Red Sox Roar in Mauling of Yankees
- Sal Maiorana
- Aug 25
- 3 min read
By Sal Maiorana
August 215 2025
***
Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares his analysis on the New York Yankees on his free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe. Be sure to check it out!
An edited version of Sal's most recent article follows...
***
The Yankees avoided what would have been a mortifying four-game sweep, but losing three of four to the arch-rival Red Sox is the latest indication that this team does not have what it takes to compete with playoff-caliber opponents. Lets get to it.
Well, now we know.
It doesn’t really matter what the Yankees do the rest of the regular season where 20 of the final 32 games are against teams currently in fourth place (Twins) or last (Nationals, White Sox, Orioles) in their respective divisions.
Even if we can assume they can handle those teams and find their way into the postseason, we now know - though I have been telling you this for two months - that they’re going nowhere this season because when it comes time to step up against actual competition, they can’t meet the moment. And man, was that ever hammered home during this deplorable series against the Red Sox.
What a disgusting display of baseball, if that’s what you want to call whatever that was the Yankees were playing. At home, against their fiercest and oldest rival in games that really matter given the playoff race - which hasn’t often been the case the last few years between these teams because the Red Sox have not been good - the Yankees fell flat. It should have crystallized for everyone what a pretender this 70-60 team, managed by the constantly overmatched Aaron Boone, really is.
“Not the weekend we wanted to have, especially coming off a really good road trip,” Boone said. Gee, ya think?
The Red Sox, who actually have a competent manager in Alex Cora who is guiding a young, athletic and exciting team that hustles, exudes energy, pays attention to the little details, and is held accountable for its performance - all the things the Yankees don’t do - just flat out embarrassed the Yankees and leapfrogged them in the wild card standings. “It’s been fun; I’m not gonna hide it,” Cora said of his team’s ownership of the Yankees this season, eight wins in 10 games to date.
It was just a ridiculous series in every way, and no, I wasn’t moved one bit by the Yankees’ heroic salvaging of the final game Sunday night.
Across the first three games, the offense was neutered because when the Yankees don’t hit home runs, they don’t score, and usually don’t win. Sure, hitting 14 bombs in two games against the Rays was fun, but all that did was pad their MLB lead in home runs, and where exactly has that gotten the Yankees this season? They’re barely clinging to a wildcard position because that’s the only thing this team does well.
The defense was, as always, pathetic. Four errors Thursday and another one Saturday, plus countless fundamental breakdowns like throwing to the wrong base, or failing to catch foul pop ups, or balking runners up a base. The Yankees filled every column in this series.
As for the pitching, with the exception of Max Fried who was great Friday, the rest of it was mediocre to lousy. Luis Gil was terrible in the opener as he walked five men and was actually lucky he didn’t allow more than one earned run. Will Warren was worse on Saturday as he allowed 10 baserunners in four innings and allowed five earned runs which meant the Yankees had no chance to win. And Carlos Rodon gave up just one hit, but he walked five men Sunday.
And of course, the bullpen was its usual gaseous self. Camilo Doval and Luke Weaver failed in the first game, Mark Leiter gave up the only run on Friday, and then newcomer Paul Blackburn made quite a Yankees debut by allowing seven runs in the ninth inning Saturday. And Sunday, Luke Weaver and Doval weren’t exactly in lock down mode, though they did manage not to blow a pair of five-run leads.
All in all, a miserable series, and to be honest, it didn’t surprise me at all. In fact, I sort of expected that the Red Sox were going to win three of the four and that’s exactly what happened.
Sal - I think you're over-reacting to losing 3 of 4. The NYY's dominated game 4 of the series. Game 3 was a complete coin flip, with Bello outdoing the NYY's (but not Max Fried) in a close 1-0 defeat. You telling me that game couldn't have just as easily been won? Game 1 was also a coin-flip turning on 4 errors and a balk-induced run. Essentially a gift! A winnable game for sure.
Baseball is a marathon. You can't incisively evaluate it in terms of a single game, a single series or even a month of games. The NYY's have not been playing winning baseball since the random game on June 12 when Aaron Boone inexplicably took Aaron Judg…
Sal's observations and criticisms are well founded and articulated. They are a far cry from the fact- and logic-free polemics in service of a verbal vendetta against a disliked ballplayer. I agree with both the substance and style of Sal's post.
Also, Judge looks like a different player. Hitting poorly, little power. I have to think his elbow problem, is the cause. He will probably need off season surgery, although nobody will admit it. In fact, it might be best if he had it done, right now, so as to be well recovered for next year. Sad, for someone who looked like he might have been having the best season of all time.
Sal Maiorana, a friendofthesite,
a friend of the site
is a friend of mine
About Boone: I have written this once the final 5 to replace Girardi has to go through a post interview presser - Cashman was not looking for a manager, but someone who is a 'baseball guy' who can handle the media and say whatever Cashman wants, no matter how stupid it made him look. Boone would've never ever been hired if Cashman wanted a real manager. Boone is still here for the same reason.
For me, Aaron Boone should've quit once he got told that he had to tell the media that Torres was not being benched as Boone told us after pulling Torres from that White Sox game, but missing one game and an off dsy gave him a…