They moved from the Red Sox to the Reds, from contending to contemptible. The competition changed downward. So did the locale, from Boston to The Bronx, as the Yankees returned to where they have won so frequently this year that “New York, New York” has seemed to run on endless loop.
That is why these Josh Donaldson words resonated: “For this season, it feels a little unusual.” Because the template for this Yankees season has been to win and then win some more and then just to add more winning on top of that. But they blew leads in Boston on Saturday and Sunday and, following a day off, they squandered another lead Tuesday that married inexplicable and inexcusable, considering the foe.
Perhaps that is just the reality of a season. These Yankees were not going to win 116 games in the regular season to match the 2001 Mariners or 114 to match the 1998 Yankees. It is more probable that they are a more standard, superb 100-win team. If that is the true read on this team, there was going to be some cold water on what has pretty much been a magic carpet for three months. Or as Donaldson also said philosophically, “It’s baseball. There’s going to be ebbs and flows.”
Even after losing 4-3 to the Reds on Tuesday night, largely because of the worst meltdown of Clay Holmes’ otherwise relatively pristine New York tenure, the Yankees still lead the AL East by 14 games. As we have seen with most of the Mets’ big lead collapsing to the Braves, there is no such thing as completely safe. But panic should be reserved for another day — or more probably no regular-season day this year for the Yankees.
Still, the Astros are closing for the best record in the league — and there will be a doubleheader in Houston to open the second half — and a bunch of the Yankees’ All-Stars, such as Holmes, Aaron Judge, Nestor Cortes Jr. and Jose Trevino, are not finishing the first half the way they played most of it.
Perhaps it is just “the law of averages” as Gerrit Cole said. Was Judge really going to stay on a 60-plus homer pace? Was Holmes going to pitch to a sub-0.50 ERA all year? Was Cortes going to just play out a movie of the week, week after week?
Conversely, the Yankees do not want to lose their edge: the big AL East lead, the best record in the league and that sense of destiny with which they have mainly operated in 2022.
That is why there is such as sting from the last three games. They gave away a 3-1 lead in regulation and then a 5-3 lead in extra innings to lose to the Red Sox on Saturday, then wasted 4-0 and 6-2 advantages 24 hours later. Then they went down in weight class to face the Reds, last in perhaps the majors’ worst division even after winning five straight, and the Yankees still lost a third in a row for just the second time this season.
The Yankees were an MLB-best 34-9 at home going into Tuesday and had won 19 of their last 21 in The Bronx. Then, after a scoreless top of the first by Cole, the bottom half of the inning went like this: DJ LeMahieu falls behind Graham Ashcraft 0-1 then swats a 1-2 single. Gleyber Torres falls behind 0-2 and lashes a 1-2 double. And Anthony Rizzo, on an 0-1 count, brings both home with a single. Three professional at-bats and a 2-0 lead felt like the onset of a cakewalk.
But the Yankees went 2-for-16 with men on base for the rest of the game. It felt as if they were winning big, but they weren’t.
Cole, though, was big when big was needed. He delivered seven shutout innings, holding Cincinnati to one hit in 12 at-bats with men on base, including striking out the side after a leadoff single in his final inning. His 113th and last pitch was his hardest of the game, 100.5 mph to whiff Mike Moustakas.
A Michael King 1-2-3 eighth gave way to Holmes, who in a horrid five-batter stretch went from channeling the best of Mariano Rivera this year to the worst of Aroldis Chapman. Walk, single, hit-by-pitch, single, hit-by-pitch. Holmes said he didn’t have a feel for his signature sinker and was too slow to adjust. The result was two runs in, the bases loaded and his first boos from the home crowd.
Cole exonerated Holmes by noting, “He’s just saved our rear ends like so many times.”
And the Yankees nearly saved Holmes. Wandy Peralta got Donovan Solano to hit a comebacker to the mound and got the force at the plate, but Trevino lost control of the ball and couldn’t complete a double play to first. Nick Senzel then chopped a ball to Donaldson’s left. Donaldson had decided unless a one-hop bullet came his way, due to Senzel’s speed, he was playing in to cut off the lead run. A double play would have been possible, but risky. He took the sure out at the plate.
Then, Jonathan India fell behind 0-2, the crowd of 40,000-plus was full throated that this would be another memorable night for the 2022 Yankees. But India fouled off two pitches before breaking his bat and depositing a go-ahead two-run single to center.
Thus, Holmes incurred a loss and the Joey Gallo treatment from the home crowd. The Yankees had a three-game losing streak. There were unfamiliar bad vibes in Joy-ville.
“The last few games are not indicative of who we are,” Donaldson said.
The Yankees have five more first-half games to restore the good vibes.