Yankees can’t hold late lead, lose 2-1 to complete doubleheader sweep

In the first game of the doubleheader, the Yankees fell behind at literally the earliest possible opportunity and never really sniffed the lead. Game two was quite the opposite, but the end result was the same.

After the teams exchanged zeroes for a while, the Yankees finally broke the deadlock and took the lead in the fifth inning. Thanks to the seven-inning shortened doubleheader games, they were then were just four outs away from a win. That’s when things turned south, as Freddie Freeman struck in the sixth with a two-run home run, putting the Yankees behind after 5.2 innings of mostly good pitching. The offense was unable to strike back in the one inning they had left, and the Braves finished off a sweep of the doubleheader with a 2-1 win.

Here were the major takeaways from the loss:

• No part of this defeat can be put on Yankees’ starter Mashairo Tanaka, who was excellent. In five innings, he allowed no runs on three hits, striking out four. It was by far the best he’s looked this season. If anything, you could argue that he should’ve stayed in longer, especially considering:
• Chad Green has been really good for this season, but he picked an inopportune time to have an off outing. After getting the first two outs, he allowed a single to Dansby Swanson and then threw a fastball to Freeman close to right down the middle. It was dispatched over the fence, undoing all the good work Tanaka had done.
• While he obviously gets some, it’s hard to blame Green too much because of the less than stellar display from the Yankees’ offense. Yes, Braves’ starter Max Fried is good, yes they have two less innings to work with, and yes a lot of them will be a bit out of rhythm after having an entire series postponed. However, one run on five hits was not and is hardly ever going to be good enough for a win in the vast majority of games. Sure, the team is also dealing with injuries to a bunch of good players, but getting a combined 1-14 with one walk game from the one though five hitters is bad. Shout out to combo of Miguel Andújar, Erik Kratz, and Tyler Wade, who were responsible for plating the Yankees’ only run. Just the group of people we all thought would power the lineup this year.
• Speaking of injuries, Aaron Judge left the game early after his calf tightened up again. Aaron Boone said they don’t think it’s anything serious, but we’ve seen that movie before. He’s being reevaluated tomorrow, but it’s not out of the question that he could return to the IL.

After waiting all that time to see the team play again only to get two losses, we get another Yankees-less day tomorrow. Tomorrow is an off day before the five games in three days mess of whatever this Mets series is begins Friday. What a dumb year.

Box score