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Yankees’ absurd quality start loss streak is collapse performance art

Adam Weinrib|
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 16: Nestor Cortes #65 of the New York Yankees looks on from the dugout during the first inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on August 16, 2022 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 16: Nestor Cortes #65 of the New York Yankees looks on from the dugout during the first inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on August 16, 2022 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

For a few weeks from mid-July to the loss of Matt Carpenter, the Yankees‘ still-strong lineup was betrayed by their rotation, plummeting the previously-dominant Bombers below .500 for an extended stretch. In fact, at the tail end of July, the offense checked in as baseball’s best for the month, in terms of runs scored and wRC+, while the rotation ERA fell to 20th, a massive departure for a unit that had helped carry the team to baseball’s best record in the first half.

The rotation appears to have turned things around on a dime this week, though, delivering quality starts in difficult road environments in Seattle and Boston, as well as starting a three-game home set with the Rays on a high note.

Dating back to Gerrit Cole’s showdown with Luis Castillo in Seattle, the Yankees have now racked up six quality starts in their past seven games, with only Frankie Montas in Boston coming up short of the relevant markers (pitching just five innings).

That Montas game is also the only one of the seven where the Yankees were victorious. Mind blown, mind leaking out of an ear hole.

Yes, the Yankees’ have racked up six quality starts in recent weeks, capped by Nestor Cortes allowing a first-inning, three-run homer Tuesday before absolutely shutting the Rays down and saving the bullpen for seven innings. They’ve lost all six, their longest such streak since 1979.

New York Yankees have lost 6 straight quality starts

Remember earlier in the season where every Yankees stat was, like, “First time since 1961/1998/2009” and it was very easy to visualize a title. Sort of like, “Oh, yeah, those were special seasons. Nice!”

Well, now they’re evoking the disappointing fourth-place follow-up to back-to-back titles in ’77 and ’78. That feels more appropriate.

Instead of taking advantage of the rotation’s turnaround to rebuild a mini-cushion in the race for October, the Yankees bats have flatlined, making additional history with their worst run/output in a seven-game stretch in franchise HISTORY.

Love to make history. Love to go 8-17 against crucial opponents while making all the wrong kinds of history.

When Isiah Kiner-Falefa homered and bunted in a tight 3-2 win on Saturday night, who knew what would follow over the course of the next three games? The Yankees lost all three. All three of their starters recorded quality starts and soaked up innings. None of the three games featured an RBI by a Yankees hitter — two shutouts and a run scored on a Miguel Andújar clutch dribbler, quickly marked down as an error.

Will the promotion of Estevan Florial and Oswaldo Cabrera spark anything? Or will Yankee pitchers continue to enter their starts thinking, “I have to be PERFECT,” only to be a notch below and suffer defeat?

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