Hour 1: Where's the Offense?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Hello, this is Mary at the Department of Rejected Dreams. If you had a dream rejected, IKEA can make it possible.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:06)
Hey, I dreamed I'd be ready for college way ahead of time.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:09)
And now you're way behind.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:10)
Yes, and I have no idea how I'll get it all done on time and in my budget.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:14)
Well, luckily IKEA has everything you need to make it your space on your budget. And with everything ready to take away from our stores with click and collect, it's easier than ever.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:22)
That's convenient.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:23)
Exactly. Get IKEA whenever, wherever, however, at ikea.us.

**Michael Kay** (0:28)
IKEA.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:28)
Dream the possibilities.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:31)
This is The Michael Kay Show podcast.

**Michael Kay** (0:34)
I gotta get more Kay.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:35)
Listen live weekdays at 1 on the ESPN New York app and your smart speaker.

**Michael Kay** (0:41)
And a good afternoon, everybody. This is indeed The Michael Kay Show. We thank you for joining us on Monday. It is August 10th, 2026 Me and you for two. Those are the rules of engagement. It's the fastest moving two hours in sports talk radio, and you're the co-host. And you know the password 1-800-919-3776.
You're listening to Michael Kay Show on ESPN New York, and you could watch on YouTube, presented by our good friends at the Parisman Firm. We've got a lot of stuff to talk about today. I've got some favors to ask you. I've got some stories to tell you. Now, we're going to start off with a great show, to start off a great week, because you're great people, and I love you all. Even those that hate me, I love you. And I'm in a bad mood today, so Settle In should be a very, very good show. Um, Yankees lost yesterday, by a score of 2 to 1 in 10 innings. I believe they're 2 and 9 in extra innings, so extra innings has not been their friend. Uh, it's unfortunate that they are letting this string of amazing pitching performances be wasted. Now, I could flip it and say, well, it's not wasted because they're keeping the head of a water, despite the fact that they're not scoring runs. So let's just take a 12-game package. The last 12 games they've played, they've scored a total of 35 runs. Now, you don't have to go to the Bronx High School of Science to know that's under 3 runs per game. 36 over 12 would be 3 runs per game. They're scoring 35 So, I mean, that is tremendously below par. It's with the worst teams in baseball. And you know what the record is in the 12-game set? 6 and 6 And yesterday was a microcosm of what they've been suffering through. Cam Schlittler was about as good as he's been all year. Now, there's a guy with a 2.21 ERA. He's been great all year. But he put on a performance. He struck out 5 of the first 6 batters he faced. He pitched 7 innings, struck out 11, didn't walk a batter, and made one mistake. And it wasn't really a mistake. Matt Olson, sitting fastball, crushed a 100-mile-an-hour fastball that leaked out over the plate and delivered it into the right field seats, just to the right of the Yankee bullpen. And that gave the Braves a 1-0 lead. In the 8th inning, Trent Grisham, who's been dreadful, but for some reason he performs in high leverage situations. He has 11 home runs in late innings, high leverage situations since the beginning of last year. And I mention that because that's more than any player in baseball. So Trent Grisham connected for a home run. That tied the game at one. But then they ended up losing in extra innings, and they take two out of three from the Braves. So with this Yankee team, it's hard to really decide which way to feel and how to be.
Because the Braves came into Yankee Stadium, having won eight games in a row. Then on Friday, Max Fried pitched great, and the Yankees won in extra innings. Again, rare, but they did. They won in extra innings. Then on Saturday, Garrett Cole was outstanding. He had one bad inning, but just his stuff was crisp. His fastball had life. He looked like Garrett Cole. And they win that game because it's an offensive orgy for them on Friday, or on Saturday. They scored five runs.
And then Cam Schlitler was amazing yesterday. And because the Yankee bullpen had to be used in the other games, no bednar available, no hedgerick available. Those are the two best Yankee relievers. So they went with Kervin Castro in the eighth inning yesterday. He retired the Braves one, two, three. Then Blackburn, a scorer in his ninth, and then ended up giving a hit to Michael Harris, the second, to score the Ghostrunner. And that's the difference in the game, because the Yankees couldn't score their Ghostrunner.