The Yankees lost after not doing anything of significance before the trade deadline
The Yankees lost 5–2 to the Tampa Bay Rays after adding two marginal pitchers before the trade deadline. The Yankees were the last of the 30 MP teams to make a trade before the 6:00 p.m. August 1 trade deadline.
They did not add to improve the team this season and increase their chance of making the playoffs or sell to make the team better in future years. They traded cash considerations for to the Rangers for starting pitcher Spencer Howard, who was designated for assignment.
The only trade the Yankees made was trading a low level minor leaguer for White Sox relief pitcher Keynan Kiddleton, who would be the sixth or seventh best relief pitcher on the Yankees. Middleton has a 3.96 ERA anda 1.36 WHIP in 39 games (36.1 innings) this season and had a 8.64 ERA in 8.1 innings pitched in July.
The Yankees have only scored six runs in their last three games. They have scored three runs or less in six of their last seven games. In the 26 games that the Yankees have played since the beginning of July, the Yankees have scored three runs or less 14 times. Since the All-Star break, the Yankees have scored three runs or less 10 times in their last 16 games.
The crowd booed the team as the Yankees left field on Tuesday after loss. The Yankees had a need to upgrade the offense and especially upgrade in left field and they did not do this before the trade deadline.
Yankees have had back to back losing months, 11–12 in June and 10–15 in July, for first time since 2007. The 10–15 record in July is their worst month of July ever and their worst July record since 1975. They would have been all on on Cody Bellinger, who is having a resurgent season, but he became off the market after the Cubs went on a 8-game winning streak.
Carlos Rodon, who allowed four earned runs in four innings, gave up two homers on fastballs with bad location. He is mainly a two pitch pitcher but he is too predictable right now. He threw 52 pitches to first nine batters of the game, which was a very bad start. Randy Arozarena, who hit a 2-run homer in the third inning off of Rodon, had been on an 0–21 slide before that homer.
Earlier in the third inning, Yandy Diaz hit a solo homer to right center, which was his 15th homer of the season. In the second inning, center fielder Manuel Margot hit a ground rule double to score Isaac Paredes to give the Rays a 1–0 lead.
After finishing in the top six in Cy Young voting in each of the last two seasons and finishing with ERAs of below 2.90, Rodon has struggled to adjust to pitching with the Yankees. He had an ERA+ of 185 to 2021, an ERA+ of 138 last season and this season his ERA+ is only 68 in five starts. This season, he has a 6.29 ERA and has allowed 17 earned runs, six homers and 16 walks in 24.1 innings pitched.
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He has allowed at least four runs in three of his five starts with six runs including six runs and five walks in his start on July 19 against the Angels. If the Yankees are going to get a wild card spot Rodon will need to pitch more like he did the last two seasons and less like he has so far this season.
Yankees six times went down in order in an inning without a batter getting on base or a double play led to the side being retired in order. This happened in the first, third, fourth, fifth, seventh and eight innings. In the sixth inning, Jake Bauers doubled to center with two outs but Aaron Judge flied out to center to strand him at second. Since coming off of the injured list on July 23, Bauers has hit will with a .300 average and 1.033 OPS in those six games. He has been one of the few Yankees hitters hitting well recently.
The double by Bauers was the only runner in scoring position in the first eight innings. The Yankees have been down many runs early in the game the last three days, and it can be tough to come back if you are down by many runs early.
Bader had a pinch hit double in the 9th on a ball in no mans land that Arozarena probably should have caught since it hit his glove. Judge then hit a high ball off a slider that he got under that was caught basically at warning track. Torres, who was the next batter after Judge, then hit a line drive double into the corner to score Bader and get the Yankees their first run of the game.
Anthony Rizzo then singled and before that hit he was 0–30 with RISP and two outs this season. That was a big hit for Rizzo to end that streak that he did not want to have. That hit by Rizzo put runners on first and third with two outs in the ninth. It was a positive that Rizzo had that single since that meant he did not go 0–4 but he still only has two extra base hits in his last 15 games and zero besides his game when he had four hits in that span. Since he had four hits on July 23, Rizzo is 4–29 (.138) with zero extra base hits and 10 strikeouts.
After Rizzo’s single, DJ LeMahieu then had an RBI single on softly hit ball to third to make the score 5–2 and send the tying run to the plate in Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Stanton pinch hit for IKF with the dominant closer Pete Fairbanks coming into the game. Stanton struck out on 99 mph fastball down middle to end the game. Stanton is now 5–42 as pinch hitter in his career.
The seven through nine hitters in the lineup — Billy McKinney, Anthony Volpe and Kyle Higashioka — went a combined 0–9. Volpe has gone 22 consecutive games without a multi-hit game and in those 22 games he is 10–72 (.139) with 21 strikeouts and just 10 runs scored.
Earlier in the game, Brandon Lowe made an outstanding defensive play on a Volpe hard hit grounder on the third base side of second base. Volpe is very fast and Lowe still threw him out.
Yankees lost another series and Gerrit Cole will try to prevent the team from being swept in tonight’s series finale. In the Yankees last eight series, they have lost five, tied two and one just one series, which was the series sweep over the Royals, who have the second fewest wins out of the 30 MLB teams.
Cole is having a Cy Young caliber season since he is leading the American League with his 2.64 ERA, his 4.7 WAR is the best in the AL, he has the most quality starts in the AL, he has the fourth most strikeouts in the AL and he has the sixth best WHIP in the AL.
At the 2022 trade deadline, the Yankees were 70–34 (109-win pace). Since then, up until 6 p.m. yesterday before Tuesday’s night’s game, they’re 84–80. Over that span, the Yankees aside from Aaron Judge are slashing .225/.293/.377 (.670 OPS). The Yankees starters aside from Gerrit Cole are 35–42 with a 4.60 ERA. These are not good cumulative stats when not including the team’s best pitcher and best hitter.
