Clay Holmes Blows Game And Royals Avoid Four-Game Sweep

The Yankees couldn’t complete the four-game sweep as Clay Holmes blew a 3-2 lead in the ninth inning and Kansas City pulled out a 4-3 victory. Still, three out of four ain’t bad against a feisty Royals team that is right in the middle of the wild-card chase. Now, on to Boston. Lets get to it.

June 13: Royals 4, Yankees 3

Well, shit. The Yankees were one out away Thursday from doing something they’ve never done which, for the Yankees, is quite a thing. They have never swept a four-game series in Kansas City, and they still haven’t because Clay Holmes blew the save, and ultimately the game.

Honestly, the Yankees didn’t really deserve to win. They were no-hit through six innings by Royals starter Alec Marsh who, in his previous three starts had been shelled for a combined 14 earned runs in 17 innings. For an offense that had been so hot, he made them look silly all day allowing just one hit and two walks with seven strikeouts.

And yet, down 2-0 and looking like a team mailing it in on a getaway day, the Yankees suddenly burst to life, breaking through against a couple of pretty good Royals relievers for three runs in the eighth, helped greatly by an error, and were in position to steal the victory.

Instead, Holmes couldn’t hold on as he blew his fourth save of the season, and this was just the second time in 45 games where the Yankees had a lead after eight innings and lost.

Frustrating, for sure, but the Yankees still took three of four against a pretty good team on the road, and not to be lost in the defeat was a strong performance by Nestor Cortes.

“Great job of almost grabbing (the win),” Aaron Boone said, “But, hey, they’ve got a good club, too, and they just put together some good at-bats to beat us.”

Here are my observations:

➤ Cortes faced the minimum nine batters through three innings, and then had his only spot of trouble in the fourth as the top of the Kansas City order got him for two runs. Maikel Garcia walked, Bobby Witt singled and then Cortes, after getting ahead 0-2, lost a seven-pitch battle with lefty slugger Vinnie Pasquantino who ripped a two-run double to left-center. Cortes gave up only three other hits the rest of the way to finish off an encouraging seven innings. It was the 60th time in 71 games this season that a Yankees starter has allowed three earned runs or fewer.

➤ Marsh lost his no-hitter when Juan Soto ripped a clean single in the seventh, but he struck out Aaron Judge for the third time and left the mound after seven with a 2-0 lead. Here, the Yankees put together their only rally of the day. Rizzo led off with a home run, a shocking development and his first since May 10. Austin Wells reached on an error by second baseman Garrett Hampson, and Trent Grisham sent pinch-runner Jahmai Jones to third with a single. Anthony Volpe then put the ball in play and his soft grounder to short tied the score, and Soto singled to right for a 3-2 lead. However, Soto got thrown out trying to go to second which was a little maddening because it took away an at bat from Judge. Of course, this clearly wasn’t Judge’s as he struck out in the ninth to complete his four-whiff golden sombrero which ended his 37-game on-base streak, so maybe Soto’s baserunning mistake didn’t matter.

➤ In the ninth, Holmes got the first out on one pitch, and then came the key moment. Drew Waters hit a slow roller between the mound and first. Rizzo was playing back and originally I thought he should have charged it. Instead he stayed back thinking Holmes was going to field it and then run to the bag for the unassisted putout. Instead, Holmes veered off to the bag and by the time Rizzo fielded and flipped to Holmes it was too late. After watching the replay, I shifted the blame to Holmes. He was in position to make the play had he just scooped the ball and run it to first himself. “It was perfectly in between, I feel like,” Holmes said. “Just a tough play right there.”

➤ It should have been the second out, but instead, it set up the Royals for their winning surge. After a fielders’ choice grounder which would have ended the game, Kyle Isbel singled putting men on first and third, and both came in to score when Garcia, who was hitting .148 in June, grounded one into the left-field corner to walk it off.

➤ If there’s a silver lining, the struggling Braves avoided a sweep by beating the Orioles 6-3, thus keeping Baltimore 2.5 behind New York. The Orioles now have a big series this weekend at home against the Phillies.

Now it’s on to Boston for the first series against the arch-rival Red Sox this season. And if you would have told me the Yankees would be 49-22, best record in baseball, and 13 games ahead of Boston on June 14, I would have said you were crazy, but here we are.

While the Yankees have been much better than I expected, the Red Sox have actually been about what I and everyone expected, a .500-type team that would be closer to last place than first place in the AL East. But the surprising thing is the way they’ve done it with outstanding starting pitching as their rotation ERA of 3.38 is fourth-best in MLB, and an offense that has been highly inconsistent, though in the last nights in resounding victories over the Phillies, the Red Sox were raking.

Fortunately for the Yankees they’re missing Boston ace Tanner Houck who pitched Thursday against Philadelphia, and they also won’t see Nick Pivetta has had success against them in the past. On offense, Rafael Devers, the face of evil who we all know kills the Yankees, is heating up with 13 homers, 32 RBI and a team-best .937 OPS. Outfielder Ceddane Rafaela isn’t hitting for average (.220) but he leads the team with 37 RBI. Outfielder Jarren Duran is a terrific player who has an .806 OPS and 15 stolen bases. And catcher Connor Joe is having season of his life with a .329 average and .389 on-base. This is not a team to take lightly.

Unfortunately, because it’s the Red Sox, this is another weekend with two nationally-televised night games Saturday and Sunday which always sucks, at least for me. The pitching matchups are as follows: Friday at 6:30 on YES it’s Luis Gil (2.04 ERA) against Brayan Bello (4.78); Saturday at 7:15 on FOX it’s Carlos Rodon (2.93) against Cooper Criswell (4.13); and Sunday at 7:10 on ESPN it’s Marcus Stroman (2.82) against Kutter Crawford (3.47).

⚾ The Mets pulled out a 3-2 victory over the Marlins when J.D. Martinez hit the first walk-off homer of his 14-year career which is kind of crazy. The man has his 321 MLB home runs and this was his first walk-off. “I couldn’t believe it when I was just told,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I’ve seen this guy play for so many years and have a successful career. He is a pretty good hitter. When Martinez told me that, I was like, ‘No way.’” Actually, his is the third-longest streak without a walk-off in MLB history behind Mark Teixeira (408 game) and Jose Bautista (336).

Luis Severino didn’t get the win, but his redemption season continued as he pitched six innings and gave up just one run on seven hits and three walks. This wasn’t Sevy’s best outing, but it lowered his ERA to 3.12

⚾ As I said above, the Red Sox won their series against the Phillies, the team with the best record in the NL. They destroyed Aaron Nola for eight runs on 11 hits and two walks inside four innings at Fenway on their way to a 9-3 win, a night after they beat Philadelphia 8-6. It’s never good when the Red Sox start hitting, especially at Fenway, so the Yankees might be heading to Beantown at a bad time.

⚾ Baltimore saw it’s five-game winning streak snapped as the Braves jumped on Cole Irvin early and then held on. Atlanta was leading 4-0 when Kyle Stowers hit a three-run homer in the seventh. But Joe Jimenez made it through the dangerous top of the Orioles order in the eighth to keep it 4-3, and the Braves tacked on two insurance runs in the ninth keyed by Ozzie Albies who doubled for his fourth hit of the night and later scored on Matt Olson’s double.

The Braves were a team everyone thought would be one of the best in MLB, but injuries have killed them and they went into this game having lost 17 of their past 26. “Where we were today, that win is huge,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.

⚾ Man, the Cubs stink. My favorite NL team has been so disappointing all season under new manager Craig Counsell. They blew yet another game Thursday, watching a 2-0 lead in Tampa Bay end up in a 3-2 loss because after Justin Steele gave them six brilliant shutout innings, Mark Leiter took over in the seventh and promptly gave up three runs, the last on a single by Yandy Diaz. This was the Rays’ 19th comeback victory of the season, and it was their ninth win in a game they were trailing after the sixth inning, most in MLB. Yep, they will never not be annoying, even when they’re in last place in the division 15 games behind the Yankees.