Schadenfreude 282: (A Continuing Series)

Joel Sherman, Post:

You may recall last year, as the Yankees were dominated by the Rays in both the regular season and Division Series, they bemoaned the absences of Tommy Kahnle, James Paxton and Luis Severino.

It was a particularly weak alibi. Because the Yankees have three times the Rays' payroll to cover up problems. But also because Tampa Bay was even more devastated by injuries in 2020, especially to its pitching — and won the AL East and AL pennant anyway.

Nothing has changed in 2021. The Rays have nine players on the IL, including seven pitchers. Plus they lost two of their best starters — Charlie Morton to free agency and Blake Snell to a trade — in the offseason. They were hoping Chris Archer, in a return to the franchise, would help. But Archer left his first 2021 start with one out in the third Saturday, due to a lateral forearm strain.

Nevertheless, despite a restored lineup, the Yankees never scored. Maybe soon they can whine about not having Luke Voit. . . .

Over the first two games of this series, the Rays are crushing the Yankees, 14-5. Tampa Bay has beaten the Yankees in 13 of 17 games since the outset of last year, including the 2020 Division Series. Head-to-head, the Rays are the better team. They do not have bigger names or huger salaries, but they are a better team, with a strong mindset to overcome any loss or absence of resources. . . .

Tampa Bay is superior at run prevention — pitching plus defense. But the Rays' lineup might be making inroads, too, with the ability to mix and match parts to platoon advantages, the rising Randy Arozarena, the revived Austin Meadows and the top prospect in the game, Wander Franco, waiting for a call.

The Yankees lineup familiarly remained hit-or-miss. Keep them in the park, keep them off the board, keep them out of the win column. The Yankees have failed to homer in three games, including Saturday's, this year, and are 0-3 with four total runs in those games. On Saturday they were hitless in nine at-bats with men on base and did not get a hit over the final four innings. . . .

The outages are throughout the lineup. . . . Giancarlo Stanton continues to intersperse a "wow" exit velocity with swaths of empty at-bats. . . .

German, who allowed four runs in four innings Saturday, has swing-and-miss stuff. He also has hit-it-over-the-fence results. . . . [He has allowed] four homers in seven innings this year and 50 in 968 at-bats for his career, or one every 19.36 at-bats — roughly the frequency that Chipper Jones (19.2) hit them in his Hall of Fame career. . . .

The team that has perennially struggled with injuries is comparatively whole so far. The pain has not been physical through an uninspiring start. The pain is from how the Yankees are playing.

 

Bill Madden, Daily News:

Amazingly, we are barely two weeks into the baseball season and already the American League East is an absolute train wreck. . . .

For the longest time, scouts have been saying the Yankees will never win a World Series with Gary Sanchez as their catcher. They're still saying that, even though Sanchez has shown periodic signs of improvement behind the plate this spring. Now the new, more vocal critique is the Yankees can never win a World Series with Gleyber Torres as their shortstop. Not quite so vocal, but getting more and more repetitive is "the Yankees will never win a World Series with Aaron Hicks as their No. 3 hitter" refrain. All of these are legitimate questions, but none more so now than Torres, who is clearly out of his element at shortstop, with the yips only likely to get worse. . . .

Brian Cashman probably didn't foresee having to do some major lineup re-evaluations this quickly. But there's no getting around the fact this Yankee team has major flaws. . . . 

Cashman cannot afford to turn a blind eye to Torres' shortcomings — as he's done with Sanchez. The wise move would be to trade Torres now . . . 

The good news for the Yankees is the rest of the AL East is equally flawed.

Madden proceeds to write about some of the shortcomings of the Rays, Blue Jays, and Orioles. But not the Red Sox. He actually has good things to say about Boston. So why did he begin by writing that the entire division is "an absolute train wreck" and each of the other four teams is as "equally flawed" as the Yankees?

Madden could think of nothing wrong with the Red Sox, outside of them dropping their first three games. But they have recovered and are now in first place and the Yankees are in the basement. Madden could not bring himself to say the entire division is a wreck except for Boston, so he wrote what he did not believe at the top of his column and then wrote the truth further down.

This is everything in his column about the Red Sox (which he further hid by including it in his paragraph about the Orioles):

[A]mid all the injuries besetting the floundering three division favorites, there has been one unexpected ray of optimism in the division coming out of Boston. Swept (by the Orioles of all teams) in their home opening series at Fenway Park for the first time since 1948, the Red Sox got a strong (8K, 1 BB, 2 ER) outing from Tanner Houck, their No. 1 draft pick in 2017 who they are hoping will be able to fill one of the rotation voids behind Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez. Equally impressive, out of the bullpen, has been Garrett Whitlock, the Rule 5 draft pick from the Yankees who after missing all of last year with Tommy John surgery, is also heading for the rotation as soon as his arm is built up.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

Friday, the Yankees got to watch as the Rays raised their AL East division and AL championship banners at Tropicana Field. Saturday, they got reminded again why those flags aren't hanging in the Bronx.

Domingo German couldn't get past the fourth inning and the Yankees bats were silent as the Rays shut them out 4-0 at Tropicana Field.

The Yankees (3-5) have now lost three straight games. The Rays (4-4) have won five straight regular season series against the Yankees, dating back to Sept. 24, 2019. Of course, the Rays beat the Yankees last October in the American League Division Series as well.

During the three-game losing streak, the Yankees have scored a total of eight runs and have stranded 18 runners. Saturday they went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and stranded six.

The Rays shut them out despite the fact starter Chris Archer had to leave with one out in the fourth inning. . . .

After missing the 2019 playoffs and all of the 2020 season while serving an 81-game suspension under the MLB/MLBPA joint domestic violence policy . . . German looked dominant in March and Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he was stunned there was “no rust.”

In April, however, that rust started to show . . .

He gave up long shots to Austin Meadows, the first runs the Yankees pitchers have allowed in the first inning this season, and Randy Arozarena on Saturday. He also gave up two homers in his first start of the season.

This isn't a new issue for him.

In 2019, German’s breakout season, he gave up 30 home runs in 27 appearances. In fact, he has given up at least one homer in 12 straight starts, dating back to July 18, 2019.

Dan Martin, Post:

Among the many things that have changed since last year, one has so far remained the same: The Yankees can't figure out the Rays.

Domingo German, in a second straight rough outing, allowed four runs in four innings as the Yankees lost their third game overall, 4-0 to Tampa Bay. . . .

German has brought little of the overwhelming stuff he featured in March into April. The right-hander gave up two more home runs and has allowed four in just seven innings of work this season.

And the Yankees' offense was no better, even though Rays starter Chris Archer was forced from the game after just 2.1 innings due to right lateral forearm tightness. . . .

German gave up two more runs in the second. Joey Wendle and Willy Adames opened the inning with singles to center. A groundout by Brett Phillips moved the runners to second and third. Francisco Mejia followed with a comebacker that bounced off German's glove toward first base. Jay Bruce, unsure what to do on the play, didn't go after the ball. By the time LeMahieu chased it down, both runners had scored and the Yankees trailed, 3-0. . . .

Randy Arozarena added to the lead in the third, leading off against German with a home run to center to make it 4-0.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

After his second short and shaky start . . . Domingo German was optioned to the alternate site Saturday night. . . .

German went just four innings Saturday, allowing four runs on eight hits, including two home runs in the Yankees 4-0 loss to the Rays.  That came on the heels of Corey Kluber being unable to get out of the third inning on Friday. . . .

German missed the end of the 2019 season and playoffs and all of the 2020 season serving an 81-game suspension under the domestic violence policy. He had looked sharp in spring training, but struggled with an old familiar problem in his two regular season starts.

In 2019, German's breakout season, he gave up 30 home runs in 27 appearances. In fact, he has given up at least one homer in 12 straight starts, dating back to July 18, 2019.