About Yesterday: The Yankees Were Edged by the Nationals 6-5
By Tim Kabel
August 25, 2023
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The last-place Yankees wrapped up the three-game series against the last-place Nationals. Apparently, the Yankees are better at being in last place than the Nationals because they lost the series.
The Yankees continue to lose games and series with great frequency. They are 1-11-3 in their last 15 series. They had one win in this six-game homestand. That is a recipe for a losing season. Any optimism that was generated by Wednesday's victory faded in the afternoon rain on Thursday.
The Yankees will win games over the remainder of this season. They will possibly win series. They could potentially string together a nice winning streak. Do not delude yourself into believing they will make the playoffs. They will not. They need to evaluate their talent and start to build something for the future. There were some positive signs in this game, and it was an exciting game. That was the silver lining in the gray clouds above the stadium yesterday.
I doubt Suzyn Waldman complained about today’s game being boring on a live mic. As an aside, who could blame her for saying that the other day? On top of enduring a steady stream of Yankees’ losses, she has to do it shoulder-to-shoulder, back-to-back, and belly-to-belly with John.
Quick Stats:
The Yankees lost their 7th straight rubber game of a series. The last time they won a rubber game was June 29th against the Oakland A's.
The Yankees made two outs in the second inning on base running blunders. That has happened too often this season.
The Yankees have lost 17 of their last 23 games.
The Yankees are 0-7-2 in series since they swept the Kansas City Royals. They have more failed series than Jason Alexander after Seinfeld.
Gleyber Torres has now hit 20 or more home runs in a season four times in his career.
Jhony Brito came into the game in the fifth inning yesterday and pitched two scoreless innings. In the 7th inning, he gave up a double and recorded an out before he was replaced by Tommy Kahnle, who imploded. Brito is used to pitching more than two innings and had done very well. This was another example of Aaron Boone making pitching moves simply for the sake of doing so. Why did he take Britto out? As Yul Brynner said in The King and I, “is a puzzlement."
On August 24th, 1951, Mickey Mantle returned to the Yankees after his demotion to the minor leagues. He began wearing number seven and never looked back.
The Big Story:
The Yankees will have some great moments during the rest of this season. They will have games like they did on Wednesday. Unfortunately, they will have more games like they played on Thursday. This is not a very good team right now and Brian Cashman was correct to describe this season as a disaster. Unfortunately, he is the architect of the disaster. Yet, it is fairly certain that he will return next year. He needs to fix his disaster. The Yankees and their fans need to stop developing schemes that they think will prove that the team will make the playoffs this season. That is not going to happen and is simply a waste of time and energy. It would be more productive to use the rest of this season as a springboard for 2024. The fact that the Yankees recalled Everson Pereira and Oswald Peraza is an indication that the Yankees, and Brian Cashman are thinking along those lines. That is a good sign.
Player of the Day -
Giancarlo Stanton had four hits, including a home run, and drove in two runs. Hopefully, this was not simply a mirage.
Notable Performances -
Aaron Judge hit his fourth home run in two games. Gleyber Torres had three hits, including a two-run home run.
Better to Forget-
Tommy Kahnle and Clay Holmes were ineffective in relief once again.
My Take -
I was raised to believe that everything you do should have a point to it. In my job, we would train social workers to make purposeful visits to families. In other words, the visits were not just aimless exercises that wasted time. They were made for specific purposes and to accomplish certain goals.
It is obvious to everyone that the Yankees will not make the playoffs. Their season will end on October 1st when they finish the game with the Royals. The purpose for the rest of the season should be to prepare for 2024. They need to take inventory of their talent and determine who will be playing for the Yankees next year. In other words, the Yankees need to develop and evaluate their young players.
As I have written multiple times, Aaron Boone has shown no ability to develop, evaluate, or even communicate with young players. He has the potential to do much more harm than good in dealing with the young players for the rest of this season.
It is obvious to everyone that Aaron Boone will not be here next year. There's no purpose in keeping him for the remainder of this season. What could he possibly do that would convince anyone that he should return? He has not improved as a manager in his tenure; he has worsened. Since the middle of last year, the Yankees have been a mediocre team.
At this point, the Yankee should allow one of their Major League coaches or Shelley Duncan from Scranton Wilkes-Barre to ride out the final six weeks of the season as the manager of this team. Keeping Aaron Boone serves no purpose. He will not suffer in any way if he is terminated now. He will still be paid, and he will not have to endure constant questioning regarding his future.
Bringing up the young players this week was a good step. The next logical step is to put someone else in charge of managing them for the rest of this season. If it is Shelly Duncan, he can be evaluated to see if he should be the one in charge moving forward. He has more managerial experience at this point than Aaron Boone did when he was given the job. The Yankees need to move past Boone-proofing and go straight to Boone-removing. It needs to happen today.
Next Up -
Tonight, the Yankees open a ten-game road trip with a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field at 6:40 PM. Gerrit Cole (10-4 3.03 ERA) will face Tampa Bay’s Zach Eflin (13-7 3.58 ERA). Hopefully, Zach won’t use any eflin magic.
