We all know the old quote from the Wizard of Oz, “Toto, we’re not in Kansas (City) anymore.” Last week, the Yankees had a thrilling (for them) come from behind win over the Royals on Wednesday, and then steamrolled them on Thursday. Some, mistakenly, might have thought this was it. A change in momentum heading into Fenway Park for the weekend.
Clearly, not the case. Friday night, was a typical game of the all right-handed line-up being overmatched by the Red Sox’s all right-handed relievers. SU did not see last night’s game but it sounds like Boston had a ton of infield hits and sacrifice flies. Not as glamorous but that is what winning teams do. The Yankees rallied late but Voit grounded out with the bases loaded in the 8th and Judge, of course, swung and missed with 2 on in the 9th.
As a long-time Yankee fan, let me be clear here: for 2021, and let’s be honest, for 2020 as well, in both cases, as a fan, you would not expect either of them to come through with a clutch hit. That is the reality of this team and you could have written in Stanton in there as well. And especially against right-handed relief pitchers. This team is built to hit home runs early in games, and perhaps against middle relief pitchers. It is not built to come through in big situations late. And that is why it’s not built to win in the post-season.
SU does not need to read analytics to know this. I know the stats back me up as I have watched a lot of games (OK, truth be told, in 2021, the TV is on but SU is snoring away for 20 minutes or so as I don’t have the stamina to be bored for 4 hours at a clip). Surely, Aaron Boone knows this. What was amazing on Friday night is that he didn’t even bother to pinch hit Gardner or Odor in the 9th inning for Frazier against Barnes and go with the left-handed bat because both are hitting below .200 and what’s the point? Note: SU would have put up Odor as Frazier is a lost cause.
It’s painful to watch Alex Cora smirking over in the Red Sox dugout night after night. He knows he has the better team, and while they are far from perfect with their own starting pitching, their offense is light years ahead of the Yankees. Just look at the stats of the starters side-by-side. Not even close.
The Yankees are on pace to win 85 games which is far from making the post-season as a wild card. Four games this week vs. the Angels and then 3 against the Mets, plus a lot more vs. Boston in the next month. It’s definitely getting late early as Yogi would say, and yes, we are not in Kansas (City) anymore. Yankee fans will be well-served to start paying attention to preseason football in August.
Cole starts today. SU says show some heart, please. Show some pride. Do something differently. Put a runner in motion (what??!!). Hit and run. Bunt against the shift. We shall see…
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Hate Cora too but he has Sox playing aggressively but smart- perfect example was one of the sac flies was a foul popup to Voit- caught it over his shoulder but was slow turning back to home and Devers alertly tagged and scored- when Yankees try to do something like that they run into an out
David Cone is ripping the Yankees on the broadcast today in NY. Mentioning all of the base running blunders, throwing to the wrong base (see Andujar in the 1st inning). I guess he didn’t get the memo from YES Network management to not speak negatively about the Yankees. It’s actually refreshing to hear. Of course, he could be angling to be the replacement for Aaron Boone if he gets fired during the season. There isn’t a logical replacement for him on the coaching staff.
I’ve seen The Wizard of Oz a bunch of times, I always thought Dorothy was talking about her family back home, who knew she was referring to the Yankees and Royals?
No heart. No fire lit under their butts. I don’t believe that the primary reason is the almost all righty line up. Most of these right handed hitters came in to this season with much higher batting averages. Judge isn’t an all world contact hitter but he is getting his hits and his batting average shows it too. Frazier was hitting against righties last year. I don’t know what happened. Ditto with Voit. How can Sanchez batting 50 points higher than last year be hitting better but many others aren’t hitting.
NO HEART IS ALSO THE BLAME OF THE COACH NOT BEING A REAL LEADER. WHO IS THE DUGOIUT LEADER ANYWAY?
How many more strikeouts are we going to see on a curve ball ending outside the strike zone….away. These guys have been up over 200 times already.