Hour 2: Yankees-Dodgers, Judge's Health, & LeBron

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**Michael Kay** (0:27)
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**Michael Kay** (0:30)
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**Michael Kay** (0:31)
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**Michael Kay** (0:37)
All right, so the Yankees finished the titular first half of the season with a four game winning streak. And to me, the only game that I really put any significant import on is the final game in Tampa Bay. Because they had everything going against them in that game. They were going to have a bullpen game because of the injury to Rodin and the fact that when they brought up Brendan Beck, he didn't pitch well for the second time. So they preferred to go with the bullpen game. And opposing them for the raise was Drew Rasmussen, who has been pretty much unhittable when it comes to the Yankees. So you figured, well, the Yankees are going to go into St. Pete and lose three out of four to the Rays. Instead, they slapped around Rasmussen. The bullpen was handled beautifully by Aaron Boone and Matt Blake. And the Yankees won. So they treaded water in the four games in St. Pete. Also, it kept along alive the hope that you could win the season series. Not likely, but you kept alive the hope. Because with that win, the Rays lead the season series six games to three. And there's a four game series in September between the Yankees and the Rays. Now, maybe by that time the Yankees pull past the Rays and you have to worry about a tiebreaker. But if you do, then you win all four games and you win seven to six. That's not what they did against Toronto last year. That's what you'd want to have happen this year, but they have kind of put themselves in a hole. It's hard to sweep a four game series. Now, the reason I say that that's the game that has import to me, because the other three games have no import to me. And all I've been hearing over and over again is how much better the National League is than the American League. And I could certainly see why you would say that since there are five teams in the American League out of 15 that are over 500
And there are that many teams, I think, over 500, at least in the Central, at least the last time I looked. But the Yankees played the Nationals who came into that series two games over 500 And boy, is their offense fun to watch. James Wood owned the Yankees. CJ. Abrams is a great bat. I mean, we can go chapter and verse up and down their line, especially the top of their line up. They can really hit. And they average more runs per game than anybody else in baseball, over 5.1, something like that. But their bullpen is not bad. Their bullpen is woeful. It's awful. Every single one of those three Yankee wins came in the 8th inning or later. Their offense was completely shut down by a starting staff that is also woeful. Not as bad as the relief pitching, but not great. So they got shut down in three straight games and only against the worst of the worst. A bullpen that coming into the series is 28th in ERA. Now I said earlier in the show, I don't lend that much credence to it, especially a lower ERA, but a high ERA tells me that you're coming into the game and you're giving up runs. Dreadful. Dreadful. And the Yankees took advantage and they had some, you know, late show magic and did what they had to do. But do we really put a lot of credence into those three wins? Now they count in standings, so that's important, but to me I still worry about the Yankee offensive malaise when it comes to having a line up that doesn't have Aaron Judge.
The entire line up is affected. Again, look at those three games. I announced them with Joe Girardi. The first seven innings, they did nothing.
They were trailing, coming into the eighth inning, all three games. And the reason they were able to win is because the Nationals bullpen is terrible. So when you tell me, well, the National League is so great. Well, I saw a Nationals team that has really great things about it, but that's not a great team. There were two games over 500, and I saw a team that is so incredibly flawed, that does not have a closer, that's running out Matt Crook, who they released later in the series to close the game. Clayton Beater, who couldn't get anybody out. On and on and on we go.