Yankees' disastrous loss to Tigers looks even worse after Aaron Boone admission

It's time to play Yankees Food Poisoning Police. Because, without a full list of who had IVs attached to their arms on Wednesday morning and who didn't, we can't emphatically declare Aaron Boone to be flailing without around with his head stuck in a honey jar. In the moment, given the information available ... it certainly seemed like Boone made another unforgivable mistake based in misplaced faith with the game on the line. Unfortunately, the not-so-funny-anymore food poisoning crisis may have directly stolen a win from the Yankees' coffers today.

But ... come on, Boonie. Gamble. Roll the dice. Shake things up. Something.

Nothing is a guarantee in this life, but ... even amid his current slump, it feels far likelier that professional hitter Paul Goldschmidt would've gotten the winning run in from third with one out in the 10th against Keider Montero as opposed to hoping a barely-used Oswaldo Cabrera would finish the job.

After the game, Boone was pressed on the issue and said yes, Goldschmidt was among the healthy and could've swapped in, but he had ... sigh, confidence in Cabrera. Famous last words; that at-bat may well have swung the vibes in the city for 48 hours or more.

Yankees' food poisoning directly cost them Wednesday's game vs. Tigers (among other things)

Baseball's a funny game, isn't it? We invest so much of our time and allow it to weigh so heavily on our emotions, only for a sequence of completely unpredictable bits of cosmic nonsense to render our faith pointless.

If the Yankees had Max Schuemann available, Goldschmidt likely would've hit. Either you win (yay!) or the game persists, and Schuemann and Jose Caballero could've swapped positions seamlessly. If Schuemann had been around and Boone had gone with Cabrera, it would've been catastrophically silly.

But Schuemann wasn't there, stricken by the dreaded food-borne illness. Spencer Jones, who was also ill, attended the game and found his way into it. So it goes.

The Yankees also could've lost the DH and let Amed Rosario play third in a world where Goldschmidt tried and failed. They did it as recently as Sunday in Boston. They lost that game, too, but not because of that decision. They lose a lot of games. Digging even deeper Goldschmidt could've then pinch-hit for Ali Sánchez with two outs in a world where he likely wouldn't have been walked intentionally to load the bases. Ben Rice could've caught an inning. He didn't. They tried nothing, and it didn't work.

It might've also helped the Yankees to have star closer David Bednar on hand - but he missed the entire series on the paternity list. Instead, Fernando Cruz was forced into two (brilliant) innings, and Camilo Doval got a difficult assignment (and botched it).

If the Yankees miss the postseason or lose the division by a single game, there will be plenty of agonizing losses to point to - but only one of them (hopefully) that was stolen by forces outside of their control.

Still ... with all those complications ... Boone still could've gone for the jugular and swapped in Goldschmidt, assuming the win with the type of arrogance that sometimes decides baseball games instead of preparing for deflation.

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