Yankees explode in embarrassing 11-3 home loss to Cleveland

What can we still say about this game? The Yankees were completely outclassed within 24 hours of a dominant shutout win, giving up 11 points to baseball’s 24th best offense. It was a debacle that luckily ended in the fifth inning, so I hope everyone got out there and enjoyed an afternoon that I mercilessly spent recapping a terrible loss. The Yankees lost 11-3, putting them behind the Red Sox and Blue Jays in the Wild Cards standings, as the two division rivals won on Saturday. New York is now half a game behind Toronto (again).

I’m curious what people think of Luis Gil overall. He shows flashes of being a real starter – taking out two batters in the first inning – but the set seems to indicate a boxing role for him. Concretely, his command comes and goes, in particular on his secondary offerings:

Missing with the fastball isn’t great, but I think the Yankees have a pretty good record of getting the guys to locate that pitch – Clay Holmes, Jameson Taillon, etc. – but this slider, which was supposed to be further ahead than its change … boy, Gil has no idea where this bullet is going.

Missing is a big deal, as no hitter is fooled by an eight inch slider up and out of the crease. The sliders also start down, rather than moving out of the area out of it. It also got worse as the day went on, which indicates to me either fatigue or a mechanical challenge that as Gil’s delivery goes haywire will cause him to struggle to deliver throws that look like to strikes.

The fifth inning was the real disaster for the Yankees, as Joey Gallo left the game with a tight neck, Gary Sánchez dropped a popup and seven of the next eight hitters hit base, with one walk, a single, two RAP, two doubles and a dinger putting the game at 8-0 and well out of reach. Albert Abreu was responsible for most of the disaster, and if you thought Gil’s order was off, well, Albert Abreu left everything in the middle of the plate:

Andrew Heaney contributed with his quota of two home runs per relief appearance. But really, you can’t talk about this game without talking about how, once again, the Yankees offense was a series of wet fart sounds.

They actually put several men in the first one, before Aaron Judge bounced in a double play. They then didn’t have more men until the sixth… when Judge bounced in a double play. Don’t feel bad. too badly about the GIDP though. They also had a steal caught to finish the second, when Gleyber Torres was caught with two strikeouts and four strikeouts on no walks in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings combined,

Giancarlo Stanton went far in the seventh, his 30th of the campaign and his second season of 30 pinstripe homers. Luke Voit added a two point shot in the eighth to bring the deficit down to… eight, but we need to find positives where we can. For what it’s worth, since the trade deadline, Anthony Rizzo has a .757 OPS and Sees a .891 OPS.

Now we know Rizzo’s defensive advantage, but it’s a team that struggles to put together a consistent offensive performance, and they have an elite-level hitter that they continually leave out of the lineup. Put Giancarlo Stanton in the outfield every day, put Luke Voit on DH every day, and let Anthony Rizzo sit more often because he’s basically not as good a hitter as those two other guys, and stop being too cute with very talented hitters.

Either way, tomorrow is the rubber match of the series, with Gerrit Cole on the hill. I would love to say that the Yankees have a great chance of winning this series, but with this offense, who knows? You can bet Cole will be watching TV a lot, but the Yankee line could be emetic. The morning begins at 1:05 p.m. EST.

The score of the box

Update on Gallo