Schadenfreude 251 (A Continuing Series)

Dan Martin, Post:

What a mess.

On a rainy Friday night in The Bronx, the Yankees dropped their fourth straight game — ... this time they lost to a dismal White Sox team that entered mired in a five-game losing streak.

This one was a rain-shortened 9-6 defeat that was called after a 41-minute delay in the top of the seventh, and it left general manager Brian Cashman and starter J.A. Happ searching for answers. ...

[Happ] gave up six runs in four-plus innings after being handed a 4-1 lead in the second inning.

Jonathan Holder and Chad Green combined to give up three homers out of the bullpen, as that unit continues to struggle.

On top of all that, the Yankees' injured list grew to 12 when Gary Sanchez was placed on the IL with a left calf strain and Dellin Betances was ruled out even longer with what now is being called a bone spur in his right shoulder. ...

[Happ] has allowed five homers in just 12.1 innings and has an 8.76 ERA. ...

The Yankees are just 5-8 despite having a lead at some point in all but one of their 13 games.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

On a rainy night in the Bronx, J.A. Happ struggled in his third straight start ...

The Yankees (5-8) lost their fourth straight game and their fifth to a team that finished under .500 last season. ...

With a major-league leading 12 players on the IL, the Yankees are missing Giancarlo Stanton, Miguel Andujar, Aaron Hicks, and Didi Gregorius. Friday they added ... Gary Sanchez.

That group drove in nearly half the runs the Yankees scored last season -- a combined 410 RBI, just one shy of 50 percent -- and hit 51 percent of the home runs the Bombers hit (137). ...

In three starts, [Happ] has managed to get an out in the fifth inning just once, and has given up four home runs. ...

[Cashman:] "I also know this game can humble you quick." ...

So far this season, it has certainly humbled the Yankees.

Greg Joyce, Post:

The Yankees are getting more use out of their MRI machine than they are from some from their most important regulars. Unfortunately, it cannot bat cleanup or be their top setup man.

Friday delivered a double whammy, with Gary Sanchez going on the 10-day injured list with a left calf strain and Dellin Betances — who was already rehabbing a right shoulder impingement in Tampa — coming back to New York for another MRI exam ...

The Yankees are now playing without six everyday starters in their lineup ...

The Yankees entered spring training boasting one of the most dangerous bullpens in the game, but it has yet to perform like it.

Greg Joyce, Post:

Dellin Betances ... will be shut down three more weeks after getting a cortisone shot in his right shoulder on Saturday. The reliever has had a bone spur in the back of his right shoulder since he signed with the Yankees in 2006 ...

The 31-year-old was rehabbing a shoulder impingement in Tampa and struggled in a simulated game Thursday. He flew back to New York on Friday for another MRI exam ...

Cashman said it could be six or seven weeks before [Betances] is back pitching for the Yankees. ...

Earlier in the week, Luis Severino was diagnosed with a lat strain while rehabbing an inflamed right rotator cuff — which remains a mystery to Cashman.

"We're trying to piece that together still [how it happened], to be honest," Cashman said. "I don't know how a lat strain during his rehab process could have occurred. ... It looked like the day before, he had turned the corner. Then all of a sudden, to everybody's shock and dismay, there's a Grade 2 lat strain."

Joel Sherman, Post:

[T]o date that the Yankees have become the Mets with near relentless injuries, situations initially portrayed as not that bad actually being much worse and setbacks for those already sidelined.

The Yankees have paraded to the injury list more frequently than the win column so far in 2019 and the procession continued Friday when Gary Sanchez — who Aaron Boone initially forecasted would avoid an IL stint — was placed on the IL with a left calf strain. ...

Somehow, whatever has occurred the past quarter century, the Yanks have figured out, at minimum, how to be contenders in September and, often, October players.
Does that guarantee anything this year? No. ...

The injury spate will need to stop and players such as Hicks and Sanchez who have shown difficulty staying healthy will have to stay in the lineup. James Paxton can't do a lefty Sonny Gray imitation. The bullpen has to pitch to its pedigree. ...

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

The Yankees ... won't have their elite set-up man for six to seven more weeks.

A bone spur that Betances has had since signing with the Yankees is causing irritation in his shoulder. He will have a cortisone shot and the spur targeted by a sonogram Saturday to try and resolve the issue. ...

Betances struggled to get his fastball above 90 miles an hour this spring. ... He was part of the Yankees' plan to dominate the back-end of games. His absence has put more pressure on the bullpen that is struggling to get its feet underneath it already.

Joel Sherman, Post:

The Yankees lost a game Friday night while Brian Cashman was holding a press conference to discuss the latest batch of injuries and physical setbacks. The 2019 season, to date, hardly could have been summarized better.

Eloy Jimenez and James McCann homered consecutively off Chad Green with one out in the seventh that widened the White Sox lead to 9-6. Rain that had been falling all evening worsened. ...

[A]nother moment to capitalize on an expected punching bag had come and gone. The White Sox had lost five straight, getting outscored 45-14. But J.A. Happ ... wilted for the third time in three starts.

The Yankees staked Happ to 4-1 and 5-3 leads the veteran lefty gave away between walks and too-delectable pitches the White Sox smacked around. Happ was part of a spread-the-money-around offseason that was designed to make the Yankees more bulletproof. But he has an 8.76 ERA. ...

Sanchez, Betances, Severino and Aaron Hicks all were reported not to have been as hurt as it turned out they were or suffered setbacks. Cashman ... detailed the multiple levels of doctors and second opinions the Yanks use, but it is all the kind of stuff that, if it happened to the Mets, would be seen as their organizational malfeasance. ...

No part of the team is playing well or crisply. ...

[L]et's face it, the mojo is not good when your team loses a game during a press conference designed to discuss a plague of injuries.