Schadenfreude 235 (A Continuing Series)

Larry Brooks, Post:

This was such an eyesore you would be excused for thinking it was last weekend at Fenway Park and the other guys were the Red Sox.

But not so. Try Friday night in The Bronx against the Rangers. Try 12-7 the other way. ...

[The Yankees] no longer have to worry about expectations. They are expected to finish second in the AL East. That's the benefit arising from last weekend's train wreck. ... For months, it had seemed a no-brainer for the manager to give the assignment to Luis Severino ...

But not so fast. ... [In his last six starts, Severino has] a 7.31 ERA while allowing 47 hits (and nine home runs) over 32 innings. Suddenly, Severino's history in last year's wild-card game, in which he retired only one batter and allowed three runs on four hits creeped back into relevance. ...

So there was Tanaka, presenting an interesting alternative for Boone to consider. And there was Tanaka struggling from the get-go on Friday, requiring 18 pitches to get through the first inning, 36 pitches to get through two, 53 to last through three before allowing six runs on six hits — including loud, louder and loudest home runs — in five innings of work. ...

This was a mess. Tanaka never seemed in command, even ... before it all went awry ...

The splitter was unreliable and so was the slider ... Essentially without weapons, the 29-year-old was reduced to bringing a plastic spoon to a gunfight.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

After being the Yankees' best pitcher over the last month, Tanaka could not find it Friday night, getting lit up for six runs on six hits in five innings. ...

Tanaka gave up three home runs ... In his five previous starts, dating to his July 10th return from the disabled list, Tanaka had allowed a total of three home runs in 30.1 innings pitched.

And that throws a wrench into the Yankees' rotation in the final weeks of the season. ...

The Yankees ... need their rotation to settle in down the stretch as they plan out who will get that first start in the postseason and who will get the first start of a division series, if they get there. ...

"I have an idea. ... I am not here to explain everything, but I have an idea of what's wrong," Tanaka said through an interpreter.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

Austin Romine knew it didn't feel right. The Yankees catcher looked up at the video board and saw that Aroldis Chapman's fastball was coming in at 95 miles an hour and went into "emergency mode." ...

[T]he drop in velocity has been a red flag. While the Yankees' closer said that his knee is fine and physically he feels fine, he has struggled to reach the high velocity that has made him so effective in his last few appearances. ...

Thursday night, he touched 99 mph twice, but worked in the 95-96 range. Aaron Boone said that he thinks it is a mechanical issue with Chapman. ...

Chapman did complain of soreness after throwing 39 pitches in an implosion at Fenway Sunday night ...

Kirk Meyer, Daily News:

Two weeks after suffering a chip fracture in his wrist, Aaron Judge still doesn't know for sure when he'll return to action. ...

"[H]opefully I'll be swinging a bat in the next couple days, or next week ..."

The Yankees doctors had initially told the All-Star right fielder that he could return roughly three weeks after he was hit by a pitch against the Royals on July 26, though that timetable appears unrealistically optimistic now. ...

Manager Aaron Boone had initially declared that Judge would be back to swinging a bat just a week into recovery, though that has not been the case. ...

Judge ... spun the Yankees' disastrous weekend in Boston as a chance for the team to learn.

"It was a good experience for us, we've got a young team," he said. "For them to go out in that environment and face some adversity, it's gonna go a long way for us down the road."