Michael Kay on the Nationals Defeating The Yankees 5-2 | The Michael Kay Show 8/29/24

and lose two out of three you can't just not get any hits with runners in scoring position and once again two games yesterday uh McKenzie Gore the day before Patrick Corbin left-handers shut them down shut them down I know what Aaron BR said well there's a lot of traffic okay there's a lot of traffic but you're not scoring you're not getting the big hit left-handers are stopping you now there is nobody although I think he does not believe it Don and Peter there's nobody on the New York Airwaves that defends Aaron Boone more than I do that is true but yesterday head-scratchingly unacceptable the previous game in the exact situation exact situation with the same relief pitcher on the mound in the same inning with the same guy coming up you you you figured two days ago well he's got to pinch it for lameu right he's got to didn't lameu flew out the right field and then after the game he said well finigan has incredible reverse splits he's much tougher on lefties than he is on righties okay that's the hill you want to die on good now that's also not factoring in that DJ doesn't seem like he could hit anymore but you know what you accept that he's got the stats at his ready and he said and it's true that finnean gets out lefties better than he gets out rties cool yesterday same situation same pitcher same batter coming up same inning and he calls back lameu and sends up Oswaldo Cabrera what changed in one night you came to the realation realization that DJ can't hit anymore in one night nothing else changed other than learning from it I guess right really he he he Don he hasn't learned from the pre three months that DJ's not the same player that he used to be and so that now you send up Cabrera who hit a blistering Line drrive to Center Field that was that was caught but it doesn't make sense the guy on the mound still is death on reverse Blitz that's his words not mine and then you send up cabur yesterday but you didn't send him up the day before I know he's in an uncomfortable situation he has DJ lameu on his roster I mean he's got to use him right but you that doesn't mean you have to hit him in the ninth inning of a game that you really should be winning you can't go into DC and you cannot lose two games to the Nationals you can't do it and Michael you know what I hate about it and I said this a little bit earlier in the year I asked you this question and do great teams that go on to do great things play down to their competition this they usually don't but sometimes it happens but but in but generally speaking what you're looking for out of a team that does special things is they take care of business against the bad teams and they play five 100 ball with the good teams this is a team that generally plays good ball against the good teams but plays down to the bad teams well bones well for the playoffs I guess right and they lued out that in LA to the Dodgers so they're still a game up it's it's a worrisome trait though it it it I don't know if it shows a lack of focus taking exactly it I mean not take not not taking team seriously but I mean how do you how do you play badly against Patrick Corbin Don but but but here's the thing all you want to say that you're not focused against a a bad baseball team but you know the team that's that's right up your rear end for the division is in Los Angeles taking on the Dodgers you you don't want to gain ground on them you you don't want to add to your lead in The Division I think it's just a weak excuse I mean every game should be should be so they should be so locked in they they've got to win every single game you can't relax against it they're not good enough to relax as I said as the Orioles are as the Dodgers are they're all flawed teams they can't just throw their gloves out there and win no because then then there is an issue with you if you can lose focus just based on who your opponent is if you go out there and play your game you should be able to take two out of three against the Washington Nationals you should be able to sweep the white socks you shouldn't lose two out of three to the Detroit Tigers if you just take care of business like football that's a motivation sport where maybe you're your your head's in the clouds for a moment or so but but just go out there and just execute that's all you're asking to be able to win in these games not kicking the ball all over the place not being able to get a hit with runners in scoring position and what this does I I will spin it the other way as far as wal chabod well for the postseason because you're going to be taking on playoff teams and not lousy teams but I could spin it the other way just a constant reminder if if you're not getting home runs from stto and judge you're not scoring runs and are the home runs going to be there Michael against really good pitching I listen judge and stto are special guys but it's still harder to hit good pitching than lousy pitching so all I know is is that this is a team that historically has struggled in the postseason to be able to get home runs and to be able to score runs consistently that's what's killed them in the postseason and you see if judge and stto are not hitting home runs they're not scoring a lot so that's usually how difficult it is to score in the postseason so that's what would worry me is that what are you getting outside of stto and judge and also you saw Michael you saw two walks last night for judge aren't those aren't those going to keep coming yeah they are keep coming now the only thing that should stop them is that the teams that they're playing are bad teams I mean they they have one of the easiest schedules now because they don't play well against Bad teams that that's not great but You' you'd think that those other managers want to see what if their if their pitchers could get this guy out I think I I watched the entire game yesterday and I think it was just a case of you know what they they couldn't throw strikes they weren't pitching around I think they were afraid of maybe having him get a hit but I I I don't think they're going to pitch around him because they're not playing for anything now whether they pitch around him or not do you know that the Yankees in that series were one for 26 with runners in scoring position I mean it's incredible the third worst average with runners in scoring position in a series over the last 50 years with a minimum of 20 bats now this month the month of August they're 40 for 200 that's 200 with runners in scoring position the fifth worst Mark in the majors and onpac to be their first Mark in a calendar month since June of 2021 so they can't hit lefties and they can't beat teams under 500 not great Bob no and and you throw in the Lefty situation which certainly bit him against Corbin and you look at the games they lost Corbin and Gore look at the earn run average of those guys both under 500 pitcher what Corbin win his fourth game of the year he was 3 and 12 going into that game I think he statistically was the worst left hander in baseball and shut you down now one other thing you mentioned Focus earlier and I'll repeat I'm a big rodon fan unlike most Yankee fans the guy's won 14 games but he can't I'm sorry I don't know how many watched the game yesterday on Prime you can't unravel you just can't unravel like that because the the pitch comom doesn't work there's been 150 years of baseball before the pcom I know I mean figure it out dude don't melt down like that I mean he's he's yelling at the Umpire what if he got thrown out there you can't do it he gave up four runs in the first two innings and boom they're done the way they're hitting they're done also with a lack of concentration do you know the national stole five bases in two innings against Wells now how much of it was Wells how much of it was rodon not concentrating you can't sit there and lose it because the pitch CS not working and then you're arguing you clearly balked the rule is step off if you have a problem with the pitch compomer and did it and then he's arguing why why it was called a bul it was clearly a balk yeah and and you worry about the unraveling Michael this is a guy that has exactly two innings of postseason experience so what what's going to happen in a big spot in the playoffs 50,000 people at Yankee Stadium I I I'm wouldn't you be interested to know how that's going to go I I would be I'd be interested to see what what start he's going to get because right now you would assume Cole's going to get a start of course uh he's going to come back he'll get a start Cortez has been good Cortez has been good Clark Schmidt's GNA come back and you know he was an All-Star before he got hurt is he going to get a start does rodon come out of the bull I don't know rodon has 14 wins so you just don't discard him but you don't like the fact that he has that meltability out there you can't do that he's a veteran he can't be melting down because a piece of equipment doesn't work that was a scary thing to watch yesterday you're sitting there watching it on TV and go calm down dude I know it's frustrating but you got to calm down so you got a manager who made a different decision separated by one day in the same situation completely different so the excuse that he gave the day before obviously didn't apply to yesterday and then you got a pitcher who makes $26 million a year melting down because his pscom doesn't work but here's why I'm o I'm okay with the DJ decision if that's the way it's going to be moving forward be because wiiz will be back tomorrow because there's a line of demarcation where it's like okay now we finally had enough may maybe it took too long to get to that point but if I if if it does turn around the next opportunity he doesn't pinch it for him think about what's going on here but but as you said Rizzo's coming back so that may never present itself again but maybe there was that line of okay now I'm officially done I gave him the opportunity the day before now now it's over but you know what bothers me though that that listen I'm some hack okay he's never played a game of important baseball in my life I could see it and the fact that we said yesterday there's not a single metric that they could produce that would tell you that DJ lameu should be playing not a single one he should have known that before that ninth inning yes two days ago they had a chance to tie the game against a reliever who's dread look at his ER look at finnean Za he's got great stuff but he has not pitched well this year couldn't do it couldn't do it two straight days not good those are diamond