Yanks Do Well In Philly, But Injury Concerns Grow

The Yankees headed down the New Jersey Turnpike, for 3 games against fellow Playoff contenders the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

On Friday night, the Yankees only got 4 baserunners in 7 innings off Phils starter Jesús Luzardo, and nothing off 2 relievers: 3 hits and a walk. But one of them was a home run in the 4th, by Paul Goldschmidt. It was the 388th of his career. He is now 1 behind Johnny Bench, 2 behind Yankee legend Graig Nettles, 4 behind the still-active Manny Machado, 5 behind Jim Edmonds, 8 behind Joe Carter, 10 behind Dale Murphy, 11 behind Al Kaline and Andrés Galarraga, and 12 short of 400.

Fortunately, Cam Schlittler was better than Luzardo: He went 7 1/3rd shutout innings, allowing 3 hits, no walks, and striking out 12. Yankees 1, Phillies 0.

Ryan Weathers started on Saturday night, and went 5 2/3rds, allowing 1 run on 6 hits and 1 walk, striking out 7. The bullpen allowed just 1 hit and 1 walk. The Phillies went with a bullpen game, and it might have worked if Weathers hadn't done even better. Austin Wells hit a home run in the 3rd, Cody Bellinger had an RBI single in the 6th, and Jasson Domínguez hit one out in the 7th.

Yankees 3, Phillies 1. The Bronx Bombers had now won 9 of their last 12. Unfortunately, Bellinger hurt his hamstring, and has been added to an Injured List that still includes Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Spencer Jones has been called back up.

The Sunday night game was awful. Will Warren allowed 6 runs in 3 innings, including 4 in the 3rd. And Ryan Yarbrough allowed 5 runs in the 6th. Despite Ben Rice hitting his 31st homer of the season, the Yankees lost, 11-4.

The Yankees took 2 out of 3, and are lucky MLB doesn't count series wins by aggregate score, or they would have lost, 12-8.

The Yankees are now 59-46, 3 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Eastern Division. They now head to Chicago for an entire week: Tonight, Tuesday night, Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon at Rate Field against the White Sox; and Friday afternoon, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field in an Interleague series with the Cubs.

The trade deadline is next Monday, at 6:00 PM Eastern Time. An hour after that, the Yankees begin a homestand: 3 against the St. Louis Cardinals (Interleague), 3 against the Atlanta Braves (also Interleague), and 3 against the Seattle Mariners.

Judge and Stanton are accompanying the team to Chicago, but neither is expected to be reactivated during the roadtrip. Nor will Bellinger, who is on the 10-Day IL. Clarke Schmidt has been throwing live batting practice, and could return in early August. Carlos Rodón could soon start throwing BP as well, but will likely take longer.