Yanks Lose 7th in Row. Boston 8 NY 1

August 20, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0
Aaron Judge hits homer #24 of the season in the 6th to make it a 6-1 game.

The Yankees continue to plummet. The losing is now at cartoon-like levels.

“I don’t recall experiencing anything like this before in my career,” said Gerrit Cole afterwards as the Yankees were no-hit into the 6th and were crushed again — this time 8-1 to the Red Sox for their 7th loss in a row.

A week ago, the Yanks were in the Wild Card hunt — 3.5 games back. They are now 8 games back of the Wild Card and Yankee fans are screaming for them to bring up the youngsters already.

Those youngsters kept bashing the ball in AAA yesterday — to make the cartoon even funnier; almost surrealistic — as the highlights kept surfacing on Twitter while the Yanks were getting stifled. Everson Pereira hit 2 homers, one a 476-foot bomb, Oswaldo Peraza hit a homer and was a double shy of a cycle, and Austin Wells hit a 416-foot homer and had a double in Scranton’s 12-run game. But that’s AAA, where averages are sky high and Scranton actually lost 14-12. Jake Bauers was hitting .359 with 11 homers at Scranton before being called up, and he’s hitting .210 in NY.

“Obviously not my best stuff today,” said Cole afterwards. “But I put a lot of well located pitches and paired a lot of good pitches together. I’m a little bit confused on why the level of execution on their side is so high.”

Cole continued: “We funneled 4 or 5 balls into the down-and-away quadrant and its not like we lived there all day. We pitched several of those guys up and in quite often. For some reason they were extra focused and were able to bring out their best bolts today, and not only did they capitalize on poor pitches but they capitalized on really good pitches. That’s baseball; it’s tough sometimes.”

On a Beautiful Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium — 75 degrees, blue sunny skies and low humidity. A perfect day for baseball…

NY is now 60-63, 16 behind Tampa, 13.5 behind Tampa, 7.5 behind Toronto, and 5 behind Boston. The Red Sox are 65-58. Seattle now holds the last wild card spot and NY is 8 behind them.

1. Cole Bombed

Despite the season taking a turn for the turd, Yankee fans at least had Gerrit Cole’s pursuit of the Cy Young to root for — and even that seems to be going up in flames.

Cole got into trouble in the top of the 2nd:

  • Adam Duvall led off with a single, Jarren Duran singled, and Pablo Reyes worked a tough, 8-pitch walk to load the bases with nobody out.
  • Cole got Connor Wong to ground out to a force at home and looked like he might get out of the jam.
  • But Luis Urias — the .180-hitting 2nd baseman — hit a Grand Slam to centerfield and it was 4-0 Boston.

“They had a good day. They’re major league quality hitters, and they put together some excellent at bats,” said Cole afterwards. “It got to the Urias at bat — where he just battled, battled, battled — fouled off a lot of good pitches and took a lot of good pitches, and then just demolished a slider. Right there on the corner down and away; beautiful pitch, but better swing.”

In the 4th, Reyes led off with a single and Connor Wong hit a homer to right and it was 6-0 Boston.

Cole left after 4 innings and 86 pitches. His record falls to 10-4 3.03.

2. Crawford Throws No Hitter into 6th

Meanwhile Kutter Crawford, who came in with a 5-6 3.80 record — had his best start of the season. He used his 86-MPH cutter, an 80-MPH knuckle curve, and a fastball that only hit 92-93 MPH to baffle NY.

The Yanks had a baserunner in every inning from the 2nd through the 6th against Crawford, despite being no-hit:

  • The Yanks got a baserunner in the top of the 2nd when Giancarlo Stanton walked to lead off, but next batter Isiah Kiner-Falefa tried to throw down a drag bunt and popped it up enough that catcher Connor Wong caught it on the fly and threw to first to double off Stanton.
  • Greg Allen got on due to an error leading off the 3rd, but with NY down 4-0, he never attempted to steal 2nd and the next 3 batters made out in order — fly out, foul out, ground out.
  • Gleyber Torres walked with 1 out in the 4th but the next 2 batters struck out.
  • Greg Allen was hit by a pitch with 1 out in the 5th but next two batters made out.

3. Judge Breaks Up No Hitter with #23

Finally in the top of the 6th Aaron Judge hit a 413-foot homer to center to break up the no hitter and make it a 6-1 game.

4. Loaisiga & Kahnle Good

Jonathan Loaisiga pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 5th, and Tommy Kahnle pitched a shutout 6th. The bullpen has not been the Yankees’ problem this year.

5. Abreu Wraps Up

Albert Abreu pitched 3 innings — the 7th thru 9th — to help save the bullpen, what has become his role.

In the 8th, he allowed 2 singles and then got a 1-out fly to left for what should have been out #2 — but Greg Allen lost it in the bright sun and it fell untouched and bounced over the wall for a grounds rule double.

Rafael Devers hit a homer off Abreu in the 9th to make it 8-1.

6. Yanks Muster No Late Rallies

Greg Allen’s gaffe in left was ironic as he is on the team for his defense and speed — and not for his hitting. Yet in this rare start he went 1-2 on the day and reached base 3 times, never stole a base in all those times on base, and made the glaring error in the field.

His single with 1 out in the 7th made him the last Yankee baserunner of the day — the Yanks went out 1-2-3 in the 8th and 9th for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401472858

 

 

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