Daily Report – 7/28/26
Yankees
Doom and gloom. That’s the feeling in Yankee Land right now because Cody Bellinger has joined the list of injured players with unknown return dates. A Grade 2 left hamstring strain will cost him four to six weeks.
Looming over the heads of Yankee fans is the memory of a dire seven-game losing streak, following a similar injury to Trent Grisham, that featured historic offensive lows. The streak was part of a 4-13 stretch that began with a loss to the White Sox on June 18.
But even without Bellinger, Aaron Judge, or Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees have plenty of skill in their lineup, but they certainly don’t have as much slug. In yesterday’s 9-5 win, an unlikely hero stepped up in the wake of extensive conversations surrounding his future in pinstripes.
In his 75th career Major League game, Yankees’ backup catcher Ali Sánchez clubbed his first career home run, a three-run shot in the eighth inning that put the game out of reach for Chicago.
“I thought about [my first home run] in my mind a lot,” Sánchez said. “You always dream to play in the Big Leagues. Having your first homer with a Yankees uniform and getting the ‘W,’ it’s special.”
But earlier today, Jeff Passan reported that the Yankees trading for Ryan Jeffers feels “preordained.” They also signed veteran catcher Christian Bethancourt to a minor league deal today, suggesting they will likely send a catcher to Minnesota if they trade for Jeffers. As of right now, given how much the Yankees value Austin Wells’s defense, the catcher most likely to leave is either Sánchez or JC Escarra.
With the odds of staying a Yankee stacked against him, Sánchez had an excellent night on both sides of the ball yesterday. In addition to his three-run home run, he was the recipient of an impressive defensive relay in the seventh inning that helped his team maintain a one-run lead.
Max Schuemann, filling in for Bellinger in left field, positioned himself perfectly to field a hard-hit double off the wall. He fired it on one hop to Anthony Volpe, who turned and thrust it to Sánchez for the out at home plate. Schuemann took a scary fall in the first inning, which led to his 0-for-5 night at the plate, but he held his own throughout the game.
“Obviously, we’ve had some tough, tough injuries to some really important people,” manager Aaron Boone said before last night’s game. “But again, that is part of it. The season waits for no one. It creates an opportunity, legitimately does, for one or more people to go plug that hole, to develop, [and] to grow.”
Schuemann’s double allowed the White Sox to score three first-inning runs off Max Fried, the most he’d allowed in 44 starts. Coming off a sensational performance on Thursday in his first start in over two months, Fried’s command lacked its usual zest. He exited the game after three innings because he was on a pitch count.
Fried surrendered three runs in the first inning, but the Yankees ground out their at-bats and scored four runs in the fourth frame. Aside from Tim Hill and Camilo Doval, who pitched around two errors, the Yankees’ bullpen was excellent in supporting the team to their 10th win in 14 games.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Colson Montgomery doubled off Hill, tying the game at 4-4. Then, pinch-hitting for Spencer Jones in the seventh inning, Amed Rosario doubled and advanced to third base on an error. Three batters later, on a 1-2 count, Ben Rice punched a go-ahead single into right field. He now leads the American League with 20 go-ahead RBI.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Brent Headrick nearly coughed up the lead, but Schuemann quarterbacked that important relay, keeping the Yankees’ 5-4 advantage intact. Headrick leads the Majors with 45 scoreless appearances this season, and he and the bullpen were critical to the Yankees’ 27th comeback win of the season.
Against Sean Newcomb in the eighth inning, Jasson Domínguez and Volpe singled before Jazz Chisholm Jr. threw the White Sox off with a perfect push bunt. Three batters later, with a full count, Sánchez launched his three-run shot.
“It’s always good when the team is hitting and bringing in runs, and everybody’s up nd down the lineup doing their thing,” Chisholm said. “It just makes baseball a lot more fun and feels a lot more loose.”
The Yankees tried to avoid using David Bednar in the ninth inning, but Doval didn’t give them a choice. He had to work around two defensive errors, including a dropped pop-up by Volpe that scored Chicago’s fifth run. But Bednar was his usual reliable self, using five pitches to strike out Chase Meidroth for the final out.
“It wasn’t pretty by any means tonight, but a lot of winning things did go on with everyone,” Boone said. “The ’83 White Sox had a slogan: ‘Winning Ugly.’ But they all count. […] We know we’ve got to play cleaner than that, but a really gritty effort by a lot of different people in that room.”
Tonight, at 7:40 PM, RHP Gerrit Cole (3-5, 3.92 ERA) will start for the Yankees against the lefty Anthony Kay (7-4, 4.21 ERA) (YES, Gotham Sports).
Here is tonight’s starting lineup for the New York Yankees:
1B Paul Goldschmidt (R)
DH Ben Rice (L)
3B Amed Rosario (R)
RF Jasson Domínguez (S)
CF Trent Grisham (L)
SS Anthony Volpe (R)
2B Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L)
LF Max Schuemann (R)
C Austin Wells (L)
SP: RHP Gerrit Cole (3-5, 3.92 ERA)
Schedule
7:40 PM: NYY at CWS; YES, Gotham Sports; SP: RHP Gerrit Cole (3-5, 3.92 ERA) vs. LHP Anthony Kay (7-4, 4.21 ERA)
Cover Image Courtesy: New York Yankees
