NY YANKEES: THE NIGHT THE EAST WAS LOST

NY YANKEES: THE NIGHT THE EAST WAS LOST

By: Matthew Blittner

WARNING: For those of you who just spent your Friday night watching the abomination that was the Yankees-Red Sox game, this article is for you.

A crucial series in Fenway Park began tonight. The Yankees went into Boston trailing their arch-rivals by four games in the standings and needed to win at least two out of three to remain within reach of the AL East Division leading Red Sox.

At this point in the season, to be more than three games back of the team you are chasing is a major obstacle, and with their loss the Yankees are now five back of Boston.

So there you have it, the AL East crown may as well belong to the Red Sox. Tomorrow the Red Sox send Chris Sale to the mound in an attempt to push the Yankees to six games back, and let's be honest, with the way Sale has pitched this year, there's a 95% chance that he succeeds in that mission. 

Assuming that Sale follows through with the win and the Yanks avoid the sweep by winning on Sunday, New York will be five games off the pace with just over a month to play. Now, it's not impossible for a team to overcome those odds, but realistically, the AL East race is over.

The Yankees are still in control of the top Wild Card spot and are therefore in position to host the second Wild Card in the one-game playoff known as the Wild Card game. As I mentioned in my preview of tonight's game, teams want to avoid the one-game playoff as much as possible, but now, that's the only reasonable path for the Yanks to make the playoffs.

So, what happened in the Yanks' loss tonight? And who's to blame?

The Yankees were in this game for most of the night. They trailed 3-0 going into the visitor's portion of the 6th-inning, but that type of lead is hardly insurmountable -- especially in Fenway Park when the Yanks and Red Sox are facing off.

A two-run homer by Todd Frazier put the Yanks within 3-2, and a 7th-inning home run by Gary Sanchez tied the game at 3. The Yanks proceeded to tack on three more runs for the 6-3 lead but it should have been more.

AARON JUDGE

With the bases-loaded and two-out in the 6th-inning, Judge stepped to the plate and promptly grounded out to end the threat. Judge then came up with the bases-loaded again in the seventh, this time with one-out. Judge proceeded to strikeout, failing to bring in a single run, thus stranding six men on base in two innings.

There's no sugar coating it, Judge has been as bad as it gets in the second-half. He is a long, long, long way from the player he was from April through June. Batting third in the lineup, Judge is counted on to produce and he hasn't been doing his job. 

A Minor-League demotion is probably not in the offing, but he needs to be dropped in the lineup until he rights himself. In fact, an outright benching would probably do him some good. A few days off to work on his swing should help. He's 25 and has a lot of talent, but right now he's hurting the team and with every game being important the Yanks can't afford to keep letting him bring them down.

THE BULLPEN

Once more the Yankees' bullpen was atrocious. Chad Green, who has been a revelation out of the pen this season, was clearly bothered by the long top of the 7th-inning. You might ask what does that mean? Relievers are fickle and if their habits are disturbed they often crumble like a house of cards. Most pitchers hate having long waits in between pitching, but relievers are especially prone to this.

Instead of sending Green back out to the mound -- he had pitched his usually solid inning in the 6th -- Joe Girardi should have sent another reliever to the mound to start the 7th. Goodness knows he's got an embarrassment of riches in the pen, so it's not like he needs to worry about burning out his pitchers.

Enter Tommy Kahnle, who has been steady since being acquired at the deadline, along with David Robertson and Todd Frazier.

On this night Kahnle just didn't have it. He proceeded to allow both of the runners he inherited from Green score, and then for good measure, allowed two more runs to cross the plate for a total of four.

JOE GIRARDI AND AROLDIS CHAPMAN

With the Yanks now down 7-6 heading to the 8th-inning, the clock was ticking against the Bombers as they knew that Sox closer Craig Kimbrel would be their 9th-inning opponent. Kimbrel is as close to automatic as they come, so if the Yanks were to make a comeback it would likely have to be in the 8th. Alas, the Yanks went down in order and then Joe Girardi pulled off another of his idiotic moves.

For the 8th-inning, the Yankees would send closer Aroldis Chapman to the mound. Forget for a moment that closers don't pitch the 8th-inning with their team trailing by a run, but why bring in a pitcher who has clearly struggled, and against a team that has had his number? 

Waiting for Chapman was Sox rookie Rafael Devers -- Devers clubbed a game-tying home run off Chapman in the Bronx last weekend. For those wondering what Devers did, he promptly lined a Chapman fastball to right-field for a base hit. 

Just to show how bad Chapman has been, he proceeded to allow two runs to score and mushroomed the Yankee deficit from 7-6 to 9-6. Oh, and lest I forget, Chapman failed to backup home on the throw to the plate from Aaron Hicks. It is the pitcher's job to backup the bases when a throw from the outfield is coming with men on base. 

Chapman never made a move towards home, rather he just stood there on the mound looking out towards center-field. His inactions, coupled with his bad body language and his inability to get hitters to swing-and-miss at his pitches have combined to break him.

Forget about this year, it's a lost season for Chapman. But at this point, I'd say the rest of his contract may as well be forgotten about as well. The analytics show that Chapman is in decline, and if this is the beginning of his decline -- it was rather sudden to boot -- then the next four years will be even worse.

Brian Cashman, I am talking directly to you, RELEASE HIM! Nobody is going to take on Chapman's gigantic contract, nor should they. The Yankees made the mistake of signing him to an outrageous deal, and now they have to eat it. He should have roughly $67million left on his deal after this season, and if you think that's a lot of money to eat, it is. But the Red Sox just showed their willingness to eat a mistake by releasing Pablo Sandoval, thereby eating the roughly $60million that's owed to him over the next three-and-a-half seasons. 

There is no fixing Chapman, and the Yanks are foolish if they think otherwise. Granted, foolhardiness is certainly in their DNA as Joe Girardi has shown just how foolish of a manager he is. Yes you can't fault a manager for his players screwing up in the field -- he's not the one out there making plays -- but you can fault him for putting his players in situations where they are setup to fail. A good manager needs to put his players in position to succeed and Girardi doesn't do that.

Thankfully, Girardi is in the last year of his deal, and hopefully the Yanks look elsewhere come November. It's time for a new voice on the bench, and at this point, just about anybody can do a better job then the real, "Clueless Joe."

Well Yankees' fans, the white flag for the division has been waved, but remember, the Wild Card game approaches, and hopefully, this time the Yanks will be successful in the do-or-die game.