About Last Night: Yanks Lost

By Paul Semendinger

April 16, 2024

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About Last Night - Toronto 3, Yankees 1

Quick Stats:

• WP - Chris Bassett

• LP - Luis Gil

• HR - None

Big Story - Regulars to SSTN know that I was at the Mets game last night. I didn't see the Yankees game, except as I was watching the scoreboard. Inning-by-inning, I wondered why the Yankees weren't scoring. (Especially as the Mets were. The Mets won, by the way.)

This was a frustrating game for the Yankees as their pitchers allowed just four hits. It's tough to lose a game when your pitchers allow only four hits... unless your starter walks seven batters in five innings. Not good. Not good, at all.

Player of the Game - Chris Bassett, 6.1 ip, 4 hits, 1 run

Notable Performances - Really, for the Yankees, none.

I hate to admit this, but for the Mets, the hero of the game was Harrison Bader. He had a huge double to give the Mets the lead. Then he stole third and scored on a ground out.

Better to Forget:

• Aaron Judge is batting .194 for the season

• Trent Grisham is batting .000

• Gleyber Torres is batting .209

• Austin Wells is hitting .103

• Alex Verdugo is batting .224

• The Yankees were supposed to have a powerful offense.

My Take - Teams lose games. It happens. BUT. The Yankees lost a game they should have won on Sunday. They followed that up by scoring only one run on Monday. If your pitchers allow only three runs, that's a game, you need to win. They Yankees didn't. For the last week, they have looked flat. The energy, the clutch hitting, the solid play that marked the first weeks of the season went away the last week as we've seen the team hit into a gazillion double plays and play poor defensively. Good teams don't fall into long bad stretches. The Yankees need to bounce back.

It is time to be concerned about Aaron Judge. I'll say it. It's true. Here are his season-by-seaon numbers after his first 17 games:

• 2017 = .281, 6 HR

• 2018 = .339, 5 HR

• 2019 = .274, 4 HR

• 2020 = .290, 9 HR

• 2021 = .268, 4 HR

• 2022 = .274, 4 HR

• 2023 = ..271, 5 HR

• 2024 = .194, 3 HR

Let's remember that Aaron Judge hit only .245 in the second half last year after sustaining an injury to his toe.

We sometimes expect our heroes to be superheroes and it just doesn't work that way. Aaron Judge has an injury to his toe that requires constant attention. He had core problems that reduced his Spring Training. He has never started a season this slowly. This is new territory.

Last year, due to mismanagement, poor communication, and whatever else, the Yankees played Anthony Rizzo for nine weeks after he sustained a concussion. Somehow he and the team never had a serious conversation in that time about his health, his struggles, and the impact of the trauma to his head. One has to wonder if the same dynamic is at play this year and Yankees aren't noticing that Judge isn't healthy enough to be the player they expect him to be.

Next Up - Carlos Rodon goes tonight against Yusei Kikuchi