Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s series-saving HR vs Dodgers hardly changes bleak Yankees reality

In a matchup of heavyweights, the Yankees won the first two rounds, got pummeled for the next nine, and then scratched and clawed their way for a moral victory in the 12th. For the most part, they hung in there, but they were overwhelmed in almost every facet by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Despite a 2-1 victory on Sunday Night Baseball, the Yankees spent most of the weekend showing the national audience that they just aren't that good.

In the series opener, Gerrit Cole convinced Aaron Boone to leave him in the game despite Boone wanting to call on Brent Headrick to face Max Muncy in the seventh as New York was clinging to a 1-0 lead. Cole gave up a two-run homer and the Yankees lost.

Saturday's game was rained out, forcing the two teams into a doubleheader on Sunday. The marquee Cam Schlittler-Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitcher's duel was moved to the 1 p.m. slot, and thank goodness for that. Yamamoto twirled a complete game, allowing just two runs on four hits and no walks. Though Schlittler wasn't terrible (4 1/3 innings, 3 ER, 4 H, 0 BB), he was horribly inefficient (98 pitches).

Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s game-winning home run in the bottom of the eighth on Sunday didn't give us a renewed sense of self. The Yankees scored just five runs on 18 hits and eight walks over these three games. They went 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position. They left 18 runners on base.

The Dodgers out-hit them, out-walked them, out-pitched them, out-defensed them, out-clutched them and out-managed them.

Yankees continue to prove they aren't legitimate World Series contenders

It's the same story with this team, whether Aaron Judge is in the lineup or not. Judge being out just magnifies every flaw tenfold. We really cannot let the Nationals' league-worst bullpen fool us into thinking this Yankees roster is built for an October run. It isn't.

If you're trying to find a silver lining to the Yankees avoiding the sweep, you'll be fishing for a while. The Dodgers went with a bullpen game in the finale because Shohei Ohtani was unable to pitch. And still, LA was a swing away from winning. New York needed to empty the tank to squeeze out a 2-1 victory at home, and still nearly blew it (Tommy Edman's game-tying homer in the top of the eighth had just about every fan on edge).

These are the series in which the Yankees must be harshly assessed. Outside of a couple flash-in-the-pan moments, they don't punch above their weight or relish in the high-pressure moment. More times than not, they go down quietly or do something embarrassing. And the worst part is that there isn't one singular party to blame: it's everybody and everything.

Even if Judge and Stanton come back, that's not going to change this team's collective ability to rise to the occasion or get out of their own way with mental lapses, hustling concerns or a lack of poise. This roster, when completely healthy, probably isn't better than the 2024 group. It's different in terms of their strengths, but it's not unequivocally better in any sense.

Maybe they go on a run. It's possible. But once more, we have another pile of evidence to the contrary, and we can't help but feel like we will slog our way to another early October exit after what we've just watched for the better part of seven weeks.

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