​CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – AUGUST 02: José Caballero #72 of the New York Yankees runs the bases for his two-run home run in the third inning of the game between the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on August 02, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Griffin Quinn/Getty Images) | Getty Images I don’t know what I expect anyone to do about this. I am not sure there is anything that realistically can be done about this. But ye gods, the Yankee offense is putrid. Rancid. Foul. Pick your adjective. Regression and injury have laid waste to the Yankees and there is no 6-foot-7, three-time MVP and single-season home run king riding to the rescue any time soon.We’ll see what if anything the Yankees do at the deadline to bolster the offense (live editing update: hello, Luis Garcia Jr.) but I have strong doubts it will be enough to make a meaningful difference. Too many automatic outs litter the lineup. Accordingly, the pressure on the pitching staff is extraordinary. On Sunday, Gerrit Cole and the Yankee bullpen were up to the challenge and got just enough offense to eke out a series win, finishing this road trip at 6-4.Cubs starter Colin Rea entered today with one of the worst K% in all of baseball – in the 12th percentile, to be exact. So of course, a lineup that only a 2013 Yankees fan could love proceeded to strike out five consecutive times to start. Not until Jazz Chisholm Jr. put a ball in play to end the second inning did a Yankee hitter manage to square up Rea. It’s not what you want.In the third, we got an all-too-brief glimpse of what happens when you make contact with the baseball. After Ryan McMahon led off the frame with a single to right, José Caballero demolished a Rea offering to center field. Suddenly, the Yanks led 2-0.View LinkIt was the first time in 42 innings that New York scored more than one run in an inning. Gross! (But at least the streak was over.)Gerrit Cole, meanwhile, picked up where he left off in his last start. He spun three scoreless innings to start Sunday, finally yielding a run when Michael Busch hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.Unfortunately, the offense went back to its factory setting (feckless) after the Caballero home run. So, Cole had no room for error. In the sixth, that looked like it would haunt the Yankees. Pete Crow-Armstrong walked and Seiya Suzuki singled, putting runners on first and third with no one out. Cole retired Busch on a fly out but a terrible throw from Jasson Domínguez allowed both runners to advance, killing the possibility of a double play.Cole struck out Alex Bregman but a walk to Ian Happ ended Cole’s day, after 99 pitches with the bases loaded and two outs. Brent Headrick entered and, after falling behind Nico Hoerner, 3-0, induced a harmless fly ball to center. Crisis averted. Cole’s final line: a perfectly cromulent 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K.View LinkHeadrick came back out for the seventh and struck out the side, passing the ball to Paul Blackbu