The Yankees Offense Went Missing In Game 2 And We've Got a Series Now Because Of That

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No two ways about it that one sucked. Had a bad feeling this could happen with the weird day game vibes. The Cleveland Guardians shutdown the Yankees lineup on Friday afternoon and knotted this series up at 1 a piece. Not the end of the world, but also very frustrating with how it came to be. 

The offense went on hiatus today in the Bronx and it all starts with Aaron Judge. 0 for 5 with 4 strikeouts, while not looking anywhere close to himself at the plate. You can look up and down the lineup and make criticisms, but Judge has to get going for them to have any shot here. He's not even getting on base right now which is an issue. Is it unfair to get on him this bad after just two games? Probably, but in a 5 game series you don't have the luxury of time. He knows it. 

I think you have to shake up the lineup. It's not a panic move as much as it is the right move. Get Judge out of the lead off spot. They were only doing it so much in September to maximize his chances at passing Roger Maris. For 112 games you were hitting him second, so go back to that. Without DJ or Benny the question then becomes who do you move up? I think I go Rizzo. Get Judge back in his comfort zone and pray he wakes up, because if he doesn't we're in a boat load of trouble. 

Another big issue right now is Oswaldo Cabrera. I don't love the ABs I'm seeing from the kid and the moment MIGHT be too big for him right now. I wonder if you take a chance with Bader in LF, Judge CF, Stanton RF, and Carpenter DH. Now obviously that all comes down to whether Stanton can physically play the field right now. They said they'd stay away from it for the first two home games and then re-evaluate. Might have to give it a try and get Carp's bat in there. Really wish Benintendi was healthy because clutch hitting and gold glove defense are two things we need in Oswaldo's spot right now that we aren't getting. 

I'm sure there's going to be some head scratching with putting Jamo out there to start the 10th and that's fair. I mean why is there this trust in him to come out of the pen in a big spot when he's quite literally never done it before. To be fair he did allow two bloop hits before Naylor ripped one over Bader's head to drive in the 2nd run of the inning. Not exactly knocked around, but it also wasn't great. Clarke Schmidt came in right after and did a job getting out of that. Little bit of hindsight 20/20, but again why the trust in Jamo there? Little positive spin, the rest of the pen has been nails so far. 

The main reason they lost was the offense disappearing. The Yankees had a chance to knock Bieber out of the game in the 3rd and let him off the hook. From there he settled in and was able to give Cleveland 5.2 innings. Cleveland's pen is a nightmare, headlined obviously by Clase who is absurdly good. The bright side is he threw a ton of pitches and will be unavailable in Game 3. The bad news it that Triston McKenzie starts for the Guardians and he can be a terror. Severino will oppose him and needs to shove. 

Game 3 tomorrow night in Cleveland. Gut check time. Aaron Judge, please show up .