If the monsoon lasted a month, the 1948 Boston Braves would have [Warren] Span [Johnny] Signed in rotation.
But it could rain for 40 days and 40 nights, and seven batters in the Yankees’ lineup, other than Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, will have to step up to the plate.
It’s the quiet things people say out loud that always hurt the most. It’s the nugget of truth in every joke that always pierces the heart the cruellest.
We’re talking about the Yankees’ thin lineup after their iconic 6-4 loss to the Rays on Sunday in the Bronx.
But we’re surely also talking about what Mets right-hander Luis Severino said last weekend about his former team’s offensive prowess when it was revealed he would miss both games in this week’s Subway Series after missing the team’s first two games of the season in Queens last week of June.
He said he was joking when his former teammates teased him in a group chat and wasn’t serious when they said, “I’m not scared of those guys…there’s only two good hitters right now.”
The thing is, no one is laughing. The Yankees, of course, are coming off a loss to Tampa Bay last month, and they had 15 runners on base but couldn’t score any runs except when No. 22 and No. 99 came up to bat, and Judge and Soto combined to score four RBIs and stay in the mix.
The Yankees had chances with the bases loaded and one out in the first and second innings, but failed to score. Nine of the 18 batters that Tampa Bay starting pitcher Shane Baz faced reached base, but none scored. The Yankees did not score until the seventh inning, when Judge hit his 35th home run with a second and one out to cut the lead to 5–3. The Yankees scored again in the ninth inning with one out, when Soto doubled and Judge hit a tying single.
Unfortunately, Judge hit a fly out to center field and then cleanup hitter Austin Wells (just let that sink in) struck out to end the game and hand the Yankees their 15th loss in their last 22 games.
Baseball is now a playoff sport, so standings depend on making the postseason, and the Yankees are certainly in a position to do so, but no team has ever won a championship with a two-man batting lineup — not even Eddie Feigner needed four players on his King and the Court softball team.
“In some situations, I think we’ve gone too far,” Judge said. “We still have work to do.”
On Sunday, Ben Rice was batting first and Wells was batting fourth. Of the many players, these guys may not only be doing too much, but being asked to do too much. Rice batting first? Wells batting fourth?
Yes, DJ LeMahieu has been benched for the second time in the past four games and may be facing a career requiem. He was supposed to be the leadoff man. He’s batting .177/.270/.202/.472 and is hitless in 17 at-bats over the past six games. And yes, Giancarlo Stanton is still recovering from a foot injury.
Despite that, or maybe because of it, the Yankees rank 13th in OPS from the leadoff position among the 15-team American League, and Rice has just four hits in his last 39 games. The Yankees are also last in the league in OPS and 14th in slugging percentage from the cleanup position.
That’s not the fault of Wells, who debuted at the No. 4 position on Saturday as just the seventh Yankees hitter to do so and finished the weekend 1-for-7, striking out Soto with a potential tying single at second base.
It’s July and the Yankees. You don’t necessarily expect Austin Wells to be the cleanup hitter. You certainly don’t necessarily expect Anthony Rizzo to be batting .223/.289/.341 with eight home runs before landing on the disabled list a little over two months ago. This is a case of injury compounding humiliation at the plate.
The Yankees are confident that this can’t go on forever, and they say so, but when you see Alex Verdugo go 0-for-4 again and his misery index rises to 2-for-33 over his past eight games, you start to wonder.
There are two exceptions to this rule: They bat second and third in the batting order. And strangely, opposing managers will throw to Soto or Judge on any base, even when the bases are open. Kevin Cash did just that late in the game on Sunday, and got punished for it.
“Right now, this game is tough for us. We’ve got to find a solution,” said head coach Aaron Boone, who wasn’t too happy to hear Severino’s comments. “We know we’re the better team.”
Let’s take a look.
