NOW WHAT, CASH?
Yanks lose again — and watch Bauer go to Reds
The pressure is mounting on GM Brian Cashman to get Aaron Hicks and the Yankees — who lost 4-2 to the Diamondbacks — some help before today’s trade deadline as they suffered their fourth loss in five games and missed out on Indians stud Trevor Bauer, who was dealt to the Reds.
IMAGINE this division series scenario for the Yankees, who are still a calamitous final two months away from dropping into a wildcard slot following their sixth defeat in nine games, this a 4-2 loss to the Diamondbacks in The Bronx on Tuesday:
Luis Severino to start the first game, limited to three innings before a designated parade of relievers follows. Masahiro Tanaka or J.A. Happ in Game 2, with a four-inning limit, backed by the bullpen. Then Chad Green or Domingo German in Game 3 to pitch one or two innings as the opener, followed by either Tanaka or Happ in Game 4 and then Severino under the same regimen in an if-necessary decisive Game 5. That could be the formula. “I would say, there’s a lot of ways to skin a cat,” Aaron Boone said when asked if the Yankees could thrive without a genuine ace at the top of a headless rotation. “You know, we have a lot of really good players. And we have what we think is a very capable staff. We may be creative in the way we do it, maybe not in a traditional way, going into the playoffs. We’ll kind of see where we are. “It’s late July and foremost we want to get to the playoffs. Secondly, who knows [who’s] back in the fold and how they’re built up? Bottom line, we think at that point we’ll hopefully have a team full of guys who, whether in a creative way or a more traditional way, are capable of getting 27 outs every day. “That’s the key.” Trevor Bauer is not slipping into Pinstripes; he was traded Tuesday to Cincinnati by Cleveland. Noah Syndergaard, who struck out 11 while allowing an unearned run in 7¹/3 innings for the Mets at the White Sox, all but certainly is not riding to the rescue. No one thinks Madison Bumgarner is on his way to The Bronx.
So it appears as if the Yankees will have to make do with length on the staff just as they have clubbed their way through the season with length in their lineup. A return to health for power arms Severino and Dellin Betances, neither of whom has thrown an inning this year after suffering injuries in spring training that were aggravated during rehab, would be critical to this design. Both are expected back by late August.
Still, though, the Yankees do have to get from here to there and they have to find the way to maintain their equilibrium and psyche in the wake of a Hell Week on the road in which they surrendered 71 runs in seven games and their starters pitched to a typographical error-like 15.11 ERA in 28 innings without one making it through the sixth.
“Everyone in the rotation and our pitching staff is going to have to play a meaningful role and pick up some meaningful innings and to protect one another,” Boone said before the game. “Guys have got to pitch well. That’ll be the expectation.”
Happ kept his end of the bargain Tuesday, going six innings while allowing three runs. It was important, too, that Luis Cessa was able to take it the rest of the way while yielding one run. For the first time since Tanaka went the distance in a 3-0 shutout over the Rays on June 17, 35 games ago, the Yankees used as few as two pitchers.
“Obviously it’s nice to be able to use two pitchers on a night where you lost, which is never fun,” said Boone, whose team is scheduled to play 19 games in 17 days and 29 in 28 following Thursday’s day off. “As much as they’ve been used, that part of it is not the worst thing.”
General manager Brian Cashman has constructed a Bully Ball team. But when the bats have been muted, the Yankees have been silent. They have been unable to win a single game while limited to fewer than three runs, going 0-15. They are 4-22 when unable to get to four.
In a normal year — any year, really, before 2019 turned into Arena Baseball — the Yankees’ inability to win tight, low-scoring games would create high anxiety. It still wouldn’t seem to promote much confidence, given the possibility the team could face Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole four times in a hypothetical bestof-seven ALCS. But maybe the postseason will resemble the regular season. Maybe the ball will continue to leave the yard at a previously incomprehensible rate.
In any event, the Yankees will have to get 27 outs a night no matter how they slice it and dice it. Even if creative, that’s a tradition that’s not going away.