This one started bowling-shoe ugly and ended up Sam the Chinese Crested Dog ugly, with Bradley Hanner proving why he is the definition of the 26th man on an MLB roster. Gerrit Cole gave up more home runs—three of ’em while not making it out of the fifth inning—but Hanner wasn’t any better, allowing two dingers while five men crossed the plate against him. All this is to say the Yankees were kicked around Saturday afternoon, losing 12-2 to the Mets.
I don’t know what it is about Gerrit Cole. He’s always been a little bit homer-prone, especially since coming to Yankee Stadium. Fastballs in the zone lead to some kinds of nasty contact, but the thing that’s really been different about him since returning from Tommy John is how many pitches he’s keeping in the zone. He has the lowest walk rate of his career, and indeed he didn’t walk a single batter today. He also has the highest Zone%, or, throws more pitches in the strike zone than any other season of his career.
In his last two starts he’s allowed seven home runs. Comparatively, there were only three today, though they still counted for four runs like last weekend against the Padres.
Part of this is just random variance, enough monkeys at enough typewriters for long enough. Any time you talk about two games’ worth of data, you have to throw up your hands at the universe. He’s also been stung by Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Jake Cronenworth, Francisco Lindor…guys that have been around the block. Lindor especially looked keyed up to swing in the game’s first AB, the first dinger Cole allowed today. Former Baby Bomber Luis Torrens and rookie Carson Benge tacked on homers off Cole to build a 4-0 lead.
I’m also reserving the right to wonder if this “fill the zone, do not walk anyone” strategy is going to continue to be a success. MLB hitters will adjust, they will figure out what you’re trying to do. Maybe you have overwhelming stuff like Cam Schlittler or Jacob Misiorowski and it doesn’t matter if they know what you’re trying to do. Maybe you merely have good-to-great stuff, like Cole does now, and those adjustments hitters make start to hurt you.
Then again Tim Hill got thrashed by Juan Soto, who took the left-hander into the right field bleachers, so maybe the Mets just got the rabbit balls today. Then again, Hill has a 4.70 ERA and 7.32 FIP since Canada Day so maybe teams have figured him out too.
The Mets hit a grand slam at some point. I have to confess once someone called Bradley Hanner is pitching with your team down seven, I kinda checked out. Oh look it was Lindor again, with the slam in the eighth. Good for him, he gets too much hate.
Bad pitching aside, and there was enough of that to sate whatever sick pleasure you have, I think what’s most frustrating about this ballclub is the Yankees should be able to outslug some bad pitching from time to time; they have for the better part of 125 years. This version seems incapable of that bailout. Cody Bellinger was the only guy seemingly interested in digging his club out of the hole:
The closest the team got to scoring after that was putting two men on with one out in the seventh, at that point only down four runs. A ball in the gap, with Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr. running, would likely have halved the lead, and Anthony Volpe bounced into a double play. Then came the aforementioned Hanner, and the game was all but over.
The actual description of this game is less important than the impact on the standings. If the Rays beat the Astros tonight, they will be four full games ahead of the Yankees with just 14 left to play. Yes, that four-game set against Tampa next week could still change some fortunes around, but you can’t really count on sweeping four straight against the best team in the AL.
Even if the Rays lose, you’ve burned another game. Sand is running out of this hourglass. At best the Yankees can stopper it up a little bit with a win in the finale tomorrow, icing a win in this round of the Subway Series to boot. If nothing else it’ll be #CamBumpDay, with the AL Cy Young favorite tabbed to take the ball and deliver that much-needed win. First pitch on Sunday comes at 1:35pm Eastern.
