{"id":48946,"date":"2025-08-06T23:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T23:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/48946\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T23:03:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T23:03:13","slug":"rangers-red-sox-rising-while-yankees-fall-plus-when-johnson-maddux-became-scherzer-kershaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/48946\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers, Red Sox rising while Yankees fall. Plus: When Johnson\/Maddux became Scherzer\/Kershaw"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Windup Newsletter \u26be | This is The Athletic\u2019s MLB<\/a> newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

The Yankees are plummeting, the Rangers and Red Sox are surging. Plus: A record-breaking home run, and we revisit the time when two\u00a0future-future Hall of Famers replaced two future Hall of Famers. I\u2019m\u00a0Levi Weaver;\u00a0Ken Rosenthal\u00a0is taking some well-deserved vacation \u2014\u00a0welcome to The Windup!<\/p>\n

Trending Down and Up: We need to talk about the Yankees (and the Rangers)<\/p>\n

The New York Yankees have now lost five games in a row, and they\u2019re\u00a012-18 since the first of July. The last two losses have come in Texas, where the Rangers (19-11 since July 1) now trail the Bronx Bombers by a half-game for the third and final AL wild-card position. Here are a few notes on both teams:<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, Devin Williams\u00a0(and his 5.44 ERA)\u00a0only had two blown saves coming into this series.\u00a0He now has four<\/a>. On Monday night, he allowed a ninth-inning home run to Joc Pederson to tie the game, and last night, with one out in the eighth, he went double-walk-walk before a Rowdy Tellez single to score the game\u2019s only two runs.
\nNathan Eovaldi pitched eight shutout innings, lowering his ERA to 1.38. Due to his time on the IL, Eovaldi has only pitched 111 innings, so he\u2019s three innings short of qualifying for the ERA title, but when he catches up \u2014 probably after his next start \u2014 he should have a healthy lead over the current leaders: Paul Skenes at 2.02 in the NL and Tarik Skubal at 2.18. He\u2019s only getting better, too \u2014\u00a0 in his last six starts, Eovaldi is 6-0 with an 0.47 ERA.
\nJust five days after acquiring Jake Bird from the Rockies, the Yankees have\u00a0sent the reliever to Triple A<\/a>. In Colorado, Bird had a 4.73 ERA. As a Yankee, it\u2019s 27.00 in three appearances.
\nAaron Judge returned to action<\/a> last night, but went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his first game back.
\nAdding insult to injury: Josh Smith \u2014 acquired from the Yankees in the Joey Gallo trade \u2014 is 3-for-7 with two doubles, a run and an RBI over the last two nights. He also made this catch:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The series concludes tonight, with Carlos Rod\u00f3n (11-7, 3.34) facing Jack Leiter (7-6, 4.10). If the Rangers complete the sweep, they\u2019ll also overtake the Yankees for the final AL playoff position.<\/p>\n

More New York struggles: The Mets\u00a0haven\u2019t been doing so hot<\/a>\u00a0lately, either.<\/p>\n

Speed: A record-breaking home run<\/p>\n

Here is the thing about \u201c\u2026 in the Statcast era\u201d records. Some of them feel a little iffy. The longest home run since 2015 is cool, but it\u2019s not like there weren\u2019t tape-measure shots before then.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to records around pitch velocity \u2014 as pitchers keep throwing harder and harder \u2014 it feels like \u201csince 2015\u201d is a pretty good indicator that it hadn\u2019t happened before then either.<\/p>\n

Before last night, only one home run \u2014 in the Statcast era \u2014 had ever been hit on a pitch thrown over 103 miles per hour. That happened last September, when Ian Happ hit a 103.2 mph fastball from Mason Miller over the Wrigley Field wall.<\/p>\n

Miller broke his own record last night, with a little help from\u00a0Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who hit\u00a0this home run<\/a>\u00a0on a pitch that Miller threw 103.9 mph.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this case, we can safely say that it\u2019s not just since 2015. Thanks to Dennis Lin, we know that those two pitches were the fastest hit for home runs in the \u201cPitch-tracking era\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s since 2008.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say with certainty that they\u2019re the two fastest in MLB history, but 104 mph is unusual even now. It was a heck of a lot less common back then.<\/p>\n

Also Trending Up: Red Sox are on a roll \u2026 again\u00a0<\/p>\n

On June 6, the Boston Red Sox lost to the Yankees, falling 10 1\/2 games out of first place in the AL East. After last night\u2019s 6-2 win over the Royals \u2014\u00a0Boston\u2019s\u00a0seventh win in a row<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 they\u2019re now just three games behind the Blue Jays for the division lead.<\/p>\n

The hot streak didn\u2019t start seven games ago \u2014 they\u2019re 22-7 since the first of July, which is tied (Brewers) for the best record in the sport over that span. In fact, this isn\u2019t even their longest win streak over that time frame: They won 10 straight from July 4-13.<\/p>\n

The contributions have come from just about everywhere. A few highlights:<\/p>\n

The starting rotation has been brilliant, with Brayan Bello (5-2, 2.42 since July 1), Lucas Giolito (4-1, 2.92) and Garrett Crochet (5-0, 1.91) leading the way. Walker Buehler and Richard Fitts have made four starts each, both rather pedestrian. But the three at the top? Nails.
\nCheck out these relievers: Brennan Bernardino, Garrett Whitlock, Aroldis Chapman, Cooper Criswell and newcomer Steven Matz have combined to allow\u00a0just two earned runs in 36 1\/3 innings since July 1.
\nNo wonder they didn\u2019t want to trade Jarren Duran. Going into last night\u2019s game, he was hitting .298\/.383\/.660 (1.043) with six home runs since the calendar flipped to July. Roman Anthony, Trevor Story and Romy Gonzalez all have an OPS of .900+ over that period.
\nThe first two wins of this streak came against the Twins, but since then, they\u2019ve swept the AL West-leading Astros, and are one win away from sweeping a Royals team that has been much improved in the second half.<\/p>\n

As they creep closer to the Blue Jays in the AL East, Boston now sits in the top AL wild-card position, three games over the Mariners.<\/p>\n

Symmetry: When Johnson\/Maddux became Scherzer\/Kershaw<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019ve seen the video on social media: It was 2008, and Randy Johnson (then with the Diamondbacks) and Greg Maddux (Dodgers) were scheduled to face each other. But Johnson\u2019s back was balky. Maddux was moved for scheduling purposes.<\/p>\n

In their place: two rookies. Max Scherzer for Arizona and Clayton Kershaw for Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Here was\u00a0Vin Scully\u2019s assessment<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, supposedly, we were going to have two veterans, a 44-year-old Randy Johnson \u2026 with all of his victories, 294. (And) 42-year-old Greg Maddux with 354 victories. But under the headline and heading of the best-laid plans of mice and men, we have a 24-year-old Scherzer with no wins and a 20-year-old Kershaw with three. What a difference a day makes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway, we were talking about heterochromia \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Doug Haller has\u00a0a fully reported story<\/a>\u00a0on that day when the future Hall of Famers replaced the more imminent Hall of Famers. He spoke to all four pitchers, plus a few others who were present.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a great behind-the-scenes on the story that has become a legend, nearly two decades later.<\/p>\n

Handshakes and High Fives<\/p>\n

Roki Sasaki is making strides toward a return. What exactly are the Dodgers expecting from the enigmatic 23-year-old?\u00a0Fabian Ardaya reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Alvarado isn\u2019t eligible to pitch for the Phillies again until Aug. 19, thanks to a PED suspension. But he is allowed to be around the team now.\u00a0Matt Gelb has the story<\/a>\u00a0from Alvarado\u2019s first day back.<\/p>\n

Bird wasn\u2019t the only recent acquisition to be sent to the minor leagues. The Padres\u00a0did the same with JP Sears<\/a>. But at least neither guy is injured. That\u2019s what happened to Michael Soroka in his first start as a Cub. Jed Hoyer\u00a0spoke about the gamble<\/a>\u00a0the team took.<\/p>\n

Before last night, only one catcher had ever hit three home runs while batting in the leadoff spot (Travis d\u2019Arnaud, 2019). Now there are two:\u00a0Shea Langeliers hit three bombs<\/a>\u00a0as the A\u2019s blasted the Nats 16-7.<\/p>\n

Silver linings for the Twins: Luke Keaschall returned from his broken arm and reminded Twins fans what\u00a0the future in Minnesota<\/a>\u00a0could look like.<\/p>\n

The team from Venezuela will be allowed to participate in the Little League World Series. Because of the president\u2019s travel ban, that\u00a0required an official exemption<\/a>\u00a0from the Secretary of State.<\/p>\n

On the pods: Former Twins GM\u00a0Thad Levine joined the \u201cStarkville\u201d crew<\/a>. He talks about his time in Minnesota, his perspective on the Twins\u2019 blow-it-up deadline and scouts the top GMs in the game.<\/p>\n

Most-clicked in our last newsletter:\u00a0What MLB can learn<\/a>\u00a0from the Savannah Bananas.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love The Windup? Check out\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Photo: Jerome Miron \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Windup Newsletter \u26be | This is The Athletic\u2019s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-48946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}