whole point of bringing Peraza up was to see what he could do at the Major League level, and to give him an opportunity to play. Why would they send him down? As Yul Brynner said in The King and I, “is a puzzlement".

• Anthony Rizzo is 13-76 in July. That is .171.

• The Yankees were shut out for the sixth time this season last night.

• On July 28th, 1995, the Yankees traded for David Cone, who became a key part of the Championship run from 1996-2000.

The Big Story -

The Yankees are now 54-49. That's a .524 winning percentage. They are in last place in the American League East. They are in 5th place in the Wild Card race and 3 1/2 games out of a playoff spot.

They have two more games against the Orioles this weekend and this season. They will have no chance to make up ground against the Orioles in head-to-head matchups after Sunday. They would have to pass everybody in the American League East to win the division. They're running out of time. After they finish playing the Orioles, they have seven games against the Rays and the Astros. This 10-game stretch will answer all the questions regarding the Yankees' chances to make the playoffs.

Player of the Day -

Gerrit Cole was dominant once again, pitching 7 shutout innings, with five strikeouts and no walks. It seems that later in the game, Cole and his catcher, Ben Rortvedt weren't on the same page. I wouldn't read too much into the verbal exchange they had. They will be fine.

Notable Performances-

Aaron Judge was on base three times in his first game back from the IL.

Better to Forget-

Tommy Kahnle struggled again in relief. The purpose of a change of pace is to provide variety and something different from the fastball and other pitches. If you don't throw anything else, it's not a change of pace. It's pace. And it's a slow pace, which is why Santander hit the last one out of the park.

My Take -

Wanting something to be a certain way does not necessarily make it so. I can walk into a men's clothing store all day long and want the fancy shirt in a large size to fit me. It never will.

A great deal of misery in this world comes from people having unrealistic expectations. I have seen it working in social services for 30 years. I also see it in the world of sports.

To imagine that the Yankees will suddenly become competitors if they acquire one or two players is not realistic. It would be folly to gather up prospects once again and send them out for marginal veterans who are on expiring contracts. Even if this team managed to make it to the playoffs, they would not go far.

I know that Nestor Cortes will be back. When you combine him with Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon, who will only get better, the Yankees could have a very formidable rotation. However, if the offense continues to disappear on a regular basis, the Yankees will not be able to win against the stiffer competition they will face in the playoffs.

I do believe Cody Bellinger could help this team. But his contract contains a mutual option for next year, which he will undoubtedly decline, making him a free agent. He would cost several prospects for two months that would end in disappointment. It would be a repeat performance of the Andrew Benintendi trade from last season. It would make more sense to sign Bellinger in the off-season, if the Yankees were so inclined.

The trading deadline is at 6:00 PM on Tuesday. That does not leave a lot of time to decide which direction the Yankees should take. At this point, I believe they should trade some or all of the following players: Anthony Rizzo, Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu, Luis Severino, Wandy Peralta, IKF, and possibly Harrison Bader, whom they could re-sign in the off-season.

They should also trade Estevan Florial, if they have no intention of bringing him up. They should recall. Oswald Peraza, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Everson Pereira. They should bring up Deivi Garcia and release or trade Albert Abreu. Trey Sweeney should be promoted to AAA and moved to third base. The Yankees need to retool. They don't need to rebuild. But they need to see what they have in the minor leagues.

I believe the Yankees should fire Aaron Boone tomorrow and get someone in here to develop their young talent. They won't do that, so, I'm not going to spend a lot of time discussing it. If they remove the veteran options, Boone will have no choice but to play the young guys. Boone-proofing may be too little, too late to salvage this season, but It should be used to evaluate and develop the young talent on this roster.

Next Up -

Tonight, the Yankees play the second game of the three-game series against the Orioles at 7:15 PM at Oriole Park. Clarke Schmidt (6-6 4.33 ERA) will face Baltimore's Tyler Wells (7-5 3.65 ERA).