Weird Yankees Moments: July 2023

July 2023 was not the best of months for the Yankees. The 10-15 record they put up during it is the worst winning percentage of any month they’ve had so far. Beyond that, they scored just 97 runs over those 25 games, with the mostly Aaron Judge-less offense averaging less than four per game. It wasn’t pretty.

However, we’re not here to recount the worst moments of last month (although some of them may come up), nor are we here to look back at the best. We’re here to look back at the weirdest moments from the Yankees’ July 2023.

July 1st

After rain wiped out the scheduled series opener in St. Louis between the Yankees and Cardinals, it was turned into a day-night doubleheader the next day. However, a rain deal in the opener — in what was an 11-4 loss for the Yankees — saw the first game of the day end after the scheduled first pitch time for the second game.

In less important news, this was the day where Twitter put a rate limit on how many tweets one account could see. You may not care about that, but as someone who was in charge of the Pinstripe Alley account that day, I can confirm: that whole day was a massive pain.

July 7th

Hosting the Cubs in an interleague matchup, Carlos Rodón took the mound to make his Yankees debut. However, the spotlight ended up on the man the Cubs gave the start to. In eight innings, former Yankee Jameson Taillon held his ex-teammates to one hit in eight innings. If you’re wonder “oh well, Taillon had his moments in New York, surely he’s been pretty good?” No. Those eight shutout innings lowered his ERA to 6.15.

July 8th

Before injuries potentially ended his season early, Josh Donaldson had managed 10 homers — out of just 15 hits total somehow. Remarkably, the Yankees went just 2-7 in the games he homered in. This was one of those wins, and considering the other win was a game against the A’s, it’s the only one that came in a game against a remotely good team.

July 9th

It was the last day before the All-Star break. The Yankees had no relievers going to said All-Star Game. It’s understandable that the Yankees might somewhat go all out with their bullpen. This was maybe not quite what they had in mind.

A Gleyber Torres error and a bullpen meltdown saw the Yankees allow six runs in the last three innings, sending them into the break with a deeply annoying loss.

July 16th

Going into the ninth inning, the Yankees were trailing 5-3 and on the verge of dropping a series to a very mediocre Rockies’ team. However, the offense rallied, scoring two runs in the top of the ninth to tie the game.

The game went on to extras, where in the 11th, a lead-off single after a nice at-bat from Oswaldo Cabrera gave the Yankees the lead. They even tacked on another run thanks to an Oswald Peraza single, taking a two-run lead into the bottom half of the inning.

It took two pitches for the Rockies to tie the game as Nolan Jones led off the bottom of the Manfredball inning with a two-run homer off Nick Ramirez. Alan Trejo hit a walk-off homer a couple batters later, completing one of the stupidest losses of the season.

Personally, I missed the entire ending of the game as I left to run errands after the Cabrera single in the top of the 11th. Checking the score when I returned, the scene felt similar to a famous gif from the sitcom “Community.”

July 23rd

It became less funny when we found out the likely reasons why Anthony Rizzo was slumping so badly, but this is the day the the first baseman broke a long homer-less drought. His Yankees’ teammates gave him the silent treatment upon his return to the dugout.

July 28th

After rain delayed the start of the game for over two hours to after 9 PM local time, this was a classic pitchers’ duel between Yankees’ ace Gerrit Cole and ... Grayson Rodriguez? Now, the Orioles’ youngster came into this season as a very highly rated prospect, and there’s still a solid chance he turns into a very good major league pitcher.

However, he hadn’t been when he shut out the Yankees over 6.1 innings in Judge’s return after nearly two months out. Meanwhile, Cole was Cole, ensuring this game was scoreless through the top of the ninth. Eventually, Anthony Santander struck with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth.

July 30th

Just going to leave this here: