Domingo German’s perfect game was still to come, but what was truly the Yankees’ last great day of 2023 was June 4.
It actually followed what came to be understood as the worst. That was June 3, when during the eighth inning of a game against the Dodgers, Aaron Judge slammed his right foot into a concrete slab at the base of the Dodger Stadium right-field wall. He was placed on the injured list a few days later and missed a quarter of the season.
The impact was not fully appreciated on June 4. So the Yankees could revel in beating the Dodgers 4-1 on “Sunday Night Baseball.” To do it without Judge could convince the Yankees further about their resourcefulness and fortitude.
And they did it to move a season-high 11 games over .500 and complete a six-game road trip by having taken two of three in both Seattle and Los Angeles. They flew home into an off-day with a 36-25 record, better than the Dodgers (35-25) and tied with the Astros (35-24).
That had symbolic meaning. From 2017-2022, the Dodgers had the majors’ best winning percentage at .645, followed by the Astros at .622 and the Yankees at .595. Those were the teams the Yankees were chasing in the regular and postseason. The Dodgers represented, from the West Coast, what the Yankees wanted to be on the East Coast, combining a small-market ethos of plumbing for edges in every area while toting a mega-payroll.. The Astros represented the bane of the Yankees’ lives, having eliminated them in the ALCS in three of the past six years.
On June 4, the Yankees could have convinced themselves they were right there with the franchises against which they judged (no pun intended) themselves. All three had taken huge hits in health and performance, but they had wobbled and weathered and were in fine position to still maximize a season.
Two-plus months later, that could still be said about the Dodgers, who have gone 32-21 since losing that series to the Yankees and climbed comfortably atop the NL West for what now looks as if it will be their 11th straight postseason appearance and 10th division title in that time. The Astros were 31-25 since and not quite as comfortable, two games out of first place in the AL West, but as the second AL wild card and with strong odds of a seventh straight postseason appearance and, thus, a chance for a seventh straight ALCS appearance.
The Yankees have gone 23-31 since June 4, with a minus-42 run differential. And during that period, every fault line that had been cracking over the past several years has been fully exposed. If the poor play persists into missing the playoffs, what Yankees leadership is not going to be able to do as an alibi — at least not with credibility — is blame it on injury or unexpected bad performance.
Judge missed 42 games in his IL stint. But the Astros played the first 43 games this season without Jose Altuve, who was then lost to another IL stint that coincided with the 48 games missed by Houston’s version of Judge, Yordan Alvarez. Pitching injuries? Houston is never going to get an inning from Lance McCullers, lost Luis Garcia early to Tommy John surgery and operated three-plus months without Jose Urquidy — after, by the way, letting the 2022 AL Cy Young works winner, Justin Verlander, leave (at least temporarily) in free agency. The Dodgers have not had Walker Buehler all year, lost Dustin May and his 2.63 ERA for the season in mid-May and lost Clayton Kershaw — in the midst of a Cy Young-type season — for six-plus weeks.
Underperformance? Check out Dodgers starter Julio Urias for much of this season. The Astros’ big offseason buys, Jose Abreu and Rafael Montero, have been atrocious. The Yankees need to rely on young starters like Jhony Brito and Randy Vasquez? Please. The Dodgers have received more than 30 percent of their starts from rookies, notably Michael Grove and Bobby Miller. The Astros have received more than 38 percent of their starts from rookies, notably Hunter Brown and J.P. France.
Inexperience at shortstop with Anthony Volpe? The Dodgers’ production has been so bad there that Mookie Betts has played some shortstop while the Astros’ Jeremy Peña seems to be going through his growing pains much more in Year 2 than he did as a rookie.
Yet the Astros and Dodgers have overcome their shortcomings, to date, far better than the Yankees have. The success of their feeder systems — internationally, draft and development — have been central to that. The Astros develop starting pitching, in particular, far superior to the Yankees, while the Dodgers develop everything better.
The Dodgers, due to superb records, picks late in rounds, just as the Yankees do. When you do that, every once in a while you have to find a Will Smith rather than a Blake Rutherford. The Astros’ international pitching discoveries since 2013 include Garcia, Urquidy, Bryan Abreu, Cristian Javier and Framber Valdez. The Yankees’ in that time frame: Brito, Vasquez, Deivi Garcia, Elvis Peguero and Roansy Contreras.
Partially due to the feeder system and mostly due to owner Jim Crane’s philosophy about how long he will go on contracts, Houston also is willing to let even core championship players such as Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Correa and George Springer exit in free agency. That generally allows the Astros to avoid having position players, especially, fade on them, which the Yankees are experiencing after doubling down on DJ LeMahieu and Anthony Rizzo.
When it comes to position players, the Dodgers have been willing to go long only with elite all-around players such as Betts and Freddie Freeman. Judge falls into that category — though his body composition is far different than those of Betts and Freeman. But trading for Giancarlo Stanton with 10 years left on his contract locked the Yankees into a less well-rounded player deep into his thirties.
Betts and Freeman are the central reason the Dodgers have weathered their tsunamis. Stanton, LeMahieu and Rizzo are central to the Yankees falling out of the conversation with the Dodgers and Astros since the team’s last great day of this season.