Schadenfreude 325 (A Continuing Series)

Dan Martin, Post:

All night long, the Yankees seemed poised to break through and find a way to beat the Red Sox for a third straight game to start the season.

Even when they had left 11 runners on through eight innings, they had Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Joey Gallo up against lefty Jake Diekman.

But Judge grinded out an 11-pitch at-bat, only to strike out and Diekman then whiffed Stanton and the struggling Gallo to end it, leaving the Yankees to deal with their first loss of the young season . . .

In a third straight game decided by two runs or less, they left multiple runners in scoring position in the first, third and fifth innings. . . .

The Yankees offense threatened in the bottom of the [first] inning against right-hander Tanner Houck, with a one-out walk by Anthony Rizzo and a line-drive single by Judge to put runners on the corners for Stanton. Stanton lined to second and Gallo, after falling behind 0-2, drew a walk to load the bases. But Gleyber Torres flied out to left to end the inning. . . .

[In the third, the Yankees scored a run and] Torres was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Aaron Hicks grounded into a double play for another wasted opportunity. . . .

[With the game tied 3-3, a] Stanton single and one-out double by Torres off the wall in right-center set up Hicks again in the fifth. But Hicks popped out, eliciting some boos, and Kiner-Falefa struck out on a questionable check swing to keep the game tied, as the Yankees left eight runners on base in the first five innings.

Boston went ahead in the sixth, as Dalbec led off with an opposite-field shot.

The Yankees got the leadoff hitter on in both the seventh and eighth and stranded them both at first.

Ethan Sears, Post:

Aaron Boone has a contrarian take on Joey Gallo: That he's, in fact, just fine. 

"I would suggest he's off to, at-bat-wise, a good start," the Yankees manager said of Gallo, who had one hit in the first three games of the season and struck out to end Sunday night's 4-3 loss to the Red Sox . . .

Gallo has just one hit in his first 10 at-bats, with three walks. Though he did put the ball in play three times on Sunday, flying out in each of them, a batting average of .100 is not what the Yankees would prefer to see from the fifth hitter in their lineup. 

At the end of the game, Gallo also capped a terrible ninth inning, striking out on four pitches from Jake Diekman, who punched out Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton before facing Gallo. 

"He's getting to pitches that he wasn't last year," Boone said. . . . “Look at what he's doing." . . .

Boone is known for squeezing the positive out of everything. However, this feels a bit of a stretch. 

Even if Gallo is hitting the ball hard, it's almost impossible to imagine that the Yankees are OK with his output right now.

In 2021, the Yankees were dead last in the American League in percentage of baserunners who scored on a batter's play (13.1%). Only the Pirates and Mets were worse. Even the Orioles (who lost 110 games last year but still spent more days in first place than the Yankees) managed 13.4%. 

The Rays led MLB with 16.5%. The Red Sox were 4th in the AL and MLB (15.4%). The AL average was 14.7%; the MLB average was 14.3%.

It looks like last season's persistent problem has not gone away. It's obviously extremely early, but the Yankees are 25th in MLB (10.1%), having left 11+ runners in two of their three games.