By Sal Maiorana
April 24, 2024
***
Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares some of his thoughts on the Yankees.
For Sal's analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.
***
Well, they won last night. It was a fight to the finish against the pesky A’s, but the Yankees were able to beat them despite scoring runs in exactly one inning, four in the first.
So, to continue updating the misery of this team’s offense, since last Friday, the Yankees have now batted in 43 innings and they have put up a zero in 39 of them. Yet somehow, they’ve won three of the five games. I mean, it seems almost impossible that they could be 3-2 in that stretch, but here we are.
“You want to put together a few big innings to give us some breathing room, but all it takes is one sometimes,” said Giancarlo Stanton. “That was important today, even though it was right off the bat.”
Sure was, because without that first inning, the Yankees would have lost to the A’s again. As I’ve already said, I can’t possibly see how hitting as poorly as the Yankees are and still winning is sustainable. And as we found out before this game even started, they’re going to have to keep finding ways to do so with this lineup because they can forget about DJ LeMahieu coming to the rescue any time soon, not that I was ever counting on that.
LeMahieu started his rehab assignment at Double-A Somerset Monday, struck out in the first inning, then took himself out of the game in the second because his foot is still not right. Now he’s on his way back to New York for more tests.
You’re not going to see LeMahieu for a while, so Oswaldo Cabrera - who is starting to regress back to his norm at the plate - is going remain at third, Gleyber Torres will have to continue playing second despite his average now dipping to .186, and Anthony Rizzo will have to keep playing every day at first because the Yankees do not have a viable backup.
I’m not sure why LeMahieu even went to Somerset. This was supposed to happen last Friday, but an MRI convinced the doctors that he wasn’t quite ready. What changed in three days that made them feel he was good to go? Clearly, he wasn’t, so this becomes another banner moment for the Yankees crack training and medical staff.
Here are some other observations:
➤ How surprising was the first inning? In their first 23 games of the season the Yankees scored only six runs in the first inning which was tied for second-fewest in MLB. And A’s starter Paul Blackburn had given up only three earned runs in 25 innings. So naturally, the Yankees scored four because that’s baseball.
➤ Also naturally, Juan Soto got things started in that first with a line single to right, and then it was rapid fire thereafter. Aaron Judge grounded a double down the third-base line, Stanton ripped a two-run double to left-center, and Rizzo hit his second homer of the season to right for a 4-1 lead. And then? The Yankees had one more hit the rest of the night. Seven innings, one friggin’ hit, and that was a piddly infield single by Anthony Volpe in the second inning.
➤ Tuesday was the rare night when the Yankees won and all four AL East rivals lost, so that was nice. Baltimore’s loss to the Angels moved the Yankees back into first by half a game.
➤ In case you were wondering just how bad home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt was on Monday after he tossed Aaron Boone, here you go. According to UmpScorecards.com, Wendelstedt called 47 strikes and 15 of them were actually balls, a success rate of 68% which is 20% below the usual ump average of 88%.
