Actually, SU thinks a better name for the Red Sox sweep of the Yankees would be from the Naked Gun movie: The Final Insult. Full transparency: SU stayed up through the end of 9 innings – the full 4 and a half hours of a regulation game – but then when I saw Jonathan Holder warming up to pitch the 10th, I knew it was all over. I had watched – and listened – enough. SU is an A-Rod fan but listening to him and the rest of the ESPN crew for 4+ hours is painful. And no discussion about pace of play? David Price makes Steve Traschel look like Jim Kaat. He literally takes over 30 seconds between pitches. This game had minimal action and it wasn’t so tense that you were on the edge of your seat. Face it: baseball has a pace of play problem and many games, like this one, are unwatchable even if you are a big fan like SU.
SU did not see every inning of every game this weekend but that doesn’t stop me from having an opinion based on nothing:
- No doubt Aaron Boone is a good communicator and commands the clubhouse. But can we once in a while put a runner in motion? When you are not hitting home runs in bunches, you have to find other ways to win. Bunt against the shift? Nada. And I don’t mean sacrificing. The Red Sox ran wild on the Yankees all series long.
- The absence of both Judge and Sanchez in this series was not a factor. OK, maybe one of them hits a solo home run somewhere along the way but they are just more stirkeouts in the line up. Not a factor. And keep in mind that Boston was missing Sale and another starter, Rodriguez.
- Chapman’s meltdown is really another of several bad outings for him of late. This time they no longer had Chasen Shreve to bail him out like he did in the Met game a couple of weeks ago. He also threw almost 40 pitches and really, most of them were not close to the strike zone. SU says watch for the DL stint coming up.
- Red Sox manager Alex Cora is a baby. Needs to get over himself and not crave the camera so much. The bean balls between these two teams are not done yet. More fireworks to come.
- It looked like the Yankees lacked fire this series. Maybe. When you don’t hit, that’s how it looks. A bigger issue is that for this team, a 5-inning start would be considered a “quality start.” This is a season long problem and the bullpen is showing signs of wear and tear now having to account for so many innings every game.
- The Yankees have won a lot of games late this year and their bullpen until recently, was lights out. You can say that’s not sustainable over a full season and it’s showing up now with late game meltdowns and losses. Britton and Betances were both not sharp and threw so many balls to get through their innings.
It’s all about the wild card now, getting home field and then hoping you can be competitive against the Red Sox in the Division Series. SU would have to say that if that happens, the season was not a success but acceptable. The A’s are only 4 games behind Houston and even closer to the Yankees. As SU has said many times, this is a young team and that youth showed over the weekend. Boone loves to bat Torres clean-up – really? Is he ready for that? Andujar had a couple of miscues in the field but he will get better over time with that. Bird continues to disappoint; have to hope he learns to hit to left field. Stanton hit the ball hard – not his fault this weekend.
Bottom line: time to level set your expectations for the rest of the season. SU refuses to go negative; won’t go over to the dark side. But I am also not going to watch 4-hour games.
So, Yankee fans, what say you?
Sports Update Intergalactic 
This series exposed a lot of our weaknesses: young players making mistakes, rookie manager, short starters, no home runs—no wins. How quickly we turn to the wildcard race. We should right the ship now and look for a replay of last year, at best.
Bob, glad to see you have returned intact from the enemy confines of Fenway Park. No doubt you had plenty of Yankee fans to keep you company and protect you from the local mobs.
Looking at the standings over the past several months, the consolation has been that the Yankees have a lot of games left with the Red Sox. Well, this is not how that was supposed to go. Not a lot to comment about the games because so many things went wrong. I’ve never been a Chapman supporter but they say these guys need regular work and he hasn’t had as much lately. Bird is Bird. He is a low average hitter with some power who throws with his right hand. None of this ever really appealed to me but I can live with it when you’re getting offensive production from the other positions. Once you lose offensive production from some outfielders, catcher, etc., you really want a first baseman who can hit. I’m never very excited when I see Bird slotted higher than 7th in the lineup. Andujar has had shaky moments in the field throughout. We can hope his defense will improve. When so many things go wrong, you have worry about Boone.
The pace of baseball is the pace of baseball. Some pitchers will drive you crazy but I’m not sure what to do about that. The length of games though is a real issue and I’m fairly certain that an honest, objective analysis (which we will never see) would show that TV is the biggest driver of game length. And if this is the case, there may be hope because revenue is going to shift to alternative viewing platforms and gambling, neither of which rely on long commercial breaks.
A few points:
1. Cora is a baby and so is the whole Red Sox team, and they have been going back to the Pedro Martinez era (who would just as soon hit a Yankee in the head as walk him intentionally). If you look at the comparison of HBP between the two teams since that time, it is in favor of the Red Sox by a large multiple (as is the complaining). A perfect example is Hembree pitching to Robinson during the attempted sacrifice- of course he wasn’t trying to hit him but by the same token the way he was throwing at his head, he could have- the Red Sox would have shrugged that off with a “you have to be able to pitch inside” excuse but God forbid you pitch inside to one of them.
2. Games 3 and 4 were mirror images, with much different results: down by identical 4-1 scores, bases loaded in the 9th, two outs and a struggling closer. Note that neither Chapman nor Holder could retire the #9 hitter, the intimidating Sandy Leon.
3. You made a good decision to go to bed after the 9th, because the next man up after Holder was Sonny Gray.
Just a embarrassment from many different perspectives. No excuse on us being young. Were the last 3 games played like the NY Giants played over the last 12 games of the season… with NO HEART. I don’t think it was that bad but they certainly didn’t play with any fire in their bellies either. Chapman’s meltdown with the lead was probably the worst part of the weekend or possibly tied when the red sox runner on first stole 2nd base because our pitcher wasn’t paying attention.
Yes, time to focus on winning the Wild card. Hopefully, we can answer the Sox back when they come to Yankee stadium…. but only psychologically heading into the playoffs as a Wild card team… hopefully.
BTW… the Sox have it all…. and looks like a team for the ages. They struck out a whole bunch but still won the game.
I always liked th rivalry and never hated the Red Sox but Cora has changed that. He acts like a punk and needs to be taken to task for it .