Boone's Lineup Fizzles Against Monster Dodgers

The Yankees got their asses handed to them by the Dodgers—plain and simple. 

Friday night’s disaster was, in my opinion, entirely on Aaron Boone. Leaving Max Fried in to face Shohei Ohtani a third time? That’s not gutsy managing, that’s just being asleep at the wheel. And once that blew up, the whole team followed suit. Boone looked lost, like he had no clue how to stop the bleeding. Honestly, it feels like the Dodgers live rent-free in his head.

Then came Saturday, and if you were hoping for a bounce back, you were out of luck. Will Warren got his tits lit up. 

He didn’t even make it out of the first inning cleanly—39 pitches just to escape the first frame. The Dodgers overpowered him, and Max Muncy made damn sure there was no coming back with two three-run bombs that buried the Yankees early. And of course, the offense did nothing. 2 runs all from Judge on 2 solo shots. When you’re depending on Aaron Judge to carry the lineup by himself, you’re already screwed. Final was 18-2. You can stop reading here, unless you want to see profanity and anger.  Then keep reading.

Yes, I get it—sometimes hitters go cold. But this series was hyped as the matchup of the season, and what we got was one team clearly outgunned and outcoached. Boone keeps getting exposed in these big moments. And then to top it off, he drops this gem after the game:

“Obviously a challenge, but that’s what the 162 brings you sometimes… you’ve got to navigate some tough moments.”

No shit, Skip. That’s called managing. You don’t get a cookie for acknowledging that baseball is hard. Maybe try having a game plan that doesn’t rely on wishful thinking and a spreadsheet.

Now we’ve got Ryan Yarbrough on the mound today. Great kid, not intimidating. Sure, he’s been solid lately—but let’s be real: the Dodgers are a juggernaut right now, and the Yankees look like a JV team trying to keep up. LA’s got the firepower, the swagger, and a fanbase that’s fully behind them right now. The Yankees? They’ve got Aaron Judge and a manager who looks more and more like he’s guessing.

Let’s call this weekend what it is: a beatdown. 

And if, by some miracle, the Yankees claw their way to the World Series, they’ll likely be facing this same Dodgers team again. If that happens, you can already pencil in the result. The Yankees aren’t built to beat them—not with Boone making gutless decisions, not with a front office too in love with bad analytics, and not with Hal Steinbrenner asleep at the wheel.

Yankees fans deserve better. Right now, we’re getting screwed.