Hour 1: Does George Lombard Jr Deserve to be Benched?

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
We got you till 6.3 I believe tonight in Yankee Baseball, and it is a big summer vacation Friday shirt wearing summer Friday.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:10)
It's a beautiful shirt.

**Craig Carton** (0:11)
It is a beautiful shirt. I don't know if it's a Hawaiian one, it's got flowers on it, but it's a summer shirt.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:15)
I think you can call it a Hawaiian shirt.

**Craig Carton** (0:17)
I think this is a Hawaiian shirt.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:18)
Vinnie Picker's not here right now.

**Craig Carton** (0:19)
No, he's not. And I'm gonna wear my shirt with pride. And we have a big one obviously, two big games tonight, Giants and Jets. And it seems like the conversation is about who should play and who shouldn't. That's what I've been hearing all day. And we talked about it yesterday. I'll tell you when we get to the Giants and Jets, and we will, obviously the Jets announced they are not playing Gino Smith. So somewhere Craig's unhappy, but we'll talk about that. We'll talk about, we're still waiting. And I would assume at some point today, we'll find out if Jackson Dart is going to play in this game. And I'll tell you the one thing that I don't want to see the Giants do. And we'll get to that at 888-808-1019. But obviously the bigger game tonight is the New York Yankees against the Boston Red Sox. They start a four-game series that I don't think it's hyperbole to say. This is a series that will dictate where and in what round the New York Yankees play postseason baseball. It's just straight cut and simple. If the Yankees do anything other than at least get a split, and maybe even a split isn't good enough, considering it would give the Boston Red Sox the tiebreaker advantage. So all they would have to do is tie the Yankees and be two games better than them the rest of the way to earn the top wild card spot. But this is the series that will determine whether the Yankees are playing at home in the first round, whether have a chance at the division, or whether we'll be going on the road to Fenway, which you know me, I'm as positive as a Yankee fan can be, which I think too many of you are not. But as positive I am, the one thing, and I've been saying this for a long time, the Boston Red Sox have been one of the hottest teams in baseball over the last two months. There's no doubt about it. And this all started the last time they had a four game set in Fenway. I was there, luckily enough, in Boston to witness that disaster. As the last time they got ready for a four game set, the New York Yankees were 15 and a half games better than the Boston Red Sox. Fifteen and a half games better. Today, as they enter this four game set, they're two. That is astounding. That is incredible. That's as much the Yankees' fault as it is the Boston Red Sox playing well, no doubt. And as they head into this series, that again, is this important and to me, the one thing I don't want to do, right? You all want to win the division, obviously. You want to get the buy. You want to be waiting for the wild card winner. And as much as the Yankees have actually been a better road team than they've been a home team this year, the last thing you want to do is go into Fenway for a wild card series against this team, the way they're playing and the left handed pitchers that they throw out at you. And the Yankees are going to see three left handed pitchers, at least they haven't announced the other game of the double header. They're going to see at least three games with left handed pitching. And this Yankee lineup is not set up to hit left handed pitching. We're going to get to that too and how Aaron Boone handles it. Because I think how Aaron Boone handles this lineup with its platoon nature and the right handed bats he could throw out there to try and counteract the left handed pitching, I think is an interesting conversation because they're the lesser hitters.
Does Garcia not play because he doesn't traditionally hit left handed hitters, although he's been the hottest hitter for the New York Yankees and someone I can't imagine out of the lineup?
Is Ben Rice in the lineup?
Is Spencer Jones in the lineup? But that doesn't seem to be what we want to talk about. We want to talk about whether or not George Lombard should be in the Yankee lineup. And I get it. And I'll be the first to admit six hours and six games as the Yankees dropped the game last night and the rubber game of the series and lost the series to a lousy Houston Astros team. First and foremost, the Yankees have been playing better. They've won seven out of ten. I think they've been scoring runs outside of last night. I do feel like the Yankees' worm is starting to turn as far as the offense goes. Garcia has been a beast. You get Bellinger back. But this was an ugly series. The bullpen blew a game and the Yankee offense didn't show up for a game. And they dropped two out of three to an average Astros team that had no business coming into the Yankee Stadium and winning two out of three. But the story of the series is obviously the young phenom, or at least what we thought after the first ten games of his Yankee career, George Lombard at the shortstop position now going six for six over the last six games with errors in every single one and last night's probably the worst of the bunch. And I'm hearing a lot of this, oh well, you know, it's probably best to give him a mental day. And I don't think there's any question it is a mental issue. Like something is going on with him. And it's unfortunate because it's what we felt about him when he first came up. And I remember too, and it's funny, the same people, and I'll name him Sean Marash, you know, he wants to make comments about me during the show, I'll make comments about him during the show. Sean Marash was the first one, as I'm sure he's out there trying to get, you know, as much nachos as he can get. The show is over down at the Solshack.