The Yankees Drop Their First Series Since Mid-April As They Lose a Slugfest To The Texas Rangers
That’s probably the worst loss the Yankees have had all season, unless you count that early April extra inning defeat to the Orioles. Every single starter in the lineup had at least one hit. Didi, Walker, Gleyber, and Judge all hit home runs. The Yankees all together scored 10 runs on 14 hits, and still lost the baseball game. We’re going to start with the bad because this game left a sour taste in all of our mouths.
C.C. Sabathia started fast, retiring nine of the first ten batters he faced. The Yanks gave him a quick 4-0 lead in the game’s first two innings, powered by Didi and Neil Walker homers. In the bottom of the 4th, things began to unravel for the big fella. Nomar Mazara rocketed an 0-2 hanging slider over the right center field wall to cut the Yanks early 4-0 lead in half. Two more walks followed in the inning before C.C. hung another two strike slider to Ronald Guzman who lined a three shot over the right field wall. Guzman was a terror for the Rangers all series as he homered in all three games. In a matter of minutes the Yankees four run lead turned into a one run deficit. C.C. was then handed a 10-5 lead after an explosion of offense ignited by Gleyber’s three run homer here.
What more can you say about the kid? Nothing. He’s simply incredible each and every night. It’s only a matter of time before he’s leading off in my mind. He’s just too good to hit 9th even if he turns over the lineup better than anyone else’s 9 hitter. Gleyber is stupid good.
Before we could even catch our breaths following G Baby’s blast, Aaron Judge stepped to the plate and did this.
This was Judge’s first “Holy Shit” home run of the year as it landed a projected 471 feet from home plate. Throwing Judge a first pitch fastball right down broadway was problem a poor error in judgement. The Yankees led 10-5 and you would think they would cruise from there on to their ninth series victory in a row. Nope.
Looking for a nice shutdown inning in the 5th CC surrendered two runs on a few singles and a triple before exiting the game. Boone seemed to want to get CC every chance possible to get through five frames get his man a W. By doing so he just left an ineffective CC out there to dry as the Rangers continued to pummel him. After his best six start stretch to open a season, CC has struggled badly over his last three outings against Boston, KC and now Texas. Balls that weren’t getting hit hard in April are now getting tattooed. Not great.
In to relieve CC was Jonathan Holder who seemingly looks better and better every time he gets on the mound. He escaped any further trouble in the 5th striking out Odor and getting Rua to ground out to third. I’m still cautious whenever Holder comes in, but man has he been good lately. Since May 6th, Holder has not allowed an inherited runner to score, living up to his last name quite nicely.
I thought Boone could have let Holder start the bottom of the 6th, but to tap Chasen Shreve to begin the inning was insane to me. Dellin, Chad, D-Rob, and Chapman were all given the night off on Tuesday so they were all ready to go. Why throw Chasen Shreve out there, who seemingly cannot get either a lefty or a righty out lately? Coming into the game he had 9.00 ERA dating back to May 4th. He’s probably the worst consistently used guy in the bullpen. Shreve immediately gave up two hits and was yanked. He’s terrible and I don’t see a future for him with this team. There are better arms in AAA that can be used for his spot in the pen, that’s just a fact. Sure he’s the only lefty besides Roldy in the bullpen, but he can’t even get lefties out so what’s the point?
David Robertson entered, trying to walk his usual tight rope, but was terrible. D-Rob opened with a walk to Choo and a bases-loaded walk to Falefa. Following a Mazara strikeout, Jurickson Profar ripped a bases clearing double to give the Rangers the lead for good. Robertson has been really bad in the month of May posting an 8.75 ERA in eight appearances. I have all the confidence he’ll snap out of this, but it’s rather annoying at the moment.
Boone elected to use Dellin Betances for multiple innings again in this one which continues to bottle my mind. He can’t pitch two innings Boone! You can throw me all the numbers from previous seasons all you want, he gives up a fucking run every time he’s asked to get more than three outs. Stop doing it. You had a rested Chad Green ready to go and you chose to pitch Dellin in the 8th for no goddamn reason. Thursday is an off-day it just made no sense at all.
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The Rangers bullpen really clamped down after the 5th inning explosion the Yanks had and held them to 10 runs in the game. The Bronx Bombers never really threatened for the rest of the contest. The Yankees eight series win streak came to a close as they dropped the final two games of this road set in Arlington. After a torrid stretch against the American League’s best, the Yanks have played .500 ball over their last 10. That has allowed the Sox to “retake first place in the AL East” (same amount of losses so that’s bullshit but they’ll tell you otherwise). Regardless, if you care about the division standings in May you’re a crazy person. The only reason I’ve mentioned it is because Red Sox fans cared about it more than anything in the world in April. The baseball season is so fucking long. the Yanks will be in sole possession of first in no time but it’s really not a big deal. I’ve said this since the beginning, once we hit July 4th that’s when I care. That’s when this shit gets going and really matters. Obviously you don’t want to lose any baseball game you score 10 runs and hit four homers in, but crazy shit happens in the hot air in Texas.
The Yankees will now head back home, with an off-day tomorrow, where the Angels will await them. Tommy Kahnle appears ready to rejoin the team in The Bronx as the team optioned Ryan Bollinger back to Trenton following tonight’s loss. Kahnle’s return hopefully will prevent Dellin from ever going two innings again because I’m fucking done with that shit. Greg Bird homered against tonight for AAA Scranton and will likely rejoin this team on either Saturday or Sunday. I can’t believe he’s actually coming back right on schedule. Everyone keep their fingers crossed. Bird’s addition to this lineup is massive if he produces like we know he can. LA and Houston at home for the next six. Here’s to hoping they can get back on track as the competition heats back up.