Sal's Take On the Yankees

By Sal Maiorana

June 17, 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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On Saturday, Carlos Rodon was brutal in the first two innings and that ultimately decided the game. The Red Sox jumped him for three runs in the first and two more in the second, adding several dents to the Green Monster as they looked like a team seeking redemption after getting lit up by their former teammate the night before.

Rodon had his MLB-best seven-start winning streak snapped, during which time his ERA was 2.08. He threw 62 pitches in the first two innings and across his five innings allowed seven hits (including four doubles), two walks and threw a wild pitch. Two of the hits came on 0-2 pitches.

Some Observations:

➤ Rodon did one thing to help as he got it together and pitched well over the next three innings so he saved some wear and tear on the bullpen as all the Yankees needed were two innings from Ron Marinaccio and one from Victor Gonzalez to finish the game. True to form lately with the bullpen, though, Marinaccio gave up a run in the seventh and Gonzalez was lousy in the eighth as he allowed two big insurance runs, just after the Yankees had pulled within 6-4 in the top half. One of the runs, though, came when Trevino threw a ball into left field trying to pick off Jarren Duran at third and Duran trotted home to make it 8-4.

➤ The Yankees had traffic on the bases but they went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

➤ In the fifth the Yankees loaded the bases on an error and two walks with one out, but Verdugo grounded into a forceout at home and Stanton struck out with three absolutely horrific swings at pitches way out of the strike zone to waste a great threat. Seriously, Stanton’s strikeouts are usually epic fails. I’ve never seen a guy swing at more terrible pitches than him, and he never learns his lesson. Just maddening. I don’t know why any pitcher would ever throw him a fastball. Throw breaking pitches off the plate all night and he’ll get himself out every time.

➤ Anthony Volpe's recent slump deepened. By Saturday night’s end Volpe was down .267, the lowest he’s been since May 12 because he’s in a massive 4-for-37 rut.

➤ Soto, who is playing left field at Fenway because right field is tougher and Verdugo has more familiarity with it, reported all is well his forearm. He told reporters, “It’s been pretty good. I’ve been making a couple throws, like today I made a couple throws and it was pretty good. It’s been reacting really well. Like in the morning when I wake up, it’s really loosened up. We don’t have to do too much work on it. We’re still working, but little by little, we’re getting to 100 percent.” Soto has now reached base at least twice in 11 straight games, a career-long for him.

➤ Then, last night Marcus Stroman stunk; Caleb Ferguson stunk; Luke Weaver stunk; Ian Hamilton stunk; Gleyber Torres made me want to throw the remote through the TV as he capped a truly egregious and hitless series for himself; the Red Sox embarrassed Trevino and the pitchers by stealing a franchise-record nine bases; and a bunch of bearded Boston guys who could walk down Boylston Street and not even be recognized shredded the Yankees all night, just as they did Saturday.

➤ All you needed to see was the second inning to know how this was going to go. Just a terrible job by Stroman to turn a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Aaron Judge homer in the first into a 2-1 Boston lead, one that it never relinquished. He got the first two men out, then walked Valdez, a .213 hitter, and Dominic Smith blooped a single to right field and it looked like either Judge or Verdugo could have caught it but neither did. Smith, not exactly a speedster, stole second which began a night at the races for the Red Sox on the base paths, and thus he and Valdez both scored when Rafaela, down 0-2 in the count, singled on the eighth pitch of his at bat. Had I had any common sense, I should have turned it off right there.

➤ In the top of the seventh inning, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs on singles by Verdugo and Stanton, and Rizzo reached first on an error but in doing so fell on his wrist and had to leave the game. He’s getting imaging, but it looks like a wrist injury that could cost him some time, not that the Yankees would really miss him given the way he has played this season. Here, the Red Sox sent in Zack Kelly who quickly fell behind Torres 3-0. And then this happened: Torres took two perfect meatballs for strikes, then swung at a pitch in the dirt for a Stanton-esque strikeout. Appalling is the only word for it, that is until Trevino looked even worse on his three-pitch whiff. LeMahieu, who just can’t hit anymore, ended the threat by flying to center. No runs. Loaded the bases with no outs, had a 3-0 count, and did not score a single run so the score remained 4-3. That’s almost impossible to do, and it proved costly a few minutes later.

➤ The Red Sox stole a franchise-record nine bases. As I said, just a ridiculous, ludicrous performance from the Yankees in every way.

This is not the way the Yankees wanted to head into an off day, knowing the Orioles are in town starting Tuesday for three games. The last two nights in Boston were terrible, just so many things to bang your head against the wall, and at the same time, the Orioles took two of three from the Phillies in a high-leverage series in Baltimore and come to the Bronx flying high.

My mind has not changed one bit on this: While this has been a great start for the 50-24 Yankees, there’s no way that they’re better than the 47-24 Orioles. It just so happens that they lead by 1.5 games, but by season’s end, I can almost guarantee you that Baltimore will be sitting atop the AL East. If things go really poorly this week, the division could get flipped for good.

If it seems like I’m overly pessimistic today, it’s because I am. I hated an awful lot about this Boston series and now the Yankees are home this week to play the Orioles, a team that leads MLB with 114 homers and is second to the Yankees in runs (364), and is second to the Yankees in team ERA (3.07).

The Yankees would seem to be catching a huge break in the pitching matchups because they are missing Baltimore’s top three of Corbin Burnes, Kyle Bradish, and Grayson Rodriguez, so they have to take advantage of this. The problem is, they won’t be missing any of the Orioles’ outstanding hitters.

The matchups look like this: Tuesday at 7:05 on YES it’s Nestor Cortes (3.59 ERA) against Albert Suarez (1.61); Wednesday at 7:05 on Amazon Prime it’s possibly Gerrit Cole against Cade Povich (4.76); and Thursday at 4:05 on YES it’s Luis Gil (2.03) against Cole Irvin (3.03).