If there had been a monsoon month, the 1948 Boston Braves might have gotten away with just [Warren] Spahn and [Johnny] Healthy in rotation.
But it could rain for 40 days and 40 nights and the other seven Yankees hitters, other than Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, will still have to take turns at bat.
It’s the things people say out loud that hurt the most. It’s the grain of truth in every joke that always strikes with cruelty.
We’re talking about the Yankees’ shallow two-man batting order here after Sunday’s symptomatic 6-4 loss to the Rays in the Bronx.
But we’re probably also talking about what Luis Severino said about his former team’s offensive capabilities late last week when it became known that the Mets right-hander would miss both games of this week’s Subway Series, having missed the opening two-game series at Queens in the last week of June.
He said he was joking a bit when his former teammates teased him in a group chat, and didn’t really mean it when he said, “I’m not afraid of those guys … right now, you only have two good hitters.”
The fact is, no one is laughing, certainly not the Yankees after playing nearly all of last month on a loop in that loss to Tampa Bay in which Judge and Soto combined for all four RBIs in a game where their team had 15 baserunners but came away empty-handed except when Nos. 22 and 99 were at bat.
They loaded the bases with one out in the first and second innings and didn’t score. Nine of the 18 batters Tampa Bay starting pitcher Shane Baz faced reached base and none scored. The Yankees didn’t score until Judge crushed his 35th home run with two men on base and one out in the seventh inning to cut the lead to 5-3. They scored again when Soto hit a one-out double in the ninth inning to score Judge the tying run.
Alas, Judge flied out to center field before cleanup hitter Austin Wells — let that roll off your tongue a little — struck out three times to end the game and leave the Yankees with their 15th loss in their last 22 games.
Baseball is now a playoff sport, so seeding depends on playoff berth, which is certainly the case for the Yankees, but no two-batting order has ever won a championship. Even Eddie Feigner needed four players for his King and the Court softball team.
“I think we try to do too much in some situations,” Judge said. “We’ve got some work to do.”
Ben Rice started Sunday while Wells was a pinch hitter. It’s not just that these players, among many others, are trying to do too much, it’s that too much is being asked of them. Rice as a leadoff hitter? Wells as a pinch hitter?
Yes, DJ LeMahieu, who was benched for the second time in the last four games, may be facing a career requiem. He was supposed to be the leadoff hitter. He’s hitting .177/.270/.202/.472 and is 0-for-17 in his last six games. And yes, Giancarlo Stanton is still recovering from a leg issue.
Yet, or perhaps because, the Yankees are 13th in OPS coming out of the mop-up position in the 15-team American League, with Rice 4 over his last 39 games. The Yankees are also last in the league in OPS and 14th in slugging coming out of the mop-up position.
It’s not the fault of Wells, who made his debut Saturday in the cleanup spot as the seventh Yankee to hit at that position, going 1 for 7 for the weekend while retiring to end the game with Soto as a potential tying run at second.
It’s July, it’s the Yankees, and you don’t necessarily expect Austin Wells to bat fourth. Of course, you didn’t necessarily expect Anthony Rizzo to hit .223/.289/.341 with eight home runs before he was placed on the disabled list a little over two months ago. This was a case of injury adding insult to injury at the plate.
The Yankees are sure this can’t last forever, they say it with their mouths, but then you use your eyes to watch Alex Verdugo go 0-for-4 again to extend his misery index to 2-for-33 over the last eight games and you wonder.
There are two exceptions to the rule, they hit 2 and 3 in order and it’s amazing that an opposing manager can throw to Soto or Judge with a base – any base – free. Kevin Cash did it in the late innings of Sunday and got beat.
“This game is tough for us right now. We have to figure it out,” said manager Aaron Boone, who wasn’t thrilled when Severino’s comments were relayed to him. “We know we’re better than that.”
We will see.
