The Yankees had a 13-game winning streak, then they lost the next 2 games against the Oakland Athletics. Then they went down to Anaheim to play the (pardon me) Los Angeles Angels.
Corey Kluber made his return from injury. He should have been given 2 more rehab starts in the minor leagues. Over the 1st 3 innings, he allowed no runs, no hits, and just 1 walk. But he was not ready to go 4 innings: In the bottom of the 4th, he struck out the 1st batter, then allowed single, single, RBI single, flyout, walk, 3-run homer, single, flyout. He turned a 2-0 Yankee lead into a 5-2 Angel lead.
The Yankees tied it back up in the top of the 5th. But Aaron Boone brought Andrew Heaney in to pitch, and he gave the lead right back, on a home run by the Flavor of the Month, Shohei Ohtani. He gave up 2 more runs in the bottom of the 6th.
Anthony Rizzo led off the top of the 7th with a walk, and Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run to tie the game. But Wandy Peralta let the go-ahead run on in the bottom of the 8th, and Clay Holmes let him score.
The Yankees went down quietly in the top of the 9th. Angels 8, Yankees 7. WP: Junior Guerra (5-2). SV: Raisel Iglesias (28). LP: Peralta (4-3).
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Jameson Taillon started the Tuesday game, and had nothing. He allowed 6 runs without getting out of the 5th inning. Joely Rodriguez and Lucas Luetge were great the rest of the way, but it was for naught. Rizzo and Gary Sanchez hit home runs, but it was in vain. Angels 6, Yankees 4. WP: Jimmy Herget (1-1). SV: Iglesias (29). LP: Taillon (8-5).
So, now, after winning 13 straight, by doing the sort of things they should have been doing all season long, they had lost 4 straight by doing the things that they were doing before the streak: Swinging at horrible pitches, hitting into double plays, giving up home runs.
What's worse, the Tampa Bay Rays kept winning. When the Yankees won 13 straight, they only gained 2 1/2 games on the Rays. When they lost 4 straight, they lost 4 games on the Rays.
The Yankees badly needed a turnaround game. They needed a great pitching performance, and they needed to back it up with runs.
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They had the right man on the mound: Gerrit Cole pitched 7 innings, allowing 1 run on 4 hits, no walks, and struck out 15. He became only the 3rd Yankee ever to strike out 15 or more without walking a batter. And not a speck of "Spider Tack" in sight. Oddly, the other 2 were also recent: Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda.
He got all the support he would need in the top of the 3rd, and it was a timely 2-out rally. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you -- but if you're the team drawing them, they can save you. DJ LeMahieu drew one. Rizzo singled. Aaron Judge drew another walk to loaded the bases. And Luke Voit singled home DJLM and Rizzo.
The Yankees picked up another run in the 4th, on an RBI single by Brett Gardner; and another in the 8th, on a home run by Judge. Jonathan Loasiga pitched a perfect 8th, and Aroldis Chapman went against his pattern by pitching a breezy 9th.
Yankees 4, Angels 1. WP: Cole (14-6). SV: Chapman (25). LP: Packy Naughton (0-1). And the Rays finally lost, dropping the Yankee deficit to 7 games.
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The Yankees came home today, to a New York Tri-State Area hit hard by Hurricane Ida. On the YES Network, footage was shown of a Yankee Stadium field that was flooded. Fortunately, the best drainage system in MLB will have the field ready to go tomorrow night, as the hapless Baltimore Orioles come in.
But there was also footage of streets in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island getting flooded. And of water cascading down the steps leading into Subway stations. Here in New Jersey, there were tornadoes, and my hometown's main highway had to be closed due to flooding, although my neighborhood was spared.
Philadelphia was hit even harder. The Vine Street Expressway, Interstate 676, connecting the Ben Franklin Bridge with West Philadelphia and running below street level just to the north of Center City, was flooded. The Delaware River has decent protections against flooding, but the Schuylkill River does not, and the water almost rose to the level of the bridges crossing it. Boathouse Row got flooded. The Philadelphia Zoo is just to the north of Boathouse Row, but was lucky, only having to have a delayed opening.
The Rutgers football team was supposed to open its season at home tonight, against Philadelphia's Temple University. The game was postponed to Saturday, not because of problems at our end, but at theirs: The Temple program needed the extra time to get their things together.
Hurricane Ida had already clobbered Louisiana and Mississippi harder than anything had since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The New Orleans Saints moved their regular-season opener from the Superdome to TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Unlike with Katrina, the Superdome itself was not damaged, but power is still out in New Orleans, and is not expected to be restored in time to host the game.