Yankees vs Rays | Postgame Recap & Fan Reactions | 7/29/25

Yankees vs Rays | Postgame Recap & Fan Reactions | 7/29/25

All right, let’s hit the field. It is Tuesday, July 29th, and the Yankees were taking on the Rays in game two of a crucial four-game set leading up to the trading deadline. Max Freed was on the mound looking to conquer the Rays and conquer his blister problem. My recap, your reactions coming up next. This is pinstripe territory. That’s all. [Music] How’s it going everybody? Welcome back. Welcome back. Uh Yankees picked up a game and a half in the standings on the Toronto Blue Jays who lost both games today to the Baltimore Orioles. So that’s huge. Uh anyone else feel genuinely old watching the oldtimers day commercial and seeing highlights from the 2000 World Series? I mean, I was in high school. I was a senior in high school when the Yankees won that World Series. You know how old that makes me? Makes me an old-timer. Anyway, game 107 in the book. Yankees win. Another good night for Cody Bellinger. A big three-run home run. We had another multi-hit game for Jason Dominguez. Very quietly putting up a 745 OPS on the season. Now he had his 16th double. He also stole a base. Uh and then um you know the story of the night to me is Anthony Vulpi. And I’m going to do a separate segment on how weird his game is right now because uh not only did he hit a 452 ft home run, the longest of his career, and he gave the Yankees the lead with an RBI single, but he also made two pretty important errors. Uh and as a short stop, you just can’t have that kind of inconsistency uh that we’re seeing from him. So, it was a wild night for Vulpi, and we’ll talk about it, but first, let’s go through the recap here. Key takeaways. It only took Vulpi about what, five or six pitches before he made his first error tonight. Uh there was a ground ball up the middle. Could have been a double play. Probably should have been a double play. Uh he tried to make a fancy flip to second base. Screwed it all up. Uh and both of those runners came in to score. So that error led directly to two runs. And it was two unearned runs on Max Freed. and it cost him some pitches which may have cost him getting through the seventh inning. Ultimately, the Yankees did tie it up in the third inning. Big line drive home run from Mr. Cody Bellinger. 20 home runs on the season. And we wondered when the Yankees made that trade, would he be able to duplicate his season from the comeback player of the year that he had? I guess it was two years ago with the Cubs. And you know what? A lot of people were saying he was washed up. Shouldn’t have made the deal, not excited. He’s been low-key awesome for us. His OPS is 848 on the season. He’s hitting .282. He now has 20 home runs. He’s got 61 RBI’s. And every time you turn your head, he’s making a phenomenal play on defense. Another big big night for Cody Bellinger. Uh, and again, he’s one of the only guys on the team that takes a two strike approach at the plate. A lot of guys, uh, you know, they get two strikes and they still take that home run swing. Not Bellinger. Bellinger is always trying to put the ball in play to make things happen. He knows if he gets on base, he can use his legs. So, again, big night for Cody Bellinger. Uh there was a report this morning that the Yankees probably would have traded Cody Bellinger if Judge needed Tommy John’s surgery. So that tells you that they’re probably not thinking extension for him. They think he’s going to opt out. Uh but since Judge didn’t need a surgery, they’re going to hang with him. We’ll see how it all shakes out. But I want Cody Bellinger back next year. Whether it’s in the outfield, whether it’s at first base, I want his bat in the lineup. I like his energy. I like how he plays actual baseball. Hell, that’s probably why the Yankees want to get rid of him, right? Anyway, uh Yankees jumped out in front, RBI single from Vulpi, small measure of redemption, and then he stole third base. Throw got away and he scored. So, that’s who he should be. He should be a guy that makes contact, that takes the nice easy swing, can put the ball in play, gets on base, and then causes disruption. Okay, stealing third base there allowed uh the throw to go away uh to go into left field which allowed him to score. He manufactured that run on himself and he drove in a run. You don’t have to hit the ball 450 ft to be a good player. You do have to pick up the ball if you’re the shortstop though. So, we’ll talk all about that. Uh Freed was really good tonight. I’ll spotlight him in a minute. Curveball was fantastic. Also reaching back, getting 97 plus whenever he needed to. Nice job by Jonathan Lewis to come into the game and get a big spot uh or get it out in a big spot in the eighth. Uh but uh or sorry in the seventh, but in the eighth he gave up a couple of hits and then um you thought maybe the meltdown was coming. Johnny Meatballs, right? Uh but he got the double play. Vulpi, nice play there. It was a kind of a short hop. Uh 643 DP got through the eighth inning. Uh and then he finished off the night with a big home run to center field. Number 15, kind of faded towards right center. Little bit of a slice on that. Uh but um you know, longest home run of his career, they said Devin Williams came in for the ninth. Couple of nice plays by Ryan McMahon on soft hit balls. I’m not convinced that Oswald PZA makes either of those plays. Uh we’ve seen him screw those plays up before. And then um Vulpi threw one away for his second error of the game. Uh and um Rays put two runners on, two runners in scoring position, but Devin Williams shut it down and the Yankees pick up the dub. Ball game over. Jason [Applause] W. Michael Puma says Vulpi’s Vulpi Knoblock. Yikes. Uh for those of you who remember 1998, uh 1999 especially, Knoblock was absolutely atrocious on defense. I mean, the guy could not throw the ball 15 feet and he would watch the ball come out of his hand. It was the weirdest thing. He had the yips. Steve Sachs apparently had the yips, too. I don’t really remember that. I was kind of young at the time, but uh Knoblock actually hit Keith Oberman’s mom in the head with a ball. That’s bad. I mean, he threw a ball from from midway between first and second base, I think, into about the fifth row. I mean, it might have been from second base. Either way, he threw it into the fifth row and hit Keith Oberman’s mom. I mean, you just shouldn’t do that. All right, belt tonight goes to Cody Bellinger. Cody Bellinger. This was a late decision. I uh originally I had it as Max Freed, but I changed my opinion late in the game. Uh you know, Cody Bellinger with the big three-run home run. I don’t think we win without that since the margin of error was only two runs. Margin of error thanks to Anthony Bulby. Uh but uh good night for Cody Ballinger. But let’s talk about Max Freed because he gets an honorable mention. And you notice we got some new player reels happening tonight. Um this Max Freed one is the first one that I’m I’m breaking out unveiling. Uh but uh we’ll take a look also at at McMahon, too. He’s got one. Uh but um Max Freed, six and two/3 innings, four hits, four runs. Two of them earned two walks and nine strikeouts. gave up the solo home run to Aronda in the third inning, but after that he settled down. He had 14 in a row retired. He was up to 109 pitches. Boon comes out to possibly take him out of the game. Freed actually talks his way into staying in the game, but unfortunately gave up the double. I was hoping he would get the out there because if you talk yourself into staying in the game, then you you get beat, it it means the manager is less likely to believe you in the future. And I want Freed in there uh nine times out of 10 uh rather than our bullpen. But career-high in pitches, 111. He had 69 strikes. He’s got a 2.62 erra. Uh he picks up his 12th win of the year. Very, very nice performance from Mad Max. Ashley Noble says, “Freed was great tonight.” And Aaron Sheen agrees. So, really nice uh game for Max Freed. Let’s talk a little bit about Ryan McMahon. Uh he had a uh a base hit tonight. He’s also looked good on defense. He made a couple of really nice plays uh over the weekend. Uh today there was a couple of soft grounders late in the game that he was able to come up with and get outs at second base. Now, they weren’t the greatest throws in the world, but he was able to get the outs. That’s all that really matters. And we weren’t like super amped about this move. You know, I know a lot of Yankees fans have liked him for a while. Mike Francesa, my favorite commentator, uh it was he’s been on the McMahon train for a while, and I know he was hyped to get uh McMahon. I think it’s a marginal step in the right direction, but he’s a clear upgrade from Oswald PZA, especially on offense. Uh he’s had some hits, he’s got some pop. He obviously hasn’t hit home run as a Yankee yet, but he’s looking good. and and on defense, he’s going to make all the plays. And I I I I think we forget sometimes what it’s like to have a fantastic, you know, infielder because we really haven’t had a lot of them lately. Uh speaking of which, let’s talk about Anthony Vulpi. So, look, Vulpi showed us both sides of what he is. Uh and I actually have to update my screen because I wrote another error tonight, but he actually made two errors tonight. So, we’re going to update that. I I made that before he uh he actually made the second one. Anyway, uh we saw him fail at the player that he’s been trying to be and then we saw him succeed at the player he’s trying to be and then we saw him succeed at the player he’s supposed to be and then fail at the player he’s got to be. Right? I mean, we saw him finish off the night with, you know, a good play at shortstop in the eighth and then a 452 foot home run and then he made another error, right? He also blew the double play in the first inning, put the Yankees in a two nothing hole. His arm has always been an issue. I think the Yankees took a second baseman and put him at shorts stop and hoped nobody was would notice, but we have noticed. Um, and you know, we like the kid. When he made the team out of camp a couple of years ago, it was a great story. It felt like something the Yankees actually got right. you know, their top draft pick, zoomed through the minor leagues, homegrown kid, good makeup, genuinely easy to root for. And it was supposed to be a win for, you know, not only the development system, but for the area, right? You know, it was a great story watching him hug his mom and dad in the clubhouse when he first found out he made the team. We had the viral clip of Aaron Boone telling him he made the squad. The defense though, which was the best part of this game, is now unreliable at best and flatout bad at worst. And you can’t have that from a shortstop. The 15 home runs in July. Sure, you’ll take that, but not at the expense of 30 or 40 points on his average and maybe a dozen or more RBI’s if he was focused on doing what he did in his second at bat, which was just leveling out the swing, putting the ball in play, and getting the run in. We got a call about that. Yo, what’s up, Derek? It’s Matt in California. Yankees just went up four to three off the uh base hit from Vulpi. And uh I can’t help but think about what you’ve been talking about with Vulpi. He just poked his bat out there. Easy swing, level swing, and got the ball out there. And that’s that pesky looking type uh hitter that uh you know, we we need him to be. And that that’s kind of the the guy that he is made to be. He’s not that power home run guy that it looks like he has been trying to be. So hopefully Yeah, I I He did hit the home run and I I hate it when he hits home runs because it just reinforces what he wants to do, which is become a home run hitter and I don’t think that’s what he is, right? I think he needs to be a slap hitter. Not everybody should be trying to hit home runs. There are certain guys, Kyle Schwarber for instance, right? You look at that guy and you think, “All right, that guy is a guy who should put the ball in the seats, right?” You look at Aaron Judge when he first came up to the major leagues, you said, “This guy’s a monster. He’s going to be a home run hitter if he learns how to make contact.” He did learn how to make contact and he hits home runs, a lot of them. But Vulpi, he’s what, 5 foot 10, about 180 pounds. He’s the protottypical second baseman. That’s where he should be playing. The protottypical speedy second baseman. He should have focused and the Yankees should have focused on making him the best leadoff man he could be right for the first couple of months last year. We’ve talked about this. He was phenomenal out of leadoff spot. He got on base 30 some odd games in a row, but then things fell off and then in the postseason he was good again. I don’t know what is happening to him that he keeps going up and down, up and down. I want him to steady out and be consistent. And the best way for him to do that, I think, is to become a slap hitter. We’ll take 230, 240, 250 with less power if you make more contact, drive in more runs, and if you’re doing that, maybe you won’t be taking your at bats out into the field and screwing the plays up. But tonight, that’s not an excuse cuz he hit a mammoth home run. So, I you know, I just don’t know what the solution is for Vulpi other than, you know, maybe uh at some point um getting traded or getting moved off of second off of shortstop to second base or going back down to the miners. But, you know, when he hits balls 450 ft, the Yankees are not inclined to do any of those things. So, you know, in his in his first at bat, he swung out of his shoes at 100 mph fast. He was trying to hit it 950 miles. The problem is when the the pitch has that kind of velocity, all you need to do is make contact. The pitcher is supplying the power. If you barrel it up, you can drive it in the gap. You can drive it out of the ballpark. At Yankee Stadium, you got a short right field porch. You can let the ball travel, hit it on the barrel, and still get home runs the other way if that’s what you’re trying to do. But I think the approach for him should be line drives between right center and left center. Stay up the middle. That’s what we want to see him do. get on base, use your legs, and get more consistent. But problem is he’s been so inconsistent um on both sides of the ball that it’s just infuriating fans. So, let’s hope he gets it together. We got the trade deadline now a couple of days away. Uh Dustin May has been somebody that we saw mentioned today. I’m going to pull up his baseball savant uh stats here real quick. And also the Yankees apparently had looked into trading Bellinger and Gold Schmidt uh if it turned out that Aaron Judge was going to need Tommy John surgery, which thank God he doesn’t. But Dustin May is a guy who is interesting to me. Uh let’s pull up his statcast numbers. So last year you see he was 4-1 with uh a 2.63 RA and nine starts. This year he has not been as good. Six and seven, 4.85. He has 104 innings. He’s got 97 strikeouts. I’ve always liked his delivery. He’s got kind of like a big leg kick. It can be kind of like, I don’t know, confusing to to hitters. It can throw them off a little bit. Uh hitters will say guys like him that are 66, 180, and and have kind of a funky motion all arms and legs. That’s what they’ll describe. Now, on the Statcast numbers, they’re not great. He does keep the ball on the ground. He’s got a ton of extension. Got a good breaking ball. He throws the sweeper. the fast ball. I mean, it’s 94 95. That should be plenty if you’re throwing strikes, but the walk percentage is low. So, I mean, it’s somebody to look at. Tonight, I was watching Sandy Alcantara or Al Alcantra. I’m going to pull up his numbers, too, because he looked unbelievable tonight. I’m talking 99 pitch after pitch after pitch. Now, if you look at his numbers overall on the year, they’re dog [ __ ] He’s got a 6.42 ERA. He’s 5-9. Uh he struck out less than a hitter per inning. He’s got a 1.42 whip, but it takes some guys longer to come back from Tommy John surgery. But the fast ball’s there, the sinker is there, the ground ball percentage is there. He’s somebody I think that has the arm. He just needs to get back into the pitching lab. Uh and if I were the Yankees, I would see if I could buy low on Sandy Alcantra at the trade deadline. He’s he’s he could be the guy. He could be the guy. Uh, we’re going to get to some voicemails here. Just a reaction. There’s a call about Vulpi. All right, it’s Mike again. So, Vulpi got the go-ahead RBI in the bottom of the fourth, then got a run in by stealing third and costing an error. I still stand by what I said. A year’s worth of free soda for him. Yeah. And we got another a call from him. Hey Derek, it’s Mike. It’s about 8 o’clock. I see the Rays game is on. I just got home. Uh, haven’t turned it on just yet. I see the score is three to nothing. Bottom the third. Yanks about to go up. I’m assuming that Vulpi made an error. And at this point, I’m willing to trade Vulpi for a year’s worth of Coca-Cola. Just let your Aaron Boon tell everyone he’s [ __ ] elite. I should have played those in the opposite order. I had him named wrong. But anyway, um yeah, I mean, first of all, as someone who is a diabetic, don’t drink soda. It’s bad for you. It’s garbage. Don’t drink soda. Um, by the way, this podcast sponsored by Pepsi. No, I’m just kidding. Uh, so no, definitely don’t drink soda. But I I I read a report that the Yankees are going to look at shortstop solutions after the break, but I don’t know who you can really realistically trade him for or who you could get. Amed Rosario could theoretically play some shortstop, but then that takes away from what you brought him in to do, which is dispel both McMahon and Dominguez as a right-handed hitter uh in either left field or or or third base. Um, well, he doesn’t play left, but he could pinch hit for Dominguez and then you send somebody else out to left. Uh, or he could play for McMahon against a tough lefty because he mashes lefties. So, that takes that weapon away from him, away from Boone. You know, I don’t want to play PZA at short. We did have a call about that from Willie. Let me go ahead and find that voicemail reel. This is enough. At the top of the inning, I would put Parza at shortstop and take Vi out. You’re not losing anything far as his hitting because both can’t hit anyway, but you would gain something in defense because this is just become [ __ ] ridiculous. Willie feeling um a little feisty tonight. I I um look, I don’t think PZA is a major league player. I I know he’s shown some flashes defensively, but you know, he he seems like he’s not entirely a great baseball IQ guy. You know, we’ve seen him throw the wrong base a few times, things like that. I think you just need to go out and get a better shortstop. You know, I mean, Jazz is probably athletic enough to play shortstop. He’s got the arm, but you can’t keep moving him all around all over the place. I mean, he’s your second baseman. I mean, they might be stuck with Vulpi at short for a while. I don’t know what the deal is. I don’t know what they’re going to do. It was nice game. The boys uh actually running some running the bases well today honestly feeling putting pressure on the defense uh forcing them to make the perfect play to get them out in in some instances there. And uh it’s just nice to see that brand of baseball. We got athletes on the team. You can’t just take that part of their game out of it and uh expect the same result. So yeah, I mean I I love the base running. I I I love the actual playing baseball and trying to manufacture runs. Israel Castillo says George Lombard with a bunch of question marks. Lombard is not ready. I’m going to pull up his numbers. We keep hearing that George Lombard uh play shortstop. Well, George Lombard is hitting like 200 in in DoubleA. Let me pull up his numbers. I don’t know his exact numbers. He did hit a home run tonight. He’s got like five home runs in double A, but I mean he’s hitting 242 on the season in double A. I mean, this just I mean that’s actually combined double A and AAA or double A and uh single A. So, he’s just not having a good year. Uh he’s got six home runs. He does have some stolen bases, 373 on base percentage, and but he’s 20 years old. He’s just not ready. Do we really want to rush another guy to the major leagues? Didn’t work out well last time. Anyway, 28 Quest says, “Stellar defense.” Stellar defense. All right, quick word from the guys at Foul Territory, then I’ll be back to take a few more uh comments. Krat, at some point we’re going to laugh about how healthc care was so reactive and not proactive. And we’re starting to change that with superpower. They believe every human has 100 plus year potential. And they’re here to help you get there. I’m a big believer in this. I just started the journey, so I’m excited about it. And what do you think? As a player, you’re always looking ways to improve yourself, improve your health, and this is an easy, easy way. Superpowers made it way easier than when I was playing. You had to go get all these lab panels, and it was a long drawn out expensive process, but now with Superpowers, so this is awesome for me. I’m excited about it. They’ll send a licensed professional to your home, or you can visit a nearby lab. For a limited time, the FT fam can get $50 off an annual superpower membership by using code foul at checkout. Just head to superpower.com and use code FO to get our exclusive discount, your biology decoded, your blueprint activated with superpower. After your purchase, they’ll ask you where you heard about them. And please support FT and tell them we sent you. That ball is high. It is apparently um Meredith Morocco asked Boone if Vulpi’s errors are becoming mental and he said he’ll get through it. So that’s pretty much a concession that they are. You know, he’s a young player. He’s struggling, but um we have a low tolerance for that. Uh unfortunately, as Yankees fans, I mean, we’ve seen this happen before. you know, Clint Frasier, you know, Greg Bird, uh, guys once they stop hitting, uh, if their defense is falling apart, too. I mean, you’re not going to last long because the crowd’s going to start booing. And the crowd was booing a lot tonight. He he somewhat redeemed himself with that big home run, but then they started booing again when he made that error in the ninth inning. So, uh, anyway, uh, but, uh, Stephanie Mallister says, “Yes, they rushed Vulpi. Did him no favors.” So, hey, I agree with you 100%. Uh, nice job by the Yankees to gain a game and a half tonight. One more time. [Applause] You’re a winner. I want to give a shout out to the Martian tonight. Uh, multi-hit game, continuing to play solid baseball. also ran down a couple of balls in the outfield. I he’s he’s just showing steady improvement, showing that the minor league system can occasionally develop players. Although, you know, I have a feeling if he was coming up with A’s, he’d be hitting three and four home runs a game. But, uh, anyway, good night for Jason Dominguez. Yankees overall good night. They gained some in the standings now just four games back, but got to keep it going. I would imagine there’s going to be some moves over the next couple of days, so stay tuned. I will be at the ready here to break news if anything happens. We’ll see you then. If you made it this far, do us a favor. Hit the like button, hit the subscribe button, and join our community. You can also be a part of the show by calling in at 7188991068. Also, part of the way that we maintain and fund all of this is through nydesigns.shop. Check it out now. Get all sorts of fun Yankees merch. Hats, hoodies, zip ups, beanies, mugs, you name it, we’ve got it. Check it out. nydesigns.shop. And check out Pinstripe Territory on all your favorite podcast platforms. We are the official Yankees podcast of the Foul Territory Network. We’re here for postgame shows after every single game. And we’re here before a lot of games to talk about the game, preview the lineup, the pitching matchups, and things like that. and we’re here all off season to talk about the latest in Yankees rumors, news, etc. Join our community. We’ll see you next time. [Music]

0:00 Intro
1:54 Game Recap, Key Takeaways & Belt Winner
7:54 Max Fried Spotlight
9:15 Ryan McMahon Looking Solid
10:17 Volpe Struggles Continue
15:28 Trade Deadline Thursday
17:34 Voicemails
21:55 Superpower
22:55 Audience Reactions
24:50 Outro

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