Yankees Overcome Astros and Umpires
- Sal Maiorana
- Sep 5
- 4 min read
By Sal Maiorana
September 5, 2025
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Sal Maiorana shares his analysis on the New York Yankees here, but you can see much more 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...
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The Yankees began their 12-game gauntlet against likely AL playoff teams with a wild and crazy series victory over the Astros, overcoming a team that has long had its number, but also the umpires who seemed as if they had all placed bets on the Astros to win. Lets get to it.
As if it wasn’t tough enough beating the loathsome Astros twice in three games which got this difficult 12-game stretch off to a nice start, the Yankees also had to overcome some of the most one-sided and incompetent umpiring we’ve seen since longtime horror show Angel Hernandez ended baseball’s misery and retired a few years ago.
If you thought Houston slugger Yordan Alvarez nearly single-handedly destroyed the Yankees pitching staff, let me introduce you to Brian Walsh, a recent minor-league call-up ump who should be sent back there immediately because this guy doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.
His performance in the middle game Wednesday night, which the Yankees lost 8-7 due in large part to how badly his calls were was an embarrassment to MLB. According to the Umpire Auditor account on X, Walsh missed 21 ball-strike calls and 15 of those went against the Yankees and that meant that, according to the computer program they use which measures “the impact of an umpire on a team’s or game’s expected runs” Walsh’s mistakes gave the Astros a projected advantage of 1.4 runs. The Yankees lost by one run so yeah, he was pretty influential.
Oh, but Walsh wasn’t done. Thursday night he was at third base and he screwed the Yankees again. In the bottom of the sixth with the Yankees up 4-1, Jose Altuve hit a low liner to third which Ryan McMahon caught but then fumbled as he was making the transition to check the runner - of course that being Alvarez who the Yankees couldn’t get out.
Walsh ruled that McMahon trapped the ball, and because in MLB’s infinite wisdom that play is not reviewable, the Yankees had to take more grabgage by this guy. Fly balls are reviewable, but infield pops and liners are not. Try to figure out that logic if you can because I can’t.
Aaron Boone, whose blood pressure was already soaring because of this guy, came out of the dugout and demanded an umpire conference because if someone else saw the play correctly, they could have overturned it. Naturally, none of the other three saw it so Altuve reached base and that eventually led to an Astros run. Thankfully, it didn’t matter in this game.
“You’ve heard me say this before,” Boone said. “As much as I get into these things with umpires, probably more than any other manager, it’s just because I know how much we preach to our guys about controlling the strike zone. It’s something I’m always going to passionately fight for and defend for in the moment.”
The ABS challenge system can’t come fast enough to MLB. It won’t eradicate all of these bad calls, but it will correct most of them and that will be good for the game because what we saw in this series was unacceptable.
On to the actual baseball, and it sure wasn’t pretty. The offense showed up, scoring 22 runs which the Yankees certainly needed. But they were their usual sloppy selves in the field with one error Wednesday and three more on Thursday, and more pressing is that the bullpen is an undeniable mess and I cannot see how this team can possibly win in October with this group.
With obvious help from Walsh, it was collectively horrible in the second game and that’s why the Yankees lost, and then it wasn’t much better in the finale as David Bednar tried his best to blow a five-run lead and make our heads explode before finally getting the third out.
“This (series) took some months and some years off me, for sure,” Boone said with a hard-earned smile. “But look, really, really gritty, good performance by the guys, especially as they started to come back off of how emotional (Wednesday) night was and everything and a tough loss.
“For the guys to come out and build a lead, have the Astros come back and then just keep pulling away and some big performances out of the pen to finish it off, just a really good win to finish off a good road trip here and a big road series win and now we got a quick turnaround and get ready for a big homestand.”
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Now the Blue Jays are at Yankee Stadium for the biggest series of the season, one that might very well determine New York’s chances of catching them and winning the AL East. The Yankees start it three games back so a sweep would create a tie while anything else would leave the Yankees trailing.
And isn’t it lovely that the Blue Jays had Thursday off and were in New York chilling while the Yankees had to play a night game on a getaway day so they probably didn’t get to bed until about 4:00 Friday morning. You just shake your head sometimes at MLB. This last game in Houston should have been a day game.
One of the 3 errors was on the miscall on McMahon's catch. Not fair to tar him with an error when it was the humpire's fault by getting the call wrong. The other errors, of course, were legit errors.
anyone want to try to come up with a valid reason WHY every time the Yankees play a division rival, said rival gets an off day before the series begins but the Yankees do not have an off day and more often than not are playing a night game on the road that will be followed by a LONG flight?
maybe some of you recall, that I already pointed out that we play 4 series vs Boston this year and Boston had or will have the day off before ALL FOUR series
at the moment, I cannot or will not look to see if the Jays have the same scenario for EVERY series or if it is just for this…
if friendofthesite Sal can not fathom how a sloppy Yankee team that scores 22 runs in a three-game series against the Astros in their home park can win in October,
it might be because Sal refuses to see the obvious.
sloppy play is a serious deficit that grows more alarming as the season gets skinny and the days darken earlier, but scoring 7 runs per allows for a bit of sloppiness.
just about anyone who knows baseball might be inclined to tell friendofthesite Sal that the team with the better rotation and the better offense always has a decent chance to win.
now that the Yankees have shrugged off Devin Williams and added Bednar to close, their chances have improved.
MLB is the only North American Sports League that really don't admit their referees ever screwed up, especially if it's against the Yankees. Think they would've said anything last year without the video proof that Boone was thrown out after the fan right behind him?
I want less technology in the game... how about the umpires have to actually do their jobs to keep them, instead of having total job security?