Let’s face it: Yankee fans are not surprised to be down 0-2 to the Astros in the ALCS. Winning in Minute Maid Park has always been a struggle for the Yankees. Now, truth be told, these 2 games were winnable. I mean the Yankees actually led for a few minutes in game 1.
The frustration for SU is that this outcome was predictable back in April. The Yankees have been all in on winning via hitting home runs and a strong bullpen. Heck, they won 99 games and were dominant for the first half of the season. Why doesn’t this work in the post-season? You know the answer:
- in the later rounds of the playoffs, you face the best pitchers. And many of them are right-handed.
- The Yankees field an all right-handed lineup. Apparently intentionally although SU has never understood that playing half their games in Yankee Stadium with the short right field porch.
- The best teams have a group of relievers that throw between 95 and 100 mph (and by the way, they are also mostly right-handed).
- The Yankees live and die with the home run. They cannot string hits together – just can’t hit singles, can’t hit where the shift is not playing, can’t bunt for a single.
- They also can’t put the ball in play where a ground ball gets a run in or a sacrifice fly. And the hitters show no interest in even trying to do that.
Soooooo, the question is at what point do you say that the strategy is not working? The 1998 team did not have anyone with more than 30 home runs but they actually had .300 hitters (you can read about that type of hitter in history books). Hitting .220 put you on the bench. Today, it puts you in the clean-up spot.
Obviously, the series is not over. Stranger things have happened and if the Yankees can sweep the 3 games in New York, and if Aaron Boone does the opposite of what he is thinking regarding the use of relievers and when to take out the starting pitcher, well maybe this will come to pass. The reality is going back to Houston not up 3 games to 2 is a tall order where even winning one game feels like a big lift.
On the other hand, as pointed out by long-time subscriber, S. Greenberg, they are probably in position to set a record for number of strikeouts in a post-season series so that is something. 30 through 2 games is a great start.
SU will try to stay positive but we have been here before and we have seen this before. I am excited about the young guys and the future may be brighter if they get to play more in 2023 and Cashman is able to clear out the Donaldsons, Hicks, etc. That will not be easy but fans are ready for a new approach.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
We have been watching the same postseason games with this team since 2018. It is truly abysmal.
I don’t think Boone mismanaged last night. Severino made one mistake. At the end of the day, it is on the players to perform. And they aren’t…and furthermore, the team is built by Cashman, and to some degree Hal Steinbrenner and his unwillingness to invest back into his product.
I’ve come to the point where I don’t think I am going to invest y time in this team next year unless there is radical change. No use watching another successful regular season- which is commonplace in the Bronx- just to wind up in the same position in the postseason.
Sidenote: I think if Cleveland is in this series vs. Houston, they would have stolen one for sure. Their contact oriented game would be a great match for Houston (contact leading to success….who would’ve thought?)
Mark, I agree with you in part. Very frustrating but as a lifelong fan, I will be back in 2023. But a year from now we will have the same outcome for the Yankees unless there is a change in approach. The financials though make this a long-term proposition as players like Stanton, Hicks and Donaldson are hard to move without eating major dollars.
They haven’t really embarrassed themselves. Houston is a great team and the Yankees have been in both games. Ultimately the players have to deliver but Boone has some explaining to do:
1) Going to Schmidt in Game 1 in a close game was crazy. I think it was said here that Schmidt is there for a game that gets out of hand and they are up or down by a bunch of runs. That was not the game to save the bullpen.
2) Starting Carpenter in Game 1 was a mistake. He hadn’t played for 2 months. Then, no at bats in the last week of the regular season. No rehab assignment. Nothing to go on except for 0-2 with two strikeouts vs. Cleveland and they put him in to face Verlander? Well, he went 0-4 with 4 strikeouts.
3) And then, last night, after making no real managerial errors, Boone uses Carpenter to pinch hit. As soon as he was sent to the on-deck circle you knew that Donaldson wasn’t getting anything good to hit. He didn’t. Drew a walk. And then Carpenter strikes out on 4 pitches with no good swings. All he managed was a foul ball on a pitch when Locastro had 2nd base stolen.
Carpenter is now 0-7 with 7 strikeouts in the post season. I like him. I love what he did for the team. But his last game was August 8th. There’s a reason they invented spring training and rehab assignments. You can’t just swing a bat for the for the first time in 2 months and expect success against the best pitchers in the game. I don’t know if the algorithms can account for this. Those ipads being passes around the dugouts may show that Carpenter has been successful in certain circumstances. But, not a single one of the data points in the analysis comes from an at-bat following a 2 month break. Carpenter should not touch a bat for the rest of the series.
There are many differences in the dynamics of baseball since 1998 . You had 30 batters with a bathing average over 300. You had 20 game winners, potchers throwing 110-120 pitches. If you had a pitcher throwing 95mph that was unbelievable. I can keep going.
On paper pir two best batting average hitters are on the shelf. One was a lefty. Carpenter, when healthy is a lefty.
All this leads me to disagreeing with you on what the Yankee team was suppose to be until those 3 key injuries.