Dan Martin, Post:
The Yankees' first road trip of the season ended the same way it started: with a loss to a division rival.
Chad Green gave up a homer to Bo Bichette to lead off the bottom of the ninth and the Blue Jays won 5-4 on Wednesday at TD Ballpark.
It was Bichette's second solo home run of the day. More importantly for the Yankees, it meant they had lost another series to a division rival.
"We've got to play better in every area,'' manager Aaron Boone said after his team fell to 5-7. . . .
Corey Kluber provided another short start, forcing the bullpen into the game after just four innings. . . .
Boone said he wanted to stay away from Aroldis Chapman unless the Yankees got to a save situation. The move didn't work out, as Bichette hit one out to right-center to end the game. . . .
[T]he Yankees had just five hits and their lineup continues not to click.
Kristie Ackert, Daily News:
The Yankees (5-7) dropped their second straight series, their second to the division-rival Blue Jays this season and have now won just two of the six they have played against the Jays so far this season. . . .
There are plenty of areas the Yankees could improve on.
[The MFY] went just 1-15 with a walk against the Blue Jays' bullpen.
An offense that was expected to crush with power is ranked 22nd in the majors in OPS. Built to hit the ball out of the ballpark, they are 14th in the big leagues in homers. . . .
The long ball can erase a lot of mistakes and take the pressure off pitchers, but when the Yankees aren't hitting them, the warts show. . . .
[T]heir lack of starting pitching length by anyone not named Gerrit Cole is pushing them to the brink. The bullpen went into Wednesday's game . . . [having] pitched the second most innings (49) in the American League behind the A's and the third most in the majors. . . .
It is April and there is a long season ahead, but the Yankees have a lot of little things to fix to turn this around.
Ken Davidoff, Post:
What's the difference between a crappy baseball team and a good baseball team that plays crappily?
Twelve games into the season, absolutely nothing.
Hence, it's time for the Yankees to proactively address their crappiness. . . .
This vaunted Yankees offense, though underachieving like Robert De Niro in "The War with Grandpa," features at least two players who should see the field less often starting immediately. This lineup requires a shake-up. . . .
Turn Aaron Hicks into a platoon player. . . . [He's hitting] .087/.250/.087 from the left side. . . .
Get Jay Bruce off the roster. . . . [Bruce] now sports a .118/.237/.235 slash line. He has not provided the Yankees with the "Big, hairy monster" energy that they hoped . . . he hasn't really done that for anyone since 2017 . . .
If the Yankees aren't ready to cut bait with Bruce, perhaps they could conveniently discover an injury, if you catch my drift . . .
These moves alone won't fix the Yankees' offense, which is averaging exactly four runs per game and paces the American League with 15 double-play grounders. . . .
It's time, as Judge said more politely, for the Yankees to stop being crappy. . . .It is not time, the date on the calendar notwithstanding, to fully stay the course.
NOTE: In related crappiness, the Post recycled the same picture it used only four days ago for Joel Sherman's column:
MEANWHILE!
The Red Sox have won nine in a row and own the largest lead of any of the six divisions.
Boston has the best record in the AL and the second-best record in MLB (Dodgers, 10-2).
The Red Sox also have the second-best run differential (Dodgers, +32). And only the Reds have scored more runs (75).
W L PCT GB RS RA DIFF
Red Sox 9 3 .750 ---- 72 48 +24
Blue Jays 6 6 .500 3.0 54 44 +10
Orioles 5 6 .455 3.5 50 59 - 9
Rays 5 7 .417 4.0 46 68 -22
Yankees 5 7 .417 4.0 48 46 + 2
Earlier This Week
April 12
Ken Davidoff, Post:
[The Yankees hit] four Tampa Bay batters over the weekend, once each Friday and Saturday and then twice on Sunday.
"It happens basically every series with them, and it's something that we've got to stop," said the Rays' Austin Meadows . . .
In the bottom of the first inning Sunday, Meadows took a 93-mph Jordan Montgomery fastball to his front shoulder, enraging the Rays' dugout and prompting the umpires to warn both benches against any further such violence. Montgomery nevertheless hit Meadows again in the fifth inning, this time on his left (back) hand, although the umps huddled and decided to let the Yankees' southpaw stay in the game . . .
[W]hat left the Rays salty was the volume of HBPs and the overall recent history of violence between these two clubs, which Tampa Bay feels has been one-sided — since the start of 2018, including last year's American League Division Series, the Yankees have hit 30 Rays while the Rays have hit 17 Yankees — and not properly handled by the sport's sheriff. . . .
[Rays manager Kevin Cash] "It's been so grossly mishandled by Major League Baseball last year. … There isn't any recourse because it's just carryover . . . Major League Baseball is here to protect its players on both teams. On all 30 teams. And I don't think they did that last year. They could have done a better job . . ."
Kristie Ackert, Daily News:
There is no clean slate or turning the page. When Jordan Montgomery hit Austin Meadows twice on Sunday, the Rays not only reacted to that, but also to what they felt was the Yankees getting off light last year for hitting their batters.
[Kevin Cash:] "Don't care whether he did it on purpose or not, I don't like it. And then you add the other element of coming up around the shoulder and the head area, where like none of us like that."
The heated rivalry added more fuel to the fire with Montgomery hitting Meadows, who had homered on Saturday, high up on his shoulder in the first inning. Both dugouts were warned, but when Montgomery hit Meadows again in the fifth inning, there were no ejections.
But that was the fourth time a Ray was hit by a pitch in this series, to Gary Sanchez being grazed by a pitch in the seventh.
"I mean it was obvious I wasn't trying to hit him," Montgomery said. It was not so obvious to the Rays.
"Honestly, it's tough to say. It's one of those things where, going by some reactions, it may not have looked that way," Rays catcher Mike Zunino said. "But it was three games, it was three different guys, obviously Meadows twice today. Just one of those where, if it is coincidence, it's crazy to happen three days in a row."
The back-and-forth between the two teams reached a crescendo last September when Aroldis Chapman's 101-mile an hour fastball came dangerously close to Mike Brosseau's head. . . . They were also upset that Masahiro Tanaka, who had hit Joey Wendle with his hardest pitch of the night on Sept. 1, 2020, did not receive any punishment.
"I know Tanaka is over in Japan but he got off scot-free," Cash said. "He hit Joey definitely (intentionally), and nothing we can do about that."
Since this began back in 2018, with CC Sabathia retaliating by hitting Jesus Sucre after Andrew Kittredge threw at Austin Romine, Yankees pitchers have hit 23 Rays batters. The Bombers have had 15 hit-by-pitches against the Rays. The Yankees have not hit batters from any other team more in that span, while the Rays have hit the Red Sox and Blue Jays hitters more.
Mollie Walker, Post:
Kevin Kiermaier said if the roles were reversed and it was Rays pitchers plunking the Yankees this past weekend series, there would've been "a lot more controversy."
In the three games, Yankees pitchers hit the Rays four times. Joey Wendle was hit in the helmet while Austin Meadows took one on the shoulder. Mike Zunino absorbed a pitch in the opener, and Meadows was hit again, on the hand, on Sunday.
"With the history . . . it's frustrating," Kiermaier told Tampa Bay Times . . . "[W]e have every right to be very frustrated about what happened throughout the weekend."
Kiermaier echoed the sentiment by manager Kevin Cash, who said on Sunday that MLB "grossly mishandled" the bean-ball drama between the two AL East rivals last season. . . .
"You can sit here and think about what if this would have been flip-flopped. It would have been a lot more controversy. I truly believe that. We were mad. . . ."
Dan Martin, Post:
Aaron Judge said his left-side soreness was likely the result of "too many hundred swings before and after games" in the early part of the season. . . .
"I've got to pace myself . . . It's about being smart and taking care of your body."
That's still something he and the Yankees are trying to figure out, with Judge among the players who has had trouble staying on the field. . . .
"You learn over the years and find what works and what didn't work,'' Judge said. . . .
NOTE: Judge debuted in 2016. So this is his sixth season. He's been injured a lot in the previous five years and yet he hasn't figured out how to practice his swing without it leading to soreness and injury. . . . Dude is clearly not the brightest Louisville slugger in the bat rack.
April 13
Dan Martin, Post:
It was all set up for the Yankees to make the Blue Jays sweat this one out.
And then it wasn't.
After their sluggish offense finally started to come alive in the eighth inning, bringing the tying run to the plate, the Yankees found a new way to end a rally when Gary Sanchez got caught off first base on a wild pitch in a 7-3 loss . . .
The Yankees [got] within three runs, and after Sanchez followed with a two-out walk, Aaron Hicks came up.
Julian Merryweather's second pitch briefly got away from catcher Danny Jansen, but Jansen pounced on it. Sanchez was caught between first and second, and was tagged out by shortstop Bo Bichette.
"I think he knew he had second base,'' manager Aaron Boone said. "Giancarlo was going to third and had a little hesitation on his trek to third and that distracted Gary. . . . "
There were long stretches without Yankees baserunners, and there were three more double plays when they did get runners on. They've hit into an MLB-high 14 twin-killings this season.
Dan Martin, Post:
Aaron Boone said he and his staff "spent a lot of time" with Gary Sanchez, reviewing the play that helped kill the Yankees' comeback hopes on Tuesday night. . . .
Boone said Stanton had some "hesitation" going to third, which threw off Sanchez. . . .
[I]t's the third time on the road trip in which Sanchez has been involved in a baserunning mishap, and this one was especially costly. . . .
[Boone] called it "a bad look."
Kristie Ackert, Daily News:
Aaron Hicks had the bat taken out of his hands with a chance to tie the game in the eighth Tuesday night. . . . [Hicks] was at the plate with two on and two outs, when Gary Sanchez got picked off. Hicks, who had doubled to set up the Yankees first run of the night, flipped this bat in frustration.
The mistakes are proving costly for the Yankees, who dropped their fourth out of their last seven games with a 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays . . .
That was the fifth time in 11 games the Yankees have committed a baserunning mistake for an out. They also grounded into three double plays Tuesday night. They have 14 DPs already this season to lead the majors. And a team that is built to win on pitching and power had very little of that Tuesday night. . . .
Jameson Taillon got hit hard and could not get out of the fourth inning. . . . Taillon allowed five earned runs on eight hits. . . . [He] needed 84 pitches to get through 3.1 innings pitched. . . .
Gio Urshela, making his first start at shortstop since 2018, was charged with an error . . .
Hyun Jin Ryu shut down the Yankees bats for six innings . . .
Perhaps most concerning, however, is that the Yankees have not gotten the starting pitching they need. . . .
The rest of the rotation [not Cole] is a combined 1-4 with a 5.94 ERA, having given up 10 homers and striking out 35 through 33.1 innings pitched.
April 14
Ken Davidoff, Post:
This won't work.
This will, at best, bring the 2021 Yankees back to their 2020 ending, which satisfied no one. . . .
Jameson Taillon's second Yankees start turned out to be a big-time dud, as the Blue Jays thumped the right-hander and his team to the tune of a 7-3 loss at TD Ballpark. Toronto ace Hyun Jin Ryu carved up the flailing Yankees' lineup like a Thanksgiving turkey before his bullpen teammates turned the contest more interesting late … until Gary Sanchez ran the visitors out of a rally, ensuring that they fell back below .500 at 5-6. . . .
[T]he concern about the Yankees' starting pitchers, besides ace Gerrit Cole, stems from their questionable recent track records . . .
[T]he early alarm sounds for the two imports, Taillon and Corey Kluber, and the returning Domingo German . . . That trio has . . . a collective 7.48 ERA through two turns apiece . . . walking eight while allowing eight homers in 21.2 innings. . . .
Taillon, acquired from the Pirates in a January trade, lasted just two outs into the fourth Tuesday. He was pounded for five runs on eight hits and a walk while fanning three. He didn't fool too many Jays batters, as four batted balls surpassed 100 mph in exit velocity. . . .
[Kluber] was signed to an $11 million contract in January despite pitching just one inning last season and will bring a 5.68 ERA into his third start of the season Wednesday afternoon in Dunedin, and the younger German, who currently resides off the team's major league roster after clocking two poor starts (a 9.00 ERA).
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