NO CLUTCH LUCK
Yankees bats went quiet in season's biggest moments
H OUSTON — This 2019 Yankees’ season turned from special to sour in a week’s time for one very obvious, analytical reason: They lost their mojo. To be more technical, they just stopped hitting with runners in scoring position.
Oh, they made it exciting until the very end, courtesy of everyone’s favorite bat man, DJ LeMahieu. Yet baseball’s most accomplished and celebrated franchise has clocked a full decade, from 2010 through now, without so much as reaching a World Series.
Yes, the Yankees are done, courtesy of a 6-4 loss to the Astros in American League Championship Series Game 6 on Saturday night at Minute Maid Park — Jose Altuve crushed a walk-off, two-run homer off Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the ninth — that eliminated them by a 4-2 count as Houston reached its second Fall Classic in three years. After LeMahieu slugged a game-tying, one-out, two-run homer off Astros closer Roberto Osuna in the top of the ninth inning, the Yankees gained some hope, only to fail to build on that momentum, fittingly, and then see Chapman falter.
“That’s the biggest thing. We must have left eight or nine guys on base,” Aaron Judge said in a somber visitors clubhouse (it was eight). “Even throughout the whole series, we left a lot of guys on base. They seemed to capitalize on their [opportunities]. And that was the difference in the series.”
For sure, if you lead your 2019 Yankees obituary by lamenting all the high-end starting pitchers Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman failed to obtain these past few years, including the Astros’ Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole, you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. But you wouldn’t tell the whole story. For what differentiated Aaron Boone’s second season as Yankees manager from his first, what provided the most hope that they could slay some ghosts despite their starting rotation being an obvious Achilles’ heel, was just how well their hitters performed in the clutch from the end of March through the first week of October.
No major league team produced at a higher level with runners in scoring position during the regular season than the Yankees, who hit a terrific .294/.372/.518 in those situations. In sweeping past the Twins in the AL Division Series, moreover, they tallied 11 hits in 34 such at-bats, continuing to ride this path to success.
In the ALCS, however, they reverted to their 2018 form, going 6for-35 (.171).
“I think a lot of credit certainly goes to them,” Boone said of the Astros. “But a lot of times the teams that eventually go home, it’s sometimes a result of not capitalizing enough when you have opportunities.”
Game 6 proved a fitting coda, the Yankees continually threatening in this battle of the bullpens and falling short again and again, going just 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Interestingly, many of these threats ended with first-pitch swings on breaking balls, like Didi Gregorius in the third (a groundout to pitcher Ryan Pressley) and LeMahieu in the sixth (a bouncer to shortstop Carlos Correa).
When the Yankees fell to the Red Sox in last year’s AL Division Series, they went just 4-for-26 (.154) in their clutch at-bats. That felt less surprising, though, as their .253/ .342/.442 regular-season showing ranked them fifth in the AL.
This one stings more because of the Yankees’ inspiring “Next Man Up” and “Savages” narratives. Now they must live, fairly or unfairly, with the notion that they relied too much on the home run. That they didn’t have enough starting pitching. That, as per the late George Steinbrenner’s untenable “Championship or bust” mentality, they have struck out like they haven’t since the 19101919 stretch.
Imagine if the Yankees had found a way to get four more hits with runners in scoring position in this series, which would compute to a .286 batting average in these situations, still lower than their regular-season percentage? If they were the right four hits, they might be getting ready to take on the Nationals for all the marbles right now.
Alas, they didn’t and they aren’t. Another cold winter awaits them as they try once again to put together the proper combination of pitching, hitting, defense — and mojo.