About Last Night: Blown Away in the Windy City. Cubs 5, Yankees 2

About Last Night: Blown Away in the Windy City. Cubs 5 - Yankees 2

By Tim Kabel

August 2, 2026

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The Yankees lost to the Cubs last night. They still have a chance to win the series and finish this 10-game road trip with a record of 6-4.  Overall, the Yankees are currently 62-49. Since June 1st, their first game without Aaron Judge, they are 26 -26. That means that they were 36-23 before Judge went down. Since June 1st, the Yankees have been a mediocre team. Pretty soon, they will have played more games this season without Judge than they played with him. It is also quite likely that they will have been a mediocre team for more games than they have been a good team.

Yes, the Yankees are still 13 games over .500. They are in second place in the American League East, 3 1/2 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays. They have the second-best record in the American League. They are in first place in the Wild Card race. All of those all those things are true. They are important facts. However, when you look at the trends, the Yankees are trending downward. Also, they may be in second place in the American League East, and they may be in first place in the Wild Card race but don't look now, the Yankees are only two games ahead of the Red Sox in the loss column.

The Yankees are still capable of winning games. They are essentially treading water in the absence of Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton. However, they must do that on the backs of their starting pitchers. There is no room for error with this Yankees team. Last night, the Yankees scored two runs against the Cubs, the same number they scored on Friday. Unfortunately, while the Cubs didn't score any runs on Friday, they scored five last night.

In order for the Yankees to win these days, everything has to go right. Last night, everything did not go right. Max Fried pitched 5.1 innings, allowing two hits and one run. He struck out seven and walked one batter. In the first inning, Fried allowed a run when Pete Crow-Armstrong walked and then came around to score on two wild pitches and a groundout.

In the fifth inning, Spencer Jones who was on base due to an error, scored from second base on Jose Caballero's single. In the 7th inning, Spencer Jones hit his fifth home run of the season, and his second in the last two games, both of which were off left-handed pitchers, to allow the Yankees to take the lead.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Cubs scored three runs to take the lead and never looked back. They scored those runs off Fernando Cruz and Brent Headrick. Both Cruz and Headrick have been excellent this season. However, many of us stated that they were being overused and might eventually falter. That appeared to be the case last night. 

The Yankees did have eight hits last night. However, two of those were from Spencer Jones and three were from Ali Sanchez. The other three hits came from Amed Rosario, Jasson Dominguez, and Jose Caballero.

Because the Yankees need to have everything go right these days in order to win, they should do more things to make sure that things go right. In other words, they should play small ball more often. They should take advantage of the ability of some of their players to steal bases. Jose Caballero did steal two bases last night. But Jasson Dominguez does not run enough. Neither does Spencer Jones. Although Anthony Volpe’s base running skills have deteriorated, I'm sure that he could still some bases under the right circumstances. Right now, the Yankees need to do whatever it takes to win games. There is very little room for error without Judge, Stanton, and Bellinger. Let's see what happens in the final game of the road trip today. After that, mercifully, the road trip will end, and the Yankees will be back home to open a series against the Cardinals.

Well, the Yankees made their first trade before the deadline. No, they did not acquire Tarik Skubal from the Tigers. Naturally, the Dodgers did that. I didn't think the Yankees would or should have traded for Skubal. Starting pitching is not an area that needed to be upgraded. If the Yankees had acquired Skubal, they would not have the resources to make other trades that would address more pressing areas of need. They did however trade Camilo Doval to the Pirates in exchange for two minor leaguers. Yes, we can easily quibble and say that Doval cost the Yankees four prospects last year, but this year only brought back two. That is true. However, this is certainly a case of addition by subtraction. Doval had become a major liability in the Yankees bullpen and perhaps the young catcher they acquired from the Pirates might turn into a serviceable Major League player. The same could be said for the outfield prospect, but he is further away from the Major Leagues.

A Few Tidbits: 

·       The Red Sox finished July with a record of 21-4. That is an.840 winning percentage. That is the best month in the history of the Red Sox franchise. Let that roll around in your head for a minute before you think they are not a serious threat to the Yankees this season. Remember, the Red Sox were written off not that long ago and everyone assumed they would be selling most of their players at the deadline. Now, they're looking to acquire players from other teams. That's baseball Suzyn.

·        Max Fried has allowed one run or fewer in six of his thirteen starts this season.

·       Spencer Jones hit his home run to the opposite field against a 21 mile an hour wind. As Mary Poppins said, “Anything can happen if you let it.”.

·       George Lombard, junior hit another home run for the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Rail Riders last night, giving him six for the season. Perhaps he will be in the Yankees lineup on Monday night.

·       Today is August 2nd, and it is the 47th anniversary of Thurman Munson’s death in that tragic airplane crash. For many of us, me included, rooting for the Yankees has never been the same since. Yes, we are still fans; yes, we have favorite players, but there was only one Thurman Munson.

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Today, the Yankees will conclude the three-game series against the Cubs at 2:20 PM at Wrigley Field. Gerrit Cole, (4-5, 3.57 ERA) will pitch for the Yankees. Colin Rea, (8-7, 4.68 ERA) will pitch for the Cubs.