Perspectives: ALDS, Game 1

by Paul Semendinger

October 4, 2026

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Well, that was no fun. It's never fun watching the Yankees drop a playoff game.

Here are my perspectives (and more) from last night's game (in no particular order):

• Gerrit Cole was, of course, going to get the ball. I didn't have a problem with that. And Cole allowed just one run. What more can be asked?

• When a team gets one-hit into the 8th inning, the idea of a no-hitter becomes very real. Very real. I am a pitcher. I'm not all that good so I usually only carry a no-hitter into the first inning. Sometimes my no hitters last for a pitch or two. As the game got closer to the ninth, as much as I wanted the Yankees to win, if Drew Rasmussen was still in there, I was wondering if I was going to root for the no-hitter. Alas, it didn't come to that.

• I don't believe that a combined no-hitter is anything special, so if Rasmussen was taken out, I wouldn't have had any desire to see a combined no-hitter.

• The last "one-pitcher no-hitter" was two seasons ago, I believe. That's a problem for the sport. They have taken some of the magic out of the game. They've actually, in so many ways, taken a lot of the magic out of the game.

• I want the Yankees to go 162-0 every year, of course. And I wanted them to win the division. So hear me out on this. First or second place, it seems, this part of the ALDS would have been the Yanks vs the Rays. (Right?) If the Yankees had come in first, Game One would have been at Yankee Stadium. I think a few of the well-hit balls of Cole last night would have been homers in New York. In the case of last night (only) the Yankees were fortunate to have been playing in Tampa. (Of course, if the Yankees were in first, Schlittler would have pitched and all that, but the overall point stands.) Cole was fortunate he wasn't pitching the Bronx or the game would have looked a lot differently.

  
  

• The great inefficiency in baseball is starting pitchers who cannot pitch deep into games. The 100-pitch idea was just a theory that then became a rule and that then a hard and fast law. If I was running a baseball franchise, I would start from the lowest levels of the minor leagues and teach my pitchers how to throw longer into games by actually pitching, not just throwing. All good pitchers who have long careers have to learn this in the second half of their careers anyway. I would teach it at the start. A team that has starters who are built-up, over years, to be able to throw 125+ quality pitches a game, would have a weapon that no other team possesses. That team also would need fewer relief pitchers and would, thusly, have a deeper bench. It's great when guys can throw 100 MPH, but it's not speed, it's location and changing speeds that gets batters out. I would teach that from the start and have my pitchers (and catchers) know and understand to use the 100 MPH fastball and the killer sliders (or whatever) only when necessary to preserve the arms and make my starters able to go longer into games. This would be unique and give a smart team an incredible advantage. (When a team goes with this approach, as I have advocated for before, remember you read it from me first.)

• Speaking of magic, when a team builds their strategy on the hope for magic, it doesn't work. Giancarlo Stanton had no chance in the 9th inning. It was foolish to send him there hoping for a miracle. Ryan McMahon had a better chance of getting a hit. He did. Absolutely. Sending up Stanton was nothing more than hoping for a miracle. The Yankees wanted to create magic. It was a foolish strategy to think that Stanton, who takes a long long time to get into a groove, was going to come off the bench and get a big hit.

• Aaron Boone sometimes manages to create a story. This was no different than bringing in Nestor Cortes in the 2024 World Series. Wanting to create a story - wanting to create magic - isn't the way to win a postseason (or any) game.

• As I recall the Kirk Gibson story, wasn't he taking swing after swing in a batting cage under the stadium to get ready to face Dennis Eckersley? I seem to recall the announcers saying, "He's not even on the bench. It's not a possibility..." And then he showed up out of the dugout. I'd love to know if Giancarlo Stanton was taking a million swings to get ready for his at bat. On TV last night, I kept seeing him, when they'd show him, on the Yankees' bench. How many swings did he take to get ready?

• In 1,159 MLB at bats, Austin Wells has two career triples. The time for number three was not with two outs in the top of the 8th inning in a 1-0 game. Making things happen does not mean making foolish decisions. This was a great example of the Yankees beating themselves.

• The Yankees are good, but they're not good enough to overcome poor decisions and mistakes on the field. This is how they lose. We all know this.

• I think it is absolutely foolish, ridiculous, insulting, wrong, and more for there to be a day off today. Baseball is an everyday sport. To take off Sunday? Why? Because of football? No. This is bad. They should be playing today.

• Seriously, what is more compelling in New York right now - a Jets Game, a Giants game, or a Yankees playoff game? Come on. Baseball needs to do better.

• The team the day off benefits, by the way, is the Yankees, because Cam Schlittler gets his proper rest. If they were playing today, the Yankees would have to make a huge decision on Schlitter. That would have been a great storyline. A real one, not a pretend one like, "Can Giancarlo Stanton hit baseball's best closer after not coming to bat for 161 days?" (The answer to the Stanton question, from the start, was "Obviously, no.")

• If Cam Schlittler pitches as he can, the Yankees should win tomorrow. I think he will.

• Let's Go Yankees!

Update - It's a sorry state of affairs when the Yankees manager and fans are saying, "Stanton looked good last night." He struck out. He didn't look good. He looked terrible. Someone said that he looked steady in the box. That's the standard now? "Steady in the box." Really? Mario Mendoza looked steady in the box.

"Well, the Yankees lost last night, 8-0, but, except for Spencer Jones who does yoga when he bats, the rest of the team looked very steady in the box. None of them so much as flinched when the ball zoomed past them or they swung and missed." Manager Aaron Boone commented after seeing his team strikeout 27 consecutive at bats, "You know, they gave me reason for hope. The first thing is getting in the box and they did just that."

How silly.

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