The atmosphere at Yankee Stadium was palpable because after far too long, the home team was honoring one of the greatest Yankees of the modern era, Derek Sanderson Jeter. The ambiance was electric coming into the game, but that did not last long. With some sloppy play on the field by the Yankees and a less than stellar performance on the mound, the evaporating lead in the AL East standings slipped even further to their nearest divisional foe, the Tampa Bay Rays.
It was obvious the Rays had a game plan to attack Frankie Montas early in their at-bats and not let him get ahead in the count. The first three batters all swung at the first pitch. That led to back-to-back doubles from young Tampa phenom Wander Franco, playing in his first game in two months, and perennial thorn in Yankee fans’ side Randy Arozarena. After getting a quick one-run lead you could feel some of the early energy and excitement leave the building a bit.
It seems like when Montas is not getting his splitter over for strikes he has no way to get outs, and that was the case this evening. When the splitter isn’t splitting, Montas does not look like the front-of-line rotation piece Cashman thought he was acquired from the Oakland A’s at the trade deadline. Fortunately, Montas was able to minimize the damage after those early doubles. That is, until the fourth inning.
The fourth inning proved to be the turning point when the game got out of hand, and the Yankees were not able to make up the difference. The well-rested Wander Franco came up to bat with runners on first and second. Montas nibbled around the strike zone and tried to make the young star chase, but he waited for his pitch and lifted a fly ball to left field. Left fielder Aaron Hicks had a good read on the ball and was tracking it down the foul line. As Hicks squeezed his glove the ball squirted out, unfortunately when he made contact with the ball, he was in the fair territory so it was a fair ball and with two outs the Rays were running on contact. Hicks was in disbelief that he did not make the play, and rather than pouncing into action and trying to cut the second run down at the plate, he just dropped his shoulders and looked down in disgust. All the while the Rays were rounding the bases and taking a 3-0 lead, this was embarrassing, to say the least.
It did not stop there, however, and in the very next at-bat, yet another ball was hit Hicks’ way. To be fair, this second attempt for Hicks was a much more challenging play to make. The ball got over Hicks’ head and led to another double from Arozerana and tacked on another run, giving Tampa Bay a 4-0 lead. This would not have looked so bad if it wasn’t for the misplayed ball in the previous at-bat, but after those two ugly plays skipper, Aaron Boone replaced Hicks in the 5th inning for Estevan Florial. That is something you don’t see every day, players getting replaced midgame without injury, strictly due to poor play.
With the number of injuries that the Yankees are dealing with and the amount of inexperienced youth they have to rely on in their everyday lineups, the four-run lead seemed insurmountable. The offense eventually rallied a bit and put a couple of runs on the board, but it just wasn’t enough to get the job done.
Who do you blame for the mess? Does Boone too share the responsibility?
