Clarke Schmidt allowed three runs in the top half of the first inning, and Yankees batters could only muster five hits in response in a 4-0 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday night in The Bronx.
New York was shut out for just the second time this season as they left six runners on base and went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. The Yankees struck out 10 times and fell to 37-22 on the year, 19-9 at home.
"We just didn't mount much offensively tonight," manager Aaron Boone said after the game. "I thought we got pitched pretty tough; we just didn't have a great night. It happens in the 162."
Here are the takeaways...
- Schmidt issued a walk to Steven Kwan to start the top of the first and then served up a 394-foot home run on the first pitch to Angel Martínez, as the cutter hung right over the heart of the plate. José Ramírez took a cutter at the top of the zone for a double to right and came around to score on a two-out Daniel Schneemann double to right as he tagged the knuckle-curve. The right-hander's 26th pitch of the inning ended the frame, blowing a fastball past Gabriel Arias, Cleveland’s lone right-handed batter in the starting lineup.
After the first, Schmidt settled down and retired 12 of the next 14 batters, allowing just a pair of two-out singles while tallying six strikeouts. "He stayed true to his stuff," Boone said, adding that mixing in his curveball and fastball allowed him to "settle in" against the lefty-heavy lineup.
Cleveland put two on with one out in the sixth on a single and a checked-swing infield hit, leading to Matt Blake’s second mound visit of the night. The pitching coach said the right words as Schmidt got Arias swinging for the third time of the night. Boone summoned lefty Brent Headrick to get the final out to strand a pair.
Schmidt’s final line: 5.2 innings, three runs, seven hits, one walk, eight strikeouts on 91 pitches (64 strikes) to see his ERA rise to 4.04 on the year.
- Ben Rice, who lined out in the first when he smashed a ball (102.9 mph off the bat) to the opposite way, had better luck in the third inning, rocketing a single to right (108.8 mph) to give Aaron Judge a two-out chance with two runners on base. But Cleveland starter Luis Ortiz got Judge looking at a breaking pitch right over the plate to end the frame.
The Guardians' righty gave Yanks batters tons of trouble through the first five frames, tallying seven strikeouts with two hits (both singles) and two walks. Ortiz had 13 whiffs on 40 swings with 14 called strikes, and his slider was particularly good.
"He kinda kept us at bay and we really didn't sting the ball much off him at all," Boone said of Ortiz's start. "Pretty slow night for us offensively."
Judge, who singled his first time up, got his second hit of the night with two outs in the sixth, which ended Ortiz’s night. But lefty Tim Herrin stranded the inherited runner.
- Against Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase in the ninth, Rice grabbed an infield hit to second, but Judge went down swinging, before Cody Bellinger sliced a ground-rule double on a ball that just stayed fair down the left-field line. But in just their second and third at-bats with a runner in scoring position on the night (and first since the third inning), Clase got two strikeouts to close the door.
Rice finished the day 2-for-4, grounding into a rare 5-3 double play thanks to a Cleveland shift on a tapper toward the middle. Judge also went 2-for-4 with two strikeouts as his average rose to .389 on the year. Bellinger finished with one hit in four at-bats as he is in a 5-for-30 funk, but did end a streak of eight games without an extra-base hit.
- Anthony Volpe grounded out three times, but accounted for five outs as he bounced into 5-4-3 and 4-6-3 twin killings to finish 0-for-3. He entered the night hitting into just two double-plays in his first 58 games of the campaign.
- Paul Goldschmidt was 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Jazz Chisholm Jr., in his second game back from the IL, struck out swinging in each of his first two at-bats. He finished 0-for-3, reaching on an error in the seventh.
- Austin Wells was hitless in three at-bats with a strikeout.
- DJ LeMahieu finished 0-for-3 with a strikeout looking.
- Trent Grisham went 0-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout
- Out of the bullpen: Headrick allowed a hit but only faced four batters thanks to a double-play ball in 1.2 innings.
Fernando Cruz, making his first appearance since May 17 after an IL stint, struck out the first two batters swinging at his devastating splitter to start the eighth, but left a 1-0 fastball up over the plate to Kyle Manzardo, who clobbered it 402 feet into the Yankee bullpen. Schneemann followed with a double to the right-field corner, but Cruz got Arias swinging at a splitter in the dirt to strand the runner.
A couple singles off Tim Hill put two on and one out in the ninth, but the lefty got a strikeout and a foul popout. Yankees pitchers surrendered 12 hits and a walk, but stranded eight runners by holding the visitors to 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
What's next
The three-game series concludes on Thursday night with a 7:05 first pitch.
Left-hander Max Fried (1.92 ERA, 0.973 WHIP in 75 innings) gets the ball for the home team. Righty Slade Cecconi (5.28 ERA, 1.435 WHIP in 15.1 innings) gets the ball for the visitors.
