Yankees' bats can't overcome Clarke Schmidt's struggles in 6-4 loss to Guardians

In their first meeting since last season’s ALCS, the Yankees fell to the Cleveland Guardians, 6-4, on Monday night at Progressive Field.

Here are the takeaways…

— In his second start of the season, Clarke Schmidt was inefficient. He overcame command issues in the first two innings and left the mound unscathed, but trouble arrived in the third when he served up back-to-back homers to Jose Ramirez and Kyle Manzardo, giving the Guardians a 4-0 lead. Schmidt managed to work out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth, but gave up his fifth run on a broken-bat single.

— A steady dose of cutters from Schmidt was expected against a lefty-heavy lineup, but the overall attack plan failed. He didn’t come back out for the fifth, after allowing five runs on seven hits and three walks across 80 pitches. He did strike out seven, however. Lined up to make his next start at home against the Blue Jays this coming weekend, his ERA now sits at 7.45 through 9.2 total innings.

— Guardians starter Gavin Williams also had to work around some early troubles with command, but the Yankees struggled to make solid contact against his high-90s fastball with movement and sharp breaking balls. Rallies with two runners on in the first and fifth innings were squandered by double-play grounders, and it wasn’t until the seventh that New York’s offense finally woke up.

— Following a leadoff single by Anthony Volpe in the seventh, Jasson Dominguez took a curveball off Williams deep into the center-field seats for a two-run shot, cutting the Yankees’ deficit to 6-2. They weren’t able to inflict more damage against Williams, though — the tall right-hander completed 6.1 innings with a season-high eight strikeouts.

— In desperate need of a clutch hit — or any kind of hit, actually — Jazz Chisholm Jr. finally produced one in the eighth. With a runner on first and two out, he demolished a Paul Sewald fastball for a two-run homer to right, trimming the deficit to 6-4. The blast couldn’t have arrived a better time for the Yankees’ second baseman, who was in the midst of a 2-for-23 slump.

— Cleveland didn’t turn to struggling closer Emmanuel Clase in the ninth — instead, set-up man Cade Smith took on the save opportunity. New York had a chance to tie the game, as a one-out single from Oswaldo Cabrera allowed Austin Wells and Aaron Judge to come up as the tying run. But the rally was short-lived — Smith struck out the Nos. 1 and 2 hitters to end the game. The Yankees went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base.

Game MVP: Jose Ramirez

Cleveland’s most dangerous hitter lived up to his billing, delivering a three-run shot off Schmidt in the third and an RBI single off Yoendrys Gomez in the sixth. Ramirez entered Monday with a .333 lifetime average against the Yankees (61 games).

Highlights

What’s next

The Yankees (14-9) will play the middle game of their three-game set in Cleveland on Tuesday night, with first pitch scheduled for 6:10 p.m.

Will Warren (1-0, 5.17 ERA) is slated to make his fifth start of the season, opposite Tanner Bibee (1-2, 5.85 ERA).

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