Sometimes you just have to tell yourself it’s a long, long season. These are one of these days.
After a mildly depressing sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend, the Yankees’ offense looked to break out against a pitching staff with considerably less firepower, one which they dominated last week in a four-game series at Yankee Stadium. With a depleted bullpen, they needed both length from Ryan Weathers and some offense to give the high-leverage guys some rest.
It all started according to plan with six no-hit innings by Weathers and an early home run by Ben Rice, but a perpetual struggle with runners in scoring position carried over from Milwaukee, and the O’s capitalized on their only real traffic of the night, stealing a 3-2 heartbreaker over the Yankees to mark their fourth consecutive defeat.
A trend in the first couple of innings for the Yankees’ offense was to make Brandon Young work, which is what they did in the first. Rice ripped a single after getting it to 3-2 and Cody Bellinger drew a two-out walk, only to be stranded by a weak fly ball from Jazz Chisholm Jr. Weathers got things started by working around a leadoff walk to put up a quick zero.
Both pitchers worked 1-2-3 second innings, but Young wasn’t as fortunate in the third. After walking Trent Grisham with one out, Rice worked another three-ball count before getting a 3-1 sinker up and driving it to left-center field for a home run into the bullpen. His 13th of the season, it put the Yanks up 2-0 in the third.
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Weathers continued to be absolutely brilliant. He retired 13 consecutive hitters at one point, only getting into a tad of trouble when he walked Coby Mayo with one out in the fifth. He was able to get to scoring position after a mental blunder by Rice trying to turn a double play, but Weathers was able to strand that first real threat.
Aaron Judge led off the sixth with a double and got to third on a Cody Bellinger groundout to chase Young. Despite being in a prime tack-on scoring position, one-time Yankee farmhand Dietrich Enns struck out Chisholm and got a soft groundball out of Ryan McMahon, in which he had to bail out Pete Alonso at first base from a truly awful toss to first that would’ve been a run-scoring E3.
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After another scoreless inning by Weathers, the Yankees once again stranded a runner at third following a one-out double by Max Schuemann when Grisham and Austin Wells both grounded out. The recent injuries, coupled with some deep slumps, have made this lineup a lot easier to navigate for a manager who has a lefty to deploy.
The Orioles didn’t have a hit through six innings, but just as Michael Kay started to talk about potential history afoot, Adley Rutschman fought off a 1-2 changeup out of the zone into right field for a leadoff single in the seventh. Tyler O’Neill worked a gritty walk with one out to finally chase Weathers. Brent Headrick came in to face the struggling Mayo, and he got revenge after getting spiked by Schuemann a few innings prior, golfing a fly ball into the left field seats for a crushing, go-ahead three-run homer.
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It ruined a really great outing by Weathers, who only surrendered one hit on soft contact and walked O’Neill in a long at-bat after six no-hit innings. He has two runs on his ledger, though it was at least Headrick saddled with the loss.
After Headrick finished the inning, Rico Garcia tore through the heart of the Yankees’ order in the eighth. He was a Yankee very briefly during the summer last year, so it may hurt to see this guy utterly dominating for a division rival, but considering he was cut by the Mets twice last year as well, we aren’t alone in feeling left out.
Camilo Doval tossed a pretty solid bottom of the eighth to give the bottom of the order a chance in the ninth against Anthony Nunez. McMahon put a charge into the ball with one out, coming oh-so-close to a game-tying home run, but hit it to the (slightly) wrong spot and also a bit too high, allowing O’Neill to make a jumping catch.
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Paul Goldschmidt extended the game with a two-out single and was pulled for José Caballero, who’s battling a finger issue. Despite that, the Yankees had him try to steal second to get in scoring position for Schuemann, but he was thrown out in plenty of time to end the game in 1926 World Series Game 7 fashion.
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The Yankees will look to even this three-game set at Camden Yards tomorrow night at 6:35 pm. It’ll be Will Warren against a pitcher to be determined (likely Trevor Rogers back from illness). The offense is in need of another breakout and more eyes will be watching.
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