About Last Night: Yanks Lose AGAIN???!!!

by Paul Semendinger

August 30, 2022

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About Last Night:

After dropping the final two games of the four game series with the Oakland A's, the Yankees began their series with the Angels and dropped another. This is now the team's third loss in a row and they are not losing to teams that are great baseball teams. The A's were the worst team in the league. The Angels are not much better - they have the fourth worst record.

This game was a back-and-forth battle as Frankie Montas pitched against Jose Suarez:

• The Angels scored first, in the bottom of the second inning, on a solo homer from Luis Rengifo.

• The Yankees, though, came right back in the third inning and scored a run of their own, on a squeeze play. That's correct; you read that correctly. The Yankees played for the small inning by squeezing home a run on a bunt which was the second out of the inning - a bunt from D.J. LeMahieu, supposedly one of their best hitters. The good news, in the end, was it worked. The run scored. (The runner who scored, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, has walked with one out and was singled to third by Oswaldo Cabrera before LeMahieu's bunt.)

• In the top of the fourth, Anthony Rizzo hit a long high solo home run to give the Yankees the lead. The announcers started to opine that a blast like that just might awake the Yankees from their slumber. "That might be the hit that turns this all around," that type of thing. (It wasn't.)

• This time it was the Angels that came right back. In the bottom of the fourth inning, former Yankee Mike Ford, hit a solo homer of his own... his first of the year, to tie the game at two.

• Then, in the bottom of the fifth inning, with two outs, Mike Trout singled. That was followed by a two-run homer by Shohei Ohtani to put the home team up 4-2.

• In the eighth inning, Aaron Judge hit his 50th homer of the year, a solo homer, to make the score look a little better, but in the end that was it. The Angels won 4-3.

Quick Stats:

• Frankie Montas took the loss for the Yankees. In five starts for the Yankees, Montas is 0-2, 7.01. For the season, he is 4-11.

• Clay Holmes returned from the IL and pitched a scoreless inning, striking out one

• Anthony Rizzo's homer was his 29th of the season.

• Aaron Judge's homer was his 50th.

• Giancarlo Stanton went hitless. He is now 2 for 16 since returning from the IL

• No player on the Yankees is hitting .300 for the season (as a Yankee).

• Only one Yankee, Aaron Judge (.294), is batting over .271.

• Only two Yankees, Judge and D.J. LeMahieu (.271) are hitting over .270 - for the season! (When you hear that the Yankees are a great offensive team, remember that statistic.)

• Of note, for the season, the following Yankees (with over 30 games played) are batting under .230: Josh Donaldson (.224), Anthony Rizzo (.223), Aaron Hicks (.216), Marwin Gonzalez (.200), Kyle Higashioka (.195).
  

The Big Story:

The Yankees are in trouble. They are finding it difficult to find any consistency. What was once a dream season is turning into a nightmare. There is no way to look at this any differently.

The Yankees are 9-17 in August. The BEST they can do for the month, by winning tonight and tomorrow is reach 11 victories. The best they can do is have a .392 winning percentage for the month. The 1990 Yankees finished in last place. That team went 10-18 for the month of August. The 1966 Yankees finished in last place. That team went 13-19 in August. The best the 2022 Yankees can do is have an August as good as some of the worst teams in the franchise's history.

In 1978, the Red Sox famously blew a huge lead and lost the pennant. When play began on August 30, 1978, the Red Sox had a 7.5 game lead on the Yankees. The 2022 Yankees have a 7.0 game lead on the second place Tampa Bay Rays as today dawns. The Yankees still have six games to play against the Rays in 2022.

The big difference (for the optimists out there) is that there are expanded playoffs in 2022. Player(s) of the Game:

A lot is being said right now about Aaron Judge's 50th homer. That's very impressive. There is no denying that, but Mike Ford's first homer of the year was more significant last night. Better to Forget:

The Yankees managed just three hits through the first six innings of play. My Take:

What more is there to say? Not much. The Yankees are searching for answers right now. There is this idea that the Yankees can just flip a switch and start winning games. I hope that's true, but if they are that good, that they can just start winning when they want, why are they playing so poorly now? Are they losing on purpose? And if they are that good, why haven't they flipped that switch in any season since 2009 and won a World Series?

Next Up:

Jameson Taillon takes the mound tonight for the Yankees. Game time is 9:38 p.m.