New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge reacts after striking out in the third inning of a baseball game … More
By all accounts this was the first lost weekend of the season for the New York Yankees, who could not hit for the eight hours, three minutes it took for the Boston Red Sox to complete a three-game sweep and win five of the first six meetings to start the 13-game season series.
Coupled with an impressive performance by the Tampa Bay Rays against the New York Mets, the division lead is down to 3 1/2 games after peaking at seven games following a threee-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels on May 28. That was part of a 16-4 hot streak but the Yankees are a pedestrian 7-8 in their past 15 games. It a combined 23-12 stretch which is still pretty good but the 7-8 also reflect the reality of a team being unable to play at a 120-win pace.
It was the toughest weekend for Aaron Judge’s flirtation with .400. He ended the weekend with a .378 average after going 1-for-12 in the series.
The one hit was his impressively clutch homer off Garrett Crochet on Friday a week after striking out three times against the left-hander, who threw him 13 four-seam fastballs out of 15 pitches in their encounters last weekend in New York.
The quiet weekend with nine strikeouts dropped Judge’s average under .380 for the first time in a little over two months. The last time was after a 2-for-4 night against the Kansas City Royals raised it from .357 to .367 on April 14.
“Concerning? I wouldn’t put it that way,” manager Aaron Boone told reporters “I would just say, especially when you’re playing the Red Sox, you always want to put your best foot forward, and they took us down this weekend. Back-to-back weekends.”
This comment was made about three hours before the big news of Rafael Devers being sent from the Red Sox to the San Francisco Giants in a stunning June trade. The trade itself may not have been stunning given the turmoil and frustration that started with him declining to move off third base after Alex Bregman was signed and again with Devers optining not to move to first base following a season-ending injury to Triston Casas.
It was more stunning for the realtive stealthy way it unfolded with word getting out about three hours after the Red Sox finished off the sweep. The Yankees were probably nearing New York on their returnt trip from Fenway when it started trickling out but the deal was obviously in motion when Devers hit his 31st homer in 119 regular-season games against the Yankees and certainly in motion when the Red Sox pulled their highest-paid player off the team bus to the airport for the six-hour flight to Seattle.
Boston Red Sox designated hitter Rafael Devers (11) follows through on a home run during the ninth … More
Since the Yankees already played the Giants, they will not face Devers again unless both teams reprise the World Series of 1962, 1951, 1937, 1936, 1923, 1922 and 1921. Of course the schedule has the fun quirk of the Red Sox visiting San Francisco next weekend.
The Devers’ trade was the best news to emerge out of this weekend for the Yankees, who did many things wrong in their second three-game winning streak this season. They never led, totaled one run against Boston starting pitchers while facing Crochet, rookie Hunter Dobbins and Brayan Bello, who combined to throw 196 of 303 pitches for strikes.
Bello threw 114 pitches, the most against the Yankees by a starting pitcher since Sandy Alcantara threw 116 against a Yankee lineup with Judge hitting behind leadoff man Jake Bauers on Aug. 12, 2023. It was the most by a Red Sox since Eduardo Rodriguez on Sept. 9, 2019 at a time when the Yankees were closing in on the division title and Boston was a a day removed from firing GM Dave Dombrowski.
This time Bello allowed the Yankees to hit three balls over 100 mph and none over 102.2 mph. It was the Yankees lowest maximum exit velocity in a game since Aug. 15, 2023 when they maxed out at 101.5 in Atlanta.
“They did a good job. Their starting pitchers, they went deep into each game,” Judge told reporters after seeing 18 pitches Sunday. “They did a good job mixing their pitches up and just kind of keeping guys off-balance where we couldn’t really string a couple of quality at-bats together to kind of start a rally. Couldn’t really get that big inning.”
The big inning and the best news for the Yankees occurred hours later courtesy of the Red Sox willingness to move on from Devers.
