Hour 1: Yankees Pressing

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**Michael Kay** (0:41)
Good afternoon, everybody. This is indeed The Michael Kay Show. We thank you for joining us on this Wednesday. It's July 8th, 2026, me and you for two. Those are the rules of engagements. The fastest two hours in Sports Talk Radio, and you know the membership number 1-800-919-3776, because you know, I want to talk to you. A lot of stuff to do, a lot of stuff to say, a lot of stuff to cover, so let's get right to it. Last night, the Yankees lost 6-4 to the Tampa Bay Rays.
The good news is they got 11 hits, and they have not had 11 hits in a game in a while. The bad news is that 17 more strikeouts, which means that over two games in Tampa Bay, they have struck out 34 times. That's a record for the franchise. No Yankee team has ever struck out 34 times in a two-game stretch, and it's just hard to believe, but that's what's happening right now. This is a team, whether they want to admit it or not, they are pressing. Everybody is trying to do too much. I think that Aaron Judge said it best last week at Yankee Stadium and he said everybody is trying to hit a grand slam when there's nobody on base, and that's what happens. You expand the strike zone, you swing at pitches that maybe you shouldn't, you don't shorten up, have a two-strike approach, but even the guys that do have two-strike approaches, like Goldschmidt, he struck out four times. Bellinger, he did get a hit, but he continues to struggle. He has a two-strike approach. I just think that people are trying to do too much in order to break this team out of the doldrums that it's in.
Will Warren struggled, not to the point that you'd say he got crushed, but that was that one inning when he gave up those runs, and the home run, it kind of rose up and bit him. And then the Yankees got shut down by Ian Seymour, who I think had 12 strikeouts in five and a third innings. And the interesting thing about the 17 strikeouts yesterday, everybody, they didn't walk once. And when they struck out 17 times on Monday and won the game, they only walked twice. And that's not the Yankee team. So in the Athletic today, Chris Kertzner had a really interesting column. The Yankees I think are the fourth worst team when it comes to strikeouts. And he said that in the last 20 years, no team has won the World Series if they're in the bottom nine in strikeouts. Now, I think that where they are right now is skewed by the fact that, you know, they strikeout 34 times in two days and maybe that will mark it correct and they'll get better at it. But it's just, it's unwinnable when you strikeout that many times. Now, you can say, well, Michael, they struckout 17 times in one on Monday. You're right. Because they had an extraordinary pitching performance by Cam Schlitler. Caballero had two home runs and Rice had a home run. That's why they were able to win. Because home runs are the great deodorant. They race everything and that's why teams aim for home runs. That's why they go for home runs.
Ben Rice had a home run yesterday. But a day after hitting two home runs, Caballero struck out four times yesterday. One of them, I still haven't seen an explanation. Joe Girardi on the air with me said, I wish I could make something up. I have no idea. It was a three-two pitch. He dropped the bat as the pitch was being delivered. It was strike three right down the middle.
Right down the middle.
So, that was a hard one. And now, they face a pretty good pitcher in McClotahan, and the Yankees send out Garrett Cole. So, this is a pretty important game, because it's a four-game set, and tomorrow afternoon is the finale. And at this point, the Yankees don't have a starter for tomorrow. It might end up being Elmer Rodriguez. Maybe they'll go with a bullpen game, but they don't have a starter tomorrow against an all-star starter for Tampa Bay.