An April Loss That You Hope Won't Be Damaging Come September

The good news is that the Yankees won their fifth consecutive series as they took two out of three in Cleveland, and they have the best record in the majors at 12-4. The bad news is that Sunday’s game really stung, a collapse of epic proportion at the end and it sort of sucked the life out of what should have been a truly great weekend. Lets get to it.

I know it’s going to happen in a 162-game season, and there are going to be other absolutely maddening losses to come for the Yankees because, as John Sterling says, that’s baseball Suzyn. But that doesn’t change the fact that what happened Sunday afternoon in the bottom of the 10th inning was inexcusable.

As you’ve heard me say ad nauseam at this point here and on Twitter/X, every game matters, and that 8-7 loss to the Guardians is exactly the kind of April defeat that could be detrimental come September in a close pennant race.

I’m sorry that I sound delusional about this sometimes, but as Jack Curry said on the YES broadcast, there are some games you lose and you shrug it off and move on, but this is a game you have to win given how most of it played out and the Yankees blew it.

Some of you might say to me that the Yankees were lucky to have gotten to the 10th inning because they scored the tying run with two outs in the ninth off arguably the best closer in baseball, Emmanuel Clase. Fine, you can say that and it’s probably true, but I would counter with this: Luke Weaver can’t allow former Yankees busted prospect Estevan Florial to put Cleveland ahead with a pinch-hit home run in the eighth which prompted the Guardians to bring in Clase for the save.

Good for the Yankees that they didn’t just fold their tents after Florial’s home run and get on the plane bound for Toronto. It was awesome that they tied it on Anthony Volpe’s ultra-clutch RBI double, and then took a two-run lead in the top of the 10th inning. But once all that good work happened, that changed the expectation. At that point you have to win, period. You can’t turn into the Bad News Bears for 15 intolerable minutes and hand Cleveland the victory, but that’s what the Yankees did. Sorry, but that’s a bad loss.

“Tough one,” Aaron Boone said. “We just didn't make a few plays we needed to make. When you grind through and get a lead there, it’s always tough (to lose).”

I was rubbing my eyes watching that travesty unfold in the 10th. From Caleb Ferguson puking all over himself across 19 mostly putrid pitches, to Volpe inexplicably failing to turn what should have been a routine double play, to Gleyber Torres giving us his daily costly fielding mishap that had giant ramifications, it was a colossal meltdown that plucked defeat from the jaws of victory.

I tweeted when the bottom of the 10th started that even with a 7-5 lead the game was far from over and I was right. Once Jose Ramirez led off and won an eight-pitch battle against Ferguson with a single, you knew the Yankees were in big trouble. Yet still, if they hadn’t mysteriously swapped out their gloves for frying pans, they likely would have held on to win.

“We’ve got a lot of special players around that infield,” Aaron Judge said. “Days like today happen, and we’ve just got to move on. Everybody on this team knows (infield defense) is one of our strengths.”

If you figure that I’m rolling on my eyes on that comment, you would be correct.

As I said at the top, the Yankees won the series and that’s great. But if they’re going to outlast the Orioles in particular in the AL East, not completing this sweep hurts that endeavor. Maybe it won’t mean a damn thing come September, but maybe it will bite the Yankees in their collective ass and that would sure be a shame.

April 13 (Game 1): Yankees 3, Guardians 2

The Lead: Oswaldo Cabrera’s stunning start carries on

My sense is that it’s not going to continue because water always finds its level, but for right now, let’s just enjoy the raging river of success the Yankees’ always upbeat and happy-go-lucky utility player has had so far.

Small sample size aside, Cabrera has been one of only three batters - Volpe and Juan Soto being the others - who has consistently produced in the first two weeks of the season, and he did it again in the first game of Saturday’s day-night doubleheader with a two-run homer in the sixth inning which proved to be the difference.

“Feel happy about it, feel proud,” said Cabrera, who admittedly has cooled off a bit and finished the weekend hitting .289. “Me and all the hitting coaches, I know they feel the same way. But like I always say, we have to stay present all the time and keep working on the things we’ve been doing and try to get better all the time.”

Cabrera hadn’t played since the previous Sunday because the Marlins threw three consecutive left-handers earlier in the week. The switch-hitting Cabrera has struggled as a right-handed batter so Boone gave all three starts to Jon Berti. Berti did nothing with the playing time as he went 2-for-10 and now he’s on the injured list because he strained his groin, further proof that the Yankee pinstripes are injury cursed. Dude’s been here two weeks and he’s already hurt, so that thrust Cabrera back into the starting lineup full time.

It’s funny how things work out. Cabrera would hardly be playing at all if DJ LeMahieu hadn’t gotten hurt, yet again. And even then, the Yankees showed little faith in Cabrera when they traded for Berti on the eve of Opening Day. However, Cabrera took that to heart, got off to a great start in Houston, and he has kept it going which really makes you wonder what the hell Boone and the decision-makers were thinking by sitting him three games in a row.

Game notes and observations:

➤ This was the quintessential Clarke Schmidt start. He was great for parts of it, particularly the first three innings when he struck out six men including the side on 13 pitches in the third. As always with Schmidt, there were baserunners as he walked a career-high five men, but he was bailed out by double plays that ended the fourth and fifth innings.

➤ Still, on a doubleheader day when the Yankees needed length, once again Schmidt faltered when the Guardians turned their lineup over for the dreaded third time which is always Schmidt’s demarcation line. Sure enough, right after Cabrera’s homer made it 3-0, Steven Kwan and Andres Gimenez hit back-to-back singles and that was it for Schmidt, so the bullpen had to get the last 12 outs. Schmidt has to find a way to overcome his very real third-time-through-the-order obstacle.

➤ Ferguson relieved and after a strikeout, he walked Josh Naylor to load the bases and then two runs scored when Torres botched what would have been an inning-ending double play by throwing the ball way wide of first which allowed two runs to score. Just like Sunday, this was a pretty routine play that almost any second baseman makes in his sleep.

➤ Ferguson then got out of the inning maintaining the one-run lead and from there, Ian Hamilton and Clay Holmes brought it home. Hamilton worked out of a first-and-second jam in the seventh when Anthony Rizzo made a nice play on a grounder down the line and made a good throw to Hamilton covering to narrowly get Gimenez, and Hamilton worked an easy eighth despite having to face slumping Jose Ramirez and Naylor.

➤ And then Holmes, of course, had to make it interesting in the ninth. He gave up a leadoff double to Ramon Laureano and it’s a good thing the wall in left at Progressive Field is so high because that might have been a homer elsewhere. But Holmes then mowed down the next three men and Laureano never advanced past second.

➤ The negative about this game is the Yankees were brutal with men in scoring position, 2-for-11. No one was worse than Trent Grisham who got a rare start in center and killed two big scoring opportunities as he grounded into bases-loaded double plays in his first two at bats. One produced the Yankees’ first run, but both were gut punches and that was a major reason why this game was too close for comfort from the sixth inning on.

April 13 (Game 2): Yankees 8, Guardians 2

The Lead: Cody Poteet sure was sweet

Poteet, who was in the battle for the No. 5 starter role throughout the spring before losing out to Luis Gil, was called up from Scranton to pitch this game after Friday’s game was rained out. I’ll be honest, I was really squeezing for a win in the first game because I kind of expected Poteet to get hammered in the nightcap, but man, was I wrong.

Somehow, Poteet baffled the Guardians for six innings - yeah, six innings from a starter, imagine that - and the Yankees offense showed a little more spark in what became an easy victory to complete the doubleheader sweep.

Poteet hadn’t pitched in the majors since 2021, mainly because of 2022 Tommy John surgery, and he was on a pitch count of 80, but because he was so efficient, that enabled him to get 18 outs while allowing just one run on six hits with no walks. Not walking guys helps pitch counts. It was a pretty surprising performance and with the Yankees having already used their best three relievers in the opener - Ferguson, Hamilton and Holmes - this was a big performance for Poteet.

“To go six in the second game of a doubleheader, huge outing,” Boone said. “He pitched. That’s what we know we got. He did a great job mixing the two-seam/four-seam and then with the changeup and secondary stuff to get off the barrel. Really strong effort by him.”

Game notes and observations:

➤ Poteet also got plenty of help from the offense which made things far less stressful for him. In the first inning, the first five men reached base thanks to three walks, a Cleveland error, and a Rizzo single which drove in the first run. Giancarlo Stanton’s bases loaded walk drove in the second and still there were no outs against Guardians starter Triston McKenzie. But with a chance to blow things wide open, Torres fouled out and Alex Verdugo hit into a double play which has become a calling card for the Yankees this season. That was such a letdown.

➤ However, that didn’t end up costing the Yankees because they tacked on four runs in the fourth to take a 6-0 lead. Torres and Verdugo walked and then after two outs, Volpe had the key at bat as he came through with a line drive RBI single. That got Soto to the plate and he launched a three-run homer. Soto’s was the big blow, but again, without Volpe’s single, the Yankees wouldn’t have even scored and it would have still been 2-0. Volpe just continues to impress.

➤ In the fifth, Cabrera got back into the mix with an RBI double and that was followed by a sacrifice fly from Austin Wells, pretty much the first useful thing he’s done at the plate all season.

➤ The only run Poteet allowed came on a solo homer by Florial, who could never hit MLB pitching whenever he went up and played for the Yankees but of course hit two home runs in this series.

➤ The Yankees made a bunch of roster moves Saturday and one of them was calling up Ron Marinaccio. They asked him to mop things up in the ninth and clearly he’s still figuring things out because he served up a solo homer to Josh Naylor.

April 14: Guardians 8, Yankees 7 (10)

The Lead: What’s up with Anthony Rizzo?

Rizzo had a huge hit in the 10th inning, a two-run single to give the Yankees the lead, but so far he has been a shell of the hitter he once was. He has just one home run and the bulk of his 17 hits have been soft contact specials as his hard-hit percentage is 33.3 according to Baseball Savant, his exit velocity average is just 86.6 mph, and the Statcast computers say he has not hit a single ball on the barrel this season.

However, as bad as that batting profile is, even more problematic right now is the way he’s playing first base.

The one thing Rizzo could always hang his hat on was his stellar defense, but so far in 2024, the 34-year-old looks like he’s still trying to play with his 2023 concussion. He made two awful errors in the first two innings Sunday, just head shaking plays, and he already has four in 16 games. By comparison, he made four errors in 92 games last year and five in 120 games in 2022, so to have four at this point is alarming.

When he was with the Cubs he won four Gold Gloves and in his final 5 ½ years there he made just 25 errors. It’s hard to watch him bumble and stumble lately and if it continues, the Yankees may need to think hard about platooning Rizzo in the field with DJ LeMahieu when he returns, especially if Cabrera keeps hitting and can stay in the lineup at third.

Game notes and observations:

➤ After his superb eight-inning outing against the Marlins, Nestor Cortes certainly wasn’t sharp in this one and he became the latest Yankee starter to fail to provide any length. He turned leads of 3-0 and 4-2 into a 4-4 game and was yanked at 94 pitches without recording an out in the fifth inning. This just can’t keep happening because this Yankees bullpen has plenty of question marks as we saw later in the game. You can’t keep relying on the relievers to cover what in this case turned out to be 17 outs and expect the winning to continue.

➤ The third inning was the blueprint for the top of the order, something the Yankees hope will become commonplace this season. Volpe walked, Soto singled and Judge hit a 450-foot homer to left-center for a 3-0 lead. Can’t draw it up any better than that. But thereafter, the offense went silent most of the rest of the way as the only other run until the ninth was Jose Trevino’s rather stunning solo homer that made it 4-2 in the fourth.

➤ Trevino, an automatic out until this weekend, also came through in the ninth to start the tying rally when he singled with one out. He was forced at second on a Cabrera grounder, but that worked out great because the much faster Cabrera was able to score from first when Volpe ripped his double to right-center off a 100 mph Clase pitch. What a great moment that was. And so was Rizzo’s bases-loaded single that scored two in the 10th. However, what could have been a huge, game-deciding inning quickly died.

➤ Torres sacrificed the runners to second and third which, OK, I guess that was fine, but I hate giving away outs with bunts. And then came the killer play, Verdugo hitting a grounder right to Naylor at first which turned into a double play. And why did that happen? Well, let’s start with the Yankees’ favorite way to kill rallies, the contact play. Pinch runner Kevin Smith broke for the plate even though Verdugo hit the ball right at Naylor who was already playing in. Smith was a dead duck and it wasn’t even close. And then to compound matters, I don’t what the hell Verdugo was doing on his way to first but the catcher was able to throw him out.

➤ You could almost sense that wasting that opportunity was going to cost the Yankees, and boy did it ever. Volpe not turning the DP was bad, but Torres bobbling the grounder and not cutting off the tying run at the plate, and then not even getting an out at first base was mind-numbing. “I just tried to grab the ball and tried to stop (the runner),” Torres said. “The idea is to take that play at home plate. I missed for a couple seconds and when I threw the ball, it was too late.”

➤ Once he muffed the play, all he had to do was throw to first for the second out. Had he done that, the winning run doesn’t score moments later when Gimenez hit a fly ball to right and on to the 11th we would have gone. Just a litany of mistakes that short-circuited the top of the 10th and then lost the game in the bottom, all of them pretty inexcusable because these weren’t even tough plays.

Having won their first five series to start the season including three on the road, the Yankees head up to Toronto for three games against the confounding Blue Jays. The Jays took two of three from the incompetent Rockies including a 5-0 shutout Sunday which evened their record at 8-8 which has them four games behind the Yankees.

Toronto’s offense remains stuck in neutral as it ranks 21st in runs and 22nd in OPS. Their big three of Vlad Guerrero (.194 average), George Springer (.222), and Bo Bichette (.214) just can’t get it going and the team is being led by ageless Justin Turner who’s somehow hitting .386 with a 1.095 OPS.

Still, playing the Jays at the Rogers Centre is never a fun experience because they always find a way to do damage against the Yankees.

The pitching matchups look like this: Monday at 7:07 p.m. on YES it’s Luis Gil (3.00 ERA) against Chris Bassitt (5.06); Tuesday at 7:07 on YES it’s Carlos Rodon (1.72) against Yusei Kikuchi (2.30); and Wednesday at 3:07 on YES it’s Marcus Stroman (2.12) against Kevin Gausman (11.57).