What can you even say about a game like this? Bad. Terrible. 0/10 do not recommend. Turn off your TV and go outside. The Yankees once again failed to sweep a series after taking the first two games, and are now 4-10 in sweep opportunities on the season after falling to Tampa Bay 14-0. To the takeaways:
Gerrit Cole was bad, then good, then bad again. This game almost got out of hand before a single out was recorded. On Cole’s first pitch, Brandon Lowe hit a bomb over the foul pole which was originally called a home run; the umpires then convened and ruled it foul. Kevin Cash challenged, but it seemed like the Yankees got a break to open up the game as the foul call stood. However, Lowe wound up reaching on an infield single, Cole then walked Ji-Man Choi, Yandy Diaz hit an RBI single, and Austin Meadows hit a 3-run home run to put the Rays up by 4 before you had a chance to blink. Really not what you want when your ace is on the mound going for a sweep.
Cole settled down after that, recording two strikeouts per inning in the second through the fifth. He struck out 10 overall in 5.1 innings before things really fell apart in the 6th – the 6th inning was so horrific it deserves its own header, so we’ll get to that later.
It was obvious from the jump that Cole wasn’t on today, and specifically couldn’t locate his breaking pitches at all. His resurgence in the second through fifth inning was courtesy of his fastball, which he peppered throughout the strike zone, but his lack of secondary pitches led to a bad day on the mound.
The Yankees are now only 10-11 in games started by Gerrit Cole, even as, today’s clunker aside, he’s mostly pitched to the back of his ace-like baseball card.
Sixth Inning Scaries. The sixth inning started uneventfully, as Cole got Diaz to ground out leading off the inning. He then gave up a few singles to Meadows and Randy Arozarena, and walked Wander Franco. Kevin Kiermaier hit a fly ball which Brett Gardner dropped in left field – a run likely would have scored on a sac fly if the play had been made, but two runs scored on the error and took the game from a manageable 4-0 to 6-0.
Aaron Boone then yanked Cole, who had thrown 105 pitches, and brought in Albert Abreu, who opened the floodgates. He walked Mike Zunino on four pitches, and Brett Phillips hit a grand slam to bring the score to 10-0. He issued another walk to Lowe, and served up a home run to Choi. Not satisfied with a 12-0 lead, Diaz singled, and Meadows hit another home run to make it 14-0. Abreu, who got no outs and gave up six runs on four hits and two walks, was mercifully removed and Sal Romano was able to get out of the inning.
Maybe an inning that horrific has happened to the Yankees in recent memory, but if it has, I’ve blocked it out. I hope to do the same with this one.
Offense goes silent. I haven’t mentioned anything about the Yankees’ offense yet because there was truly nothing to mention. The Yankees had absolutely nothing against the Rays’ 21-year-old starter Luis Patiño. They got only four hits (three against Patiño over his six innings of work) and struck out ten times. Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, Estevan Florial, and Gardner all recorded singles, and the team only had three opportunities with runners in scoring position all day. Even Joey Gallo couldn’t have fixed this.
Leftovers
- DJ LeMahieu’s 37-game on base streak was snapped today as he went 0-for-4 and did not walk.
- Gleyber Torres extended his hit streak to 11 games.
- Giancarlo Stanton struck out three times and has now struck out 21 times in 46 at bats since the All Star Break, a 46% K rate.
- Clay Holmes made his Yankees debut in the 9th and pitched a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout.
- The Yankees are now 13-24 in day games.