Quick Hit- Yanks Out-Classed In Game 1
- Paul Semendinger
- Oct 4, 2025
- 3 min read
October 4, 2025
***
This is actually a slow hit. I wrote this innings before the game ended.
Blue Jays win Game One by the score of 10-1.
Some quick thoughts:
I have been praising Aaron Boone for weeks, but he did a bad job in this game. There were a host of mistakes made. Pinch running Caballero mid-at bat was one. That showed he wasn't prepared. He was minutes behind the action. Bringing in Luke Weaver was another. Weaver shouldn't be pitching in big spots. At all.
If the Yankees lose this series, blame can go, again, to Boone, at least for the first loss which in a short series can be devastating. I think the announcers said that the winners of the first game win 75% of the time in a short series.
All that being said, the game was lost when it was 2-0, the bases were loaded, there were no outs and Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, Ben Rice, and Giancarlo Stanton came up and did basically nothing. (Bellinger walked.)
Aaron Judge is great. His regular season numbers are tremendous. But, until he come up big in a postseason, I'm sorry, he does not knock Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, or Mickey Manle off the Yankees' Mount Rushmore.
If there was such thing as "momentum," the Yankees had it with that bases loaded situation. If "momentum" had any power, the Yankees would have had a big inning.
If Giancarlo Stanton actually had the ability to become super human in the postseason, the Yankees would have broken the game open.
Again, I root for Giancarlo Stanton, but, for a guy who supposedly has the ability to always come up big. There are plenty of instances where he didn't:
2018 ALDS .222/0/0 (4 games)
2019 ALDS .167/0/1 (3 games)
2022 ALDS .125/2/6 (5 games)
2025 ALWC .091/0/0 (3 games)
One would think if Stanton was a superhero, the Yankees would be better than 7-6 in the 13 post season series he's played in. Joe DiMaggio was 9-1 in 10 postseason series. Reggie Jackson was 11--6. But even they weren't always great in the biggest games. Joe D. hit .111 in the 1949 World Series.
I always push back at these "narratives" that are repeated over and over in the papers, on the radio, and everywhere that are simply things that people say that really have no meaning. The truth is Giancarlo Stanton has had some remarkable post seasons. He's been great at times. For me, that's good enough. I won't pretend he's more than that.
Here's another thing I push back againt - When the fans of one team in the playoffs say the other team really stinks. "Red Sox ____" (I still think of the word blanked out as inappropriate, and I don't use it.). That was heard in the stadium in the previous series. Actually, the Red Sox don't stink. They were in the playoffs. I hate when the fans resort to that. And, if one thinks about it, if the other team really does stink that bad, what delight is there in beating them? All you're saying is "We beat a really bad team." Is that something to chant about? It makes no sense. Fans should say, "Red Sox are great, but we're greater." Now that would be saying something. "Let's Go Yankees!" is a much better chant than "Red Sox _____."
I'm still confident that the Yankees will win the series.
Let's Go Yankees!
Full re-cap in the morning from Mike Whiteman.
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Just a reminder. I will delete comments that have readers insulting one another. I might not see these until hours later. I might not see them until days later. But when I do, they will be deleted. People can disagree here. The discussion is good and fine and fun. The insults and putdowns are not.
I wonder what the thoughts are by people in general, and by knowledgeable baseball people? about Weaver?
clearly your position is that he should not have been put into the game in a high leverage spot. my reaction to that is this-
1 I largely agree with you. I am not sure that anyone who has been watching could really believe that Weaver has been pitching well. do you have an assessment of the problem? I guess I would say the problem is that he is unable to consistently throw strikes with his fastball, and he is not getting a lot of swing and miss on his changeup
2 the Weaver problem is impacted by another problem. WHO in t…
The one thing that really annoyed me about today game is that I openly fone more than question the health of both Luis Gil & Luke Weaver. All you have to do is Gil says he has to take something off his FB to get it in the strike zone? That tells me that there is something wrong. Then look at Weaver pre injury and post injury - 2 very different pitchers, but the numbers and by how they look. I've been saying this for a number of years - the Yankees Medical Group is garbage, and too many non medical professionals, including GM Brian Cashman have a say over the doctors. The one bad thing about the MLB subscription…
the Yankees should not have won this game and did not win this game.
this one was one that the Blue Jays had to have
and the Blue Jays played well and secured it.
the Yankees were not out-classed. they were defeated.
the Yankees can and should win the next three games.
if they do not
THEN
it might make sense to claim that they were out-classed.
but to become discouraged by losing a game where the second tier of Yankee pitching
is beaten by the Jays' top tier and best effort
is to fail to fully comprehend that the two best teams in the AL are meeting in this series of games.