Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m glad I was at the beach yesterday afternoon and not watching the Yankees lose again.
In today’s SI:AM:
🌭 Chestnut still reigns supreme
⛳ PGA Tour player survey
🏀 Warriors’ new shooter
They’re in a serious spiral
On June 12, the New York Yankees improved their record to an MLB-best 49–21 with an 11–5 win over the Kansas City Royals. The victory gave New York a preposterous .700 winning percentage, which equates to 112 wins over a full season. Since then, though, the Yankees have been spiraling, losing 14 of their last 19.
Thursday’s loss to the Cincinnati Reds followed a familiar pattern as the Yankees fell behind early thanks to a poor outing from their starting pitcher. In this case, it was Marcus Stroman, who allowed five runs on five hits in five innings of work. He allowed three home runs for the first time since April of last year.
“A lot of our mistakes are ending up in the seats,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the game.
If there was a silver lining for the Yankees, it’s that the Baltimore Orioles also lost Thursday, so New York’s deficit in the AL East remained at two games. But still, the Yankees had seen their lead in the division swell to as large as 4.5 games on June 6 and now have allowed Baltimore to take control of the race.
A lot has gone wrong for New York during this disastrous stretch. One of the biggest issues is that the depth of its lineup was dealt a serious blow when Giancarlo Stanton went on the injured list with a hamstring strain. After a dismal 2023 campaign, Stanton had been enjoying a bounceback year, with 18 home runs in 69 games. He had helped form a formidable heart of the New York lineup behind Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, but his absence leaves the Yankees without a capable cleanup hitter. Alex Verdugo has batted cleanup in 13 of the team’s last 19 games and has a lousy .306 slugging percentage during that period. (The league average is .394.)
The other issue is that the Yankees’ pitching staff, which had been unexpectedly excellent during their hot start, has been downright putrid of late. New York pitchers have allowed 123 runs over the team’s last 19 games (6.47 per game), more than any team in the majors over that stretch. They’ve also allowed the second most walks and home runs during that stretch. Here are the ERAs of the Yankees’ starters over their past 19 games: 10.89, 10.43, 6.43, 6.23, 3.12. Pop quiz: Which of those numbers belongs to 2023 AL Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole? It’s not the lowest one. That’s Nestor Cortes. Cole’s ERA in three starts since returning from the injured list is 6.23.
It’s the two starters with ERAs above 10 who are the most confounding, though. That’s Luis Gil and Carlos Rodón. Gil was one of the most pleasant surprises in baseball in the first two months of the season, posting a 2.04 ERA in his first 13 starts. Rodón had been similarly impressive, with a 2.93 ERA in his first 14 starts after a horrendous first season in pinstripes last year (6.85 ERA in just 64 1/3 innings). It isn’t a coincidence that the Yankees have taken a nosedive as both pitchers have fallen off a cliff.
One thing is going well for the Yankees right now, though: Judge continues to be the best hitter in baseball. He leads the majors in home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage and OPS. He’s also second in on-base percentage behind Soto. Those two players have driven in 31 of the Yankees’ 91 runs over the past 19 games. The rest of the offense has been completely punchless. Judge, Soto and rookie Ben Rice are the only qualified hitters with an OPS better than the league average over the past 19 games.
Things are grim for the Yankees right now, but it’s important to put their struggles in perspective. They’re 54–35, on pace for 98 wins. Both Fangraphs and Baseball Reference give them a better than 98% chance of making the playoffs. They’re still among the best teams in baseball. It’s just that they’ve shown over the past three weeks that they have serious flaws that will need to be addressed at the trade deadline.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Joey Chestnut was absent from the traditional Coney Island hot dog eating contest, but he still proved that he’s the best in the world, Emma Baccellieri writes.
- Miki Sudo set a new record in the Nathan’s women’s contest.
- Art Stricklin asked a bunch of PGA Tour pros whether they ever watch golf on TV.
- The Warriors added another sharpshooter after the departure of Klay Thompson, pulling off a sign-and-trade with the Sixers for Buddy Hield.
- Here are the starters for this year’s MLB All-Star Game.
- MLB also announced new rules for this year’s home run derby.
The top five…
… things I saw yesterday:
5. Julio Rodríguez’s first home run since June 15.
4. Wyatt Langford’s strong throw to nail a runner at home.
3. Langford’s leaping catch at the wall.
2. Kevin Pillar’s home run robbery.
1. Kevin Rodríguez’s stoppage time goal for Ecuador. His goal sent the game to a penalty shootout (no extra time in the Copa América). Argentina won the shootout, even though Lionel Messi missed his attempt.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | The Yankees Are in Free Fall .