Waste not, want not.
The New York Yankees blew an excellent chance Tuesday to make up some ground in the American League East with a 6-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals. That dropped the Yankees to 5.5 games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox, who beat the second-place Tampa Bay Rays, 9-5, on Tuesday.
The Yankees got another solid start from Gerrit Cole: seven innings, six strikeouts, two runs allowed.
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But as YES Network’s Michael Kay and David Cone explain, Cole was done in by a Yankees lineup which once again proved it wasn’t up to the challenge.
Kay: “Now one problem for the Yankees and this has been a problem all year is getting big hits with runners in scoring position. The Yankees had several chances (Tuesday) to break the game open, and just to take a look at one small snapshot, when they had the runner at third with fewer than two outs, they didn’t get a hit. They scored on a wild pitch. That’s been a problem all year. So they were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position (Tuesday), including in the ninth inning and then they left 13 runners on base.”
Cone: “You know, usually we talk about the Yankees, we talked about early in the year, is missing pitches to hit. You know, the meatball, the ball down the middle that they fouled off or just missed. (Tuesday) that wasn’t the case. It was them chasing out of the zone, especially in the ninth inning, (Greg) Holland striking out (Clint) Frazier on a pitch up and out of the zone, certainly would’ve changed the complexion of that ninth inning. And then in those based loaded situations, (Giancarlo) Stanton swinging at the first pitch, ball’s in just off the plate. So I saw some overzealousness, a little over anxiousness, and the Yankees chasing pitches out of the zone, especially in situations where they really needed good at-bats.”
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