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The Yankees are plummeting, the Rangers and Red Sox are surging. Plus: A record-breaking home run, and we revisit the time when two future-future Hall of Famers replaced two future Hall of Famers. I’m Levi Weaver; Ken Rosenthal is taking some well-deserved vacation — welcome to The Windup!

Trending Down and Up: We need to talk about the Yankees (and the Rangers)

The New York Yankees have now lost five games in a row, and they’re 12-18 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:

Believe it or not, Devin Williams (and his 5.44 ERA) only had two blown saves coming into this series. He now has four. 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’s only two runs.
Nathan 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’s three innings short of qualifying for the ERA title, but when he catches up — probably after his next start — 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’s only getting better, too —  in his last six starts, Eovaldi is 6-0 with an 0.47 ERA.
Just five days after acquiring Jake Bird from the Rockies, the Yankees have sent the reliever to Triple A. In Colorado, Bird had a 4.73 ERA. As a Yankee, it’s 27.00 in three appearances.
Aaron Judge returned to action last night, but went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his first game back.
Adding insult to injury: Josh Smith — acquired from the Yankees in the Joey Gallo trade — is 3-for-7 with two doubles, a run and an RBI over the last two nights. He also made this catch:

The series concludes tonight, with Carlos Rodón (11-7, 3.34) facing Jack Leiter (7-6, 4.10). If the Rangers complete the sweep, they’ll also overtake the Yankees for the final AL playoff position.

More New York struggles: The Mets haven’t been doing so hot lately, either.

Speed: A record-breaking home run

Here is the thing about “… in the Statcast era” records. Some of them feel a little iffy. The longest home run since 2015 is cool, but it’s not like there weren’t tape-measure shots before then.

But when it comes to records around pitch velocity — as pitchers keep throwing harder and harder — it feels like “since 2015” is a pretty good indicator that it hadn’t happened before then either.

Before last night, only one home run — in the Statcast era — 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.

Miller broke his own record last night, with a little help from Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who hit this home run on a pitch that Miller threw 103.9 mph. 

In this case, we can safely say that it’s not just since 2015. Thanks to Dennis Lin, we know that those two pitches were the fastest hit for home runs in the “Pitch-tracking era” — that’s since 2008.

I can’t say with certainty that they’re the two fastest in MLB history, but 104 mph is unusual even now. It was a heck of a lot less common back then.

Also Trending Up: Red Sox are on a roll … again 

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’s 6-2 win over the Royals — Boston’s seventh win in a row — they’re now just three games behind the Blue Jays for the division lead.

The hot streak didn’t start seven games ago — they’re 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’t even their longest win streak over that time frame: They won 10 straight from July 4-13.

The contributions have come from just about everywhere. A few highlights:

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.
Check out these relievers: Brennan Bernardino, Garrett Whitlock, Aroldis Chapman, Cooper Criswell and newcomer Steven Matz have combined to allow just two earned runs in 36 1/3 innings since July 1.
No wonder they didn’t want to trade Jarren Duran. Going into last night’s 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.
The first two wins of this streak came against the Twins, but since then, they’ve 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.

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.

Symmetry: When Johnson/Maddux became Scherzer/Kershaw

Maybe you’ve 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’s back was balky. Maddux was moved for scheduling purposes.

In their place: two rookies. Max Scherzer for Arizona and Clayton Kershaw for Los Angeles.

Here was Vin Scully’s assessment:

“Well, supposedly, we were going to have two veterans, a 44-year-old Randy Johnson … 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.

“Anyway, we were talking about heterochromia …”

Today, Doug Haller has a fully reported story on 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.

It’s a great behind-the-scenes on the story that has become a legend, nearly two decades later.

Handshakes and High Fives

Roki Sasaki is making strides toward a return. What exactly are the Dodgers expecting from the enigmatic 23-year-old? Fabian Ardaya reports.

José Alvarado isn’t 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. Matt Gelb has the story from Alvarado’s first day back.

Bird wasn’t the only recent acquisition to be sent to the minor leagues. The Padres did the same with JP Sears. But at least neither guy is injured. That’s what happened to Michael Soroka in his first start as a Cub. Jed Hoyer spoke about the gamble the team took.

Before last night, only one catcher had ever hit three home runs while batting in the leadoff spot (Travis d’Arnaud, 2019). Now there are two: Shea Langeliers hit three bombs as the A’s blasted the Nats 16-7.

Silver linings for the Twins: Luke Keaschall returned from his broken arm and reminded Twins fans what the future in Minnesota could look like.

The team from Venezuela will be allowed to participate in the Little League World Series. Because of the president’s travel ban, that required an official exemption from the Secretary of State.

On the pods: Former Twins GM Thad Levine joined the “Starkville” crew. He talks about his time in Minnesota, his perspective on the Twins’ blow-it-up deadline and scouts the top GMs in the game.

Most-clicked in our last newsletter: What MLB can learn from the Savannah Bananas.

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(Photo: Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)