New York Yankees' Anthony Rizzo holds onto his bat as he runs towards first base after he flied out ... [+]
The last time the Yankees went an entire series against the Red Sox without scoring more than three runs in each game of a series was Aug 26-28, 2008.
That was so long ago that it was represented the last series between the teams at the old Yankee Stadium and Aaron Judge was 16 and manager Aaron Boone was winding down his playing career while Anthony Volpe was eight and possibly at one of those games.
It happened again this weekend in three competitive games that stood out for two reasons. The first being that the pitch clock prevented them from going over three hours and the second was because of the lack of runs.
Even the diminished state still appeals to national television and what they saw was either good pitching or two lineups showing an inability to hit consistently.
Struggling without Judge, the Yankees mustered 18 hits in the series with 13 of those being singles and headed into an off-day before the Subway Series with a .231 average and .301 on-base percentage – their lowest since raising those numbers to .231 and .301 following their first win against Oakland on May 8 following their frustrating series in Tampa Bay.
The Red Sox were slightly better by getting 24 hits with nine of those going for extra bases. That enabled them to stay above .500 and kept their team batting average at a respectable .259 and allowing Boston to be over .250 in terms of average every day since April 22.
Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers watches his fly out against the New York Yankees during the third ... [+]
The Red Sox had the best player in the series in Devers, who is up to 21 homers and counting against the Yankees. Perhaps the best thing that happened to the Yankees this weekend was Devers finishing Saturday in the on-deck circle with two on when Justin Turner made the final out of a win that was an exercise in wriggling out of trouble.
The sight of Devers standing in the on-deck circle was sandwiched around Volpe making the final out of both losses. On Friday, he nearly hit a game-ending three-run homer against Kenley Jansen and Sunday Volpe struck out with automatic runner DJ LeMahieu on third to end the 10th (first overtime).
Volpe’s production numbers are respectable with nine homers and 14-for-14 in stolen bases. Among them is a grand slam but lately Volpe is in a 6-for-56 skid that features 18 strikeouts over his last 18 games since May 23. During that same stretch, the Yankees are 11-9 and have scored three runs or fewer nine times, including their last four games.
Perhaps Volpe’s current slump would not be setting off the online debate about whether his next game should be in the minors if the remaining veterans were rolling or halfway rolling.
Among them is Anthony Rizzo with 24 straight hitless at-bats and one hit in 30 at-bats since exiting with a tweaked neck after colliding with Fernando Tatis Jr. on a pickoff play on May 28 in a game when the Yankees scored 10 times and got 12 hits, part of a three-game span where they produced 30 runs and 42 hits.
Another is Gleyber Torres who is 2-for-32 in nine games this month with both hits being home runs, including a homer that stopped a 0-for-20 skid Thursday. Of course offense was not the focus for Torres Sunday especially after his miscue of letting a throw get by him highlighted the thin margin in the eighth when the tying run eventually scored.
“The little mistakes, when we are playing low-scoring, tight games — those are separators sometimes,” Boone said. “There’s a couple of things today that we didn’t do great.”
Nobody did anything great during the first series between the rivals, at least not offensively. The Red Sox were 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position at the series and headed back to Boston 5-for-41 in that category over their last five games after scoring less than four runs for the ninth time in 10 games.
Perhaps that is why there was the sight of second-year hitting coach Peter Fatse standing in the middle of the clubhouse and addressing the lack of offense following Saturday night’s game. Hitting coaches in some regards are like offensive lineman, a contingent of media does not necessarily want to quote them unless something is going wrong.
“At the end of the day for us, it’s all about swinging at good pitches,” Fatse said. “And we feel like we’re putting ourselves in a position to do that. It’s the ebbs and flows of a season. There’s ups and downs always, and if you trust your process — and the group trusts the process — you’ve got to keep going, so that’s what we’re going to do.”
And the mid-June ebbs and flows show the Yankees and Red Sox are experiencing a rough time at the plate these days, something that may continue next weekend in Boston after the Yankees get done with their annual visit to the Mets, who are ailing for differing reasons but also missing their biggest star from the lineup.