The New York Yankees sure have made a lot of headlines to open the season. Everything from a record-setting home run barrage to the (ridiculous) existential crisis that besieged the fans around the league, courtesy of torpedo bats, the Bronx Bombers’ offense looked poised to light the world on fire.
The onslaught seemed to show that the team was going to easily exceed expectations offensively this season, despite the sudden loss of slugger Giancarlo Stanton due to previously unknown yet simultaneously nagging elbow injuries and the front office’s extreme aversion to adding any third base option with a pulse.
Those issues led to some legitimate concerns that the offense beyond Aaron Judge would not be up to par. Sure, two other former MVPs reside in the everyday lineup in the form of Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, as well as an exciting collection of young players such as Jazz Chisolm and Austin Wells. That should provide hope, though fans of the team know all to well that production on paper and in practice can be two very different things.
The blunt truth is that the Yankees offense, outside of Judge, has been woefully inconsistent in recent years, often alternating between their best Murderers’ Row impression for weeks at a time, and prolonged droughts that leave you scratching your head.
Zac Gallen’s 13-strikeout performance against the Yanks feels all too familiar
One half of a pair of Arizona aces, Zac Gallen, took the hill in the Bronx on Wednesday and proceeded to carve up the vaunted Yankees lineup. Prior to the matchup, the Yankees’ offense had been by far the most lethal in the league. In an (albeit small) four-game sample, the Bombers as a team carried an eye-watering .289/.381/.719 slash line into the matchup against Gallen and the D-Backs.
Unfortunately, the 29-year-old Gallen was a buzzsaw, recording 13 punchouts against just three hits over 6.2 scoreless innings. The final score of 4-3 doesn’t tell the whole story, as Arizona was comfortably in control until an Anthony Volpe three-run dinger in the ninth briefly breathed life into the anemic bats before Arizona was able to nail down the victory.
Gallen is one of the most talented pitchers in the National League. Over the past three seasons, he’s averaged over a strikeout per inning while posting ERAs of 2.54, 3.47, and 3.65 from 2022 to 2024, respectively.
And therein lies the rub. The Yankees have made it their business to abuse the average and below pitchers that appear on the slate, but the bats grow remarkably silent whenever a quality pitcher takes the bump. The problem is particularly stark against those with elite, strikeout stuff.
To an extent, it’s understandable; good pitchers are good for a reason. However, if the team wants to realize their goal and bring their first World Series crown back to the Bronx since 2009, they’re going to have to figure out how to put the ball in play and string together runs against the game’s elite.
And no, back-to-back dominant showings against the Pittsburgh Pirates unfortunately haven’t done much to quell this particular fear.
