The Yankees lost the first game of their series against the Rays
The Yankees lost the first game of their series on Tuesday against the Rays at Tropicana Field 5–3. They had been 4–2 against the Rays previously this season.
The Yankees have now gone 6–17 in their last 23 games and they need to win tonight’s game to prevent them from going winless in eight series in a row. The Yankees have allowed at least five runs in 14 of their last 21 games and they have allowed at least seven runs in 10 of those games. The Yankees had the best record in MLB at 49–21 after their game on June 12 but since then their 6–17 record in the worst in MLB.
The Yankees have four players since June 13 who have a 65 wrC+ or worse (100 is league average). Those players who have been much below league average since June 13 are Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo, DJ LeMahieu and Anthony Volpe. Since June 13, Torres has gone 12–63 (.190), Verdugo has gone 17–76 (.224), LeMahieu has gone 14–68 (.206) and Volpe has gone 17–99 (.172). Volpe only has five walks in his last 23 games going back to June 13, which is a very low amount of walks.
Volpe has gone just 3–37 in his last nine games, which is a very cold streak of games where he has not done anything on offense. LeMahieu did go 2–4 in the first game of the series against the Rays and going back the last six games he has gone a very productive 6–18 with three runs scored, one double and two RBI. He has increased his average from .180 to .206 in these six games. However, LeMahieu only has three extra-base hits with no homers in his 33 games this season.
Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman were at the game in Tampa hoping to see improvement. They did not see that.
The Yankees have now lost 17 of 23 games. They’ve had a 6–17 stretch in each of the last two seasons after doing it in only two years from 1992–2022.
The Yankees starting pitchers have a 7.04 ERA in their last 21 games since June 15. This is a major reason the Yankees have been losing so much. Carlos Rodon has been the worst of the Yankees starting pitchers in the last few weeks since he has the worst ERA in MLB since June 13.
Rodon got the start for the Yankees in Tuesday’s game against the Rays and he allowed four earned runs with five hits, two walks and one homer in 4.0 innings pitched. He needed an alarming 95 pitches to get through 4.0 innings after throwing 30 pitches in the first inning. He allowed four earned runs in the first inning before getting a single out after allowing a Yandy Diaz single, a Randy Arozarena double (Diaz scored on an error by Verdugo), a single by Rosario and then a 3-run homer by Isaac Paredes.
Rodon has allowed 19 earned runs in 18 innings in the first inning this season. He has a 9.50 ERA in first inning. He really needs to figure out a way to have more success in the first inning to not put the team in a deficit right at the beginning of the game. Rodon had an impressive 2.93 ERA after 14 starts this season but his ERA is now 4.63 after allowing 27 earned runs in his last five starts. Rodon’s 4.63 ERA is the third-worst ERA for any pitcher with at least 100 innings pitched this season.
The Yankees were 11–3 in Rodon’s first 14 starts when he had a 2.93 ERA in that span. Since then, he has an ERA over 10.00 and the Yankees are 0–5 in games that he’s started.
Since June 13 the Yankees have the worst rotation ERA in MLB and before that they had the best rotation ERA.
The bullpen was very good in Tuesday’s game since after Rodon completed 4.0 innings allowing four earned runs, the three pitchers in the bullpen combined to allow one earned run, two hits and two walks in four innings. Jake Cousins, who is long time NFL QB Kirk Cousins’s cousin, pitched very well allowing just one base runner (a walk) in two innings pitched. Cousins struck out five of the six batters he faced.
Cousins has turned into a very reliable piece in the bullpen and one who should stay beyond the trade deadline if his success continues since he has a 1.86 ERA in seven games (9.2 innings) with just one earned run allowed in his last 7.2 innings. Cousins had a 4.82 ERA in nine games with the Brewers last season, which means he has made a big improvement this season.
Jose Siri, who went 1–4 and is just 2–28 in his last eight games, scored from first base on a double to the wall to make the score 5–3 in the 8th inning. That extra run made the comeback in the ninth inning more challenging.
LeMahieu had a line drive single to right in the 9th for his second hit of the game and that made him five for his last 10.
Only Judge has more RBI on the Yankees than Rice since Rice’s debut on June 18. Rice’s five MLB homers have all come in last 5 games. Rice struck out on a nasty slider in the ninth inning. Rice has five homers and 14 RBI in his 19 games played.
The only runs that the Yankees scored in this game were off of a Torres RBI single in the first inning and a Rice two-run homer in the 7th. Rice has been so much better than Anthony Rizzo was before he had to go on the injured list. Rice has five homers and a good .267 average and .348 OBP in 19 games but Rizzo had a .223 average and .289 OBP in his 70 games with just eight homers.
Juan Soto hit a ball to the deepest part of Tropicana Field and Siri caught it at the warning track to end the game.
The Yankees are now 1–8 in games decided by two runs or fewer this season. In their current 6–17 disappointing stretch of games, the Yankees have gone 1–7 in games decided by two runs or fewer.
