Daily Report – 4/13/26
Yankees
After getting swept by the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend, the Yankees have lost five straight games, falling from 8-2 to 8-7. At The Trop in St. Pete, the Yankees lost three tight games as the Rays swept them for the first time since 2021.
“Running it back” has gotten off to a shaky start for the Yankees’ offense, which has hit to a .202 average in 15 games; that is good for the third-worst team average in the Majors. Things are going to click eventually for this offense, but it didn’t show in St. Petersburg this weekend.
Perhaps more concerning is the Yankees’ evident lack of bullpen depth and defensive IQ. Although David Bednar was pitching in the bottom of the 10th inning on Saturday, which the Yankees entered leading 4-3, small ball plagued the defense around him. The Rays peppered the Yankees with bloops and blips all weekend long, and their speedy baserunning proved insurmountable.
In the bottom of Saturday’s 10th inning, Tampa Bay tied the game on a bunt single by Taylor Walls. Bednar fielded the grounder to the side of the mound, but his throw didn’t reach home plate in time. Two batters later, with the winning run 90 feet away, Jonathan Aranda grounded a splittler to second base, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. fell as he tried to field a ball he couldn’t clearly read with Cody Bellinger leaping in front of him.
Chisholm’s defensive miscue was mind-boggling. How could he fumble a simple ground ball? He probably wouldn’t have made the out at home, but he could have turned a double play. However, if the runner at third had touched home plate before either out was made, the Rays still would have won.
The only viable double plays, since the bases were loaded with one out, would have been to throw home first for the force out and then attempt another out at first base, or to tag the runner from first on his way to second before throwing to first.
“The best thing I was going to try to do is to swing at [the hitter], and hopefully he backed out of the line, and they call him out of the baseline and throw it to first base and get that double play,” Chisholm said.
Chisholm also admitted, live on air, that he didn’t know the rule, and Trent Grisham, still live on air, explained it to him. If you rewatch the play, Chisholm’s error wasn’t as egregious as the media made it out to be, but it is still confusing why he couldn’t field the ball at all, and why he didn’t know the rule.
Chisholm was right to attempt to tag the runner from first, but as Grisham informed him, the runner from third would have reached home plate before the double play was turned. The Yankees’ second baseman has endured an awful start to the season, which he proclaimed would end in 50-50 fashion. So far, Chisholm is 10-for-56 (.179) with 17 strikeouts, zero home runs, and six stolen bases. His early slump has contributed mightily to the Yankees’ offensive struggles.
Chisholm’s 10th-inning blunder wasn’t his only defensive mistake on Saturday. In the bottom of the eighth inning, after the Yankees took a 3-1 lead in the top half, Yandy Díaz plated the tying run by bouncing a pitch toward second base. Ben Rice cut Chisholm off to make the play, thinking he could nail a throw home. Regardless of whether he would have thrown home or to first base, once he realized his pitcher wasn’t moving, Chisholm should have covered first base.
The mistake turned a simple groundout into an awkward RBI single, and it set the table for extra innings. Chisholm was the first Yankee to hit in the top of the 10th, and he couldn’t advance the ghost runner from second base. José Caballero two-out singled to bring him home, but it wasn’t enough.
In short, Chisholm had his fingerprints all over Saturday’s loss. “It sucks. Coming out, working hard to get back out front. Tough loss,” Chisholm said. “They played good and did good baserunning, hit at the right times. We didn’t. We’ll get better with that as the season goes on, but at the same time, we didn’t execute today.”
I decided to chop up Friday’s loss and focus on the other two games. The Yankees lost 5-4 again yesterday, with a late rally, including a home run by Aaron Judge, proving insufficient. Before the game, Aaron Boone was asked if he believed Chisholm didn’t know the rule when he made that game-ending blunder the night before.
“He’s not confused [about] it,” Boone said. “I think that’s kind of the default answer when he’s got [reporters] in front of him. Look, it turns out to be a tough play. Watching it back, there might have been a chance where, if he gets it cleanly, he gets the tag off. It’s hard to know exactly how [Yandy] Díaz reacts in that moment. Once it chops like that, you know it’s going to be a tough one to turn the normal 4-6-3.”
Boone also pointed out that Chisholm’s mistake was magnified by his offensive struggles, which have been magnified by his team’s poor production at the plate, which has been magnified by a five-game losing streak. That continued yesterday as the Yankees lost their fifth straight contest. Drew Rasmussen, Tampa Bay’s starter, yielded a single hit off 76 pitches in six innings.
On the other side, Cam Schlittler wasn’t great, yielding three runs and seven hits. He recorded eight strikeouts and walked a single batter, his first of the season, after facing 70 batters without any walks. He also recorded a career-high 21 whiffs. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with his performance.
But it wasn’t Schlittler’s fault that the Yankees got swept. The only pitcher worth blaming is Brent Headrick, but he has exceeded expectations in a bullpen short on left-handed relievers. In the eighth inning, Headrick conceded Tampa Bay’s fifth run, which proved to be the game-winner. Once again, the Yankees lost on a small ball play.
“A bad weekend for us, obviously,” Boone said. “We stayed in some close games, but we’ve got to find a way to get over the hump and do a better job of finishing these games off.”
The Yankees, who fell to 0-6 in one-run games, began the seventh inning down 3-0, but a double by Rice (initially ruled a home run) and a walk by Judge led to an RBI single by Bellinger that put the Bombers on the board. Chisholm advanced both runners on a groundout before Tampa Bay changed pitchers.
Giancarlo Stanton then drove in a run to cut the deficit to one before Austin Wells lined out sharply to left field. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Ryan Yarbrough failed to press the brake pedal as Chandler Simpson tripled. Camilo Doval replaced Yarrbough, but Junior Caminero skied a 99 mph cutter to left field for a sacrifice fly.
In the top of the eighth, after Ryan McMahon miraculously recorded his fourth hit in 35 at-bats, José Caballero skidded into a double play, and Grisham followed with another groundout. In the bottom of the inning, the Rays extended their lead off Brent Headrick.
This was the small ball play that killed the Yankees yesterday: A one-out bunt by Walls in the eighth inning, who tied Saturday’s game with a similar play. The ball, of course, wasn’t thrown home in time. Ben Rice was the culprit.
“It’s a tough game, and we’re expected to go out there and win,” Judge said. “We’re expected to go out there and put our team in the best position. When things aren’t going your way, guys try to do a little extra. We’re going to be in a good spot. It’s been an up-and-down year so far, but it’s still early.”
The captain was the only player who provided optimism yesterday. In the top of the ninth inning, he hit his fourth home run of the season, crushing the eighth pitch he saw to right-center field to put the Yankees in striking distance. With his team trailing by one run, Bellinger struck out swinging before Chisholm grounded out, and Amed Rosario doubled off the center field wall.
The Rays then opted to walk Wells to pitch to the struggling McMahon, and their decision paid off. McMahon grounded the first pitch he saw to first base, ending the game as quietly as it started.
“I’ve been a little late on the fastball,” McMahon said. “So, I was trying to get ready for the fastball, and he threw me a changeup on a good line for a heater, and I was a little bit out front.”
Tonight, at 7:05 PM (6:05 PM CDT), the Yankees will send RHP Will Warren (1-0, 3.07 ERA) to the mound against the lefty Yusei Kikuchi (0-2, 6.75 ERA). Tonight’s game marks the first of four against the Los Angeles Angels, and the first of seven straight home games (YES, Gotham Sports).
Here is tonight’s starting lineup for the New York Yankees:
1B Paul Goldschmidt (R)
RF Aaron Judge (C) (R)
CF Cody Bellinger (L)
DH Giancarlo Stanton (R)
3B Amed Rosario (R)
2B Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L)
LF Randal Grichuk (R)
SS José Caballero (R)
C Austin Wells (L)
SP: RHP Will Warren (1-0, 3.07 ERA)
Schedule
7:00 PM (6:00 PM CDT): NYR at FLA – Jonathan Quick’s Final Game; MSG, Gotham Sports
7:05 PM (6:05 PM CDT): NYY vs. LAA; YES, Gotham Sports; SP: RHP Will Warren (1-0, 3.07 ERA) vs. LHP Yusei Kikuchi (0-2, 6.75 ERA)
