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Another Yankees’ loss has the Red Sox in 1st
Wednesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at the top of the AL East, College World Series results, and the Cubs’ rise in villainy.
Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports
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The Yankees have had a real weird June. They’ve outscored opponents by 47 runs, which, even with well over a week left to go in the month, is the largest such monthly split of the season for them. All that has gained them, though, is an 8-10 record that includes six consecutive losses, four of them coming at the hands of their bullpen. The latest of those came on Tuesday, with Tyler Clippard taking the L for an Angels late-game barrage.
This isn’t necessarily poor luck, either: The Yankees have three blowouts in June that account for 34 of the 47 runs they’ve outscored opponents by. Not everything is clicking at the same time, but when it does, the Yankees look unbeatable.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox have gone 11-8 in June despite being outscored by two runs on the month, and that’s also in large part due to the performance of their bullpen. While the offense has been scoring just over four runs per game, the bullpen — led by Craig Kimbrel in what could end up being his top season to date — has made sure every lead, regardless of size, ends up counting for Boston.
You can’t draw too much from the performance of either team: Boston’s pen as a whole is unlikely to remain as dominant as it’s been, with nearly every major contributor posting eye-popping numbers and zero after zero. However, their rotation is probably only going to get better as David Price shakes off the rust and Rick Porcello figures out what he’s doing wrong, and a solution at third base should be the focus to round out the lineup before the trade deadline.
The Yankees are in a position to add help both in the rotation and the bullpen, and even just the former would go a long way: If they had more starters they could rely on, they wouldn’t need to lean on the bullpen as heavily as they have. As is, the Yanks have one starter averaging at least six innings per start, and that’s 23-year-old Luis Severino, whose career high in innings in the majors changes with each frame he completes.
- Cody Bellinger keeps on hitting dingers, and to some, he’s emblematic of what’s wrong with baseball today. Grant Brisbee, however, says there’s nothing wrong with Bellinger as the embodiment of modern baseball.
- The Cubs’ Villainy Meter has returned, thanks to Anthony Rizzo’s dirty slide and Joe Maddon’s gleeful defense of it. Hey, don’t be mad at us: we’re not the ones who broke a rule and then bragged about how awesome it was.
- An opposite-field homer off the foul pole makes for a real weird bounce, but lucky for Florida, it counts just the same.
- That dinger helped Florida remain unbeaten in the College World Series, too.
- Gleyber Torres’ injury is not great for the Yankees, but losing their top prospect to Tommy John surgery also isn’t nearly as bad you might think.
- Similarly, there might be a silver lining for both the Orioles and J.J. Hardy with regards to his own injury.
- When Freddie Freeman returns to the Braves’ lineup, it might be as a third baseman. It depends on quite a few things, including if Matt Adams is still mashing at first when Freeman is ready to come back.
- LSU used eight pitchers in a 13-1 loss to Oregon State.
- Here’s what the rest of the College World Series bracket looks like.
- Here’s how the MLB draft works these days (assuming you’re a Baseball Prospectus subscriber, anyway).
- It’s not baseball, but this Outsports’ feature on Ryan O’Callaghan coming out as gay is an important sports (and life!) read nonetheless.
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