1978: July 19 Red Sox lead Yankees by 14. Sept. 10 tied after four game sweep in Boston. Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Ah, those thrilling days of yesteryear. Forty years later it's deja vu all over again as the Great Yogi said. Yogi Berra that is. Now in 2018 the Yankees are three games behind the Red Sox in the loss column with a four game series starting in Boston tomorrow...
In Fenway Park:
Thursday, September 7, 1978 Yankees 15, Red Sox 3
Friday, September 8, 1978 Yankees 13, Red Sox 2
Saturday, September 9, 1978 Yankees 7, Red Sox 0
Sunday, September 10, 1978 Yankees 7, Red Sox 4
It was baseball's "Boston Massacre" ...
The teams were tied after 162 games necessitating the legendary extra game. The Yankees lost a coin toss and had to play that game in Fenway Park the next afternoon.
Monday, October 2, 1978
Yankees 5, Red Sox 4
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The worm turned in 2004, one year after current Yankee manager Aaron Boone hit his famous pennant winning home run in game seven of the 2003 semi final series between the teams. Boone's Yankee career consisted primarily of 54 regular season games in 2003. The Red Sox came back from a 3-1 deficit in games to beat the Yankees in the 2004 semi final series and go on to win the championship, their first since 1918, and finally purge the "Curse of the Bambino".
That 2004 tournament series is much more important than the four game sweep just completed over the Yankees in Fenway Park. But as much as choke seemed to be part of the Yankees problem in 2004, it did not seem overriding and permeating as it does now in 2018.
Yankee general manager Brian Cashman is in his 21st season in the job. He is currently riding his second consecutive eight year run without a championship:
2001-2008
2010-2017 and counting.
No previous Yankee general manager has comparable streaks. This will be examined in detail in a future post.
Cashman inherited Hall of Fame Yankee manager Joe Torre (1996-2007) in February 1998 when GM Bob Watson quit. Cashman also inherited a championship caliber team. Even Cashman's one championship removed by time from the first three, the lone one since 2000, had the Core Four inherited from before 1998:
Derek Jeter
Jorge Posada
Andy Pettitte
Mariano Rivera.
Cashman eventually escaped the the tyranny of Yankee owner George Steinbrenner into the warm embrace of George's son Hal. Hal Steinbrenner let Cashman spend a lot on analytics people to bolster Cashman's position. Hal became convinced that the Yankees did not need to pay millions to their field manager Joe Girardi, incumbent 2008-2017, when Girardi was increasingly merely benefiting from Cashman's analytics people. When Girardi's contract expired after 2017, when the Yankees surprisingly made it to game seven of the semi finals before losing in game seven, Girardi was not renewed. Instead, Cashman was given a new contract and permission to go on a talent hunt for a successor to Girardi. In other words, Hal Steinbrenner wanted to save money and hire a less expensive and more supplicant field manager.
Enter Aaron Boone from the ESPN TV booth. After finishing his playing career, Boone never coached or managed. Boone only did critiques.
Part of Cashman's current strategy for 2018 was to bolster an already good bullpen. Amid recent reshuffling, Cashman added former Baltimore closer Zach Britton. In 2016 Britton led the league with 47 saves. In his Yankee debut at the Stadium Britton walked in a run for the first time in his career. And bounced pitches. Maybe just opening jitters. Maybe a problem playing for New York, not Baltimore.
Cashman's bullpen and Boone's handing of his pitchers broke down in Boston the last four days. In yesterday's fourth game Britton pitched a scoreless but hardly clean inning. Britton must have bounced at least half a dozen pitches way in front of catcher Austin Romine. Had there not been a base runner I was rooting for Romine to fire the ball back at Britton's feet in retaliation. This type of beating that a catcher routinely takes now is why I have have been advocating since early in 2017 that the Yankees move starting catcher Gary Sanchez to another position.
Yankee pitching in the four games in Boston:
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | Pit | Str | Ctct | StS | StL | GB | FB | LD | Unk | GSc | IR | IS | WPA | RE24 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CC Sabathia | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3.59 | 17 | 77 | 45 | 30 | 2 | 13 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 43 | -0.010 | 1.51 | -0.4 | ||
| Jonathan Holder, L (1-2) | 0 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3.50 | 7 | 25 | 14 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -0.612 | 1.28 | -6.6 | |
| Chad Green | 0.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.82 | 5 | 16 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -0.038 | 0.35 | -1.4 | |
| Luis Cessa | 3.2 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4.50 | 19 | 51 | 34 | 25 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | -0.019 | 0.08 | -3.0 | |
| Zach Britton | 0.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.44 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0.000 | 0.01 | 0.6 | |
| Team Totals | 8 | 19 | 15 | 15 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 16.88 | 50 | 175 | 109 | 73 | 8 | 28 | 12 | 28 | 13 | 0 | 43 | 6 | 2 | -0.679 | 0.79 | -10.7 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | Pit | Str | Ctct | StS | StL | GB | FB | LD | Unk | GSc | IR | IS | WPA | RE24 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luis Severino, L (14-5) | 5.2 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3.08 | 27 | 115 | 73 | 49 | 5 | 19 | 9 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 38 | -0.163 | 0.54 | -1.0 | ||
| David Robertson | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.51 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.023 | 0.26 | 0.8 | |
| Tommy Kahnle | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6.30 | 3 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.007 | 0.09 | 0.5 | |
| Team Totals | 8 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4.50 | 34 | 140 | 88 | 57 | 8 | 23 | 13 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 38 | 1 | 0 | -0.133 | 0.47 | 0.3 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | Pit | Str | Ctct | StS | StL | GB | FB | LD | Unk | GSc | IR | IS | WPA | RE24 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chance Adams, L (0-1) | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5.40 | 18 | 83 | 53 | 36 | 3 | 14 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 50 | -0.098 | 0.54 | -0.3 | ||
| Chad Green | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2.77 | 3 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.019 | 0.25 | 0.5 | |
| A.J. Cole | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5.09 | 10 | 40 | 29 | 15 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -0.019 | 0.16 | 0.1 | |
| Team Totals | 8 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 4.50 | 31 | 136 | 92 | 56 | 14 | 22 | 7 | 14 | 9 | 0 | 50 | 0 | 0 | -0.098 | 0.39 | 0.3 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | Pit | Str | Ctct | StS | StL | GB | FB | LD | Unk | GSc | IR | IS | WPA | RE24 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masahiro Tanaka | 4.2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 3.76 | 21 | 97 | 59 | 31 | 14 | 14 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 56 | 0.097 | 1.09 | 1.3 | ||
| David Robertson | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.42 | 5 | 20 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.084 | 0.79 | 0.9 | |
| Zach Britton, H (2) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3.26 | 4 | 22 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.059 | 1.47 | 0.5 | |
| Dellin Betances, H (17) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2.35 | 4 | 20 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.056 | 1.34 | 0.5 | |
| Aroldis Chapman, BS (2) | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2.25 | 8 | 39 | 19 | 7 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -0.455 | 2.79 | -2.5 | |
| Jonathan Holder, L (1-3) | 0.2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3.65 | 5 | 17 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -0.356 | 2.70 | -0.9 | |
| Team Totals | 9.2 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 17 | 1 | 3.72 | 47 | 215 | 121 | 58 | 20 | 43 | 15 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 56 | 1 | 0 | -0.515 | 1.58 | -0.1 |
In game four Yanks led 4-1 in the 9th and closer Chapman pitched even worse than the numbers suggest. 39 pitches for one inning. I think he went 3-2 on each of his three strike outs and surprised the batters with odd, mediocre breaking pitches for strike three because he could not throw his fastball for strikes. Holder, who had the fiasco loss in game one, entered to lose game four in the 10th inning.
In the 9th with two out and runners on first and second rookie third baseman Miguel Andujar made a throwing error that allowed the runner on second to score all the way even though the throw was on target but a few feet short. The ball bounced from the stretched out first baseman Greg Bird and pinch runner Jackie Bradley Jr. scored and tied the game ... from second base. From second base on a ball that was only a few feet from first.
Unlike many Yankee fans I do not blame manager Aaron Boone for not being traditionally emotional. I like his self control and maturity, even if he sometimes seems to protect too much and in incorrect circumstances. Boone has made mistakes that Girardi would not have. All season the Yankees too often have looked like they are not prepared. That's on Boone.
But I much prefer the Yankees rookie manager to that of the Red Sox, Alex Cora, who has shown in games against the Yankees throughout this season that he is an asshole, whom the Red Sox and their fans richly deserve. Cora's amateurish and boorish behavior will doom him sooner rather than later.
But I think the main blame for the Yankees choking against their arch rival goes to Steinbrenner and Cashman. Bad decisions for several years are reflected here. The fish rots from the head.
The one thing that any good Yankee fan feels is that we cannot abide choking. This Yankee team choked. We all choke from time to time, both as individuals and on teams. The thing is to not let it become who we are. This Yankee team is in danger of that.
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