Schadenfreude 346 (A Continuing Series)

Zach ("King of the One-Sentence Paragraphs") Braziller, Post:

Sunday was the latest indignity, the most recent example of this one-sided rivalry.

Nine times the Yankees and Red Sox have met this season, and the Yankees have won just once.

One out of nine. One measly victory.

On Sunday, Boston found a way despite blowing four different leads. Despite closer Kenley Jansen putting the first two men on base in the ninth inning with a one-run lead.

Nothing seems to matter this year when it comes to the Yankees and the Red Sox.

Boston will find a way to prevail.

The Red Sox dominance head-to-head is a major reason they are only three games behind the Mariners for the third AL wild card and the Yankees need a miracle just to get back into the race.

"They've kicked our ass," manager Aaron Boone said after the Yankees fell to the Red Sox, 6-5, losing their eighth straight game to cap off this three-game sweep. . . .

The Red Sox cruised to wins in the first two games of the series by a combined 16-4.

Sunday was different.

Sunday the Yankees punched back.

But the Red Sox had an answer every time.

It was a fun weekend for them, particularly the duo of Rafael Devers and Justin Turner.

Devers, a Yankees killer batting .429 (15-for-35) against them this year, went 9-for-13 in the series, homered twice and drove in four runs.

Turner was 6-for-11 with six RBIs, four coming in the series finale.

He hit a three-run homer in the seventh and plated the game-winning run in the ninth. . . .

There are still four games left between the two at Fenway Park from Sept. 11-14, four more times for the Red Sox to further crush the Yankees if their nine games so far are any indication.

The Red Sox have won three one-run games from the Yankees and they have also prevailed in blowouts. They have outscored them, 54-24. . . .

FAN COMMENTS

Heck of  team you sent out to play this year. Well done Cashman.

0.0% is also the chance that Hal does anything to change this situation.

Here’s the math you need to know—- 20 years 6 billion dollars in direct ML payroll. Nothing at all to show for it. 

"Anthony Rizzo is uncertain to play again this season."
Well, at least he's able to yuck it up in the dugout while his teammates get throttled again

Short of 09, they've had our number for close to 20 years now. What a kick in the nuts.

Funny that those were the Cashman years. He has always been a classless loser.

Please Hal, never sell the team, don't change your ownership style, and give Boone and Cash long-term extensions.  Boston loves you. 

 Zach Braziller, Post:

They're chasing history in The Bronx again.

Except, instead of fans flocking to Yankee Stadium, they may be soon avoiding it at all costs.

Rather than anticipation, there is dread. . . .

[T]his Yankees team may be remembered, but for all the wrong reasons.

With Sunday's latest crushing loss, a 6-5 sweep-sealing setback to the Red Sox in The Bronx, the Yankees equaled their longest losing streak (eight) since 1995.

They haven't led since the second inning on Monday against [Atlanta], a span of 50 innings. . . .

The latest defeat was as painful as any this season. The Yankees rallied four times.

They scored more runs on Sunday (five) than they had in their previous four games (four).

It appeared as though they had gone ahead in the eighth on an Anthony Volpe single only for a close play at the plate to get reversed.

Then, predictably, Clay Holmes allowed the go-ahead run to score on a Justin Turner double in the ninth. . . .

The bad luck continued in the bottom of the ninth, as Greg Allen missed a game-tying home run by inches, settling for a leadoff double off the top of the wall.

Kenley Jansen went on to strand him at second for the save.

The Red Sox went ahead in the sixth thanks to shaky defense from the Yankees.

After Rafael Devers and Turner reached to start the inning, Masataka Yoshida hit a routine double-play ball. There was, however, nothing routine with how the Yankees' middle infield handled the play.

Gleyber Torres' flip was poor, well to the right-field side of second base and Volpe threw wildly to first, well high and toward home. It enabled Devers to score all the way from second base. . . .

Michael King served up a three-run homer to Turner in the seventh after intentionally walking Devers.

Out of nowhere, the Yankees exploded.

It started innocently, a Harrison Bader infield single. Billy McKinney walked and Volpe went deep to the opposite field, eliciting the loudest "Let's go Yankees" chant of the day.

The three-run seventh was their largest offensive output in a single inning since scoring three times against the Marlins nine days ago in the fourth inning of the series opener.

They had a chance to go ahead, but pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton flew out, stranding two runners.

FAN COMMENTS

At least the Yankees have finally shown some consistency this season.

"Out of nowhere, the Yankees exploded." A 3 run homer is sadly now the Yankees definition of exploded.

Jon Heyman, Post:

Since the Yankees are alleged to love analytics so much, they have to be discouraged by a number that finally appeared on Fangraphs during this weekend's sweep at the hands of the rival Red Sox, the very first sweep suffered at Yankee Stadium this year.

Yes, the Yankees' World Series odds finally hit zero. Yes, specifically, 0.0 percent.

So Fangraphs mathematically validated what we think we've been watching for a while now. . . .

The Yankees' performance on Sunday was energized but ultimately demoralizing. The Red Sox — 6-5 winners of a game in which the Yankees came back three times to tie it — benefited from a surprise overturn of a safe call at home . . .

Yankees manager Aaron Boone . . . stopped short of calling the Red Sox their "daddies." However, Boone did memorably say this . . . "They've kicked our asses."

Boston's dominance is quite upsetting, not that the Yankees are especially great against most anyone else, either. The eight-game losing streak overall represents their longest such streak in 28 years . . .

"We've got to be unbelievable the rest of the way," Boone said . . . "We're so far removed from that. " . . .

Yes indeed, reality has hit them at 161st and River. The aura seems less than confident now, the talk less than bold. . . . 

The team is too reliant on the long ball (all five runs Sunday came via the home run), the rotation is iffy at the moment and the injuries overwhelming. . . .

Boone said before the game . . . that they "definitely" had not given up. But if this is their best effort (and there's no reason to doubt him), that may be even more damning.

The Yankees are now 11-22 since the All-Star break, and even more disheartening, 6-16 since Judge . . . returned from his severe right big toe injury. While barely hitting enough to challenge teams — their .230 batting average only beats the Oakland A's, who shouldn't even be in the league — this one may have been the most disheartening game of 2023.

FAN COMMENTS

Exit velocity, launch angle, and barrel rate don't mean much when you strike out 41% of the time and hit the ball into a fielder's glove most of the other times. You need RUNS (and more of them than your opponent) to win games.  Yank-alytics has completely lost sight of that.

44k in the stands. What's Hal's motivation to make any changes ,?  he sold the sleeves on the jerseys , YES still has subscribers, and the stands are full. What we see is what we're gonna get until Stanton is off the books and Cashman retires to Connecticut 

Stop attending these games. 
Stop supporting a losing product. 
Stop looking for answers. 
The answers are plain:
Losing club
Incompetent manager
Negligent GM
Absentee Ownership. 
Stop eating your money. 

 

Tyler Kepner, Times:

The Yankees set themselves apart. . . . No beards. No names on the jerseys. No losing seasons in decades.

That last one is in serious peril. The Yankees lost for the eighth game in a row on Sunday, 6-5 to the Boston Red Sox in the Bronx. They are 60-64 this season, slipping ever closer to the first losing season for the franchise since 1992, the year Aaron Judge was born.

Judge came up in the ninth inning on Sunday, two on and no outs. A big hit would win the game. Kenley Jansen struck him out on three pitches, then got Gleyber Torres, too. The Yankees fanned 14 times before Ben Rortvedt, batting .095, flied to center to end it. . . .

The Yankees are an afterthought, their season now defined by the pursuit of mediocrity. They are ordinary . . . [T]he Yankees cannot even pretend to be pushing for a pennant. . . .

[Giancarlo] Stanton . . . has hit .184 since the All-Star break last summer, striking out in a third of his at-bats. . . .

Stanton is one of five players, all in their 30s, who will cost the Yankees a combined $143 million — again, for luxury-tax purposes — in each of the next three seasons. The list also includes Judge, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and DJ LeMahieu. . . .

[W]hen MLB.com ranked the farm systems after the trading deadline this month, the Yankees placed 21st overall, with no prospects among the top 75. . . .

The Yankees entered Sunday’s game with a .305 on-base percentage, which ranked 26th among the 30 teams, and a batting average of .230, ahead of only the Oakland Athletics. The Yankees have not hit so poorly as a team since 1968 . . .

Bryan Hoch, mlb.com:

Aaron Boone met recently with managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman, a session that prompted the Yankees manager to describe his front office's mindset as being "frustrated" by the club's performance. 

"[I]t's not going well," Boone said on Sunday. . . . 

The Yankees (60-64) lost their eighth consecutive game on Sunday afternoon, falling to the Red Sox, 6-5. It marks the club's longest losing streak since August 1995. . . .

Justin Turner delivered a go-ahead double in the ninth inning off Clay Holmes  . . . 

Turner hit a go-ahead, three-run homer off Michael King in the seventh . . .

In June, Steinbrenner said that he intended "to be asking some tough questions" if the Yankees did not qualify for the playoffs.

Peter Botte, Post:

Giancarlo Stanton is back beneath the Mendoza Line and firmly back in the target zone for the fans at Yankee Stadium.

Stanton struck out three times with a walk and also was doubled off of first base on a popped-up bunt by Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the second inning of the skidding Yankees' 8-1 loss Saturday to the Red Sox.

Over his past seven games, Stanton is 2-for-21 with 12 strikeouts, dropping his batting average this season to .199.

Fans heavily booed Stanton after he struck out for the second out of the ninth inning against Red Sox reliever Mauricio Llovera. . . .

Brian Lewis, Post, August 20:

At first, it looked like a brain cramp. Then, the Yankees called it a tactic that backfired.

Either way, Isiah Kiner-Falefa's humbling bunt double play Saturday in the Yankees' 8-1 loss to archrival Boston encapsulated their struggles. It was the perfect picture of their putrid performances. . . .

Kiner-Falefa tried to lay down a bunt with the Yankees already trailing 4-0 in the second inning. . . . 

Having immobile Giancarlo Stanton on first base made the move egregious. Stanton is a prime double-play candidate, and that's what the Yankees got.

When Kiner-Falefa failed to get a good bunt down, Boston catcher Connor Wong made a quick move to snatch the weak attempt out of the air and threw to first to get Stanton. The maddening play epitomized the Yankees' lack of execution.

READER COMMENTS

This entire season is a "tactic that backfired".

Yeah, if Boone can somehow say that buntbwas a good thought, a good play, it's clearly time to clean house here, no doubt. That's as stupid and unaware as it gets. IKF has been one of the best offensive performers on this roster of late. So, in an early 4-0 hole once again, with immobile, HGH/steroid goon Mike Stanton on base, a bunt is a good, manager approved play. A bunt with a guy on base who is crumbling before our eyes, can't run, and is obviously allowed to run as slow as he likes by management. Whether Boone called the bunt or is just giving the hostage tape positive blather that his analytic geek overlords in upper management require is immaterial. This is a digrace.

lol