Yankees first roadtrip post deadline starts in disaster

After the Yankees went and improved their team at the deadline, and had one of the best deadlines in years, it seemed that their team was set to make that playoff push. It started with a 6-game road trip, which turned out to be a disastrous first week for the new relievers.

The first series post-deadline was in Miami against the Marlins. It seemed to get off to a good start as in the first game, the Yankees' offense would get out to a 6-0 lead but would lose that lead after they made it a 9-4 game, and their new bullpen acquisitions of Jake Bird and David Bednar would blow that lead in the 7th inning, during which the Marlins would take a 10-9 lead via home runs. The Yankees' offense would score 3 runs in the eighth and ninth innings to make it a 12-10 game, but then newly acquired Camilo Doval would be all over the place and let up 3 runs for the Marlins to walk it off.

The last two games of the series just didn't help after the disastrous first game, as they got shut out in the second game, and Luis Gil and the bullpen would let up 6 runs in the first five innings of the 3rd game of the series, which they would lose 7-3, as the only offense from that game would be Grisham's leadoff home run and Jazz's 2-run homer.

The bad vibes would continue into the series vs. the Rangers, especially with the bullpen. Pitching again would be the problem, as after the Yankees took a 3-0 lead in the first two innings, Max Fried would give up four runs back. The Yankees would get the lead back with Stanton's 2-run shot in the fourth inning. The game would fall apart when closer Devin Williams would give a home run to Joc Pederson, who came into the game hitting a .490 OPS. The game would go to extras, the offense would leave a runner on second, and Jake Bird would give up a walk-off three-run homer to Josh Jung.

Then the second game would have Nathan Eovaldi and Will Warren go in a pitching duel as the game would go scoreless until the eighth inning. Williams would come in, allow a double that would deflect off Jason Dominguez's glove, and walked the bases loaded. While Bednar and Leiter Jr. were warming up, Boone chose to keep Williams in, and he would battle against Rowdy Tellez, eventually giving up a two-run bloop single. The Yankees would lose the game.

Williams' struggle as a reliever is very different from when he was with the Brewers. He allowed 26 earned runs as a Yankee, combined more than the last three years he did with the Brewers. Something is off, which goes to wonder what's different this year and why he keeps giving up so many earned runs.

In the last game of the series, the Yankees would come out with a win, as Paul Goldschmidt would hit a go-ahead pinch-hit home run for a 3-2 lead, and David Bednar would throw a five-out save, showing how he needed a few games to settle in with his new team.

The Yankees now sit 6.5 games back of first place in the A.L. East and lead the last wild card spot. Bullpen struggles while they got the upgrades just show how badly this team has been lately and need some new vibes. The fundamentals keep hurting them, runners getting out on the bases, bad sends to home, sloppy defense. While that win against the Rangers would help, they need everything to go right from the pitching and defensive side. The offense is what has been the biggest positive as they are scoring 5.1 runs per game, which is 3rd best in all of baseball.