June 16th, 2025: Red Sox Series

Twenty years ago yesterday George Steinbrenner and the Yankees officially announced plans for the new Yankee Stadium. The financing, the site, all that was finalized. The wheels were put into motion. I definitely miss parks of the old ballpark. The atmosphere was better (the atmosphere at the new park is underrated) and I miss walking up the tunnel to see the field. All these new stadiums have open concourses and you don’t get magical moment anywhere anymore, and it sucks. What I don’t miss is the tiny bathrooms, the narrow concourses, all that stuff you get with a stadium build a century ago. Anyway, I’m mad about the Red Sox series, so he’s the Red Sox series portion of Tuesday’s post on Monday. I’ll have the rest of what I have planned Tuesday (plus something on the Rafael Devers trade (?!?)).

1. Weekend thoughts. The Yankees scored 9, 7, and 7 runs last weekend and still lost two of three to the Red Sox. They allowed 2, 4, and 2 runs this weekend and got swept by the Red Sox. The Yankees are a team of contrasts. I’d call it a no-show weekend but the pitching was pretty good. You allow eight runs in a three-game series and you expect to get at least one win out of it, but nope. This weekend was the first time the Yankees scored only four runs in a series of at least three games at Fenway Park since 1916. History with an exclamation point. Here is my bitchfest about the weekend. 

The high point of a low weekend

Aaron Judge vs. Garrett Crochet in the ninth inning of a 1-0 ballgame is why we watch. Two of the sport’s very best players at the height of their powers locked into battle with the game on the line. Crochet had dominated Judge up to that point – 0-for-6 with six strikeouts this year! – and he threw his three fastest pitches of the season that at-bat. It was tremendous theatre. It’s why you sit through eight crappy innings to see that one last Judge at-bat.

“It’s tough when you’re looking at scouting reports and the whole thing is bright red,” Crochet told Bryan Hoch about facing Judge.

Judge’s titanic game-tying home run (video) should have been one of the highlights of the season, but it'll instead be buried in our memories because the Yankees lost the game, as they do way too often when Judge hits a signature homer. He gave his team the lead in Game 5 of the 2020 ALDS, but the Yankees did not score any other runs and Mike Brosseau took Aroldis Chapman deep. Judge tied Game 3 of the ALDS against Emmanuel Clase, then the bullpen blew it. On and on we could go. Add Judge vs. Crochet to the pile.

As frustrating as it was to sit through, I’m not upset about Friday’s lack of offense. Crochet is an A+ pitcher who was on his A+ game, and sometimes a great pitcher just shuts you down. The Yankees had runners on the corners with no outs in the fifth and blew it. It was the only time they had a runner reach third base other than Judge’s homer. 16 of the last 18 batters they sent to the plate made outs, and the non-Judge homer baserunner was immediately erased on a double play.

The Yankees lost Friday’s game because they always lose road extra-inning games. They are 0-4 in road extra-inning games this year (1-0 at home) and not only are they 0-4, they have not scored a single run in six extra innings on the road. Not once have they driven in the automatic runner. Friday night Anthony Volpe got thrown out trying to steal third, which was a bad decision safe or out. He’s already in scoring position and is scoring on any hit to the outfield. An unnecessary risk, it was.

(Volpe is now 7-for-12 (58%) stealing bases this season and 0-for-2 in his last 28 games. He doesn’t steal bases anymore, and when he does attempt it, he’s failing.)

In the automatic runner era, the Yankees have the worst record in road extra-inning games (12-26) and the best record in home extra-inning games (25-13). I just do not understand it. Road teams have a .503 winning percentage in extra innings with the automatic runner. It has erased home field advantage. I guess the Yankees missed the memo. Friday was a fantastic game and sometimes you lose those. That doesn’t mean I liked it, but I had an easier time accepting that and moving on.

Saturday and Sunday though, good grief man. It was a classic Aaron Boone era series in which the Yankees looked unprepared, didn’t match the other team’s intensity, did endless dumb shit on the bases and in the field, and looked soft. The Yankees never led in the series and after only two of 28 innings was the score tied. They fell behind in the second inning Friday and the first inning both Saturday and Sunday. All weekend they had to play catch up and only once did they actually catch up, and that was brief.

Judge had an awful series even with Friday’s homer – 1-for-12 with nine strikeouts and a double play! – and gets most of the blame for the poor offense. That’s the way it goes when you’re the best hitter in baseball, but too many other guys have been in the dumps for weeks now. All those great starts that carried the Yankees early have faded. This is the last 30 days:

Rice has been so bad that I half-wonder if he’ll go to Triple-A when Giancarlo Stanton returns. Probably not, but he rolls over on so many ground balls and the plate discipline that was his hallmark in the minors has vanished. He’s averaging 3.66 pitches per plate appearance. Almost identical to Oswald Peraza (3.65), who has some of the worst pitch recognition I can remember from a once touted prospect. What good is Rice if he’s not hitting?

Anyway, the hitters who carried the offense around Judge early in the season are coming back to Earth and yet every single game they’re batting directly in front of or behind Judge. Grisham and Rice are getting the most non-Judge at-bats on the team. Part of this is roster construction (the Yankees didn’t have an obvious leadoff hitter coming into the season, remember) and part of it is Boone’s never-ending patience with struggling players. He’s quick to move guys up in the lineup when they perform but very slow to move them down when they don't.

The approach and overall at-bat quality is dreadful right now (including Judge). Crochet was dominant. He does that. The rest of the weekend, the Red Sox did not pitch the Yankees especially tough. There were a lot of middle-middle pitches put on the ground or popped up, especially early in the at-bat. I count 23 first or second pitch pop ups and ground outs in the three games. That's out of 102 plate appearances. I wanted to pull my hair out. And when the Yankees did get something going, they hit into the double play, or Domínguez forgot the count, or Rice did whatever he was doing when he got picked off second Sunday. The slump is team wide.

Also, holy crap, the Yankees have to stop doing business with the Red Sox. They’ve gifted them their starting catcher and top two setup men (Garrett Whitlock and Greg Weissert). I was willing to forgive the Whitlock thing because the Rule 5 Draft was weird coming out of the pandemic season, but the Yankees have made enough mistakes since then that I can’t anymore. All the Yankees got out of those moves was a season of Alex Verdugo and a Single-A pitching prospect. Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz better have a 2024 Luis Gil season in 2026, or get traded for someone very, very good at the deadline this year.

Ultimately, the Yankees will be fine. They had an awful weekend. It happens during the long season. They’ve also had three awful weekends in a row against teams expected to contend and aren’t beating the AL Central merchants allegations anytime soon. Here are records within the AL East:

1. Red Sox: 15-11
2. Rays: 10-9
3. Orioles: 8-8
4. Blue Jays: 10-12
5. Yankees: 8-11

The Yankees were 26-26 within the division last year. Their inability to win these AL East series keeps the race close (the lead is four in the loss column, smallest it’s been in a month) and adds to the frustration of watching a team that plays a frustrating brand of baseball. How many more times do I have to watch a runner get picked off second, or a defender misplay a ball because his head was in the clouds? The players change and that all remains each year. (Funny how pinning it on Gleyber Torres and letting him leave didn’t solve the problem.)

When Judge isn’t going nuclear, the Yankees have a hard time scoring runs. We’ve known this for years and it applies to every team when their star hitter isn’t hitting. Judge will be fine, but no doubt about it, that was a terrible weekend for the captain. As bad as it can possibly be while still hitting one of the most electric homers of the season, really. Judge had a bad series and too many other hitters high in the lineup have had several bad weeks. Max Fried should be allowed to give three hitters of his choosing a wedgie.

The Boone era has featured lots of hot starts, sluggish summers, and good enough finishes. I really hope this is not the start of another summer swoon, but this is the way it goes with this team. Bad weekends happen, they come with the long season, but we see the same problems over and over, and when you get pantsed by a rival for the second straight weekend, it doesn’t sit well. That was a truly pathetic showing. One team came to play and the other went through the motions, seemingly surprised their opponent wasn't doing the same.

Miscellany

DJ LeMahieu got ejected Friday for the first time in his career. It was his 1,652nd game. I thought that ball was fair (video), but it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The umpires would have put LeMahieu at first with two outs, where it would have taken a homer or two more hits to score him … Did you enjoy Boone letting Carlos Rodón start the sixth inning Saturday so he could face one of Boston’s many lefty crushers (Trevor Story)? Rodón gave up a second pitch double, then was removed. Story came around to score and that proved to be the winning run. Boone doesn’t give his relievers a clean inning often enough, particularly in close games. I’ve been harping on this for eight years. I’ll stop when he stops … The Yankees have too much faith in Tim Hill against righties. The numbers:

• vs. RHB: .267/.313/.467 (.339 wOBA) with 17.9 K% and 64.5 GB%

• vs. LHB: .118/.196/.137 (.154 wOBA) with 10.9 K% and 67.5 GB%

They should have walked Carlos Narváez, who went from Yankee to Yankee Killer in record time, to load the bases for the lefty hitting Roman Anthony in the tenth inning Friday. I know it would have given Hill no margin of error, but the platoon numbers do not lie. Give me Hill against a lefty over Hill against a righty with the game on the line each and every time … Is Volpe a bad great defender or a great bad defender? There have been so many bobbles and off-line throws this year. And now that he’s not stealing bases either, a lot more of his value is tied to his bat, which isn’t top 10 at his position … And finally, J.C. Escarra is going on the paternity list any day now. The Yankees don’t necessarily have to call up a catcher to replace him. They can use Rice as their backup catcher for a few days. We’ll see how much they really trust him behind the plate. If they call up a catcher, we’ll know they don’t (I bet they call up Jorbit Vivas to sit on the bench).

Injury updates

Giancarlo Stanton (elbows) did not play any rehab games over the weekend because of the weather. He instead hit a bunch against the high-velocity machine at Yankee Stadium. Stanton is expected back either Monday or Tuesday. His return could coincide with Escarra’s paternity leave and kick the roster move down the road a few days … Luis Gil (lat) is two weeks or so away from facing hitters. That puts him on track to return soon after the All-Star break. The Yankees need a starter at the deadline. There won’t be enough time to evaluate Gil and see whether he makes a starter unnecessary … Jazz Chisholm Jr. (groin) definitely isn’t 100%. He’s not one to hustle down the line anyway, but he jogged out everything this weekend. Seems like he’s under orders not to push it and potentially make things worse. That ain’t great … Nothing final yet, but Jake Cousins (elbow) is likely to have Tommy John surgery. That will put him on the 40-man roster chopping block in the offseason. We can worry about that in the offseason.

Up next

The Yankees return home for a seven-game homestand against two teams a little more on their level right now: Angels and Orioles. Here’s what’s coming up this week:

• Monday vs. Angels: RHP Clarke Schmidt vs. RHP José Soriano (7pm ET on YES, MLB)

• Tuesday vs. Angels: RHP Will Warren vs. RHP Kyle Hendricks (7pm ET on YES)

• Wednesday vs. Angels: LHP Ryan Yarbrough vs. RHP Jack Kochanowicz (7pm ET on Amazon)

• Thursday vs. Angels: LHP Carlos Rodón vs. LHP Tyler Anderson (1pm ET on YES, MLBN)

Gerrit Cole will spend several innings in the booth Tuesday night, which should be entertaining. Also, the Yankees have a rare midweek afternoon game Thursday. You can thank the Angels for that. They have to fly home after the game and the CBA mandates a getaway day for East Coast to West Coast travel. After the garbage weekend in Boston, the Yankees need to beat the breaks off the Halos this week.

(Send your requests for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com. The random Yankee series is on hiatus, but feel free to send in requests for when it returns.)