UPDATE (11:54 a.m.): Hal Steinbrenner gave a vote of confidence to general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone. Read more about that here.
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A mano y mano subplot that Yankees fans have been waiting years for finally was staged for Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium. Shohei Ohtani would be on the mound pitching against the Yankees for the first time and Aaron Judge would be …
Wait, where was Judge?
No. 99 is not hurt, Aaron Boone announced, but badly needed a rest day after playing eight games in a row. Third baseman Gio Urshela also got the night off even though the Yankees barely have a winning record almost halfway through the season.
If you believe in bad omens, this was the ultimate.
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The Yankees scored seven first-inning runs on Ohtani, waited out two rain delays and were cruising to the finish line up 8-4 after eight innings. And then this high-payroll, star-filled team that continues to break your heart stuck a knife in.
Aroldis Chapman walked the bases full, Jared Walsh hit a game-tying grand slam, Lucas Luetge came on to allow three more runs and the Yankees stunningly wound up 11-8 losers in a game that ended at 1:06 Thursday morning.
Every time you think the Yankees have hit rock bottom, they sink lower, and this one will be tough to beat.
Now we need some real answers.
On Thursday, we’ll finally hear from the big man himself. Managing partner Hal Steinbrenner, who has the power to make big changes or order them, will do his first Zoom interview of the season before the Yankees-Angels’ series finale.
Is Hal still good with Brian Cashman running the Yankees?
Is he good with Aaron Boone managing?
Is he thinking maybe it’s time to go old school and stop relying so much on analytics?
These are things we need to know.
We’ve heard from the general manager a few times during a Yankees’ first half that mercifully ends Thursday afternoon if the rain holds off at Yankee Stadium, and the gist of Cashman’s messages usually are the same.
While Cashman admitted “we suck right now” during his Wednesday pre-game group interview, he’s still maintaining that his 41-39 team’s three months of underachieving isn’t the manager or the coaching staff’s fault. He’s also still insisting that he believes in the roster that he built while exploring trade options on a daily basis that thus far have amounted to nothing.
That’s not what fans wanted to hear even before the roof fell in around 1 in the morning Thursday.
We hear daily from Boone, whose relentless positivity slowly has turned into concern, yet two days after declaring “our season’s on the line,” he opted to rest two of his best players with Ohtani pitching.
We hear from the veteran players who are clubhouse leaders, the likes of Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton and Judge. They kept insisting they’ll turn it around, but you’re not hearing that anymore.
Stanton has been the most vocal. “This is about as bad as it gets right there,” he summed up the latest loss. He’s right. This was the first time since August 2000 that the Yankees lost a game that they led by at least four runs in the ninth inning, the first time since June 1986 that they allowed a game-tying grand slam in the ninth inning or later.
Here’s Stanton’s message to angry Yankees fans:
“We’re all just as frustrated. We’ve got to pick this s**t up.”
Steinbrenner’s probably beyond frustrated. But what’s he going to do about it? Maybe we’ll find out Thursday.
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
