Get it?
I jest.
Ba dum bum.
Also, the Yankees manager said the same thing:
“We’re behind the eight ball early, and that makes it tough,” Boone said. “Outside of the strikeouts, I thought the at-bats were building off of last night. I thought we grinded it out really well. We made it really tough on Kremer; we couldn’t finish it off.”
Just kidding.
Rizzo is now 0-for-29 with two outs and RISP for the season.
But he did get a single. His first hit since his breakout 4-for-4 game vs. the juggernaut Royals.
Prior to that game vs. the Royals, Rizzo felt different. Then, he hit his first home run in two months and this lifted a weight from his shoulders.
Since then, Happy Anthony has one hit in 13 at-bats.
If you count GIDPs as two outs, it's minus-one hits in 13 at-bats. That really ought to be a thing ... counting GIDPs as minus-one for one.
This isn't a big mystery.
Four players got old quick.
Donaldson wasn't a shock and he was a bad signing. Stanton has always been a one-trick pony, and now he's more like a pinch-hitter than an MVP candidate. The sudden declines of LeMahieu and Rizzo are devastating and shocking.
I like how Peraza goes in to pinch run for Rizzo and gets an RBI hit with two outs and RISP. For the season, Peraza is 1-for-4 with two outs and RISP.
For the season, Rizzo is 0-for-26 with two outs and RISP.
Rizzo's July is worse than his June.
He hasn't homered in two months.
He is 0-for-25 with two outs and RISP this season.
He apparently hurt himself a bit a couple of months ago ... strained his neck or whatever.
Without researching the situation with any rigor, I think he might be the worst starting first baseman in the major leagues. His WAR for the year is 1.1.
(I was wrong, by the way. I researched the worst teams in MLB and quickly found Nick Pratto of the Royals with his WAR of -0.3.)
So Rizzo is not the 30th-worst. He's the 29th-worst. Yeah, yeah, and some teams may have platoons, so ... whatever.
Rizzo is garbage this year, he has been garbage since Judge went on the IL, and if Rizzo dare to use an injury as an excuse for this performance, it will be an unforgivable sin in Baseball According to Felz.
This nugget dropped at the end of an article about the new hitting coach:
"The Yankees headed into the break with Giancarlo Stanton hitting .203 and Anthony Rizzo hitting .168 with no homers and seven RBIs since hurting his neck in a collision May 28. Josh Donaldson is batting .152, while DJ LeMahieu is hitting .220 after slumping last September because of a toe injury and then missing the playoffs."
I don't wan to hear about the Rizzo's injury or LeMahieu's injury.
I think it's true that perhaps Ohtani's June 2023 was the most remarkable month in MLB history.
But I'd also like to make a case for New York's own Anthony Rizzo, whose June 2023 flew a bit under the radar, but was also quite remarkable:
AB: 75
R: 9
H: 13
RBI: 5
2B: 4
3B: 0
HR: 0
BA: .173
OB%: .311
SLG%: .227