Sal's Take On The Red Sox Series

By Sal Maiorana

September 16, 2024

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Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares some of his thoughts on the Yankees.

For Sal's complete analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

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Sal's newsletter contains lots more information than that shared here...

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There’s always something to complain about... you have all become acutely aware. I am nothing if not demanding of the Yankees, and for good reason: They haven’t come close to winning a World Series for 15 years and for a team that has so many financial advantages, that’s simply unacceptable. We can agree on this, I believe.

Obviously, the complaint I had this past weekend centered on the ridiculous scenario that played out in the Saturday game - the only one they lost - when Gerrit Cole intentionally walked Rafael Devers, in a spot no team should ever imagine doing so. Not surprisingly, it turned that game around and cost the Yankees any chance for a potential victory. I’ll get to that in full down below in the game recap.

That aside, there was a lot of good that came out of this Boston series as the Yankees took three of four and pretty much eliminated the rival Red Sox from playoff contention which is always a wonderful thing. More important, because the Orioles continue to stumble, the lead in the AL East is now three games, the largest it has been since June 14 when the Yankees beat the Red Sox and improved to a season-best 28 games over .500 at 50-22.

Since then, you all know the mediocrity that has vexed this team, yet here they are, three games up with 12 to play despite having gone 37-41 since that night at Fenway. It really is pretty crazy that the Yankees have taken control of the division playing the way they have the past three months, but a 5-2 homestand against the Royals and Red Sox coupled with Baltimore stumbling to a 2-4 mark means the division is now New York’s to lose.

And yes, i’s still possible that Aaron Boone’s team could lose it. They now have to go on the West Coast to play Seattle, a team fighting for its postseason life, and then pesky Oakland which has been a much tougher opponent than anyone thought possible when the season started. All that before the three-game set in the Bronx early next week against the Orioles which will almost certainly decide the division.

My worry remains the same with the Yankees: While the pitching was very good last week, particularly the bullpen which seems to have settled down a bit, the offense wasn’t great and against a Mariners’ pitching staff that is outstanding, that could be problematic.

Juan Soto had the walk off hit Thursday, but he’s currently in a 3-for-24 slump; Anthony Volpe is borderline unplayable right now in a 4-for-37 rut; Jazz Chisholm is 8-for-40 with no homers; Giancarlo Stanton is 4-for-34 and Sunday drove in his first run in 10 games; Austin Wells, who had really started to hit the last couple months, is 6-for-38; and Anthony Rizzo has been awful since his return, 8-for-42 without a home run before being benched Sunday in favor of Oswaldo Cabrera who should be the starting first baseman moving forward.

Unless they start getting more production from guys not named Soto and Aaron Judge, the offense remains a big concern this week, next week, and then in the postseason.

Observations:

➤ Nestor Cortes returned to the rotation on Thursday and he was very good, again. He gave up one run on three hits and three walks with nine strikeouts. The only run came on Danny Jansen’s solo homer leading off the fifth. That guy is amazing. He is historically a terrible hitter, a .222 career average with 74 home runs. He’d be a lot worse if he hadn’t played 44 games against the Yankees through Thursday, a .279 average and 10 home runs. That’s right, 10 of his 74 homers have come against the Yankees.

➤ Great night for the bullpen as it produced five scoreless innings from Ian Hamilton, Tim Hill, Tommy Kahnle and, if you can believe this, Clay Holmes who got the final two outs in the 10th.

➤ I couldn’t believe Boone called in Holmes with the automatic runner on second and one out in the 10th. I mean, didn’t we all just assume the Red Sox were taking the lead there? Alas, he needed only six pitches to get the two outs.

➤ Aaron Judge has obviously had an incredible season, one that should easily result in him winning his second AL MVP. But I’d have to say what happened Friday night was his signature moment of the year. The Yankees were dead - shut out for six inning by some guy named Richard Fitts who was making just his second career MLB appearance and start. You’ll love this: Fitts went to Boston in the trade that brought the nightmare of Alex Verdugo to the Yankees.

And then suddenly, down 4-0 in the seventh and Fitts out of the game, out of nowhere, Volpe and Verdugo walked, Torres had an RBI single, Soto walked to load the bases, and Judge launched a go-ahead grand slam and that decided the game. It was incredible, and Chisholm - who had known nothing more than playing in the mausoleum that is the Marlins home park before being trade to New York - was blown away.

“Jazz came up to me after Judge hit the homer,” Boone said. “Just to see our dugout erupt, to see Yankee Stadium erupt, he was like, ‘This is pretty sick.’ That was one of those really cool regular-season moments you get at Yankee Stadium.”

➤ How about Luke Weaver? He pitched the final two innings, and in 35 pitches retired six of the seven men he faced, struck out five, and earned his second career save. What a joy it was to not watch Holmes come in and blow the game. Weaver might be the guy, and who could have possibly figured that when the season started?

➤ I cannot believe what I watched in the fourth inning, and man, did I lose a little respect for Gerrit Cole.

With one out and no one on base and the Yankees leading 1-0, Devers - who has owned Cole throughout his career - stepped into the box and Cole looked at the ump and said, “Nope, not pitching to him.” Cole, Boone and pitching coach Matt Blake decided to intentionally walk Devers, one of the dumbest, chicken things I’ve ever seen in baseball.

It was simply inexplicable. Late in the game, protecting a lead, maybe, maybe, I could see doing it. But in the fourth inning, with no one on base, up a run? As I said, inexplicable. If Devers homers, OK, it’s 1-1. Big deal. All Cole and the Yankees did by walking him was light a fire under the Red Sox and before you knew it, Cole disintegrated right before our eyes. Ten of the next 12 men he faced reached base before Boone yanked him with the Yankees down 7-1.

After the game, the explanations were just as stupid as the decision, but at least Cole recognized the stupidity when he said, “Clearly that was a mistake. I think I bought into the plan going into it, but afterwards it was the wrong move.” Then he backtracked a little by saying, “Look, I’m just trying to win the game. I’m trying to get behind whatever we believe is the best strategy to win the game. I mean, he’s cost us games in the past.”

Boone said this was his fault because he didn’t communicate to Cole that this wasn’t the situation to walk Devers, but Cole said he looked into the dugout before he put up four fingers telling the ump they wanted to walk the face of evil. Who do we believe?

“Once we scored the run, my preference would have been, ‘Let’s attack him,’” Boone said. “But obviously, I didn’t communicate that well enough. I think Gerrit was a little indecisive out there and rolled with it. At the end of the day, I certainly pride myself on communicating at a really high level. We didn’t do it well enough, and that falls on me. So we’re going to learn from it. We’re going to grow from it. And hopefully make sure we can eliminate those gray areas.”

➤ The Red Sox were just as baffled as the rest of us, and Cole’s reputation sure took a hit in their eyes. The most telling quote came from winning pitcher Brayan Bello who said, “I don’t know what to tell you. I feel like he showed a lot of weakness in that move.” Ouch. Cole’s next start will be very interesting.

➤ After what happened Saturday, Carlos Rodon was under some pressure because he needed to get the Yankees back on track in order to close out the series and homestand on a winning note, and he did his part. Rodon had one shaky inning, but he held the Red Sox to two runs and ultimately went 5.1 solid innings to get his 15th win of the season.

“We’ve had our share, I feel like, of some gut-punch losses and tough losses,” Boone said. “These guys have done a great job of really bouncing back in a lot of cases.”

This win gave the Yankees the season series over Boston 7-6, which was the same mark they had against Toronto and Tampa Bay. They are 4-6 against Baltimore with three to play so all in all, it hasn’t been a great performance in the division at 25-24 so far when you consider three of the teams are at .500 or below.

➤ Rodon started great as he retired the first seven me he faced, then walked Jansen. Ceddane Rafaela grounded into a force, then stole two bases on noodle-armed catcher Jose Trevino before Rodon left him stranded at third.

➤ In the third, the count jumped to 4–0 as Torres homered, Soto singled, and Judge crushed his 53rd homer, a 445-footer to dead center. Judge has now reached base 300 times this season, and he’s had 94 games where he reached at least twice. The last Yankee to get on base at least 300 times was Mickey Mantle in 1957. Think about that.

ON DECK:

The Yankees head to the West Coast where in the past things haven’t always gone great, but it sure did in late May-early June on their only other trip to the left side of the country. On that one they played three games each against the Padres, Angels and Giants and went 7-2. Of course that came when the Yankees were playing their best ball of the season during their 50-22 start when it looked like, finally, this team was a legitimate World Series contender. I’m not sure that’s the case anymore.

After traveling Monday, they meet the Mariners for three, a team that is in a fight for its playoff life. Seattle sits 4.5 games behind Houston in the AL West, but is only 2.5 games out of the third wild-card spot, so these games are every bit as huge as they are for the Yankees.

Seattle’s offense has struggled all season as it ranks 26th in MLB in runs per game at 4.09, but it’s pitching staff is elite and ranks second in MLB at 3.79 runs allowed per game, and the Yankees will be facing three of Seattle’s best starters. Had this team hit at all this year, it would easily be leading the AL West.