Sevy & IKF Lead Yanks to Win Over Padres In 10

If the Yankees are going to do anything this season, one thing they will need is for Luis Severino's return from injury to be a successful one.

So far, so good: 2 starts, 2 Yankee wins.

Yesterday afternoon, against the San Diego Padres, he pitched 6 2/3rds innings, allowing 2 runs, only 1 of them earned, on 1 hit and 3 walks, striking out 5. Unfortunately, that 1 hit was a home run by Fernando Tatís Jr. in the 4th inning.

But DJ LeMahieu doubled home a run in the 1st inning, following singles by Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo. Judge scored on the double, and Rizzo tried to, but was thrown out at the plate. That run that the Yankees didn't get loomed large until the bottom of the 7th, when DJLM hit a home run to tie the game.

Michael King pitched into the 8th, and Wandy Peralta to the end of the 9th. The game went to extra innings. Clay Holmes pitched a perfect top of the 10th. In the bottom of the 10th, with Gary Allen as the ghost runner, the Padres walked LeMahieu intentionally. Given the game he'd had to that point, probably a good idea. But Harrison Bader bunted the runners over, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled Allen home.

Yankees 3, Padres 2. WP: Holmes (3-2). No save. LP: Nick Martinez (2-2). It was IKF's 1st walkoff hit as a Yankee, and in his postgame interview with Meredith Marokovits of YES, he told of how the Yankees feed off the home crowd, 46,963 on this occasion, a gloriously sunny Saturday afternoon on Memorial Day Weekend.

The series concludes this afternoon, with a battle between a pair of aces, Gerrit Cole and Yu Darvish.

Yanks Do LiIttle to Support Vásquez Debut, Lose to Padres

The Yankees began a 3-game home Interleague series with the San Diego Padres last night. Injuries and a failure to live up to big spending have left the Padres as MLB's biggest disappointment so far this season.

Randy Vásquez, a 24-year-old Dominican righthander wearing Number 98, made his major league debut last night, as the Yankees' starting pitcher. Over the 1st 4 innings, he was adequate, allowing 2 hits, 2 walks, and a hit batsman, but no runs.

But the Yankees couldn't score, either. They didn't get a baserunner until the 4th, when they wasted singles by Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu. Joe Musgrove, who famously made the Mets look like idiots in last year's Playoffs -- not that they needed much help in that regard -- completely shut them down.

Vásquez got the 1st 2 batters out in the top of the 5th. But his control was a little off: Having previously hit Brandon Dixon with a pitch in the 4th, he now did so to Jake Cronenworth. And Juan Soto, one of the heroes of the Washington Nationals' 2019 World Series win, crushed a home run to right field. That was, pretty much, the ballgame, right there.

Vásquez then allowed a single and a walk, before Aaron Boone replaced him with Ron Marinaccio, who got out of the inning. He allowed a home run to known steroid cheat Fernando Tatís Jr. in the 6th, to make it 4-0. Homers by Soto and Tatís: This was the performance that people expected from the Padres.

A Gleyber Torres single, an Aaron Judge double, and a Rizzo groundout made it 4-1, but that was all the Yankees would get. An RBI single by former Yankee Roughned Odor added a run in the 9th.

Padres 5, Yankees 1. WP: Musgrove (2-2). No save. LP: Vásquez (0-1), who really deserved a better fate, and certainly earned another start, given the holes in the Yankee rotation.

The series continues this afternoon. Luis Severino starts against Michael Wacha.