As it turned out, Aaron Boone proved his point. But at what cost to his Yankees ballclub that is all but buried in the AL East after a rough weekend in the Subway Series?
Rather than make the easy call and let Chad Green close out Game 1 of the doubleheader with the Mets on Sunday, after the righthander had thrown two pitches to finish off the sixth inning, Boone decided to show unwarranted faith in Aroldis Chapman, at least partly because he wanted Green available for multiple innings in the nightcap.
Turned out Green was spectacular in locking down the nightcap over the final three innings for the Yankees. But that was only after another Chapman meltdown in the opener that all but assured the 10 days will be remembered as a death blow to their chances of winning the AL East — and perhaps their hopes of making the postseason at all.
Give Pete Alonso his props for taking Chapman deep to tie the game in the seventh, and the same to the Mets for smelling blood and going on to score five more runs for a stunning 10-5 win in the opener.
For that matter, the Mets suddenly look dangerous again after taking two of three from the Yankees, with Brandon Nimmo returning from his long injury absence to ignite the offense and both Alonso and Dom Smith beginning to find their power strokes.
But there’s no getting around it: the Yankees were the story this weekend as they continue to flounder around .500., looking like anything but a contender.
Coming off getting swept in Fenway Park last weekend and then that horrific ninth-inning loss to the Angels on Wednesday, the Yankees desperately needed a series win and a reason to believe they can still revive their season.
With that in mind, after losing Saturday to the Mets, Game 1 felt like something of a last stand, which is why the sensible for Boone would have been to let Green close out the win and hope his team could find a way to navigate through the nightcap.
If Boone was worried about further bruising Chapman’s ego, he had a ready-made alibi: that is, he wanted to save the lefty for the nightcap rather than use both him and Green in Game 1.
In truth, as bad as Chapman was on Wednesday, with absolutely no ability to throw his fastball for strikes, and considering he hasn’t really looked right for a few weeks, Boone didn’t need a reason to justify not using him.
I’m not saying it was an easy call for the manager. He knows he’ll need to get Chapman back on track to have any hope of making a run in the second half, but it just felt like the right time to manage for a desperately-needed win by taking the safest option, which at the moment was Green.
To make it all worse, of course, it wasn’t a lack of command again that cost him this time — at least not initially. Instead it was one of the dumber decisions a pitcher has ever made, throwing an all-too-hittable slider after having established that Alonso would chase his high fastball as the count went to 1-2.
Even Boone, who never says a discouraging word about any of his players, made it clear that he was in disbelief as well.
“I don’t think that was the right spot for that,” he said.
From there Chapman perhaps lost his cool as well as his command, plunking Michael Conforto on the shoulder with a fastball and walking Jeff McNeil, all but forcing Boone to pull his beleaguered closer. Turned out be too late as the Mets piled on against lefty Lucas Luetge to pull off still another comeback win in a season full of them.
In fact, the Yankees and Mets are polar opposites at the moment. For where the team in the Bronx has made a nasty habit of finding ways to lose in all phases of the game, and has reason to worry that its ace Gerrit Cole needs his Spider-Tack back to be dominant, their intra-city rivals seem to have a little magic going as they’ve continued to win in spite of widespread injuries and what is statistically one of the worst offenses in the majors.
This weekend was just more of the same.
It helps the Mets that their competition in the NL East is making it easy on them. Even the scorching-hot Nationals lost their mojo, losing four straight at home to the Dodgers over the weekend, while losing their streaking home run hitter, Kyle Schwarber, to a hamstring injury.
So the Mets keep rolling along, in first place now since May 9, but don’t think that first-game comeback wasn’t important. They had to know their chances in the nightcap weren’t great, with Corey Oswalt making an emergency start, and getting swept would have knocked them down a peg as they fight through injuries now in the starting rotation.
Instead the comeback win assured them of winning the series, and as such the vibe was upbeat even after the 4-2 loss in the second game.
“We’re proud of the way we played here,” manager Luis Rojas said.
As for Boone, he was left to answer questions about whether he’ll continue to stick with Chapman, as his closer, and at least he was candid enough to essentially say that everything is on the table at the moment, especially with Green and fellow set-up man Jonathan Loaisiga pitching well these days.
In truth, there’s no guarantee the Yankees would have gotten a sweep had he stuck with Green over Chapman in Game 1. But at least they would have had the chance.