Playoff atmosphere in Toronto last night. The Yankees fought back and you can’t complain about a 1-run loss. Sure, Cole underperformed but you need him for the wild card game and have to hope he can bounce back. He has not been great in his last 3 starts and for the season, the Yankees are 16-14 in his starts despite how good he is. SU says Boone made a couple of good moves last night (see? I admit it). Allowing Higashioka to hit in the 7th inning in a big spot instead of rolling out Sanchez there took some guts. He was rewarded as Higgy got a 2-run single to tie the game.

Now comes the hard part. Joey Gallo was hit by a pitch on his arm and is having x-rays this morning. He was unable to hit in the 9th inning and they put up Sanchez to take Gallo’s strikeout at bat for him. That’s fair – need to spread the strikeouts around. SU only wishes Gallo a fast recovery – he seems like a good guy and keeps his head down. But this creates an opportunity for the Yankees to bring back Greg Allen who was great in August (when he was sent down so that they could play Jonathan Davis who had one infield hit in his entire time with the team), is a switch hitter and can play all of the outfield positions. He can also steal a base. Oh, and he is batting .330 in Scranton this year with an on base percentage of .407 for those keeping score at home. He is a contact hitter. This seems obvious to SU. The question is do you need to put Gallo on the injured list to do that? And if you do that, is he allowed to play in the wild card game if healthy? Cashman won’t want to lose Gallo if that is the case but SU believes you reset your roster for the post-season. On the other hand, does the IL require a certain number of games to be out?

The alternative is to put Stanton in left field and DH Voit. SU says Voit is a gamer but he needs at bats to regain his rhythm and they don’t have the games to allow him to do that. He is also a double play waiting to happen. He is not the answer and they need to look at other options. Keep Stanton at DH and put Allen in left field. See? That was easy and it solves the Gallo problem as well.

The other decision is who catches Kluber today? Kluber is a thinking man’s pitcher. He makes it up as he goes along and has to run through 8 options before every pitch which is why his games take sooooo long. SU says he is a scary guy to face the Blue Jays who can really hit. On the other hand, maybe they won’t be able to hit his curves and sliders? Higashioka is the better choice to catch him. He is just as productive as Sanchez proportionately (long-time subscriber M. Levine has checked the math on this) and is far superior defensively. Boone needs to make that move. Kluber needs to be on a short leash tonight as they face Ray who is a Cy Young contender. Toronto is really good.

Will Tampa Bay try hard this weekend vs. the Yankees? They have nothing to play for except to try and eliminate the Yankees from the post-season. It will be interesting to see. SU likes having Severino in the bullpen and now German is also available. Loaisiga is also back. Suddenly, the overworked bullpen is deep.

Finally, keep an eye on Seattle for the wild card. They finish vs. the Angels at home and are right in the mix. The Yankees seem to lose all of the tiebreakers with Toronto and Boston. SU is very afraid of facing Sale in the wild card game if Boston makes it. As Yogi said, it’s getting late early.

Long-time subscriber, D. Harmon, posed that question last night: why don’t opposing managers just walk Giancarlo Stanton right now while he is red hot? SU would agree. How do you pitch to him when the next hitter in the line-up is Joey Gallo?

Last night, the Blue Jays pitcher, Ryu, had 2nd and 3rd and 1 out in the 1st inning. First base was open but he opted to pitch to Stanton. He did strike him out and then Gallo, surprisingly, popped out (surprising in that he made contact vs. striking out. More on him later). But later in the game, again with 2 runners on and this time 2 outs, they pitched to Stanton in a 3-2 game. Stanton golfed a 3-2 pitch, change-up low and inside, for a 3-run home run. It was a good pitch but the dude is red hot right now. The play there was to walk him and load the bases and pitch to Gallo.

Here is the point: the Yankees do not have a “circular line-up” like they had in 1998 where every hitter can flat out hit. The 2021 version features Judge, Stanton and a little Rizzo. Really, that is it. No one else should scare you or concern you. After Stanton, it’s Gallo, Torres and Sanchez. Sanchez and Gallo will never get a hit with RISP. Torres can but certainly not a sure thing. For SU, it shows how managers cannot think outside of the box and really assess the situation on a given day. I mean, how hard is it to give Stanton the Bonds’ treatment and just walk him even if means loading the bases? Joey Gallo? Did you see the shift used against him last night? Picture 4 outfielders and then the 3 infielders swung way over on the right side. He could bunt for a double on turf every single time if no one is on base. Nope. Have to swing for the fences as he strives for a below-.200 batting average.

David Cone said last night that the Yankees have only 3 players who are above the MLB average for their positions: Judge; Stanton; and Sanchez (slightly above average). Sanchez is hitting .210. Must be a down year for catchers. It speaks to how the pitching has carried this year’s team.

The NBA Players’ Union will not allow a vaccine mandate for their players this season. Assistant coaches are up in arms as they worry about bringing COVID home to their families – some with young children with health issues. The coaches have to be vaccinated. SU says this is so selfish of these players. Plus in certain cities, e.g., SF, NY, unvaccinated players won’t be allowed into the arena and will not be allowed to play home games. Looking at you Kyrie, Beale, Wiggins.

OK, OK, SU will come clean and admit that I was very, very surprised at how the Yankees performed this weekend up in Boston, and truth be told, how the Red Sox performed as well. Friday was a comfortable win but the Saturday and Sunday games featured late inning Yankee rallies from the same cast of characters.

No doubt Alex Cora went into the manager’s office after the game and jotted down the following: “Note to self: don’t pitch to Stanton late in the game with RISP.” Cora is a super-confident, borderline arrogant manager and clearly he has confidence in his relievers. But on the Yankees, only 2 guys are going to beat you this year: Stanton and Judge. That is pretty much it. Last night in the 8th inning, he had the chance to walk Stanton and pitch to Joey Gallo who you know will never come through. 1st base was open. But he liked the righty on righty match-up with Ottavino vs. having Ottavino face Gallo. Dude, think outside of the box. Stanton had lit you up 2 games in a row.

In the end, Cora out-Booned himself as manager. And really, does Boone have any in-game feel for what is going on? Holmes strikes out the side on 11 pitches in the 6th inning. Let him pitch another another inning? Nope because…. he never lets his relievers go another inning. A-Rod was all over that on the broadcast and rightly so.

A few other random observations:

1. Can Gary Sanchez ever run hard to 1st base on a ground out? I know he is conserving his legs but he doesn’t play every day and it’s a bad look. He generally strikes out 3 of the 4 at bats so we are only talking about one time during the game. Annoying.
2. Is Devers on the Red Sox chewing a mix of gum and tobacco all game? I have never seen such a big wad in a player’s mouth. Nasty looking.
3. SU must give Stanton credit. He has carried the offense with Judge for about 2 months now. How any team pitches to him now is beyond me. Gallo is never going to hit a home run with anyone on base – at least not on the Yankees. He ratio of home runs to rbis is 1:2. Dave Kingman like. Are managers so enamored with the the righty vs. righty match-ups that they can’t look at who is hot as in red hot?
4. Judge dislocated his pinky in the 8th inning on a slide into 2nd base. This deserves watching as he absolutely cannot miss a game.
5. The Yankees must be setting a MLB record for most wild pitches with a man on 3rd this year. It’s one of their best ways to score runs.
6. While the Yankees’ relievers are a bit terrifying now (looking at you Chad Green), the Red Sox are even worse. Severino is a huge add as he can actually go 2 innings (Boone wrote that down on Saturday in his book).

But here is the deal: they now have 3 games with Toronto and 3 with Tampa Bay. The Blue Jays need to win these games to climb over Boston, and Tampa Bay would face the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs. They may actually be motivated to knock the Yankees out in that last series vs. resting their players. Boston plays Baltimore and Washington, and the Blue Jays face the Orioles in their last series. SU says other Yankees will need to step up on offense now as other managers surely are paying attention and will not pitch to Stanton. Paging Joey Gallo. Please report for extra batting practice and work on your bunting to the left side.

Is this a tease for Yankee fans? Or is the team ready to seal the deal and at least host a wild card game?

SU watched a fair amount of the Ryder Cup this weekend. So refreshing to see young Americans competing with enthusiasm. The Ryder Cup was a nice diversion from the Giants and Jets. SU was watching the Red Zone channel and I am not sure that I ever saw a Giants’ offensive play yesterday. So bad. In a sport with a salary cap, there really is no excuse for years and years of such poor play by any one team.

SU must come clean: my expectations for the Yankees this weekend are low, low, low. After watching about 150 games this year, I think I have a good sense of this team. Sure, you can get all excited about a sweep of the lowly Texas Rangers including an unexpected rally on Wednesday night after a lackluster first 5 innings. But SU has been beaten down by too many weeks of uninspired baseball. I am at the point when I never expect a 2-out hit with RISP from any player. I mean, who do you have confidence in to come through? It’s hard to even visualize it because we haven’t seen it before in 2021.

In past years, that guy would have been LeMahieu but he has just had a bad year. He failed twice on Wednesday night with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs. One was at least a medium fly ball to right where Higgy was gunned down on a great throw.

Gary Sanchez hit a home run in the 8th but SU says he still should not start. Too much of a liability on defense. With Cole going tonight, he won’t start but will no doubt be in there late once Cole exits the game. Eovaldi is pitching for the Red Sox and this must be his 17th start vs. the Yankees this season. They do not hit him hard.

I must admit that part of me hopes they are swept so I can get going on all of the Netflix and Amazon shows that I have not watched this summer. I am actually OK with the season ending and just starting over in 2022. As a lifelong Yankee fans, hard to believe I am saying that but this season has just been a downer. Of course, ready to be surprised by an energized team this weekend. At least they miss Chris Sale this weekend.

Btw, SU predicts Luke Voit will not start again this season. Just not running hard to first base on ground balls as he clearly has been watching Sanchez and Gleyber do that all year and sees some value in it.

Any optimists out there?

You may ask: “SU, what’s up with that number?” If you give it some thought, and if you’ve been watching the Yankees of late, you would know that this is the probability of the Yankees making the playoffs this year as a wild card. Toronto, as of this morning, sits at 71% and the Red Sox are at 90%.

If you are the former President, you may yell, “Fake News! You can’t believe the polls.” The problem for the Yankees is that they have squandered the easy part of their schedule and after this series with the Texas Rangers at home, it’s the Red Sox and Toronto on the road, and Tampa Bay at home. The Rays may no longer care about that series but SU believes it won’t matter by then. And I am going to tell you why:

1. When the Yankees won 13 in a row, it was the utility guys that played a big role, i.e., Wade, Velazquez, Higashioka. Once Gleyber returned, they shipped Velazquez out and sat Wade in large part. It was the players who put the ball in play and got on base that made a difference. Boone has reverted to his right-handed sluggers’ line up. Well, we had a half season of that to know the outcome.
2. Gallo is not an impact player. But SU will not blame him for anything. He doesn’t affect the outcome and it’s not like you were sitting a superstar by playing him.
3. The pitching staff carried this team all year. All year. But they lost Britten, German, Kluber, Severino, Loaisiga and some of the trades were head scratchers (Heaney?). Green is a firestarter but he has been over-worked all year. Well, the pitchers are now imploding and the relievers in particular are spent. You can’t trust anyone. Not their fault and really not Boone’s either.
4. The all right-handed line up. It’s awful, awful, awful. Better now but it killed this team all year.
5. Under-performing hitters. Do you remember that A-Rod used to drive in 125 – 150 runs in his prime? I mean Stanton won’t even get to 100 and the announcers say he has had a solid season. I’m sorry – not solid. Not $30 million of solid. LeMahieu has not been good but that happens. He was awesome for 2 seasons. So many hitters had subpar years – as in all of them. None has over-achieved. Who is to blame for that? Manager, hitting coaches? Not my call. But something will need to change for next year.
6. Lack of team spirit, baseball IQ, sense of urgency.

SU has emotionally moved on. Happy to be surprised by a late surge in the next two weeks but it’s not enjoyable.

Btw, the Mets really should have been in contention as well. The NL East was so winnable this year. They will regret this season.

And there is NY football! Thank goodness for the Red Zone Channel.

Yankee fans, is there still hope?

The USTA decided to let the fans back in for the 2021 US Open and it was a great event. Really the best that SU can ever recall. The women’s final featured an 18- and 19-year old, and the winner was actually a qualifier who had to win an extra 3 matches to just get into the tournament. That never happens in major championship tennis. SU’s thoughts:

1. Women’s tennis thrived without the presence of Serena Williams who in SU’s view sucks up all the oxygen in the room. “Is she healthy? What is she thinking? How is she moving? ” She’s coming up on 40 now and the reality is that it’s hard to see her staying healthy for 7 rounds to win another major. The women’s game has a lot of great young talent and the game will survive.
2. SU is a big Djokovic fan and he struggled through what was a tough draw. Brooksby, the 20-year old American with the unusual game, Berritini in the quarters who is a top 10 player, Zverev in the semis who is the hottest player in 2021 and then Medvedev in the finals. I thought yesterday, the fact that he had spent 50% more time on the court this tournament than Medvedev totally showed almost right from the beginning of the match. Medvedev decided he would not miss in rallies, and looked to put as little pace on his shots as possible early in the rallies. He kept the ball deep and dared Djokovic to be the aggressor. But he moves very well and the only way Djokovic was going to win was to endure 20 – 30 shot rallies one after the another. To SU, he clearly did not have the energy for that and you could tell by the number of times that he played serve and volley on his serve. He almost never does that but he was just looking to shorten points as much as possible – especially with Medvedev receiving from the back wall of the court.
3. I don’t know if you caught it, but in the last changeover of the match, when the fans were chanting Djokovic’s name, he started crying in his chair and covered his face with a towel. That’s because this is a guy who never, ever really has the crowd behind him. He plays in the era of Federer and Nadal, and fans have always viewed him as the interloper and the bad guy. This is especially the case in New York where fans cheer his service faults. SU thought his reaction was very revealing as he clearly values the crowd’s support and has always wanted it. Well, he finally had it in the finals but in a losing effort. He seemed genuinely moved in his post-match comments.
4. Djokovic had a great run and managed his way through the pressure of what he was striving for with the Grand Slam until the finals. Credit to him. I also think he will start to enjoy more crowd support now as he enters the final years of his career and will be having tougher matches against the next Gen players.

Meanwhile, the Yankees and Mets played a couple of compelling games these last two days albeit in 4-hour increments. Both teams are flawed and will most likely not make the playoffs. But it was refreshing to see the fireworks last night with Lindor and Stanton and the benches clearing. Finally, some emotion from the Yankees. SU can no longer blame Boone. You have starters who only go 3+ innings start after start, and your bullpen is down Britten and Loaisiga now. Chapman is unreliable and Chad Green has amazingly given up 13 home runs this year – for a relief pitcher! Each one is more crushing than the one before. The Mets are only 3 games out of the wild card but so many teams are in front of them. The Yankees are now out of the wild card and while their schedule is favorable, it’s hard to see them getting their act together to make it.

SU must give props to Stanton who along with Judge are carrying the team. Did you hear A-Rod kill Joey Gallo last night time after time? Basically said that there was never a reason to pitch to Stanton with Gallo next in the line up. Of course, he is right and it makes you wonder why the line up has Gallo hitting behind Stanton? Note to Boone children who we know make out the line up each game.

SU is done with Sanchez (can’t hit or field), Gleyber (can’t hit or field), and Odor (a strike out waiting to happen). Enough of the .200 hitters. How is this ever a winning formula? But I am happy to be proven wrong and see the team win 15 of 20 games with an easy schedule down the stretch.

Finally, the NFL season has arrived and SU bought the Red Zone Channel for the first time ever. Whoa. If you do fantasy football, that is a rush and a bit overwhelming. SU will definitely need to ease into this. But what an upgrade over watching either the Giants or Jets!!

Thoughts about the US Open or the Yankees? The floor is open.

First of all, a happy and healthy New Year to our intergalactic, Jewish SU subscribers.

SU enjoyed the recent hot streak of the Yankees but clearly performance is now “reverting to the mean” as David Cone likes to say for 2021. It’s interesting to focus on what went right in the 13-game winning streak, and what is now going wrong (as in what they did the entire first half of the season) as we move into September:

1. When they were winning, the big boppers were all hot for some of that time. Judge, Stanton and even Voit (for a week) fueled those wins.
2. Also importantly, it was the contact hitters in the lower part of the order who did a lot – timely hits, getting on base, moving the runners (what????) and playing good defense (oh, yeah). Velazquez played excellent shortstop while Gleyber was out, and hit just as well. Tyler Wade had a hot streak in there, too. Boone did his best to cool things by playing Jonathan Davis but by and large, this was a more balanced line-up.
3. The starters provided some length so that the bullpen would not get over-used. But now Britten is out for the year, Loaisiga is out for a couple of weeks (huge loss) and Chapman is well, not entirely comfortable. A 5-inning start creates big problems, and this guy Heaney is historically bad.
4. Judge and Stanton have cooled temporarily. We hope? Judge will hit again but Stanton is known to go a month with no production.
5. Joey Gallo has been consistent – strikes out 50% of the time. It’s remarkable but he says his approach is unique and he will stay with it. The hope is that Boone puts him down in the order to continue his consistency out of harm’s way. But he seems very reluctant to bat him lower than 5th.
6. Urshela has an issue with his hand or wrist. He is making very uncharacteristic errors. But Odor is no better (SU is done with him) and Boone won’t play Wade anymore.

Bottom line: SU can very easily see the Blue Jays catching them for the Wild Card. They are a young, hungry team with a great offense. The Yankees are terrible vs. the AL East this year, and Baltimore has really hurt them. The Red Sox are not world beaters but SU sees them finishing ahead of the Yankees. This has not been an enjoyable season. Remember, the Yankees were picked to be in the World Series this season.

Meanwhile, amazingly, the Mets are right there. If their closer, Diaz, was a bit more consistent, they actually might be in 1st place. The series this weekend with the Yankees is huge. Atlanta has come back down to earth. This will be fun.

Finally, the US Open has been amazing this year with great matches and the arrival of a slew of youngsters on both the men’s and women’s side. My man Djokovic is still hanging in there and SU says he saves his best performances for the later rounds as the quality of opponent gets better. But he will likely need to beat Berritini, Zverev and then Medvedev in order to win and that is a tall order. However, in winning the French Open, he beat Berritini, Nadal and Tsitsipas in order so it can be done.

So, let’s pretend that you are Aaron Boone and you have to make out the line-up for the team. You are excited that Brian Cashman, finally, gave you some left-handed hitters to put in your line-up, and you like the idea of alternating righty/lefty hitters in the batting order. SU is with you on that. It’s a good idea.

But you have this one guy, Joey Gallo, who is hitting .199 for the season and even worse for the Yankees. I believe it’s .135 and .091 with RISP. Clearly, last night and today, Boone has delegated the line-up responsibility to his children as Gallo is hitting 2nd. Boone may be rotating this activity across his children, and they may all really like Gallo. I mean, what is the case for batting Gallo 2nd?

He is the 3-outcome hitter: strikeout; walk; and the occasional home run. As the Yankees head down the stretch, every game is big and their hitters are not all performing at peak capacity. As a fan, you have confidence in Judge (all year), Stanton (the last few weeks until you don’t) and Rizzo. LeMahieu can also get a hit. After that, anything is a bonus. Sanchez hit 9th last night – well-deserved and he earned it – and that is a good spot for him in my view going forward. The question is why put Gallo right in the middle of your only productive hitters vs. 7th or 8th?

Now, he may hit 2 home runs today and everyone will say, “SU, you are an idiot.” I can take it – it’s part of the job (and hey, I am not getting paid for this). But at least as a Yankee, he has been awful so far, and what are you seeing that makes you think this is a good idea in the key #2 hole where Judge and Stanton usually hit? I do not get it – at all. This is a left-handed Dave Kingman (who hit higher than Gallo for average by the way) and i am sure he never hit 2nd in his career.

If you want a left-handed bat in there, put in Gardner then. SU is not high on Odor – he gets a hit a week, and this reputation for “big hits” with the Yankees is a bit overblown in my opinion. Or put Velazquez in there as he has an idea of what he is trying to do with men on base.

Please explain.