Daily Report – 4/7/26
Yankees
The Yankees took two of three games against the Miami Marlins this weekend. Despite Sunday’s loss, which prompted a series of difficult questions, the Yankees demonstrated grit on Saturday, overcoming a 4-0 deficit in three hours and 49 minutes, the longest MLB game since the pitch clock was implemented in 2023.
There was a lot to like about Saturday’s win. Despite a poor start by Ryan Weathers, who couldn’t complete the fourth inning, the Yankees kept grinding. They manufactured runs, especially Giancarlo Stanton, who, in the seventh inning, walked, stole his first base in the regular season since 2020, and found home plate on a passed ball.
Despite Camilo Doval’s difficult eighth inning, which allowed Miami to tie the game at six, the Yankees rallied back in the bottom half. Ryan McMahon, Aaron Judge, and Ben Rice all walked before Stanton drove in two with a single. David Bednar couldn’t toss a clean ninth, due, in part, to a defensive miscue by Jazz Chisholm Jr., but he only conceded one run as the Yankees emerged victorious.
“The quality of at-bats never went away,” Aaron Boone said. “It’s a scoring competition, not a hit competition. It seemed like everyone had a big at-bat tonight in some way, shape, or form.”
However, on Sunday, the Yankees’ lineup didn’t have enough juice to overcome bullpen struggles. After a 3:35 rain delay, Max Fried was off his game. He conceded three runs off five hits, but he pitched into the seventh inning, providing some much-needed rest for an overworked bullpen lacking a sufficient number of trustworthy arms.
Fried only conceded a single run in the first inning, and a three-run blast by Ben Rice put the Yankees ahead in the bottom half. “I gave up one in the first, and then [Rice] hits the home run in the first,” Fried said. “I ended up giving up three, which cuts down the lead. There were some things that definitely could have been avoided.”
The Yankees added on in the third as scheduled starter Chris Paddack finally entered the game, which closer Pete Fairbanks started to ensure he had enough time to get home for his child’s birth. Aaron Judge doubled sharply to center field, and Cody Bellinger walked before Ben Rice’s hard contact forced a throwing error that plated Judge.
Rice’s 1.380 OPS is the highest among Major League hitters, and his three walks on Sunday contributed to the record-setting 30 the Yankees recorded throughout the series. Meanwhile, Ryan McMahon’s .087 (2-for-23) average is the third-lowest in the Majors. He netted a much-needed single in Sunday’s sixth inning, but overall, he has done little to support the struggling bottom-third of the Yankees’ lineup.
McMahon, José Caballero, and Austin Wells have combined for a .128 average (10-for-78) to start the season, and McMahon’s sixth-inning single represented their lone hit on Sunday. Tonight, despite facing a right-handed starter, the Yankees will play Amed Rosario instead of McMahon, who Boone said “is a little in-between. He doesn’t want to chase or make bad decisions, which is great, but you’ve also got to go up there and let it rip. It’s an early-season scuffle.”
The bottom of the lineup’s struggles have contributed to the Yankees’ .241 batting average with runners in scoring position, which ranks 20th in the league. “We need to get some more production down there,” Boone said. “We will.”
In the eighth inning on Sunday, things got dicey. Fernando Cruz, who only threw five pitches on Saturday, was 16 pitches into his relief appearance when he dealt a one-out walk to Jakob Marsee. Instead of giving one of his best relievers the chance to redeem himself, Boone summoned Jake Bird from the bullpen.
Bird enjoyed a resurgent start to his season after spending the end of last year in Triple-A. He became one of Boone’s top right-handed firefighters out of the pen. But this time, he started a fire he couldn’t put out. He walked Otto Lopez on four pitches and hit Griffin Conine with his fifth before Graham Pauley mashed a go-ahead double on a center-cut sweeper, Bird’s first of the game.
Bird’s sweeper is how he differentiates himself from other right-handed pitchers. It is rare for a righty reliever to flash a sweeper, let alone one that breaks as far as his. But it isn’t a coincidence that Bird hadn’t thrown a sweeper yet, and his first was non-competitive.
“I gave them freebies,” Bird said. “You should never, ever give freebies. That’s not big league baseball.”
Bird faced three batters before Ryan Yarbrough replaced him. He inherited two baserunners, who both scored on Xavier Edwards’s single, extending Miami’s lead to 7-4. Yarbrough is a long reliever, not a leverage arm, but as Boone pointed out regarding his bullpen, “We were pretty short down there today.”
Entering the season, the Yankees’ bullpen was their greatest concern. A couple of tough outings for setup man Doval and closer Bednar have magnified the bullpen’s issues. The Yankees need more out of guys like Bird, who have been handed expectations far higher than their career achievements should permit. Brent Headrick has received similar accolades, but unlike some of his teammates, he has shown why, pitching to a 0.00 ERA with seven strikeouts in five innings.
Trailing by three, the Yankees’ offense continued to pressure Miami in the bottom of the ninth inning. Bellinger and Rice both walked, and after Stanton got jammed on a sweeper, Jazz Chisholm Jr. served an outside pitch into right field for a much-needed double. His batting average is an unimpressive .194, but he hopes this hit will help him improve.
“We don’t think the game is over until the last out, until the umpire calls the last out, or the last strike, so for us, we always go out there battling until the last minute,” Chisholm said.
Although the Yankees couldn’t sweep Miami, they never wavered in the batter’s box. But wait — Boone made one more questionable decision.
After Chisholm’s knock, Miami intentionally walked Austin Wells, loading the bases for José Caballero. In his place, Boone selected JC Escarra from the bench, favoring his left-handed bat against a right-handed pitcher. Although he hits lefties better than righties, Paul Goldschmidt might have been a better choice; Escarra’s resume shouldn’t grant him the right over Goldschmidt to come off the bench with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
It took just three pitches for Escarra to strike out swinging, ending the game for New York. It was a position the Yankees could have avoided if their pitching had been better, but it forces me, as a fan, to wonder if Boone still favors analytics over the “eye test,” which would have selected someone else to hit in that spot.
Tonight, RHP Cam Schlittler (2-0, 0.00 ERA) will take the mound against the righty Aaron Civale (1-0, 3.60 ERA) as the Yankees begin a three-game set against the Athletics (7:05 PM, 6:05 PM CDT – YES, Gotham Sports).
Here is tonight’s starting lineup for the New York Yankees:
CF Trent Grisham (L)
RF Aaron Judge (C) (R)
LF Cody Bellinger (L)
1B Ben Rice (L)
DH Giancarlo Stanton (R)
2B Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L)
3B Amed Rosario (R)
C Austin Wells (L)
SS José Caballero (R)
SP: RHP Cam Schlittler (2-0, 0.00 ERA)
Schedule
7:05 PM (6:05 PM CDT): NYY vs. ATH; YES, Gotham Sports; SP: RHP Cam Schlittler (2-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Aaron Civale (1-0, 3.60 ERA)
