The Yankees began a series with the Los Angeles Angels at Yankee Stadium on Monday night. Clarke Schmidt went 7 2/3rds shutout innings, allowing only 4 hits, walking none. Fernando Cruz finished the 8th inning, and Devin Williams pitched a scoreless 9th.
Except the Yankees didn't score, either. Jazz Chisholm got 3 hits, the returning-from-injury Giancarlo Stanton 2, the rest of the team only 3. Jonathan Loáisiga pitched a scoreless 10th inning, but he allowed a run in the 11th, and the Yankees lost, 1-0.
On Tuesday night, Will Warren went 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits and no walks, striking out 11. It was a pitching performance deserving of a win. Except Stanton got 2 hits, the rest of the team only 2, and the Yankees lost, 4-0.
Ryan Yarbrough started on Wednesday night. He went 5 1/3rd innings, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and a walk. Again, the starting pitcher deserved a win. Cody Bellinger got 2 hits, Chisholm 1, and the rest of the team none. Bellinger and Chisholm each hit a solo home run. The Angels won, 3-2.
This concluded a run of 65 innings in which the Yankees scored just 7 runs, 6 of them earned. The opposing pitchers' earned-run average over that stretch was 0.83.
Sometimes, a day game after a night game is the worst thing that can happen to a team. This time, Thursday afternoon brought the offensive attack they needed. Bellinger got 3 hits. Paul Goldschmidt and Trent Grisham each got 2 hits including a home run. Carlos Rodón pitched 6 solid innings, and the Yankees won, 7-3.
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Friday night wasn't so lucky, as the Baltimore Orioles came in. Max Fried went 6 strong innings, and Aaron Judge hit his 27th home run of the season. But the rest of the team didn't hit enough, and the Orioles won, 5-3.
Friday was also the day my twin nieces, Ashley and Rachel, graduated from high school. Saturday was the day of their graduation party, and it was difficult to keep track of the Yankees' game. And what a game to keep track of. Schmidt walked 2 batters and hit 1, but, through 7 innings, he had a no-hitter going.
But he threw 103 pitches, matching a career high. And manager Aaron Boone took him out, not letting him try to finish the no-hitter. Boone brought in JT Brubaker.
Who? Jonathan Trey Brubaker is 31, and from Springfield, Ohio. Springfield is the small city about halfway between Columbus and Dayton that Donald Trump brought into the spotlight in last year's Presidential campaign where he told a very stupid, bald-faced lie about the immigrants living there: "They're eating the dogs! They're eating the cats!" And despite the city's Mayor -- a Republican -- telling the world that it was a lie, enough of the country bought this lie to put Trump back into office.
Like CC Sabathia, JT Brubaker doesn't use periods for his initials. Unlike CC, he is not going to the Hall of Fame: From 2020 to 2022, the righthander pitched in 63 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates, going 9-28 with a 4.96 ERA. He missed the 2023 season due to Tommy John surgery.
Sounds like the perfect kind of pitcher for general manager Brian Cashman to acquire, which he did at the end of Spring Training 2024, at least only giving up another nonentity for him. He made only 8 rehab appearances in 2024, with 4 different Yankee farm teams. If you're thinking, "Mike, that is not a recommended way to handle a pitching trying to come back from a significant injury," you're right. He was called up after 10 minor-league appearances this season -- all starts.
And here, Cashman had Boone bring him in to relieve. The 1st batter he pitched to as a Yankee was former Yankee catcher Gary Sánchez. He's one of those all-or-nothing hitters: Despite having 186 home runs to his credit at age 32, his lifetime batting average is just .224, and he came into this at-bat hitting .186. He led off the top of the 8th inning by hitting a clean line-drive single to center field, breaking up the no-hitter. Brubaker did manage to finish the game without allowing any more hits, or any runs.
The best Yankee pitching performance since Domingo Germán's perfect game, 2 years earlier, deserved good run support. It got it: Grisham, J.C. Escarra, Ben Rice and Anthony Volpe all hit home runs, and the Yankees won, 9-0.
And yesterday, Warren pitched into the 7th, allowing only 2 runs, but trailed 2-1 when he left. Ben Rice led off the bottom of the 8th with a single. Bellinger grounded out, advancing Rice to 2nd. Stanton singled him over to 3rd. Goldschmidt pinch-ran for Stanton. Chisholm doubled home Rice and Goldschmidt, and Chisholm then scored on a fielder's choice by DJ LeMahieu.
Yankees 4, Orioles 2. Fernando Cruz was the winning pitcher in relief. Maybe they've snapped out of it. But not fully: Judge, who had been flirting with a .400 batting average, is now batting .367. Unfortunately, Yarbrough went on the Injured List.
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Next up, a roadtrip to Cincinnati to play the Reds. Then, they come home to face the Whatever City They're In This Season Athletics.
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