The Yankees dropped today’s game against the Giants, 7-5. Fortunately, the season isn’t over, as there are still 160 games left to play. The lineup wasn’t able to string together enough runs to outlast the Giants, and a few mental lapses were the difference in this one. The 9th inning made things close, and there was no real quit in the lineup. It was also Clarke Schmidt’s first start of the year, and aside from one real rough inning, he was pretty decent.
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Bullpen struggles put this one out of reach for the Yankees:
Schmidt pitched three quality innings, albeit he did toss a lot of pitches. The 4th inning is where it all went wrong. He ended up giving up a pair of homers and completely lost control. His line for the evening was 3.1 innings, 3 ER, 5 H, and 5 Ks. It wasn’t the worst performance from Schmidt, but it certainly left more to be desired.
Wandy followed suit and pitched a solid inning in relief, racking up a pair of K’s in the process. Following Wandy, Michael King came in and made his 2023 debut. He would end up loading the bases, and a mental mistake by Trevi would allow a run to score. King ended up giving up another, struck out a trio, and pitched 1.2 innings worth.
After him, Albert Abreu came in and was the best arm today. He threw two scoreless frames, struck out three guys, and didn’t give up a hit. It was a fantastic sign for him, and hopefully, he’s able to build on it as the season goes on. Clay Holmes came in and gave up a few base knocks and another run in the 9th, which did the Yankees in. It wasn’t the best debut, but I’m confident he’ll find his legs, and this will be a blip in a couple of weeks.
The lineup did well, and the 9th inning was exciting:
The lineup hit pretty well today as a whole, though they weren’t able to capitalize numerous times with runners on. All told, they ended up stranding 14 guys total on the evening. Anthony Volpe picked up his first Major-League hit on the day, a base knock to left field. Interestingly enough, Derek Jeter’s first hit was also a base knock to the left side. He then added another ball hit right back up the middle in the 9th inning. A nice two-hit day for the Yankees’ top prospect.
Josh Donaldson and Giancarlo Stanton both got on the board with their first homers of the year and for JD, it was a very welcome sight. He’s now got a pair of hits on the year, including that dinger. Oswaldo Cabrera also got on the stat sheet with a hit of his own, and both Rizzo and DJ were able to smack some knocks as well.
Aaron Judge continued his great debut game, as he smacked a trio of base hits on the evening with an RBI as well, it’s clear he is picking up right where he left off last season. It’s never easy to repeat as MVP, though he is as good as anyone I’ve watched play, so maybe he’ll be able to do the improbable. He’s clearly one of the best hitters in the game, and he also made a diving catch in CF today. All around, it was a fantastic game from the AL MVP.
The boys played well but just fell flat as the game went on. The 9th inning provided some fireworks, but sadly the Yankees were unable to get the job done. They ended up tallying a run, courtesy of Aaron Judge and loaded the bases only for Giancarlo to ground into a double play. The bullpen not pitching as well as expected certainly didn’t help, but it’s a long season, so there should be no cause for concern this early on.
They resume play tomorrow, as Jhony Brito will be on the bump. The Yankees will look to rebound from today’s tough loss and get back over .500. Sadly, the hope of going 162-0 is no more, but 161-1 still sounds fine to me.