161 Games for Nothing.

It's the bottom of the ninth inning. Jazz Chisholm Jr. just grounded into the most obvious fielder's choice imaginable. Up next is the leadoff hitter: Trent Grisham?

A National Embarrassment: The Sequel

For the second time in as many years, the Yankees were just embarrassed on national TV by their division rival, the Tampa Bay Rays. In a best‑of‑five series, the Yankees were thoroughly dismantled in convincing fashion over three games. The Tampa Bay Rays celebrated on the field at Yankee Stadium. Stop me if you've heard this before.

Game 1

All the momentum is on the Yankees' side. They're riding high after thoroughly dismantling the Boston Red Sox, outscoring them 18 to 2. Their former ace, Gerrit Cole, is on the mound, and his manager is on the record saying that he likes the way he performs at the Trop. Sure enough, Cole pitches well: five innings pitched, one earned run, five strikeouts, one walk. Not a bad showing, especially after coming off Tommy John surgery. What about the offense, you ask? They must have still been waiting in New York. Stop me if you've heard this before.

The offense in question did not show up until the seventh inning of the game. The Yankees were no-hit by the Tampa Bay Rays until the seventh inning of a playoff game. Read that again. The NEW YORK YANKEES were NO-HIT in a PLAYOFF GAME. Stop me if you've heard this before.

Game 2

All of the momentum is now on Tampa's side. The one savior? Cam Schlittler. The final blow? The New York Yankees. The first ball put in play: error. The next ball put in play: error. The inning-ending strikeout: walked back due to catcher's interference, an error. Later, a routine ground ball: error. Stop me if you've heard this before.

Cam Schlittler. Was he dominant? No. Did he have his best stuff? Absolutely not. Did he do everything to keep the Yankees in this game, even when his defense was betraying him? Yes. The only bright spot from this game is Schlittler, and you really have to dig to find it. Even without his best stuff, he gave the Yankees a fighting chance and kept them in the game long enough. Unfortunately, the rest of his team let him down. Stop me if you've heard this before.

Game 3

The season is quite literally on the line. So Boone and the Yankees decide to take their BEST hitter out of the leadoff spot, where he's been smashing baseballs, and instead put Trent Grisham there. You remember Trent Grisham, don't you? The guy who somehow hit 40 home runs last year and accepted the Yankees qualifying offer. Yeah, that guy! Who coulda thunk it: that came back to bite us in the ass! Stop me if you've heard this before.

The lineup wasn't the only problem. Once again, the Yankees found themselves forgetting how to put the ball in play. Every opportunity to build momentum and take back the series was squandered. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay made the fundamentals of baseball look like a revolutionary new concept that nobody across the field had ever heard of. Situational hitting, active baserunning, executing the damn fundamentals. The Yankees consistently failed at everything.

And then came the bottom of the ninth.

Two outs. The season is on life support. Ben Rice, one of the few hitters you actually want standing in the batter's box with the game on the line, waiting in the on-deck circle. And who's standing at the plate? Trent. MF. Grisham.

You couldn't have scripted it any better. The exact scenario that made the lineup announcement so infuriating was now playing out in front of everybody. And, just like anyone with a pulse could have predicted, Grisham struck out swinging at a pitch he had no business swinging at.

Season over. Just like that.

Postgame Clarity

Look, I don't even need to take time to think about the state of this team, their thought process, the way they evaluate players, talent, and the overall season as a whole. This flat‑out was a national embarrassment. For the second time in a row, the Yankees have been eliminated by their division rival; they've been swept by their division rival, and they've been embarrassed in front of the entire world.

I don't even know how it's remotely possible for a team to perform the way the Yankees perform every October. It's like a switch is flipped at Yankee Stadium, and they decide, “You know what? Let’s forget how to play baseball. Let’s forget how to watch the ball go into our gloves. Let’s forget how to hit. Let’s forget how to put together good at‑bats. Let’s forget how to take pitches. Oh, and then let’s also forget that we have a challenge system now, that maybe, I don’t know, in the last at‑bat of the season you’d want to challenge a pitch that’s a foot off the plate." Instead, you swing out of your shoes on an 86‑mph changeup, and then you swing at a pitch in the right‑handed batter’s box.

Explain to me how and why Trent Grisham was in this lineup at all to begin with, and then try to explain why he was up batting leadoff. Because the exact situation that every Yankee fan envisioned in their head when they saw this lineup came to pass: bottom of the ninth inning, two outs, Ben Rice in the on‑deck circle while the walking-out known as Trent Grisham is at the dish, swinging at pitches that are in the other team’s dugout. It’s simple. We’re not a serious baseball team, and every other team knows it.

I went back and read my postgame‑rant about the state of the Yankees last year when we got embarrassed in front of everybody again. It's the same thing. And to be honest, we shouldn't be surprised. They decided to run it back. They told us they were going to use the same team. They gave us the blueprint, and they gave the rest of the league the blueprint.

The Yankees literally proclaimed to the world, "you beat us last year by just putting the ball in play and then making good pitches. And we're going to let you do it again." We got lucky we ran into a garbage team in Boston. When we run into a single team that has, I don't know, an ounce of thought that goes into their lineup construction and the way they develop their players, we get exposed for the frauds that we are. I mean, the Boston series made Aaron Boone look like he was Joe Torre, which is absurd because he just got outplayed in every single step of the way by Kevin Cash. What are we doing?

It's (still) Right in Front of Us

Ah. You remember this nugget of gold from Yankees manager Aaron Boone? “It’s right in front of us,” he said so confidently before slamming the desk like he was upset. Just like last year, it was never right in front of us. This team showed us exactly who and what they are from the moment the season started, just like last year. Last year was different because I could confidently say the team's performance was pathetic. And yes, that’s true again this year, and they deserve all of the shame and ridicule that they’re going to get online and from the rest of the world for their performance in this series.

But unlike last year, this also shows another side to the pathetic nature of this all, and it’s me. It’s us, the fans. Because every single year for the last nine years, we have sat and watched this team for 162 games, well, 161 this year, with the belief that they actually have a chance to win the World Series. Game 2 showed exactly who they were: an unserious, poorly managed, and undisciplined baseball team.

For the first time in my life, I had zero faith in the Yankees. Not a single shred of faith. I watched Game 3 with the most emotionless face because I knew that when it came down to the final out of the game, we wouldn't have our best player at the dish, since he's not even on the roster.

Exactly what I feared would happen with the lineup construction came to pass. I mean, just think about it. Every run the Yankees scored was so difficult. Every clean inning was so difficult. Every run was easy for the Rays, and they pitched their way and carved their way through the Yankees' offense like a hot knife through butter.

It's not hard to beat us. We do it ourselves. And in the postseason, no other team does it quite like the Yankees.

See you in April.