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NEW YORK — Nineteen innings into a long day and night of baseball at Yankee Stadium, Aaron Boone picked Will Warren to pitch the ninth inning with the Yankees up 2-0 on the Pirates in Game 2 of a doubleheader.
Warren had one regular-season relief outing in his career, but there was no way Boone was putting this game in the hands of the one fresh right-hander in the bullpen.
Carmelo Doval wasn’t getting into this one.
Warren gave up a leadoff hit, retired two batters and then walked a hitter to bring the go-ahead run to the plate, left-handed hitter Ryan O’Hearn.
Boone went to his lefty-on-lefty specialist Tim Hill, who induced a weak groundball to second base on a 1-1 sinker.
Jazz Chisholm fielded the ball, double pumped, threw to first and the ump called O’Hearn out on a bang-bang play.
Hill made a fist pump in celebration, the opening music to “New York, New York” started playing.
And then it stopped before Sinatra belted out “Start spreading the news” and all nine Yankees in the game froze at their positions.
The Pirates called for a replay challenge, which appeared to show O’Hearn beating the throw by a hair.
But was it too close to overturn?
After a lengthy delay, the Pirates lost the challenge and the Yankees indeed were 2-0 winners after dropping the opener 5-3 in 10 innings.
The Yankees remained 2.5 games behind the AL East-leading Rays after another bad day of hitting, five runs and 11 hits in two games.
Baseball’s trade deadline is Aug. 3, a week from Monday, and the Yankees plan to be buyers.
They hope to upgrade at catcher, maybe work a deal for an All-Star by acquiring Hunter Goodman from the Rockies or Adley Rutschman from the Orioles.
They’d also love to pry Mason Miller from the Padres. The best closer in baseball, who would come with three seasons of control after 2026, has converted all 25 opportunities with an 0.86 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 48.2 innings. That’s what you get when you throw strikes with a fastball that touches 104 mph.
If the Yankees strike out on Miller or a star catcher, they still plan on adding.
Even though the American League is very weak this season, they could use help in multiple areas.
Here are some alarming trends that need to be addressed by the trade deadline:
LINEUP NOT CUTTING IT
If the Yankees don’t trade for an impact bat by Aug. 3, they’ll probably point out that they’re among the league leaders in runs scored, top the circuit in homers and are second in OPS, which is the hitting stat they care most about. They’ll also point out that they expect Aaron Judge back at some point and probably Giancarlo Stanton, too.
There’s no arguing any of that.
However, there’s no assurance Judge and Stanton will be the offensive forces they can be after missing so much time.
Here’s an indication the Yankees need another impact bat or two:
They’ve scored three or fewer runs in 17 of 30 games, two or fewer in nine of their last 22.
That’s a lot of bad hitting days, and the opposing pitching will be better come playoff time, whoever they play.
A big issue, of course, is the Yankees are getting virtually no offense from their catchers. Austin Wells has been a little better over the last week, but his average and production ranks last among starting MLB catchers. Third baseman Ryan McMahon and second baseman Jazz Chisholm have been underachieving, too.
BENCH NOT WHAT THEY THINK
Boone often talks up the Yankees’ four-man bench. He’s bragged that it’s the deepest in his nine seasons.
That looked to be the case early in the season when Amed Rosario was hitting, Paul Goldschmidt was available for starts at first against left-handed pitching and the expectation was that Jose Caballero would shift from fill-in shortstop into a super utility role when Anthony Volpe returned from his offseason labrum surgery.
With 102 games down and 60 to go, the bench doesn’t look so good now.
Sure, the Yankees having yet another season loaded with injuries has changed everything, but Goldschmidt’s hitting has tapered off in a big way after a couple of great months in a starting role with Stanton on the IL and Ben Rice DH-ing, dropping from .301 on June 25 to .255 after his 0-for-3 in Wednesday’s nightcap.
Rosario is hitting under .200 since late May and below .100 in the last month. Also, it’s become hard to start Rosario at third base because his fielding has been so poor there. His minus-7 Baseball Savant’s Outs Above Average rating is tied for the second worst among 57 third basemen with at least 50 chances.
Volpe drove in the Yankees’ second run in Wednesday’s Game 2 victory, but hasn’t been very productive while sharing the shortstop duties with Caballero.
Boone, by the way, is wrong calling Rosario a “lefty killer.”
Not this year.
Rosario is a career .291 hitter against left-handed pitching, but batting just .206 against them this season in 102 plate appearances.
BULLPEN ERA NOT TELLING WHOLE STORY
Statistically, the Yankees’ bullpen is the best in the majors with a 3.06 ERA. They’ve been sensational of late, too, pitching to a 1.98 ERA over the last 27 games. Who expected Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick to be so good? Fernando Cruz more times than not has been unhittable with that nasty split of his, too.
David Bednar pitched to a 5.18 ERA through mid-May, but has a 21.2 consecutive-inning streak over 18 outings after working his way into and then out of trouble in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s Game 1.
The bullpen potentially could be a lot better in the last few weeks, too, regardless if the Yankees find a way to trade for Miller.
When Carlos Rodon comes off the IL, Ryan Weathers probably will be moved to the ‘pen. A lot of scouts think this is where Weathers is best suited.
There is a weak link that must be addressed.
Anyone tired of hearing the Yankees address Doval’s struggles by saying he has a great arm and great stuff?
Doval started proving he’s not cut out to be a Yankee in his debut with them last Aug. 1 when he flopped down in Miami.
Almost a year later, he’s struggled over and over in high-leverage situations.
Also, he’s terrible when pitching in front of Yankees fans, who shower him with boos every time he stinks it up in the Bronx. He has a 7.08 ERA in 20 home games and a 2.16 ERA in 21 road games. That’s telling, and those numbers likely are tied as much to the pressure of pitching in front of Yankees fans as to pitching in a hitters’ ballpark.
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