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October 9, 2018

Schadenfreude 242 (A Continuing Series)

[Updated: Stuff added!]




George A. King III, Post (late edition):
The Red Sox stomped on the Yankees' necks when they clinched the AL East title at Yankee Stadium in late September.

Tuesday night, the Red Sox have an opportunity to put the Yankees to sleep for the winter at the same venue after administering a vicious 16-1 beating in Monday night's Game 3 of the ALDS.

The trouncing gave the Red Sox a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five affair, and they can pour alcohol over each other in The Bronx for the second time in less than three weeks.

"It's a loss, no worse than 3-2 ..." Brett Gardner said. ...

Things got so bad for the Yankees they turned to backup catcher Austin Romine to pitch the ninth. He gave up a two-run homer to Brock Holt to complete the first cycle in postseason history. Holt singled and tripled in the fourth, doubled in the eighth and homered to right in the ninth. ...

The Yankees set a team record by allowing 16 runs in a postseason game. That is one more than they gave up in Game 6 of the 2001 World Series to Arizona. It is also the largest defeat in their postseason history. ...

"I mean in hindsight, sure, because he didn't get an out," Boone said when asked about him talking about a sense of urgency at this time of the year. ...

There was one positive development: It ended.

George A. King III, Post (early edition):
Luis Severino was asked on Sunday if he no longer considered himself the Yankees' ace when he struggled in the second half of the season.

"I always say every starter is the ace on his days to pitch. I don't believe that I'm the ace or this guy's the ace," Severino answered.

Forget ace.

Severino was far from even being a competitive pitcher in Game 3 of the ALDS ...

With a chance to help the Yankees get within nine innings of advancing to the ALCS, Severino was rocked for six runs and seven hits in three-plus innings in a hard-to-look-at 16-1 beating in front of 49,657 disappointed and ornery customers.

It was the Yankees' worst postseason defeat ever, eclipsing the 15-2 loss to Arizona in Game 6 of the 2001 World Series. ...

Obviously, CC Sabathia needs to pitch better than Severino did and if he struggles early, Aaron Boone should ring the bullpen sooner than he did in Game 3. The Yankees' bats have to make more noise ...
King also wrote:


King was seriously confused. Three runs scored on Benintendi's double, not one. No runs scored on Bogaerts's single. Chad Green allowed the RBI single to Pearce and the hit to Holt, which was a two-run triple.


Joel Sherman, Post:
A top [sic] the Yankee Stadium center-field scoreboard are the words "EXIT VELO" and after each struck ball a reading in miles per hour registers, a bit of modernity to entertain fans, but certainly a service to a manager, too.

But really, you didn't need a complex laser system to recognize Luis Severino was getting clobbered — literally from the first pitch. Just working eyes. Even Aaron Boone would say after the most lopsided loss in the Yankees' long postseason history, "I didn't think he was overly sharp from the get-go."

Yet, at a time when urgency is the mandate, Boone ignored the triple-digit consistency that was being shown on the scoreboard and his view — and, really, also that the calendar now reads October. The Yankee manager stuck with Severino too long and then had a strange order of relievers to follow.

Maybe even a quick hook would not have mattered ... But Boone's worst day came at the worst time, a Game 3 that distinctly tilted this Division Series toward Boston. The Red Sox humiliated the Yankees 16-1 and now have two chances to win once to advance to an ALCS showdown against the Astros. ...

The Yankees ... stole home-field advantage by winning Game 2 in Fenway [and] a sense of confidence and euphoria arose. ... [B]ut by the ninth inning the stands were mainly empty and backup catcher Austin Romine was pitching for the Yankees.

And that wasn't Boone's oddest pitching decision.

Mookie Betts lined Severino's first pitch 105.8 mph and Brett Gardner tracked it down near the center-field wall. Severino walked J.D. Martinez before Xander Bogaerts missiled a ball 100.2 mph that Gardner also tracked down. There were no runs, but also no swings and misses in 15 pitches plus those two smashed balls, all of which should have placed Boone on red alert.

Especially since before the game, Boone had said, "There's no question about it," when discussing going quicker to his pen this time of year, particularly because he is blessed with a deep pen. ...

Yet, Boone stayed with the righty through a shaky one-run second and three hits and two runs in the third. That inning ended with another warning-track out that gave the Red Sox seven 100-mph-plus blows in 15 plate appearances.

Yet, no one warmed as the Yanks batted in the third. Boone sent Severino for the fourth hoping he could dispatch 7-8-9 in the lineup ... The first two hitters in the fourth singled and still Boone did not move, figuring ninth-place hitter, Jackie Bradley Jr., was going to sacrifice. Severino, though, issued a four-pitch walk.

"It just snowballed on him," Boone said. Lance Lynn assured an avalanche. ... The imperative here, though, was strikeouts and the Yanks have among the best strikeout relievers in the game. One of them, Chad Green, did not begin to warm until Lynn already was in the midst of putting the Yanks behind 10-0 after four innings.

"Certainly in hindsight, we could have started the fourth inning with [David Robertson] or something ..." Boone said. ...

But this wasn't about hindsight. Just sight. Severino was getting brutalized. This ended up feeling somewhat like the last time these rivals had played a postseason game at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 20, 2004, ALCS Game 7, Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez teamed to put the Yanks behind 8-0 in the fourth inning en route to the Red Sox ... becoming the first team to ever rally from an 0-3 playoff deficit. Vazquez was at both Fenway games of this Division Series, a haunting reminder of the lowest moment in Yankee history.

Marc Carig, The Athletic:
In​ October, every spark is just​ an​ inferno in​ waiting.​ It's up​ to a manager​ to​ douse the​​ flames before they spread. The job requires foresight and decisiveness and feel. Every decision must be made with urgency. If not, an entire season can burn.

On all counts, Aaron Boone failed miserably.

Because of it, the Yankees' 100-win season is on the brink of extinction, snuffed out by managerial negligence when they could least afford it. The Red Sox seized upon his poor judgment on Monday night, routing the Yankees 16-1 in Game 3 of the ALDS, all because Boone was inexplicably too slow to pull a clearly-laboring Luis Severino.

Over and over, Boone watched from the dugout, his arms crossed, seemingly oblivious to the line drives that rang out like cannon shots. When Severino barely escaped trouble in the third, Boone didn't bother warming a reliever until a run was already in. Thus began a chain of mistakes which included sending Severino to begin the fourth, failing to pull him at the hint of trouble, and then replacing him with Lance Lynn, a starter by trade. He went to Lynn when there were other alternatives such as Chad Green and David Robertson, both of whom have more experience working with runners on base.

Instead, Lynn entered trying to hold the line of a 3-0 deficit with the bases loaded and nobody out. By the end of the inning, the Yankees trailed 10-0. The Red Sox sent 11 men to the plate in a seven-run fourth, which proved to be a showcase of managerial malpractice. ...

The Yankees have long boasted about perhaps the strongest bullpen in all of baseball, a unit that Boone himself as referred to as the team's greatest strength. But because of his own inaction, not one of the Yankees' top relievers threw a meaningful pitch. A winnable game devolved into blowout ...

Stealing outs from a starter has been Boone's habit for much of the year. It is more understandable in the regular season, when a manager must be mindful of taxing his bullpen. By contrast, the postseason brings higher stakes and more off days, making workload a lesser concern. Yet there was Boone, sending Severino out to begin the fourth as if this were the middle of May. ...

He's not new to criticism. ... [Boone] has paid the price for his habit of pushing starters too long. Until now, it had mostly been nitpicking, which he acknowledged as part of the job. ...

Boone was slow to act. A spark turned into a flame, a flame turned into a fire, and now the Yankees are one loss away from watching an otherwise brilliant season go up in smoke.
Reader Comments:

Managerial malpractice to a level I cannot remember. The Yankees had momentum ... Boone looked frozen in that non-caring dugout stance we have all seen too much of as the bases were loaded.

Incredibly confounding ... His looks of disinterest often make me think he is dreaming of broadcasting the game rather than leading his team.

What we've been seeing all season is a rookie manager with a game plan from which he refuses to deviate. Part of maturity as a manager and leader is knowing when to be flexible and act in the moment.

I am a huge Aaron Boone fan. Sure he's not perfect, nobody is, but he's managed well this season. However this game was an abomination. The fourth inning was one of the worst managed innings I've ever seen. ... The team laid an egg tonight for sure. But it's the manager's job to put them in the best position to succeed and he didn't do that tonight.

The Yankees are at the point of elimination because of the problems that have plagued them all year despite the gaudy record: 1) poor starting pitching 2) abysmal situational hitting (see Game 1) and 3) bad managing. I could also add sloppy defensive play and mental errors although the latter two have not really contributed that much to the two losses in this series. B(o)one-Head is getting far too much credit for the 100 wins. This is not a well-managed team as evidenced by their weak record and sloppy play against bottom-feeding teams like the Orioles, Tigers, Mets and White Sox. B(o)one-Head was a deer in the headlights last night. Send him back to ESPN where he belongs.

A manager who would utter the words "it's one game" during a five-game postseason series is clueless.

I remain completely shocked, but in the same sense, not shocked at all. To some degree, I am surprised that Aaron Boone actually did this in the postseason. But should I really be surprised at all? All season long, for a 162 game stretch, I watched Aaron Boone engage in this managerial negligence, trying to steal outs from pitchers who were so clearly out of gas or no longer effective. Many times, it came back to burn him. Many times, it cost the Yankees the game. ... How the Yankees brass let it get to this point is astounding. Having a rookie manager is one thing, but having one who seemingly has no feel for the game is another.

Tyler Norton and Caitlin Rogers, Pinstripe Alley:
The red flags presented themselves early for Severino. The first pitch of the game went for an out, but it was a loud, deep fly ball to center field off the bat of Mookie Betts. It felt like he got away with a mistake. And although the right-hander navigated through the rest of the inning, it was clear he didn't have his good stuff. ...

For reasons unknown, Boone insisted on sending Severino back out for the fourth inning. The right-hander loaded the bases on a pair of singles and a walk before being lifted in favor of Lynn. The the wheels completely fell off and the Bombers found themselves down by double digits. It's really hard to fathom how Boone allowed the game to get this far out of hand. Sevy had nothing from the get go. He should have been pulled in the third inning, but instead he got left high and dry.

The unbelievable thing is that this is something that Boone was guilty of all season. All season he left pitchers out too long. He did this with Severino multiple times in the second half. Even when Sevy was struggling and needed a confidence booster, Boone would try to squeak an extra inning out of him instead of letting five be good enough. Then he'd give up a couple of runs and have to be pulled from the game. Everyone defended him saying that it was a long season and he couldn't keep turning to the bullpen, and that he obviously wouldn't do that in the postseason. Well, he did ...


Dan Martin, Post:
Luis Severino got the Yankees in trouble Monday night.

Lance Lynn finished them off.

Brought in with the bases loaded and no one out in the top of the fourth and the Yankees trailing by three runs, Lynn wasted no time in torching any chance they had of mounting a comeback against the Red Sox in a 16-1 Game 3 loss that ... left the Yankees one defeat from elimination. ...

The choice of Lynn seemed odd as Chad Green was available and much more experienced at coming into games in the middle of an inning with runners on base.

Lynn never looked comfortable in his brief outing. Pitching to Mookie Betts, Lynn even fell to the ground when he slipped on the mound before walking Betts on four pitches to force in a run to make it 4-0. ...

Boone admitted he knew Lynn was unaccustomed to coming into the middle of an inning, but that was outweighed by the fact Boone believed Lynn gave the Yankees their "best chance" against right-handed hitters.

Ken Davidoff, Post:
This night went sideways in so many ways for the Yankees, too many to enumerate in this tidy little Post column.

Yet Exhibit A might just be the oddity of Luis Severino's news conference after his team suffered a historic 16-1 beating at the hands of the Red Sox in American League Division Series Game 3.

As many questions as Severino faced about his lousy pitching Monday night, he received just as many about ... his pregame preparation?

Welcome to Warmupgate. ...

[YES analyst John] Flaherty ... said, "There is no way you can go on a big league bullpen mound eight minutes before the scheduled first pitch and expect to be ready." ...

Yet the Yankees insisted Severino didn't veer from his normal course.

"How does he know what time I normally go out?" an agitated Severino asked of Darling ... "I always get on the mound 10 minutes before the game."

Wallace Matthews, Daily News:
Luis Severino was late getting to the bullpen. Aaron Boone was late getting off the bench.

And now, the Yankees might be early getting to the golf course. Like as early as Wednesday.

Monday night's 16-1 loss to the Red Sox in Game 3 of the ALDS would have been funny if it wasn't so sad. Sadly played, sadly managed and sadly umpired.

And it leaves the Yankees one game from elimination, with their season riding on the 38-year-old left arm, and 3,800-year-old right knee, of CC Sabathia in Tuesday's Game 4.

So much for the momentum they took out of Fenway Park after Saturday's 6-2 win in Game 2. The Yankees gave that back in the second inning Monday night, when it became clear that Luis Severino had nothing on his pitches. But they still had not given away the game, until Boone, who managed the biggest game of his brief career as if he had been handcuffed to the bench, inexplicably left Severino in until he loaded the bases with none out in the fourth inning.

Then even more inexplicably, he brought Lance Lynn, a starter by trade, into a situation that would have daunted Mariano Rivera. Predictably enough, that did not end well.

But wait, it gets worse. Most perplexing of all, with the Red Sox leading 7-0 and the game out of reach, Boone decided to pull Lynn after four batters and replace him with Chad Green, who he probably should have gone to in the first place. ...

How bad? So bad the Yankees ran out of mound visits by the eighth inning, forcing Stephen Tarpley, the fifth pitcher of the night, to wear it as the Red Sox put up three more runs.

How bad? So bad Austin Romine, the backup catcher, had to pitch the ninth. He got two quick outs before surrendering a two-run home run to Brock Holt, completing a cycle for the Red Sox second baseman, the first in postseason history. ...

But the big loser of the night was Boone, who never seemed to grasp the urgency of the game, and by the time he noticed things were getting out of hand, it was too late.

In fact, the only person in the Stadium who might have had a worse night than Boone was first-base umpire Angel Hernandez, whose calls were challenged four times – three of them overturned.

The difference is, Hernandez, who moves his talents behind home plate for Game 4, is likely to continue working through October. Chances are Boone and his team will be free to roam about the country as they please by Wednesday morning. ...

TBS broadcaster Ron Darling reported that Severino did not even begin warming up for the game until 7:32 p.m., a mere 10 minutes before the scheduled first pitch. Their cameras caught pitching coach Larry Rothschild clearly saying to Severino, "First pitch is at 7:40," and gesturing up at the scoreboard. The entire incident hinted at an organizational laxness in which the starting pitcher wasn't even sure what time his biggest game of the season was supposed to start. ...

[T]he roof began to collapse in the third when Boston scored twice more, and fell in altogether in the fourth, although Boone did not seem to notice until he was covered in debris.

Although Severino surrendered two runs on three hard hits in the third, which ended only because a sharply-hit liner by Steve Pearce found Gardner's glove, Boone sent him out again for the fourth — with no one warming in his bullpen.

Brock Holt led off with a hard single. No one moved. Vazquez singled him to second. Fans began shouting at the manager to get someone up. But not a creature stirred in the Yankees pen. Jackie Bradley Jr walked to load the bases. Finally, Boone emerged from the dugout, to a chorus of boos. ...

All season long, there have been questions, some fair and some unfair, about Boone's in-game management skills, his bullpen choices, and his generally laid-back demeanor.

But on this night, no question seemed out of bounds. Least of all this one: Aaron, what the hell took you so long?

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:
Luis Severino arrived late and left early Monday night. The Yankees' right hander could not get out of the fourth inning of Game 3 of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium after reportedly being late to the bullpen to warm up for the game. ...

Severino didn't get the day off to a great start. ...

It was a quick warmup and a short appearance. ...

Severino had seemingly put concerns about his second-half struggles — and his miserable performance in the 2017 wild card game — behind him ...

Monday night, the Red Sox made him work, running up his pitch count early — 29 pitches in the second inning alone ...

Like he did in Wednesday night's game, Boone seemed to be slow to get his bullpen moving and slow to pull Severino, earning him jeers from a fired up Bronx crowd.

His decision in that situation to go to Lynn, who had come in with runners on only one other time this season and allowed one of the two to score, was also questionable.

Mike Puma, Post:
Luis Severino was absolutely masterful at his craft Monday night compared to Angel Hernandez.

While the Yankees ace was mercifully removed in the fourth inning after a dreadful performance, the first-base umpire Hernandez had nowhere to hide.

In all, three of Hernandez's calls were overturned by replay, adding an extra layer of sludge to Boston's 16-1 blowout victory ...

Hernandez's brutal night started in the second inning, when he ruled Didi Gregorius safe at first base on a bunt that moved Giancarlo Stanton to second. The Red Sox challenged the call, which was overturned as replays showed the throw beating Gregorius to the bag.

Gleyber Torres opened the bottom of the third inning with a grounder to shortstop Xander Bogaerts and was called out at first by Hernandez. The Yankees challenged the call, which was overturned by replay. ...

Hernandez received a reprieve in the fourth inning on Luke Voit's infield single leading off — the Red Sox challenged, but the call was upheld by replay.

But two batters later, Hernandez again looked bad: Gregorius was called out at first base as part of a 4-6-3 double play before the Yankees challenged. The call was overturned on replay, giving Gregorius first base and Hernandez his third blown call of the game.
Kristie Ackert, Daily News:
About the only person who had a worse night than Luis Severino at Yankee Stadium on Monday was first base umpire Angel Hernandez. The controversial official had four of his calls challenged in Game 3 of the ALDS and three of them overturned. ...

Hernandez blew a call against the Red Sox in the bottom of the second, ruling Didi Gregorius safe on a sacrifice bunt. That was overturned. In the bottom of the third, he called Gleyber Torres out on an infield hit and that was also overturned, Torres was safe. The Yankees challenged Hernandez's call that Gregorius was out as the second out of a double play in the bottom of the fourth. That call was also overturned. ...

Hernandez also had a call overturned on replay on Friday night when he was umpiring at second base.

Voit, who stood next to Hernandez playing defense, said the veteran umpire just said "I'll get the next one right," as they were out there. ...

Singles were not exactly what the Yankees had in mind when they made the blockbuster deal to acquire Giancarlo Stanton this winter, but that's all the Yankee slugger has given them in the first three games of the ALDS. ...

After Monday night's 16-1 loss to the Red Sox, Stanton is hitting .286 but has no extra-base hits or RBI. ...

"That's the nature of G. When he has outs, it can sometimes be a little unpretty, that's just, you gotta live with it a little bit," Aaron Boone said. ... I don't feel like he's in a bad, bad place."

Mike Vaccaro, Post:
They've barely had time to rid the room of the rancid stench of stale champagne. Surely they haven't been able to shampoo the rug yet. Bad enough the Red Sox clinched first place in the AL East after the ninth and final regular-season game they played at Yankee Stadium this year, back on Sept. 20.

Nineteen days later, they will have the chance to do it all over again, to turn the visitors' clubhouse behind the third-base dugout into a temporary Delta House, this time to celebrate the final vanquishing of the 2018 Yankees.

And unless there is a radical change from what we all saw Monday night, that is precisely what's going to happen Tuesday. The Yankees chose the worst time possible to suffer their most miserable day of the season, the Red Sox flattening them 16-1, taking a 2-1 lead in this best-of-five, nudging their toes right to the abyss. ...

CC Sabathia gets the ball in what may be his final appearance as a Yankee. ... The Yankees need Sabathia to ... figure out a way to halt a Sox offense that, Monday, was a full-on locomotive. ...

The Yankees hitters will need to be better against Rick Porcello in Game 4 than they were against Nathan Eovaldi in Game 3. They will need to get a couple of early runs, get the Stadium crowd into it in a way that the 49,657 poor saps who filled the joint Monday never were able to after the Sox struck early and then drew blood. ...

The Yankees had no answers. None of them did. Only Angel Hernandez, the first-base ump for whom there should be a "phone-a-friend" guessing option on every play he calls, had a worse night.

And that will be nothing compared to Tuesday night if, nearing midnight, instead of quietly packing their gear in the visitors' clubhouse the Red Sox are instead donning goggles and emptying magnums and sloshing in standing puddles of champagne. That would be a really bad night for the local nine.

Wallace Matthews, Daily News:
The Yankees don't need CC Sabathia to turn back the clock to 2007, when he won the AL Cy Young Award with the Cleveland Indians, or to 2009, when he almost single-handedly pitched the Yankees into the World Series with two dominant performances in the ALCS.

They will settle for the Sabathia of 12 days ago, who shut out that Tampa Bay Rays on one hit over five innings, or even better, the Sabathia of June 29, who spun seven innings of one-run ball in an 8-1 victory over the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. (Hopefully, he will not revert to the CC of August 2, who lasted just three innings against the Red Sox in a 15-7 Yankees loss at Fenway Park).
Wallace, a little FYI: The Red Sox kicked Sabathia's ass in 2007 - twice (ALCS Game 1 and Game 5)!

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