The Yankees went through some ups and downs this past week, with the highs of winning back-to-back games at Fenway with good showings by the offense and the lows of three blown nights in a row. They had leads in each game on Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday, but they all evaporated and two of them came on blown saves from Clay Holmes. The now-All-Star closer is experiencing his first bumps of the season, but Andrew and Kunj still have confidence in him.

The Yankees did rebound to snap the three-game skid with a walk-off win on Wednesday night against the Reds, but they may have lost Luis Severino for awhile in the process. The right-hander departed with shoulder tightness and even if his MRI comes back clean, the Yankees seem likely to use the All-Star break to their advantage and rest him for a bit with the now-healthy Domingo Germán, JP Sears, and others prepared to fill in.

Other topics include the newest Yankees All-Stars, musings on home-field advantage, Jameson Taillon's struggles, Gerrit Cole's Rafael Devers problem, Aaron Hicks' ugly foul, Aaron Judge battling through a slump, the rival Blue Jays canning manager Charlie Montoyo, the Royals affecting trade talks in an unfortunate way, and Matt Carpenter surging into the Yankees' B-Ref Top 12 (because why not?). Then, they wrap up with the Yankee and Manfred of the Week.

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