Stumblin' Along 6/7 '26
Smoke of the Crowd
Smoke of the Crowd
- Yanks Week 11 Notes
- YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
Today’s tune is Smoke of the Crowd by Transfer because it’s another track off the MLB ‘06 The Show soundtrack.
Transfer, the band, was formed in San Diego as another obscure mid-2000s band best known for their song in a video game. Yet another cool song I hadn’t heard in decades.
On to the baseball…
Game 59
- In the rubber match of the series in Sacramento, Will Warren takes the hill and gives up an early 3 unearned runs thanks to a Trent Grisham dropped can of corn. The Yankees’ offense has an absurd 3rd-inning rally in which they plate 13 runs on 4 walks, 8 singles, 2 doubles, and a triple. In the one inning alone, Ben Rice had a 2-RBI double and a 2-RBI triple. The Yankees don’t pick up another hit the rest of the way and only have one base runner from the 4th inning onward, but their historic offensive inning is enough to earn a 13-8 win.
Game 60
- Hosting Cleveland in the Bronx, Aaron Judge, who left the A’s game early presumably because the game was a blowout, isn’t in the Yankees lineup after a Monday off day. With Cam Schlittler on the mound, Cleveland scores first in the 3rd inning with Trent Grisham's lackadaisical effort leading to a leadoff triple, only for Paul Goldschmidt to take the lead with a 2-run homer the next half inning. Cleveland takes the lead once again with a 2-run home run in the 4th, only for Goldschmidt to once more give the Yankees the lead on a 2-RBI single. Unfortunately, Schlittler wasn’t on top of his game as Cleveland knocked him out of the game by the 5th inning. Jose Ramirez was the biggest Yankee killer as he hit 3 doubles. Yanks lose 9-4 as Camillo Doval allows the game to be broken open in the 8th.
Game 61
- Aaron Judge is once again held out of the lineup with “shoulder and rib soreness” as they keep sending him to all these specialists to get MRIs and X-rays. Down 1-0 in the 2nd, Jazz Chisholm Jr. launches a no-doubt double decker to tie things up at 1-1. Jose Caballero also hits a solo shot in the 4th. However, Cleveland gets to Gerrit Cole for 4 runs on 3 big flies that knock the Yankees’ ace out of the game by the 6th. In both the 6th and 9th innings, Cody Bellinger hits a sac fly, but the Yankees can’t mount any more offense and lose 5-4. Losing stinks, but at least the Knicks won Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Game 62
- On a Wednesday day game, the Yanks try to avoid getting swept by Cleveland in New York. Carlos Rodon deals his best start since returning from the IL, giving the Yankees 6 innings of 1-run ball and 7 strikeouts, but doesn’t get the win. The Yankees only score two runs, one on a Jazz Chisholm sac fly that gets turned into a double play, and another off the bat of Ryan McMahon, who plates Jazz in the 7th. Brent Headrick and Fernando Cruz toss up zeroes, as David Bednar earns his 13th save of the season. Yanks win 2-1.
Game 63
- Rarely does a Yankees-Red Sox matchup ever become a secondary screen option, but on Friday night Game 2 of the NBA Finals was the headline. The Yankees announce that Aaron Judge has avoided the worst-case scenario of thoracic outlet syndrome and has a stress fracture in his right rib cage. Spencer Jones gets called back up, taking the captain’s spot in RF. Yanks score first in the 1st on a Ben Rice home run. Ryan Weathers pitched into the 6th but wasn’t all that effective, giving up 5 runs to Boston’s dreadful lineup. Jones goes 3 for 3 off Sonny Gray with a double, but gets pinch hit for by Max Schuemann in the 9th. Yanks try to muster a 9th-inning rally off Aroldis Chapman on two walks, but end up losing 5-3. At least the Knicks won Game 2.
Next
- Set to be without Aaron Judge until at least the end of July, the Yankees need Jasson Dominguez and Mike Stanton to get off the mend. Even with Jones going 3 for 3 on Friday night, the Martian should see plenty of opportunity to get MLB at-bats. When Stanton returns, he’ll clog up the DH role, which’ll mean the Yankees will need to make a decision on Anthony Volpe or Max Schuemann. Given that Volpe pigeonholes the team into having only the ability to play SS, I think he ends up being sent back down, and Jose Caballero goes back to every day at short. With no Aaron Judge, the Yankees don’t have the same margin for error and need to put their best offensive lineup every day. They also might get another addition by subtraction, as Austin Wells has hit the IL with headaches.
Around the MLB
- Tampa Bay has come back down to earth a bit, having lost 9 of their last 12 games. In these last 12 games, their pitching has allowed 78 runs (5.70 ERA), while their bats have cooled to a .235 batting average (bottom third in MLB over this stretch). They were playing well above their weight to begin with, but had they been able to keep up their early-season pace, the AL Division would already be theirs due to the Aaron Judge injury.
- The Chicago White Sox are emerging as a possible AL Central and Wild Card contender. Winners of 7 of their last 10, the Chi-Sox have hit the 3rd most home runs in the MLB this season. Aside from Munetaka Murakami’s 20 homers, Chicago’s Miguel Vargas is off to a career-year start. The 26-year-old 3B was once a Dodgers prospect before being part of a package that landed Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech to LA. Vargas has already hit 15 home runs this season, one shy of his career-best from a year ago.
- The Angels are once again a last-place team and are double-digits out of a wild card spot. Mike Trout still has 4 years left on his contract after this season, but may not command a higher trade value than today. The future Hall of Famer leads the AL in runs scored (47) and the MLB in walks (60), while fielding CF on a 30+ home run pace.
- The Washington Nationals lead the MLB in runs scored this season. Their only problem is they’ve, in turn, given up the 2nd most runs, making them a middling team. James Wood, whom the Nats originally got in return for Juan Soto, leads the MLB in runs scored (57) and the NL in walks (53). The 23-year-old should become a 2-time All-Star by the end of the month.
- The Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong had one of the biggest bloopers of the season by totally missing the flight of a fly ball hit to straight-away dead center field. The result was a Wrigley Field inside-the-park home run. Later in that same game, PCA would go yard before walking things off in the 9th to give Chicago the win.
- Last weekend, Fernando Tatis Jr. finally hit his first home run of the season. Tatis Jr. had gone 238 plate appearances without going yard in ‘26. Maybe he’s just not the same player without the hair product steroids.
