About Last Night: Yanks Outslug Pirates

by Paul Semendinger

July 20, 2026

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Last night, the Yankees opened a three-game series, at home, against the Pittsburgh Pirates. This is a series the Yankees should win. I know the Pirates are pretty good this year, but, the Yankees are a better team than the Pirates.

The Yankees won last night's game 8-5.

The Yankees will make the playoffs. That doesn't mean they're a great team. People talk about how much more difficult it is to win a World Series today, but in the "good old days" when fewer teams made it to the postseason, at least the teams there, by and large, were the best teams in baseball. Now so many teams make it that a team just needs to be somewhat kind of good to make it. As I have said, often, that's the Yankees yearly plan - not to be great, but to be a little better than kind of good. That strategy works to create fan interest, even if it is false hope. It sells tickets. It creates stories. Most often this approach leads to postseason failures as can be seen by the Yankees 'success" since 2010. I find it a tired and boring approach. I am amazed at how many fans actually "buy-in" every year - fool me once and all that. The Yankees have been fooling their fans annually since 2010. It's feel it is time to get a new playbook. But, as long as tickets sell, and the stadium is packed, if making money is the decision makers' bottom line, there is no reason to actually change the strategy. I wish the primary goal was to win World Series.

In the end, this just might be the year that this strategy works.

And now, without further delay, my thoughts and reactions to last night's Yankees game as the game was playing out.

• This is baseball and the life of a pitcher: Top of the First... the first batter hits a blast to the top of the wall in right field, but it was caught for an out. The next batter hit a rocket line drive to right. It was also caught for an out. (Two nice plays by Jasson Dominguez.) Then the third batter hit a slow bouncer to short for an infield hit. Overall, that was the only batter to reach in the first inning for the Pirates.

• The Yankees responded with a great bottom of the first. With one out, Ben Rice challenged a 3-2 pitch that was called strike three. He was correct and walked. Paul Goldschmidt then hit a grounder to third that wasn't fielded well, bouncing off the third baseman's glove and into left field. Ben Rice was running hard the whole way and reached third. When the left fielder bounced his throw back to the infield, Ben Rice scored. Yankees 1-0. Cody Bellinger then singled. Jazz Chisholm then homered. Yankees 4-0.

• Ben Rice showed what running hard on the bases looks like. Trent Grisham should take notice.

• When players play hard and hustle it is fun to watch. When I watch baseball, I want to see the players I root for giving their all.

• In the Top of the Second inning, Ryan Weathers did what MLB pitchers cannot do - he let the Pirates right back into the game. He gave up a leadoff single, then a double, then another double. Yankees 4, Pirates 2. Two outs later, Weathers gave up a single making it Yankees 4, Pirates 3.

• When the Yankees acquired Ryan Weathers, I noted that he had a career losing record. Coming into the game tonight, in 45 career decisions he was 15-30. I know so many want to ignore wins and loses, or discount them today, but they still speak certain truths. Ryan Weathers showed why he is 15-30 in that second inning.

• There was a whole sequence when it seemed the Pirates runner on second base was flashing a sign to alert the batter of what kind of pitch Ryan Weathers was throwing. This seemed to be upsetting the pitcher. It went on and on for a bit. Eventually Jazz Chisholm and Paul Goldschmidt talked to Weathers. For those that discount the impact of the manager, here was yet another example of how Aaron Boone lets situations get away from him. Did Boone go to the mound to calm his pitcher? No. Did Boone send out his pitching coach? No. This is not rocket science or great strategy. It's called understanding a game situation. 99.999% of every manager at every level in that situation would either send a coach to the mound or visit himself. That fact that this didn't happen shows again that Aaron Boone does not have a feel for the game. Maybe some fans don't see this. But, I guarantee that the players do. So does the opposition. During all of that, Weathers allowed the third Pirates run. This is another example of how a manager impacts a game. It is amazing that this is accepted by the Yankees upper management and so many fans.

  
  

• In the top of the third inning, Ryan Weathers walked the leadoff batter and then gave up a booming homer to Esmerlyn Valdez. Pirates 5, Yankees 4. If anyone is wondering why Ryan Weathers is 15-30 lifetime, that person need look no further than the second and third innings from last night's game.

• Not to be outdone, Braxton Ashcraft, the Pirates pitcher, followed Weathers' lead in the bottom of the inning. This inning shook out as follows:

  • Paul Goldschmidt single

  • Cody Bellinger fielder's choice

  • Jazz Chisholm homer. His second of the night and third in a row dating back to Sunday's game. Yankees 6, Pirates 5

  • Jasson Dominguez single

  • Ryan McMahon single

  • Austin Wells single

  • Jose Caballero two-run double. Yankees 8, Pirates 5

• Why Pirates manager Don Kelly allowed his young starter to get battered around like that is a mystery. In three of his last four starts, Ashcraft has allowed at least 5 runs. He is struggling. Allowing a young pitcher to get shelled isn't a way to build a pitcher's confidence or his skills.

• Weathers did a good job in the top of the fourth inning. After a leadoff single and an error by Ryan McMahon, he got a double play and a strikeout. Everything was in place for him to give some runs back - and he did not. If I were managing, that would have been his last inning.

• Wilber Dotel became the new Pirates pitcher. He did something somewhat amazing for this game:

  • Paul Goldschmidt strikeout

  • Cody Bellinger strikeout

  • Jazz Chisholm strikeout

• Aaron Boone sent Ryan Weathers out for the fifth inning to presumably allow him to pitch deep enough in the game to get the win.

  
  

• Well, I was wrong about that. Weathers got a ground out. He then walked a batter. He then struck out a batter to be one out from being able to get the win - and Aaron Boone took him out. By that point, Weathers had thrown 100 pitches. (You can't win many games throwing 100 pitches and not completing five innings, but... wow.) Angel Chivilli came in and... walked the first guy he faced. The next batted lined out to end the inning.

• I wish they told the player's position on the Name That Yankee. Maybe that would make it too easy. Even so, I'd like to have that context. (I only heard the sound of this feature tonight because I was working on this article as I followed the game.)

• Seems the "Torpedo Bat" stuff from the season's first few games was a whole lot of nothing.

• After what looked to be a heavyweight slugfest, the bullpens came in and shut the scoring down. No runs were scored in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth

  innings.

  
  

• Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana had words with Jose Caballeo after the 8th inning concluded. This seems to stem from Caballero's antics to not look up at the pitcher until the eight second mark. The benches cleared, but in the end, it was a whole lot of nothing.

• I was impressed that Aaron Boone didn't manage for the story by bringing in David Bednar to face his former team for the save. Fernando Cruz was lights out and he remained in the game after closing out the eighth to shut the Pirates down and earn the save.

• The series continues tonight. Will Warren will start for the Yankees at 7:05 p.m.

• The cover image was created by Microsoft Copilot.