Even Clarke Schmidt Can Beat the Oakland A's

The Oakland Athletics are so bad!

(How bad are they, Uncle Mike?) They're so bad, even Clarke Schmidt can be the winning pitcher against them.

Actually, last night, at Yankee Stadium II, the A's took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 2nd. But in the bottom of the 3rd, well, you know how I feel about leadoff walks. If the Yankees get them, great. Jose Trevino drew a walk. Then Aaron Hicks drew one, raising his on-base percentage to .231. Anthony Volpe flew out, moving Trevino over to 3rd, and then Aaron Judge, returning to the lineup after an injury, grounded to 3rd, and a run scored on an error.

Anthony Rizzo singled a run home, Gleyber Torres did the same, Harrison Bader made it 3 of those, and Jake Bauers hit a sacrifice fly, to make it 5-1 Pinstripes.

I've said before, upon seeing good pitching, "That kind of pitching deserves support." Well, the converse is also true: That kind of support deserves good pitching. And Schmidt actually provided it, going 6 innings, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 7. He allowed a home run in the 4th to make it 5-2, but a Rizzo single and a Torres homer in the 5th made it 7-2.

Schmidt threw 93 pitches over 6 effective innings. For once, taking him out for a reliever made some sense. Except the pitcher that Aaron Boone chose was Albert Abreu, and he gave up a home run to the 1st batter he faced, Jordan Díaz. Bauers hit a home run in the bottom of the 7th. Díaz hit another homer in the 8th, off Greg Weissert. Judge hit a sacrifice fly in that inning.

Yankees 10, A's 5. WP: Schmidt (1-3). No save. LP: Drew Rucinski (0-3).

The series concludes this afternoon. Jhony Brito starts against Kyle Muller.