Hour 5: C-Mac: Yankees Must Reclaim Self-Respect in Game 3 vs. Rays

Craig Carton (0:00)

All right, 603

Chris McMonigle (0:03)

Yes, sir, yes, sir. It's the last stop of The Carton Show, C-Mac here. Taking your calls at 888-808-1019. Obviously, a lot of Yankee stuff. And we will be at Yankee Stadium tomorrow for game three of the ALDS off of what was obviously just a incredibly disastrous performance from the team yesterday. There's nothing else to say. I don't know how. And again, a lot of Yankee fans, and now they're proven to be right, who saw this coming. They knew exactly this was going to happen. We all knew it. We all knew it. They were going to lose to the Red Sox too. Then that didn't happen. Now they were going to lose to the Rays. Hopefully, we get a chance to have them lose to the White Sox or Cleveland next and then into the World Series. But it looks like that's not going to happen. But we'll say still three more games. But for all of those people who knew this was going to happen, I'm sorry. You can't tell me you knew that McMahon, who's in there for defense, would have this kind of performance. You can't tell me you knew they would play this badly, this poorly, that they would get no hits off of nine runs in the Red Sox series. I know you want to say it. And right now, you're not wrong, right? But we did not know that they would fold like this.

That was an embarrassing performance. And I just can't understand how this team... And again, you want to blame Boone? I'm surprised he didn't pinch hit in the middle innings, in the seventh inning specifically, with Seymour on the mound and go to a righty. I think you could have played Caballero instead of McMahon, but he's trying to get his best defense out there for this exact reason. Like this exact reason is why McMahon's on the roster and in the team and in the line up last night.

I mean, they told us at the beginning of this how important it was. They didn't let it slip through the cracks. They didn't not care about it. They didn't say, you know, making outs aren't a big deal. We'll hit home runs. We'll strike out and hit home runs and beat them. We don't have to worry about defense. We don't care about fundamentals around here. They specifically told us that that's their biggest fear of this team and what they need to make sure they clean up. They told us and then he went out and they practiced it. We were at Yankee Stadium before game number one against the Red Sox in the wild card series. And we were told that they were having early morning, like bunt and infield drill practices because the Red Sox kind of try and play the same game and put the ball in play.

They were having infield workouts before game one of this series. That's what makes it so embarrassing to me. The 2014, when you compare it, and again, I also think we get lost in the idea that no other team loses embarrassingly. Like, a lot, it's very rare you don't lose in an embarrassing fashion.

Like, in the postseason, last year, this year, Philadelphia, last year, Philadelphia throwing that ball away at home plate. Remember that play at home plate? The Phillies and the Dodgers, the pitcher just throws the ball for no reason with two outs and throws it past the catcher at home. The Dodgers have had them too. The Dodgers got, I believe, swept by a wild card, the Arizona Diamondbacks team. Like, you have embarrassing losses in the postseason. But what particularly makes that game last night embarrassing, and it was, I'm not trying to downplay what embarrassing is, I'm saying we act as if only the Yankees have tough losses in the postseason.

What's embarrassing about last night, for me, is they knew this. In 2024, they were who they were. They were gonna beat you by Giancarlo and Judge and Soto pounding the baseball, and they were gonna figure out a way to beat you doing it that way. And they knew they had weaknesses at the defense, but they were playing jazz at a position at third base. You were playing Anthony Volpe, who had regressed shortstop position. You were playing Gleyber Torres, who was never a good defensive second baseman. You were playing Anthony Rizzo at the end of his career. You were playing Juan Soto in right field. You were playing Judge out of position in center field. You were playing Verdugo in left field. You knew the team wasn't good defensively. You knew it was a problem. But the Dodgers didn't present, like the Dodgers were dangerous for all other reasons, including putting the ball in play. I know what their eventual game plan got leaked out, what it was and fair. That's all they did to beat the Yankees, was put the ball in play, especially in the fifth inning. We get it.