Having won the 1st 2 games of their series with the hated Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, the Yankees coming away with a split would not have been acceptable. And yet, that's all they got.
I could blame this defeat on the home plate umpire, Hal Harrison Gibson III, a.k.a. Tripp Gibson. When the Yankees batted last night, his strike zone was roughly the size of Aaron Judge. When the Red Sox batted, it was roughly the size of the ball itself.
But the real reason the Yankees lost is that the didn't get the pitching they needed. Had they gotten it, the runs they scored should have been enough.
The Yankees got 2 runs in each of the 1st 3 innings. This included home runs from Giancarlo Stanton and Matt Carpenter. You cannot allow yourself to lose when you put up a linescore of 22200. That ZIP Code is not in use, but if it were, it would be in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
But Jameson Taillon allowed 6 runs in 5 innings. He simply did not get the job done. And then, Aaron Boone decided to risk Aroldis Chapman. In a tie game. Against the Red Sox. At Fenway.
In the words of the great former WCBS-Channel 2 sports anchor Warner Wolf (still alive, by the way, age 84), "Turn your sets off right there!" Because here's what he allowed: Single, walk, walk, strikeout, a dropped popup by Torres that was turned into a run-scoring forceout, strikeout.
Miguel Castro was even worse in the 7th, although it wasn't all his fault: For the 2nd night in a row, Josh Donaldson made an error at 3rd base. That started this progression: Walk, single, bases-clearing double, sacrifice bunt mishandled for a run.
That made the score Red Sox 11, Yankees 6, and that would be the final. WP: Hirokazu Sawamura (1-1). No save. LP: Chapman (0-3).
The Yankees are now 61-25, but are 6-5 combined against the Red Sox and the Houston Astros. They were 30-2 when scoring 6 or more runs going into this game, but are now 30-3.
Here are the OPS+'s for every player with at least 78 plate appearances. (With 77, Matt Carpenter's 267 is an outlier):
Aaron Judge 175
Anthony Rizzo 141
Giancarlo Stanton 136
Gleyber Torres 130
D.J. LeMahieu 122
Jose Trevino 113
Aaron Hicks 109
Josh Donaldson 105
Marwin Gonzalez 104
Isiah Kiner-Falefa 84
Joey Gallo 82
Kyle Higashioka 58
IKF's 84 is deceptively low, because he's come up with some clutch hits and walks. But Gallo, still with a .166 batting average, is a home-run-or-nothing guy: Of his 70 total bases, 40 have come on home runs.
Now, let's look at the pitchers. This is every pitcher with at least 15 appearances. (Chad Green, out for the season, had 14.) WHIP (Walks plus Hits, divided by Innings Pitched) is also a concern. But not with the 5 main starters, who have been sensational in this regard:
Luis Severino 1.024
Nestor Cortes 1.026
Gerrit Cole 1.027
Jordan Montgomery 1.031
Jameson Taillon 1.177
Nor with these relievers:
Clay Holmes 0.737
Ron Marinaccio 0.879
Wandy Peralta 0.990
Michael King 0.993
But with these:
Lucas Luetge 1.267
Miguel Castro 1.407
Jonathan Loaisiga 1.560
Aroldis Chapman 1.706
And you can't carry 4 relievers with WHIPs as high as Luetge's, never mind as high as Chapman's.
So there is still reason for concern, and until that concern gets turned around -- with better series over Boston and Houston -- we can stop comparing this team to the 1998 Yankees.
I had been under the impression that this week was the All-Star Break. Turns out, that's next week. The Yankees do have today off. Tomorrow, they start a homestand with 3 against the awful Cincinnati Reds, and then 3 against these same Red Sox. Time to get back to winning.