I want to be more annoyed about this game, but honestly the moment that it ended I didn’t really remember much about it. There were two moments the whole game — Ben Rice hit a home run to give the Yankees the lead, Tyler Stephenson hit a three-run shot to put the Reds ahead. I had to check MLB.com to be reminded Cincinnati tacked on a fourth run in the ninth. The Yankees lost 4-1, and it feels like nothing at all happened.
Sometimes baseball is like that, this is the whole “you play every day” thing.
Elmer Rodríguez…Paul O’Neill said that he didn’t take a step backward today, and I think that’s true. I also think that the flaws in the prospect were on display. He did strike out more batters than he walked, which has been a challenge for him in his previous three outings, so good for him. But you still see that his command isn’t what it needs to be — he reminds me a lot of what Will Warren was a year ago, where he was called upon before he was ready.
The stuff is very much there, especially his breaking stuff. But he’s so married to his two-seamer, and I don’t know that it’s a major league quality pitch. Every time he throws his slider or curveball, I’m impressed. Every time he throws his four-seam, I’m at least on board. Throwing the two-seam as often as he does, 40 percent of the time today, he just never seems to hit the spot he’s going for. Some of that leads to nibbling, some of that leads to easy takes. He did give up the big three-run home run to Stephenson on the four-seam fastball though, so what do I know.
That was the entirety of the Yankee offense. Rice had himself a very good game, with the home run, a walk, and a hustle infield single. The team did manage five stolen bases, so there was traffic, and there were chance, there was just a stubborn refusal to cash in at all. Chase Burns is a very good pitcher, but the Yankees gave him a lot of help today. Even that homer from Rice could have been a two-run blast if Anthony Volpe hadn’t been picked off at first.
I thought this was a trap series from the start, the Yankees were coming off a run of hot games, closing out the homestand against a team that’s not very good and missing their best player. With Burns going today and Cole pushed to tomorrow, it was pretty important to get the win yesterday, which of course didn’t happen. That the Yankees have sleepwalked through two days’ worth of at bats makes that trap series prediction even more prescient.
I am often asked by my non-baseball fan friends what there is to love about the game. I’ll point to Aaron Judge’s ALDS home run last October or Corey Kluber’s inexplicable no-hitter a couple years ago. I do not imagine I will point to this game; this was perhaps not an example of baseball at its best, but perhaps an example of what a lot of baseball sometimes looks like. On the solstice, it seems the dog days of summer have arrived.
The Yankees head to Detroit for a set with the Tigers, and Tarik Skubal looming on Wednesday. On paper they’ll have the edge pitching-wise to open the series, with Cole slated to start against familiar foe Framber Valdez. First pitch from Comerica Park comes at 6:10pm Eastern.