Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m a little surprised that Teddy Bridgewater was apparently choosing between coaching high school football and playing in the NFL. (He’s reportedly expected to sign with the Buccaneers.)
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🏈 Latest on Micah Parsons
⭐ Best college QBs of the past 25 years
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Another late collapse
The Yankees have a lot of problems they’ll need to solve if they want to claw their way back into the AL East race, but their most urgent might be the back end of the bullpen.
New York lost to the Rangers on Monday night after closer Devin Williams blew his second straight save opportunity. Williams entered the game in the bottom of the ninth with the Yankees leading 5–4 and surrendered a game-tying homer to the second batter he faced, Joc Pederson. (Pederson had entered the game with a .126 batting average and .473 OPS in 53 games.) Jake Bird proceeded to give up a walk-off three-run homer to Josh Jung in the 10th and the Yankees lost their fourth in a row.
“Things haven’t been going well for a while and I think everyone’s well aware of that,” Williams said after the game. “I would say I’m trying my best, sometimes that leads to the opposite outcome you’re trying to achieve but you know at the end of the day you’ve got to get it done.”
It’s been an up-and-down season for Williams, who the Yankees acquired in December from the Brewers in exchange for Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin. Williams got off to a rough start to his first season in pinstripes, posting an 11.25 ERA in his first 10 appearances. He was subsequently demoted out of the closer’s role. He was able to turn things around in May and June and was rewarded with being given save opportunities again. In 20 appearances between May 7 and June 27, Williams had a 1.45 ERA and did not surrender a lead.
That run of success has not continued, though. Since the beginning of July, Williams has a 6.00 ERA in 12 appearances. Williams took the loss when the Blue Jays defeated the Yankees on July 2, which tied Toronto and New York atop the division and marked the last day the Yankees were in first place.
Upgrading the bullpen was the Yankees’ primary focus at the trade deadline. They added two accomplished closers in the Pirates’ David Bednar and the Giants’ Camilo Doval, as well as Rockies reliever Jake Bird. Manager Aaron Boone said at the time that the new additions weren’t necessarily intended to supplant Williams as the closer, but it might be time to try something different.
But it’s no guarantee that things would be any better if the Yankees allowed someone else to close out games. Monday’s loss was reminiscent of Friday’s brutal Yankees loss to the Marlins, which also featured an epic bullpen collapse. Bird gave up four runs, Bednar gave up two and Doval gave up three (only one of which was earned). Still, the Yankees have no excuse not to try someone else in the closer’s role when they have so many other qualified options available.
The Yankees have been scuffling for more than two months now. Their lead in the division had stretched to as many as seven games on May 28, when they were 35–20. Since that date, they’re 25–32, tied for the 24th best record in the majors during that span. They’ve seen their seven-game lead in the division turn to a 5 ½-game deficit.
There’s one reason for optimism for Yankees fans, though. Aaron Judge is expected to return to the lineup on Tuesday after missing the last 10 games with an elbow injury. Maybe he’ll provide enough offense to give the team leads big enough that the bullpen can’t blow.
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- Arsenal launched a third kit that celebrates a fan favorite from the early 2000s.
- The WNBA trade deadline is on Thursday. Karl Rasmussen named some of the top targets who could be on the move.
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- Texas Tech comes in at No. 14 in SI’s College Football Preseason Top 25, with a roster built to win now.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. Rays left fielder Jake Mangum’s nice catch in foul territory.
4. A perfect throw by Red Sox right fielder Wilyer Abreu to nail a runner at home.
3. Giancarlo Stanton’s line-drive home run to dead center.
2. Kyle Schwarber’s colossal homer into the third deck to take the NL home run lead. (He had a grand slam later in the night for his 40th homer of the year.)
1. Lars Nootbaar’s outrageous diving catch for a big out in the ninth inning.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Scuffling Yankees Have a Closer Problem.
