Lifeless and Dull Once Again - Yankees Royals Game 2 Recap

If you thought that Game 1 victory was uninspiring - wait til you get a load of the stuttering, pit-stained, guidance counselor pep-talk that was Game 2 of this series. This sort of lifeless offensive performance was all too familiar for anyone who has been following this team over the past 7 Octobers. And while some may call this game a “missed opportunity” to put the Royals away - the Yankees are “lucky” they’re not staring down the barrel of a 2-0 deficit, after being thoroughly outplayed twice at home.

When Rodon spent the top of the 1st maniacally laughing as he struck out the side - I really thought we were in for something special.

“Wow, this guy is like the anti-Cole. He brings the intensity DURING the postseason and will be the bulldog starter this team needs!”

Much to my dismay, the 7 shutout innings I had envisioned turned into 3.2 with 4 earned. After Salvy nuked a lazy 2-0 pitch into the cheap seats, Rodon completely imploded and fell victim to the typical Royals nonsense - singles, guys taking the extra base, hustle, and a much needed sense of desperation. This 4 run 4th inning was the entirety of the KC offense, but on a night where the bats were as dead as the majority of monument park - this cushion was more than satisfactory.

The saddest thing about this offensive dud is that Ragans wasn’t even particularly good. After walking the first 2 batters of the game, the Yanks were set up to blow the game open before Wheel of Fortune was over. Instead, we get another Judge strikeout, Wells following suit, and Stanton adding his 29th groundout of the series. In both games, the Yankees have been set up with 2 men on, no outs, in the bottom of the first. They have gone 0 for 6 and scored 0 runs in these innings.

Like I said in the series preview, Judge NEEDED to get off to a fast start before the lame stream media caught wind of the playoff numbers. Well…here we are with TBS flashing “All Time Playoff K%” graphics in a desperate attempt to get Costas to finish his story about George Brett’s gerbil.

While putting this game on Judge when the whole team isn’t hitting is probably a bit lazy - the fact of the matter is that 1st inning was m our best chance to score the entire game. You’re the captain. You’re the one who needs to set the tone in that moment. 1 for 7 with 2 walks just isn’t going to cut it. He needs to step up in Game 3 or these playoff struggles will sadly define an otherwise illustrious career.

The only bright spots this far are ironically the two things Yankee fans (myself included) were the most fearful of heading into the series. The Yankee bullpen twirled another 5.1 shutout innings to keep them in the game. While burning out the pen is an obvious concern, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how effective the Clay Holmes and Ian Hamiltons of the world have been.

After scold and Rodon’s respective meltdowns, I can’t emphasize enough how much of a blessing the off days are. The added rest should allow the pen arms to be in a position to close out games in KC, if we are able to get any sort of a lead.

Second - the defense at 1st base has been great. Jon Berti’s diving stop to turn an inning ending double play should have served as a far more significant moment than it ended up being. He also had one of the more productive approaches out of the 9 hole. He even gave Torres an opportunity to tie the game in the 9th, before Gleyber proceeded to roll said opportunity over to short on the first fucking pitch he saw.

So we have ourselves a series ladies and (mostly) gentlemen. The good news is - the Yankees have been in this position before and the Royals are still not a very good baseball team. The bad news is - Bobby Witt Jr. is probably due to make some sort of impact - and a guy who dominated you 3 weeks ago (Lugo) waits in the wings.

It turns out, the series we thought was a breeze was actually just the fart that proceeds a “shit your pants” 5 game set. I hope I’m wrong, but all signs point to seeing a repeat of this pitching matchup Saturday Night in the Bronx.