Pinstripe Progress 7/31-8/6: Split with Astros and drop a series vs the Rays

 

Thank you for checking out The Pinstripe's progress report!  This week the Yankees faced two of the AL's best, with the Rays and Astros visiting the Bronx.  The Yankees dropped the series to the Rays going 1-2 and split the four-game set against the Astros, going 3-4 overall this week against two teams that are locks to make the postseason.  The Yankees hit .236 this week and pitched to an ERA of 3.86, being outscored by five runs this week.  Let's look at some positives and some disappointments from this week in Yankee baseball.

Positives

Nestor Cortes:  Nestor made his long awaited return from injury on Saturday, and dominated arguably the best team in the AL.  Nestor, still building his pitch count up, dominated the Astros, pitching 4.0 innings with 8 strikeouts and allowing only one run.  Nestor resembled the pitcher we've come to love and who was an all-star last year, keeping the Astros off balance all afternoon.  If this is the Nestor the Yankees can pencil in every five days, the Yankees can feel at least a little better about a rotation that came into the season with sky-high expectations and has been almost a complete disappointment.

Clarke Schmidt: We wrote about Clarke Schmidt's development into at least a third starter recently, but his start against the Astros was one of the highlights for the Yankees this week.  With struggling pitcher Severino scheduled to pitch the following day, the Yankees needed Clarke Schmidt to give them a chance to win and he delivered.  Schmidt neutralized elite lefties Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker on his way to a stat line of 5.0 innings, 4 strikeouts, and 2 earned runs.  

Harrison Bader: Bader displayed some key situational hitting on Sunday, coming up with the bases loaded twice and delivering a single both times, driving in two runs in the Yankee loss.  You could tell in these at-bats that Bader adjusted his approach, knowing he didn't have to hit a homerun and couldn't afford to strike out so he just looked for a ball he could put in play and delivered both times.

Gleyber Torres: It's getting hard to describe how important Gleyber is becoming to this team.  Protecting Judge this week, Glyeber hit at a clip of .462/.533/.808 for an OPS north of 1.300.  The Astros pitchers especially struggled against Gleyber as even most of his outs were hard-hit balls.  The Yankees should extend Gleyber before his price goes up even more, as he is one of the best offensive second basemen in all of baseball.

Split with the Astros:  I've gone back and forth on the Astros series as the Yankees had an opportunity to win the series Sunday and failed to deliver multiple times.  However, coming into the week if you told Yankee fans they'd go 2-2 against the Astros with Severino starting one game and Rodon not making it out of the third in another, I'm sure we all would've been ecstatic. At the end of the day the Yankees have consistently struggled against the Astros since 2017, and in a disappointing season where the playoffs seem like a reach, the Yankees managed to split a series versus their nemesis, including beating long-time Yankee Killer Justin Verlander in the process.

Competitive Lineups: For most of the season, Boone's lineups have been questionable to put it nicely.  Boone placed a concussed Rizzo who was the worst hitter in baseball for three months in the middle of the order every day, a washed-up Donaldson in the five-hole whenever possible, and much more.  However, over the past couple of days the lineups have been pretty much the best he can put together.  Boone has been placing all of the defensive specialists (Bader, catchers) and a rookie still adjusting to big-league pitching (Volpe) at the bottom of the lineup.  Boone's also putting Gleyber behind Judge to give Judge as much protection as the Yankees can provide him, with Staton hitting fourth as the prototypical, slow homerun hitter should.

Disappointments

Luis Severino: The fall of Sevy has been tough to watch.  Yankee fans have seen it all with Sevy as he was a top-3 Cy Young candidate in 2017 only to struggle with injuries and battle back to get on the field late last season.  However, it's time for Severino to be relegated to at least the bullpen.  Sevy has called himself the "worst pitcher in baseball" and the Yankees used his start against the Astros as a "punt" day, resting Judge and avoiding any of their high-leverage bullpen arms.  If this team wants to be serious about making the playoffs, Randy Vasquez should take Severino's spot in the rotation this week.

Aaron Judge: For the most part, Judge has been great since returning from the IL.  However, he continues to struggle against the Astros' pitching, going 0-12 with 6Ks and 3BBs in the four-game series. Aaron Judge's biggest contribution in the series was working a bases-loaded walk against Phil Maton Sunday which any opposing team would consider a massive win in itself.  If the Yankees want to make the postseason, Aaron Judge has to be who he is, the best hitter on the planet Earth.

Carlos Rodon: Rodon's Yankee tenure has been a failure so far.  Between battling all the injuries and his control issues he's put together one solid start, which came against the measly Mets.  Rodon struggled earlier in the week against the Rays going 4.0 innings with 4Ks, 4BBs, and 4ER, and then had his biggest start as a Yankee yet on Sunday where he failed to deliver as well going 2.2 innings with 5Ks and 5ER.  Rodon also left injured with hamstring tightness, but until he figures out how to pitch in the stadium and limit his walks he will probably continue to show up on the "disappointments" part of this weekly post.

Sunday game vs. the Astros: As mentioned earlier, the Yankees are probably happy splitting with the reigning champs.  However, the Yankees had plenty of opportunities to win the game despite a poor outing from Rodon and questionable bullpen usage by Boone.  The Yankees left 15 runners on base and consistently failed to deliver the big hit to blow the game open.  Hitting with runners in scoring position has been an issue for a couple of years now and isn't receiving the attention it typically does because the Yankees have underperformed in so many ways this year.

Boone's Bullpen Usage:  The biggest issue in Boone's tenure as manager of the Yankees has been his bullpen usage.  He constantly tries to steal outs and never seems to have a grasp on when to use certain players.  This cost the Yankees the game on Sunday.  Boone brought in Wandy to face back-to-back lefties and Wandy succeeded, but after that, Boone left the lefty Wandy to face a stretch of Astros that consisted of six straight righty hitters, leading to back-to-back homers from the 8 and 9 hitters in the Astros lineup.  In the next inning, Boone brought in the newly acquired righty, Kenyan Middleton, who shut them down for two innings.  If Boone brought in Middleton earlier, the Yankees probably win the game as Clay Holmes was available to close the ninth and Boone said after the game that Tommy Kahnle would've been available if the game went to extras.  Boone simply should've brought in Middleton in the 6th, had him pitch the 6th and 7th, brought Kahnle in for the 8th, and had Holmes close out the ninth.  With Cole pitching against the offensively limited White Sox the next day, there was no excuse to save the best bullpen in baseball in a game against an elite team that they could've, and should've won.