Schadenfreude 208 (A Continuing Series)

George A. King III, Post:

P.U.

Start with Luis Severino getting punished by Andrew Benintendi for a pair of three-run homers, when he wasn't walking the bottom of the Red Sox order.

Move to Todd Frazier and Didi Gregorius committing costly errors and Aaron Judge's sliding downhill faster than a luge.

Then absorb the fact that ... the Yankees didn't do much against lefty Drew Pomeranz.

Mix that recipe in a bowl and it would smell like a sewer, which is where Saturday's 10-5 loss to the Red Sox in front of a sold-out Yankee Stadium crowd of 47,241 belonged. Pinstriped nose plugs would have been the perfect giveaway.

One night after a scintillating comeback win, the Yankees dropped to 4½ games behind the AL East-leading Red Sox. ...

As for Judge, the K-parade continued, and after going down looking in the first and third innings, he got the bat on the ball in the fifth and hit into a double play. ...

Judge's slump started July 14 in Boston ... In 26 games (25 starts) Judge is hitting .161 (15-for-93). In those 93 at-bats he has 43 strikeouts and has whiffed at least once in 29 games, which is three short of Adam Dunn's all-time record.

Saturday was a struggle, too. One with a stench attached.

King's early edition game story began:

They have been in business since 1903 and have delivered a lot of ugliness on the field, but the stench the Yankees produced Saturday against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium ranks among the worst performances.

John Harper, Daily News:

It was only one game but it felt like a summation of the state of the AL East race the Red Sox have grabbed by the throat over the last two weeks, to the point where suddenly it looks as if they might run away with the division title.

So much for that Friday night miracle win reviving the Yankees' offense and launching a run to first place.

Or to put it another way: man, the vibe sure changed fast.

With their ace on the mound less than 24 hours after that feel-good comeback victory, the Yankees had to be thinking this weekend could prove to be a turning point in catching the Red Sox. ...

Yes, it really does feel as if the Yankees are in big trouble, at least as far as catching the Sox. ... [G]laring issues continue to mount for the team in pinstripes.

Most significantly, on Saturday Masahiro Tanaka joined CC Sabathia on the 10-day disabled list ...

As if that wasn't bad enough, Jordan Montgomery was hit in the head by a fly ball while signing autographs before Saturday's game, leaving him with a cut on his right ear and some question about whether he'll be ok to pitch Sunday night. ...

With all of that as a backdrop, Severino's first clunker since July 2nd obviously came at a bad time, and it's fair to wonder if he'll hit a wall down the stretch, since he's never thrown more than 114 innings in a season, and he's now at 143 and counting after Saturday. ...

Meanwhile, pitching is only part of the concern, as Aaron Judge's second-half slump grows more alarming ...

After going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts looking on Saturday, Judge is hitting .161 (15-for-93) since the All-Star break with 43 strikeouts, and he has K'd in 29 straight games, which seems unfathomable after his remarkable first half. ...

If Judge finds his game-changing stroke again soon, the Yankees could still make a run at these Red Sox. At the moment, however, it feels as if the AL East title is slipping away in a hurry.

Joel Sherman, Post:

There was probably a way Saturday could have gone worse for the Yankees. But it would have taken cruelty and creativity to come up with it.

In less than 24 hours they went from arguably their most thrilling victory of the season Friday night against the Red Sox to a Saturday that had all the charm of a Walking Dead script.

Before a pitch was thrown, Masahiro Tanaka joined CC Sabathia on the disabled list, placed there with an inflamed shoulder. Then, while the Red Sox were taking batting practice, Jordan Montgomery was signing autographs down the right-field line protected by a net and yet somehow took a line drive off his right ear. ...

And then the game began and to make the rotation misery all the worse Luis Severino had his worst start of 2017.

Want some good news? Montgomery came through testing fine and the Yankees announced that he would still start Sunday night.

The bad news?

That would be versus Chris Sale, who generally makes the Yanks look like they should be playing in Williamsport, not The Bronx. This season, for example, the lefty has overwhelmed the Yankees with 23 strikeouts in 15.2 innings and just two earned runs allowed.

That put a premium on the Yankees carrying the good vibes of Friday into Saturday. But those good vibes stretched only two innings.

What followed was bad pitching, poor defense and hollow at-bats. ...

Peter Botte, Daily News:

The Yankees turned to rolling ace Luis Severino to ride the supposed momentum of Friday's stirring comeback victory the Red Sox.

Of course, first-place Boston then pulverized the All-Star righty for eight runs and knocked him out in the fifth inning on Saturday, sending the Yanks to an unsightly 10-5 loss at the Stadium.

Red Sox rookie Andrew Benintendi crushed two homers and drove in six against Severino ...

David Lennon, Newsday:

Generously listed at 5-10 and 170 pounds, Andrew Benintendi looks as if his entire body could fit into one leg of Aaron Judge's pinstriped pants. And for the first half of this season, the prized Red Sox rookie lived in the very large shadow of his Bronx counterpart.

But no longer. After Benintendi swatted a pair of three-run homers during the first five innings of Saturday's 10-5 rout of the Yankees ... there might be only one race left in this division during the next six weeks — for Rookie of the Year.

Now that script has flipped, and there exists the very real possibility that the surging Benintendi could overtake the slumping Judge while leading the Red Sox to the division title in the process. Simply put, Benintendi is now putting up Judge-like numbers and the Yankees' hulking phenom has shrunk in stature. ...

Judge has whiffed in 29 consecutive games — 48 strikeouts in 100 at-bats — and by striking out once every 2.74 plate appearances in the second half, he's approaching his catastrophic rate of last season, which was 2.26. ...

Meanwhile, Benintendi's lethal swing looks effortless. He's making the job look easy ... And if he keeps up this torrid pace, he might be the top rookie standing at the end, too.

Peter Botte, Daily News:

Masahiro Tanaka's uneven 2017 season took another downturn on Saturday when the Yankees placed their erstwhile ace on the 10-day disabled list with inflammation of the right shoulder.

The Japanese righthander is ... 8-10 with a 4.92 ERA in 133.2 innings over 23 starts. ...

Joe Girardi said the pitcher first informed the Yankees following that start that his right arm "was tired" from his shoulder down to fingers. Team doctors determined the issue is "nothing structural," just "fatigue and soreness." ...

Peter Botte, Daily News:

As if the Yankees didn't have enough mounting pitching injuries, Jordan Montgomery was struck in the right side of the head by a batted ball while signing autographs down the right-field line during batting practice before Saturday's 10-5 loss to Boston.

The rookie lefty remains scheduled to start in place of injured CC Sabathia in Sunday night's series finale against the Red Sox ...

"I guess he was signing autographs during their BP and he got hit in the ear," Girardi said. "His ear was bleeding. He went through tests with the doctors. We expect him to make his start tomorrow. But his ear's got a cut." ...

Montgomery was struck after a ball looped over a temporary screen down the right-field line. He was helped to the dugout and remained there for several minutes while pressing a towel to his head, before going into the clubhouse to be checked out. The ball that clipped Montgomery was hit by Boston's Sandy Leon, according to the YES Network.

Zach Braziller, Post:

Maybe the Yankees should bench struggling rookie Aaron Judge for a few days. It certainly seems to be working for the Red Sox's Andrew Benintendi.

After sitting out back-to-back games, the rookie outfielder has caught fire, and the Yankees have seen the results first hand. ...

Benintendi, 23, became the youngest Red Sox player to drive in six runs in a game against the Yankees. His 15th and 16th homers of the year also made him the franchise's first with multiple three-run homers in a game against the Yankees since Jimmie Foxx in 1938. ...

In the third inning, he jumped on a 97 mph fastball from Severino to give the Red Sox their first lead of the day, at 5-2. In the fifth, he hammered a flat slider into the right-field bleachers ...

Benintendi sat out games on July 31 and Aug. 1, and since then, has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball. He hit safely in seven of his past eight games, with six multi-hit performances, four homers, 11 RBIs and a .483 (15-for-31) average in that span.

Howie Kussoy, Post:

Yankee Stadium still erupts every time Aaron Judge steps to the plate, fans cheering the slugger like no player since Derek Jeter retired.

No one is made to feel more at home in The Bronx than Judge — even if he looks like he doesn't belong in the major leagues right now. ...

[T]he rookie went 0-for-4, and struck out (twice) for a Yankees-record 29th straight game, in a 10-5 loss to the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

Judge, who is batting .161 (15-for-93) with 43 strikeouts since the All-Star break, is only three games shy of tying Adam Dunn's all-time record for the most consecutive games with a strikeout by a position player. ...

Judge looks just as lost as he did during his initial 27-game stint last season, when he batted .179 (15-for-84) with four home runs and 42 strikeouts.

During a less pronounced portion of Judge's slump, Girardi gave the 25-year-old a day off — on Aug. 3 — and Judge responded by recording a hit in three straight games. Since then, Judge has gone 1-for-16 (.063) ...

Rob Bradford, WEEI:

Andrew Benintendi hitting a pair of home runs in Yankee Stadium with his Brooklyn-born, almost-85-year-old grandfather in attendance was a nice story Saturday. Dr. Robert Benintendi was undoubtedly proud.

"He was a Yankees fan, not anymore," the Red Sox outfielder told reporters after his team's 10-5 win over the Yankees. "Everybody else grew up Reds because I'm from Cincinnati."