Listless Yankees Sleepwalk Their Way Through Lackluster Defeat

By John Nielsen

September 1, 2026

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The Los Angeles Angels (53–85), merely playing out the string in yet another in a long line of pointless seasons, rolled the New York Yankees (78–60), 10–1, on Monday night in Anaheim.

Coming off an important series victory over the Boston Red Sox—taking three of four over the weekend in the Bronx—the Yankees delivered a lethargic, sloppy performance. They committed three errors, looked disengaged and disinterested for much of the evening, and essentially somnambulated their way through the contest, falling victim to the brilliant pitching of rookie right-hander Walbert Ureña (9–9).

After an encouraging series win over Boston, the Yankees appeared to have little energy or urgency against an Angels club simply counting down the days until the end of another lost season. Yes, it’s 2,438 air miles from the Bronx to Anaheim, but the Yankees arrived on the West Coast Sunday night with ample time to recuperate and prepare for a series opener against one of the American League’s weakest teams. There was no excuse for what followed. The Yankees simply didn’t get up—or, for that matter, even show up—for Monday night’s tilt.

Despite the defeat, New York remains within striking distance, just four games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. Tampa Bay also lost Monday night, falling to the New York Mets, but the Yankees failed to capitalize on the opportunity.

With the calendar now flipping to September, those opportunities are becoming increasingly scarce. In a pennant race this tight, games against struggling opponents are precisely the ones a contender cannot afford to throw away - or in this case - sleep through.

Who Exceeded Expectations?

Ureña was brilliant over seven innings. Working with both two- and four-seam fastballs that sat at 98–100 mph and touched 101, the twenty-two year old righthander, effectively complemented the heat with 91–93 mph changeups, and the occasional sweeper. He threw 95 pitches, 68 for strikes. Even more impressive, considering he entered the game averaging a shade under five walks per nine innings, Ureña issued none while striking out eight.

The only Yankees to solve Ureña in any meaningful way—he retired 11 consecutive batters at one point—were Spencer Jones, who launched his eighth home run of the season in the fifth inning, a 105-mph rocket to right-center field to account for the Yankees’ sole tally, and Cody Bellinger and Amed Rosario, who each scattered two harmless singles.

Vaughn Grissom led the Angels’ offensive attack, singling, doubling twice, scoring twice and driving in four runs. Mike Trout and Christian Moore each collected two singles, scored once and drove in two runs.

Who Disappointed?

Elmer Rodriguez, fresh off a promising start last week against the Houston Astros in which he received a no-decision, got off to another good start Monday night, throwing two scoreless innings. Then his command began to deteriorate, and without completing the fourth inning he was gone—91 pitches into his outing, just 51 for strikes.

Rodriguez repeatedly got ahead in counts, only to begin nibbling when it was time to finish hitters. Rather than put away vulnerable batters, he surrendered four two-strike hits and walked three. For good measure, he badly missed twice with his curveball, hitting the No. 8 hitter, former Yankee Oswald Peraza, on the top of his helmet and the No. 9 hitter, Tyler Heineman, on the back foot in consecutive at-bats. He departed having allowed four runs, all earned.

After two solid innings, Elmer simply became unglued.

The bullpen was no better. Michael Fulmer surrendered two runs—one earned—over 1⅓ innings, while Luis Gil made his first appearance since April 26 and allowed one earned run over two innings. Not great, but maybe Gil has something to contribute out of the pen. 

Perhaps the most perplexing performance came from closer David Bednar, who apparently “needed work”—138 games into a season when he's been heavily relied upon in tight games—after not pitching since Friday. Strangely assigned to mop-up duty, Bednar proceeded to allow four hits and three runs and somehow was permitted—or perhaps compelled by manager Aaron Boone—to throw 28 pitches in a game that had long since been decided.

The question now is what that unnecessary workload could mean Tuesday. In a pennant race, bullpen management should be about preserving high-leverage arms for the games that matter, not finding them work for the sake of finding them work. Down 7-1, couldn't say, Ali Sanchez, have wrapped this up adequately? If Bednar is less available—or unavailable—Tuesday because Boone asked him to throw 28 pitches in a 10–1 blowout, the Yankees will have sacrificed a potentially valuable bullpen weapon in a game they were never going to win. That's an entirely avoidable consequence.

Not that any of the bullpen's failures ultimately mattered. The Yankee offense never got untracked.

Luis Garcia Jr., Trent Grisham and José Caballero each took the collar and struck out twice. For good measure, Grisham also grounded into a double play. The Yankees had exactly one at-bat with runners in scoring position—all the way back in the first inning—and, naturally, went 0-for-1.

Sleepwalkers, all of them.

Perhaps most disappointing of all was the Yankee defense—or, more accurately, the lack thereof.

In the fifth inning, a botched pickoff throw from Fulmer to Caballero at second base allowed an unearned Angels run to score. Inexplicably, the error was charged to Fulmer, even though his throw arrived at Caballero's glove at approximately shoulder height.

Caballero made matters worse, shortly thereafter. He fumbled a routine ground ball that should have resulted in a double play, then compounded the initial mistake by committing a second error on the same play, when his throw to first bounced six or eight feet short of first base and eluded Garcia.

A two-fer of the worst kind. The drop off defensively at shortstop with George Lombard, Jr. temporarily sidelined is palpable.

There was also a weird sequence in shallow right field involving Spencer Jones. On a liner off Heineman's bat, Jones made a diving attempt but came up short. He then inadvertently flipped the ball forward 15 or 20 yards with his glove, sending it all the way back to the infield dirt, where Caballero eventually retrieved it.  The home scorer was generous in awarding Heineman a double. The play could just as easily have been scored a single and an error on Jones.

Entering September, for a team trying to chase down a division title and earn a first-round playoff bye, this was not merely a bad night. It was a collective failure in pitching, offense defense and bullpen management—a particularly troubling reminder of the Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde nature of this team and just how little margin for error the Yankees have left with just 24 to play.

What’s Coming Next?

The series with the Angels continues Tuesday, with Gerrit Cole (7–7, 3.19 ERA) taking the mound against former Orioles prospect Grayson Rodriguez (4–5, 6.03 ERA). Rodriguez has endured a disappointing 2026 season, but allowed just one earned run over his last two starts, spanning 12⅔ innings.

Cam Schlittler (12–6, 2.09 ERA) gets the start Wednesday as he attempts to tie Ron Guidry’s all-time single-season Yankees record of 21 starts allowing one run or fewer, a mark Guidry established in 1978. Guidry went 25–3 that season and deservedly captured the American League Cy Young Award.

The Schlittler-Guidry comparison provides a remarkable snapshot of just how much the game has changed in 48 years.

In 1978, Ron Guidry was not merely having a great season; he was producing one of the most dominant seasons in Yankee history. He went 25–3, completed sixteen games, threw nine shutouts and finished with a microscopic 1.74 ERA, over 273 2/3 innings. When Guidry took the mound, the expectation was simple: dominate the opposition, pitch deep into the game and win.  By the way, Guidry posted a remarkable 9.6 WAR that season!

Fast-forward nearly half a century. Schlittler is putting together his own extraordinary season, with a 2.09 ERA and a chance to match Guidry’s remarkable mark of 21 starts allowing one run or fewer. Yet after all that dominance, he is only 12–6. Guidry won 25 games in 1978; Schlittler, with 24 games remaining, will be fortunate to reach 15.  To keep it in context, Schlittler has produced 5.9 WAR over just 163 2/3 innings in 2026, to date.

Of course, comparing pitcher wins across eras requires an enormous asterisk. In 1978, starters routinely worked deep into games, complete games were commonplace, bullpens were used differently, and a starting pitcher had far more opportunity to influence a game's final outcome. Today, pitcher wins have rightly lost much of their importance as a measure of individual performance.

But that doesn't make Schlittler's record any less revealing. Forty-eight years ago, a Yankee ace pitching at this level was rewarded with 25 victories. Today, a Yankee ace pitching at an almost equally extraordinary level may not even reach 15.

That is partly the evolution of baseball. But it is also an indictment of the Aaron Judge-less 2026 Yankee lineup. Schlittler has done his part. He has pitched like a 20-game winner. The Yankees' offense has simply failed to turn enough of those brilliant performances into victories.

Guidry had 25 wins. Schlittler has 12. That 13-win gap is a rather remarkable measure of how poorly this Yankee offense has supported its best pitcher.