I’m sorry dear reader, that I don’t have much to say to you. After a high-wire act win earlier in the day, the Yankees did in fact go gently into that good night. They were overmatched by Rays starter Drew Rasmussen, and while the race for the division was functionally over after dropping two of three to Arizona, Tampa Bay can start sewing up the banner as of now. In a 6-1 loss, the Yankees had to watch the Rays celebrate winning the AL East while in the Bronx.
We’ve talked for weeks now about how the Yankees without Aaron Judge need to have a great start, good defense, and no funny business in order to make a deep playoff run. I don’t know if Max Fried had a great start, but it was quite good — two four-ball walks annoyed you, but the two runs he let score himself came on balls that didn’t even leave the infield. I did notice his fastball down more toward 94 than 96, but if he’s in a bit of a preservation mode headed into the Wild Card Series, I’ll take it.
Pulled after 6.2, with two men on, Fried had allowed two runs. I don’t think that’s a bad pull, his pitch count was at 97 and the order was turning over again, and the Yankee bullpen has been pretty good. You bank what the starter gave you and turn it over to the big arms. The problem was what happened after; John Schreiber came in in relief, and promptly served one up to Yandy Diaz:
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Ben Williamson scores on this, sure, fine, I legitimately do not know who he is even after watching 18 innings today, whatever. That’s now 6.2 IP and three earned for Fried, not quite as nice a line but you still take that. Taylor Walls though, who I am told is a terrible hitter and yet somehow is on base every three innings against the Yankees, is DOA at home plate:
I don’t watch football but I understand there is weekly consternation about what exactly a catch is. I am feeling consternation about what exactly “clear evidence to overturn” means. That’s clear evidence! Austin Wells’ glove is on Walls’ arm and Walls has not yet touched home plate! He was found safe on review!
I thought Aaron Boone was going to do one of those “I’ll get ejected to hype up the boys” after that mis-call, but he didn’t even give us that. That fourth run makes Fried’s line look uglier than it should, but more than that, every additional run surrendered by this team makes things so much harder on a pretty papery offense.
That offense was no-hit through six innings, with Drew Rasmussen making a late charge to finish second to Cam Schlittler in the AL Cy Young race. The nine Yankee hitters appeared bedazzled by Ras’ offerings, as the righty sat down 11 in his own 6.2 innings of work. Heliot Ramos broke up the no-no leading off the seventh with a double, and suddenly the Yankees had their 4-5 hitters facing the starter, who set a career-high in pitches thrown tonight, for the third time, and maybe this is where the rally can start, and no, Luis García Jr. and Spencer Jones could not cash in the run.
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Diaz then knocked in another pair of Rays against Ryan Yarbrough in the ninth, and that’s your ball game. The blood-alcohol levels of the new division champs are surely rising, so maybe the Yankees will get some rather toothless revenge against their rivals tomorrow.
If nothing else, we have some cost certainty now. The Yankees needed a miracle to win this division and we seem to be fresh out of those. The club has locked up the fourth seed in the AL, meaning they will host the No. 5 seed—most likely the Boston Red Sox—in a best-of-three series next week. In the time between then and now the Yankees do have five baseball games to play, but it’s more important to make the final decisions on what exactly the pitching staff will look like, which of the bottom of the bullpen gets left off the Wild Card roster, and who amongst a too-often-narcoleptic group of hitters do you trust to try and push a crooked number across?
As of now Gerrit Cole is scheduled to make his final start of the year against the Rays tomorrow. We will see if the Yankees want to shuffle that with their newfound Wild Card certainty, or if it’ll be an abridged start for the veteran, or maybe he will just shove. Game 3 of this series is the weekly Amazon Prime game, and we have a 7:05pm first pitch with southpaw Ian Seymour tentatively scheduled for Tampa Bay.
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