The Yankees began a home Interleague series with the San Diego Padres on Monday night. Carlos Rodón started, and took a 3-hit shutout into the 7th inning. Fernando Cruz finished the inning, and the Yankees had a 3-0 lead, including a home run by Trent Grisham.
Manager Aaron Boone has stopped trusting Devin Williams as the closer. In this game, he trusted Williams to hold a 3-run lead in the 8th inning. He couldn't, putting the tying runs on base, before Luke Weaver, who appears to now be the closer, actually allowed the runs. The Padres won, 4-3.
Williams' ERA went up to 10.03.
The Tuesday game looked similar. Clarke Schmidt, injured to start the season, pitched 6 innings, allowing 2 runs. But Tim Hill allowed a run in the 7th, and the Padres led, 3-2, including a home run by Aaron Judge.
The Yankees scored 10 runs in the bottom of the 7th. This included a grand slam and an RBI single by Austin Wells (that's 5 RBIs in 1 inning), a 2-RBI double by Ben Rice, RBI singles by Cody Bellinger and Anthony Volpe, and a bases-loaded walk by Grisham.
Of those 10 runs, 6 were allowed by former Yankee Wandy Peralta. Boy, am I glad he's a former Yankee.
The Yankees won, 12-3, with Cruz as the winning pitcher.
The Yankees' story the last few years has been winning when they score a lot of runs, and losing when they don't. Could they win on Wednesday night without scoring 12? Could they win without scoring 5?
At first, it looked like the answer would be, "No." New acquisition Max Fried was terrific again, going 7 innings, allowing 1 run on 5 hits and no walks, striking out 8. But the Yankees went into the 7th-inning stretch trailing, 1-0. That's when Bellinger hit a home run to tie it. In the 8th, Ian Hamilton and then Weaver were both a bit shaky, and it was 3-1 Padres.
Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Oswaldo Cabrera was walked to lead off the bottom of the 8th, and Grisham hit a game-tying home run.
The game went to extra innings, and Boone trusted Williams to pitch the 10th. That's with the stupid rule authorizing the "ghost runner": Tie game, man on 2nd, nobody out. Gulp. And he walked a batter, and hit another, loading the bases with 2 out, before he got out of it.
In the bottom of the 10th, Cabrera bunted ghost runner Jasson Domínguez over to 3rd, and J.C. Escarra hit a sacrifice fly to left field, bringing Domínguez home. Yankees 4, Padres 3.
Winning pitcher: Devin Williams. Like Aroldis Chapman before him, the man is a rollercoaster.
Going into this weekend, the Yankees lead the American League Eastern Division by 2 games over the Boston Red Sox, 4 over the Toronto Blue Jays, 5 over the Tampa Bay Rays, and 7 1/2 over the Baltimore Orioles. In the loss column, it's 3 over the Sox, 4 over the Jays, 5 over the Rays, and 7 over the O's.
Tonight, the Yankees will do something they have never done before: Play a regular-season game in Sacramento, California. Well, actually, Sutter Health Park is across the river from downtown, in West Sacramento. They will play 3 against the team now known officially as "The Athletics," formerly in Philadelphia (1901-1954), Kansas City (1955-1967) and Oakland (1968-2024), temporarily as an official Sacramento team, and, they hope, in Las Vegas starting in 2028.
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