About Last Night: NYY 7, TBR 4

By Ethan Semendinger

August 1st, 2025

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An early offensive surge was followed by a long rain delay that allowed plenty of time for trade deadline moves!

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Quick Stats -

• Winning Pitcher: Marcus Stroman (3-2, 6.23 ERA)

• Losing Pitcher: Ryan Pepiot (6-9, 3.80 ERA)

• Save: Jonathan Loaisiga (1)

• Home Runs (Rays): None

• Home Runs (New York): Giancarlo Stanton (8), Ben Rice (16)

Big Story - Yesterday was the trade deadline. The trade deadline ended at 6:00 PM.

The Yankees had a game scheduled at 1:05 PM. Afternoon games typically end after about 3 hours.

In a silly twist of fate- and weather- the trade deadline was finished before the Yankees game was over.

And, the Yankees won both.

Here was the Yankees' line-up to end their 4-game mid-week series against the Rays:

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Player of the Game -

• Yerry de los Santos: 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K's, Hold

Notable Performances:

• Jonathan Loaisigia: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K

• Giancarlo Stanton: 1-4, Run, Home Run (2-Run), 2 RBI's, K

• Ben Rice: 1-4, Run, Home Run (3-Run), 3 RBI's

• Cody Bellinger: 1-4, Run, 1 RBI

• Jazz Chisholm: 1-3, Run, BB, K

• Jasson Dominguez: 1-3, BB

• Ryan McMahon: 2-3, Run, BB, K

Better to Forget -

• Marcus Stroman: 5.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R (4 ER), 0 BB's, 3 K's

• Paul Goldschmidt: 1-4, Run, Double, 3 K's

• Austin Slater: 0-4, 1 RBI, 2 K's

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The Game - The game summary requires two parts: pre- and post-rain delay.

Pre-Rain Delay:

The Yankees came out hot yesterday. Now, I've been away for a lot of the summer. I missed a week of Yankees baseball when I was in Florida. I then missed another week and a half when I was in South Carolina. I missed a lot of those miserable dog days the Yankees went through. However, I heard all about it. The Yankees were not playing well, did not look good, and quickly fell from being a top contender into being a team that should probably just give up and sell. Then, they started winning again. And, on the backs of back-to-back wins, the Yankees came out hot.

In the first inning, Cody Bellinger quickly put the first run of the game abroad to score Paul Goldschmidt (who doubled). Then, Giancarlo Stanton decided to destroy a baseball into the left field bleachers, scoring two more.

Then, in the second inning, after back-to-back walks from Ryan McMahon and Anthony Volpe, Ben Rice decided to knock a ball into the Yankees bullpen, quickly moving the score to 6-0.

Another run would score in the 3rd for the Yankees, via a fielders choice groundout by Austin Slater (scoring Jazz Chisholm). This would be important, as the Rays fought back with 4 runs of their own in the top of the 4th inning, bringing the score from 7-0 to 7-4.

Soon afterwards, the rain would come falling, and then the game was delayed.

For a long time...

Post-Rain Delay:

The rain delay ended up being 2 hours and 45 minutes long. (The game itself only took 2 hours and 26 minutes.) It quite obviously knocked both starting pitchers out of the game. And, this is where the player of the game took his spot.

Yerry de los Santos came in to pitch the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings in relief. He pitched those innings perfectly. He completely shut down the Rays, who were making a comeback before the rain, and he made the rest of the game run smoothly. (To be fair, neither team would score at all after the rain delay. But, I'm going to give de los Santos the credit as his effort was monumental in saving the Yankees tattered bullpen.)

In the 9th inning, Jonathan Loaisiga pitched a quiet inning himself en route to earning his first save of the year (and his first save since October of 2022).

The Yankees win!

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Next Up - The Yankees will begin a 3-game weekend series tonight against the Miami Marlins, in Miami with the game set to start at 7:10 PM (EDT). Carlos Rodon will take the mound for the Yankees (11-7, 3.18 ERA) against the Marlins' Janson Junk (5-2, 3.28 ERA). The game will be broadcast on YES Network.

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BONUS SECTION!

After running the two trade deadline megathread's from 10:00 AM until 6:30 PM yesterday, I needed some time to relax and get away from my computer. Ultimately, this meant I never gave my overall opinions on the Yankees moves. In all, the Yankees traded for 4 players yesterday: David Bednar, Jake Bird, Jose Caballero, and Camilo Doval. (And 7 total before the trade deadline, including: Ryan McMahon, Amed Rosario, and Austin Slater.)

Now, the Yankees did give up 9 of their organizational Top-30 prospects in order to make these deals happen.

Except, none of those prospects was in the MLB Top 100. And, none of them were in the Top-5 for the farm system. (The highest prospect, catcher Rafael Flores was ranked number 8.)

Which is exactly what the Yankees should ALWAYS be doing. Lower tiered prospects are to be used as trading pieces.

And, I hope those guys work out well. I hope they each develop into solid major leaguers and the teams that get them are happy. Because, that means they'll come back again, offering good MLB talent for today in hopes of getting other future MLB talent.

The Yankees completely revamped their bullpen. A bullpen that has been one of (if not the singular) worst bullpens in the league for the last few months. They needed a major shake-up and they got it.

Yerry de los Santos is a great pitcher. He was my player of the game. He was also sent down after the game last night because the Yankees have too many relievers. (That's a good thing!)

Imagine a playoff series where the Yankees have the option of sending in Luke Weaver, David Bednar, Jake Bird, Camilo Doval, or Devin Williams.

And, of those pitchers, all of the new guys have control through next season as well. Which means, the Yankees will continue to have great bullpen depth moving forward. And, it also means that the bullpen is not going to cost a huge amount, leaving room to bring in other great talent.

Additionally, the Yankees have now- for the first time in a long time- built a true depth bench.

This is a problem I've been pointing out for years, and for the first time in a long time, I feel confident in the guys the Yankees have not on the field.

Austin Slater is a great pinch hit bat. Amed Rosario is a great platoon bat. Jose Caballero is a great defensive and speed guy. (Maybe to give Anthony Volpe a mental reset. He needs it.)

The Yankees are not a perfect team.

These moves did not make them a perfect team.

The starting rotation still needs help, even with Luis Gil set to return soon.

However, the Yankees are undoubtably better today then they were yesterday.

And, the Yankees are undoubtably better set up for the future today than they were yesterday.

I give Brian Cashman a lot of ire. I think a lot of his moves questionable. I think he thinks he is the smartest man in the room too often, and it comes back to hurt the Yankees.

But, after yesterday, I can't help but be impressed.

Now, it's time for the Yankees to be the Yankees.

They need to win. A lot.

Take back the AL East lead.

Take back the AL Championship.

Take back the World Series trophy.

They are built to do so now and also next year.

Judge needs a ring. Get it while he's still a G.O.A.T.