The Yankees of Late

By Sal Maiorana

April 24, 2024

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

For Sal's 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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Who was that team in the road grays over the weekend that was knocking the ball all around Great American Field in Milwaukee?

Before they flew up to the land of the Cheeseheads, the Yankees offense was driving all of us crazy with its never-ending string of bad at bats and lack of clutch hitting. Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, Anthony Rizzo and Austin Wells looked helpless, Anthony Volpe had crashed into a brick wall after his red-hot start, Oswaldo Cabrera was starting to remember who he is, and even Juan Soto had fallen off a bit.

In the 10 games before they arrived in Milwaukee, they had scored just 32 runs and gone 5-5 in that stretch. But then they came face to face with the Brewers pitching staff and wow, was that ever a sight for sore eyes.

The Yankees erupted for 38 runs on 43 hits in this series, and the only thing that prevented a sweep was some stupid bullpen management Friday night by Aaron Boone which helped the Brewers pull out a 7-6 victory in 11 innings.

Saturday and Sunday were otherworldly performances with the bats as 30 of the runs and 37 of the hits came in those two games. Combined, they went 13-for-31 with runners in scoring position. That’s right, they had 31 at bats in those two games with a runner in scoring position which is pretty insane.

Aaron Boone made a change to the batting order Saturday which seemed to help spark the offensive resurgence as he moved Alex Verdugo into the cleanup spot and he moved Rizzo down to six and Torres to seven. That paid instant dividends as those three players combined for 16 hits Saturday and Sunday.

How unusual was it for the Yankees to score double digit runs in back-to-back games? Last year they had only nine games all year where they scored at least 10 runs, with a high of 12. And their highest two-game total was 21 which they accomplished twice - both against the awful A’s on May 9-10 and then again June 28-29. They didn’t reach double digits in any game after that June 29 10-4 victory.

They haven’t scored at least 15 runs in back-to-back games since July 21-22, 2007, and before that it was Aug. 25-26, 1938, so yeah, this was pretty unusual.

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The moment you saw relief pitcher Michael Tonkin walk out to the mound for the bottom of the 10th inning, in the series' first game, you knew two things: The Yankees were not winning this game, and Boone really didn’t care much about that.

Tonkin is the very definition of a journeyman. He pitched from 2013-17 with the Twins, but from 2018-22, he was either in Japan, Mexico, or sitting out because of the pandemic. He made it back to the bigs with the Braves in 2023, but they moved on and since then the smartest thing he’s done is not unpack his suitcase.

He began this season with the Mets, pitched in three games and they dumped him. The Twins signed him on April 9 and after one outing they said no thanks. The Mets then brought him back on April 17, used him in two games and cut him again. Seeing all this, the Yankees somehow thought they could resurrect him so they signed him and trotted him out for his debut against the Brewers.

It did not go well, he wound up taking the loss, and that left Boone to explain why he basically punted the game because he could have used Clay Holmes in the 10th after the Yankees had taken the lead, but he chose not to even though Holmes threw only 10 pitches in an easy ninth inning.

“He is on about an 80-game pace in April, and with some of the attrition we’ve had in our bullpen, wasn’t going to send the closer out for - I’ll do four outs this time of year and those kind of things, but wasn’t going to send him out for a second inning,” Boone said.

Maddening. They had the lead, Holmes had been very good his last few times out, and he threw only 10 pitches. He should have been back out for the 11th and ya know what, if need be, Boone could have stayed away from him in the final two games.

You win the game at hand and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. Saturday and Sunday could have been blowouts (which is exactly what happened on both days) with no need for Holmes, so why not use him in the moment and give yourself the best chance to win a game that was right there to be won?

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Other Notes and Observations:

➤ The Yankees are now 3-15 in road extra-inning games since 2022. That's the worst record among all teams over the last three seasons.

➤ Verdugo’s switch to cleanup was deserved because he has been on a little roll lately.

➤ Carlos Rodon pitched very well in hi last start to get an easy win. He went six innings and allowed just one run (a solo homer by Rhys Hoskins in the second) on two hits and a walk while striking out eight. Gotta say, he has put 2023 behind him and is starting to show why the Yankees gave him $162 million.

➤ Yesterday Marcus Stroman really hadn’t had any command in the first four innings but he left six men stranded including Sal Frelick who led off the bottom of the third with a triple and never scored. But in the fifth it all caught up to Stroman. He faced five men and they all reached base with Adams hitting an RBI double and Jake Bauers - yes, former Yankee Jake Bauers who couldn’t hit a softball last season - launched a game-tying three-run homer. Stroman then walked Sanchez and that was it for him so Ron Marinaccio entered and got through the inning with the game still tied.

➤ Besides Stroman’s tough day, Ian Hamilton had another questionable performance. He pitched the bottom of the sixth and like Stroman, had zero command. Marinaccio gave up a double so Boone went to Hamilton and he gave up that run on a single, a wild pitch and hit batter. The bullpen continues to struggle, particularly Hamilton who is supposed to be a high leverage guy this season.

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Now the Yankees head to Baltimore for the first four of 13 games against the team that almost everyone believes is going to ultimately win the AL East, and one that won’t be in a great mood after losing two of three over the weekend to the pesky A’s. Sunday, Orioles closer Craig Kimbrel gave up two runs in the ninth to give the A’s a shocking 7-6 victory.

The A’s series aside, the 17-10 Orioles have been every bit as good as we thought they’d be on offense with their relentless lineup. They lead MLB with 44 home runs, are fifth in average (.257) and third in OPS (.773). It hasn’t been as clean on the mound as they rank 13th in ERA (3.87), but with an offense like this, the Orioles can afford to give up a few runs.

One player the Yankees won’t see is the No. 1 prospect in MLB, second baseman Jackson Holliday. He was called up a few weeks ago to trumpets blaring, but the 20-year-old was overwhelmed, went 2-for-34, and was sent back to Triple-A the other day. Simply put, the Orioles don’t need to rush him.