More red flags for reeling Yankees as they get swept at home by Reds
Ben Rice #93 of the New York Yankees strikes out to end a game against the Cincinnati Reds at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, July 4, 2024 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Yankees are so bad right now, they couldn’t even win the hokey anthem standoff before Thursday’s July Fourth matinee in the Bronx.
We’ll get to the lousy baseball in a minute. It’s an all-too-familiar narrative with the Yankees over the past three weeks. By now, everyone knows the drill, and Thursday’s 8-4 loss to the Reds was another case of filling in the blanks, with the added humiliation of being swept by Cincinnati for the first time since the 1976 World Series.
But if you’re unfamiliar with the anthem standoff concept, it’s basically a duel to see which player(s) can outlast the other(s) on the field — cap across heart — after the anthem wraps up. In this case, it was a pair of Yankees pitchers on the IL, Ian Hamilton and Cody Poteet, staring down the Reds’ pitching duo of Graham Ashcraft and Carson Spiers.
We get that it was July 4. But for the nosediving Yankees, on the brink of being broomed by the Reds, Thursday wasn’t the occasion for tomfoolery. And to think manager Aaron Boone had to waste the mental space of shooing off his inactive pitchers so Marcus Stroman finally could throw his opening pitch was ridiculous.
Frankly, Boone or another one of his staffers never should have let it drag on that long. In case they hadn’t noticed, the Yankees have been awful, and Thursday’s loss dropped them to 4-13 since June 15, with few specks of encouragement sprinkled among that growing garbage pile.
“Yeah, not good,” Boone said afterward. “We got to play better on all fronts.”
Other than Aaron Judge’s Triple Crown pursuit, which cooled significantly over the past two days, the Yankees have done very little right. The rotation continues to be among the worst in the majors over the past 17 games, with a 7.76 ERA and 1.63 WHIP that rank dead last since June 15. Offensively, the Yankees entered Thursday’s game ranked 21st in OPS (.690) and 26th in batting average (.222).
Boone & Co. stayed on brand for the series finale. Stroman teed up three homers in digging a 5-0 hole before he exited after five innings. Two were solo shots, and when Spencer Steer followed with the big blast, a three-run homer with two outs in the fifth, the Reds’ lead felt twice that size.
Soon after, it almost was, as Jake Cousins allowed a bases-clearing triple by Jake Fraley that triggered loud boos from a holiday crowd of 43,154 that probably wished they had gone to Coney Island for the Hot Dog Eating Contest instead.
“I don’t think this is something that will last,” Stroman said. “We played really well in the beginning of the year and now we’re just hitting kind of a skid. But the confidence in this group is very consistent and I feel like we’re going to come out of this pretty soon.”
Somebody might want to tell the offense that. The Yankees barely stirred against old friend Frankie Montas, who allowed just a pair of solo homers by Austin Wells and Ben Rice in five innings-plus.
Rice was a key part of Boone’s Thursday lineup shuffle, as he booted Anthony Volpe out of the leadoff spot for the first time since April 9 and slid him down to sixth while the rookie first baseman took his place atop the order.
It’s unclear how long Boone intends to stick Volpe elsewhere. He could even sit the sophomore shortstop for one of the manager’s patented “resets” in the hope of having him rebound. But curing the Yankees’ current malaise doesn’t seem that simple, and it was a troubling sign Thursday when Trent Grisham — who has been getting more playing time since Giancarlo Stanton landed on the IL — botched a routine single into a shameful error.
Mistakes happen. But the way Grisham casually approached Jeimer Candelario’s sinking liner in the ninth inning, with zero sense of urgency, appeared to be a poor reflection not only of himself but the Yankees as a whole. When Grisham nonchalantly stuck his glove down, the ball caromed off his mitt, and the heads-up Candelario took off for second, sliding in easily.
Even if this had been the first two months of the season, when the Yankees became the first 50-win team in the majors, Grisham’s play was barely excusable. But given how poorly they’ve played, it was terrible optics for a brutal afternoon, even if Boone later said he didn’t have an issue with Grisham’s effort.
“That’s one of those that looks bad in the moment, especially what we’re going through as a team right now,” Boone said. “It’s also the way Trent Grisham — Gold Glover — plays centerfield. That relaxed, easy nature.”
It certainly was that. But is “relaxed and easy” the vibe the Yankees should be going for right now? We’d say no. And you can bet the charging Red Sox, who embarrassed their bitter rival two weeks ago by running all over the Yankees at Fenway Park, will be looking for a repeat performance in the Bronx when that series opens Friday. Jogging after balls isn’t going to work against Alex Cora’s feisty Boston bunch, an underdog group that’s closing fast on a wild card.
“You got to get beat down a little bit to see what you’re made of,” Judge said. “We’re gonna find out real soon.”
Maybe the Yankees should stop standing around waiting for it to happen.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.