Aaron Boone's Jose Caballero tweak worked miracles in game Yankees nearly handed to Blue Jays

When the New York Yankees go on midsummer malaise streaks every summer, it's tough not to eventually draw the conclusion that something is rotten and the voice in charge should probably be silenced and changed. But this summer, without Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton, at least some of the onus is on the hitters in the box to step up. There's only so much Aaron Boone can do. We can all agree on that, right? We can't? Got it, yeah, we can't.

On Sunday, the Yankees narrowly salvaged one game in Toronto to cap a horrendously dull series where Gerrit Cole and Cam Schlittler were both brilliant and were both defeated head-to-head by Shane Bieber, a Jays bullpen game, and Luis Garcia Jr.'s clunky glove. The pitching has been sterling for months now. The offense is the dregs. Seemingly every game contains a late-and-close test for the Yankees to either succeed or fail. They win no blowouts. They lose no blowouts. They do not let their fans breathe for even one second.

In an effort to spark something, anything, after dropping another, "This is who we got" bomb on an unsuspecting (eds. note: extremely suspecting) audience, Boone's promised changes manifested in the form of Jose Caballero spelling Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second base and Ben Rice moving from deeper in the lineup to the leadoff spot.

Against all odds, both worked. Caballero - who we all know is no thunderous bat at this point - scored the game's first run by scampering around the infield, then broke the tie in the seventh inning. Rice fumbled the first out of the ninth inning and the game reached terrifying (shudder) EXTRAS ON THE ROAD, but the All-Star slugger came up in the exact right spot and deposited a game-winning yammer into right field. 2-for-2.

What's next for Jose Caballero after replacing Jazz Chisholm Jr. with Yankees?

Boone claimed Jazz sitting was "just a day," even though he did not play last Saturday against Atlanta, got a breather with the off day Monday, and has another one tomorrow. Still, it's hard to imagine him being formally benched, and Jack Curry on Sunday's postgame show theorized that while it'll be tough to keep Caballero nailed to the bench when the Yankees arrive in Baltimore, maybe it's Ryan McMahon who gets a breather this time.

Maybe so. Boone remains an imperfect manager, and the lukewarm take is that the Yankees can and should do better. But this particular season, he's pressed the right bullpen buttons time and again with very few bullets to use, and made two intuitive moves on Sunday that helped salvage a very difficult stretch that easily could've dragged.

The offense, hitting .165 with a 69 wRC+ since Aaron Judge went down midway through Sunday's game (pre-Caballero combatting the narrative), is far more to blame, and anything that might look like a spark is worth buying into and trying again,

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