Weak Rotation Welcomes Back Clarke Schmidt

The Royals got progressively closer every night, but they never got over the hump and the Yankees completed a three-game sweep by winning 4-1, 4-2 and 4-3. And the best of the three games was Wednesday night as Aaron Judge broke a 10-game homerless streak, and Clarke Schmidt made a nice season debut. Lets get to it.

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I’ll admit that I was not expecting much from Clarke Schmidt in his first start of the season. He was going to be on a pitch count of around 70, and typically with the nibbling right-hander, that means he’s not making it out of the fourth inning.

But Schmidt, helped out by an aggressive but poor hitting Kansas City lineup, was stunningly economical, even after he needed 21 pitches to get through the first inning. He made it all the way until two outs in the sixth inning, and that was important because the Yankees did not have the back of their bullpen available with Luke Weaver and Devin Williams down after pitching in the first two games.

“In the first, he’s up over 20 so you’re like, you kinda go into the night, hopefully you get four (innings), a couple times through, maybe,” Aaron Boone said. “For him to almost get through six, to be that efficient and keep us right there, I thought it was a good night for him and another good step back to being all the way back for him. Really excited he is back in the rotation.”

It was a great job by Schmidt, quite an improvement over anything Marcus Stroman had done in that spot in the rotation, and lets hope he can keep pitching like this because the Yankees badly need someone to back up ace Max Fried.

“We lost some guys with Gerrit, who’s hard to replace, and then obviously Gil is coming back,” Schmidt said. “But I definitely have to step up. The whole rotation has to step up. I know that my job is to go out there and be as consistent as possible every five days, and give my team a chance to win.”

Schmidt started shaky as he got leadoff man Jonathan India on a liner to left but then gave up a single to Bobby Witt, a walk to Vinnie Pasquantino, and an RBI single to Salvador Perez to fall behind 1-0.

But he settled in and retired 11 men in a row which took him into the fifth and by then he had a 3-1 lead, but he blew his chance for a victory because he allowed the bottom of the Royals’ lineup to get him. Drew Waters singled, Kyle Isbel tripled him home, and Isbel came in on India’s game-tying RBI grounder. Oh well, no one but the pitcher actually cares about pitcher wins anymore.

Aaron Judge’s go-ahead homer in the seventh was the decisive blow and Mark Leiter wound up being the pitcher of record despite facing only four men which is why pitcher wins are kind of meaningless.

“Very aggressive from them tonight,” Schmidt said. “My mentality going into it was to fill up the strike zone and go out there and attack and see how deep we can go. Obviously, it worked out for the best because they were swinging a lot.”

April 14: Yankees 4, Royals 1

➤ I guess this is why they play the games, right? On paper, Carlos Carrasco vs. Seth Lugo certainly didn’t look promising for the Yankees, but Carrasco delivered five stellar innings, albeit against a club that is really struggling on offense right now. The only hit Carrasco allowed was a solo homer to Kansas City’s best player, Witt, at the end of a 10-pitch battle. And Witt had the Royals’ only other hit, a single in the ninth.

➤ Carrasco started shaky as he walked two of the first three men and right away I was rolling my eyes thinking this was going to be another disaster. But he whiffed Perez and got Michael Massey to fly out and he was fine thereafter. Boone took him out at 79 pitches rather than allowing him to start a third trip through the order.

➤ Fernando Cruz, with his splitter diving like a submarine, was dominant in retiring all four men he faced, three on strikeouts, and Tim Hill and Weaver effortlessly passed the baton to Williams and as usual, it wasn’t easy for the closer. Witt singled and Perez drew a one-out walk so the Royals brought the tying run to the plate, but he got Massey and Maikel Garcia out to earn his second save.

➤ As for Lugo, he gave up four solo homers - three in the fifth inning - and that was enough for the Yankees on this night. Jazz Chisholm tied the score at 1-1 in the fourth with his second homer in as many days, then Trent Grisham, Ben Rice and Austin Wells all went deep in the fifth.

➤ Jasson Dominguez made a career-high six putouts in left including a great catch to track down a shot hit by India. Yet Boone still pulled him late in the game and inserted Cody Bellinger who had started the game with a scheduled day off.

What they said in Monday’s clubhouse

• Wells on Carrasco: “I think he was great at not giving in to an aggressive lineup. He made pitches and they got themselves out, which is great.”

• Chisholm on the approach against Lugo: “He doesn’t like to walk people. If you watch his last couple of games, he’s really been in the strike zone a lot and in the strike zone early. I think we went up there with a plan of attack - get your pitch early. He throws eight or nine pitches, but get your pitch early and attack it.”

• Chisholm on the extra work Dominguez has been doing on his fielding before game: “He goes out there every day and he works his butt off just to get better. That’s all you can ask from a young kid, just to go out there and keep working. You know you’re going to get better over the years. He’s 22, right? He’s got a lot more years in this game. He’s going to be OK.”

April 15: Yankees 4, Royals 2

➤ Once again, all it took was one good inning of offense to get past the weak-hitting Royals and while it worked out, that can’t become the norm for the Yankees. In the first two games they were a combined 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position, but thankfully, the one came in a big spot to cap a deciding four-run sixth, and it came off the bat of Dominguez who ripped a three-run double to make it 4-2.

➤It was pretty disappointing that Michael Wacha dominated the Yankees for five innings and there were a lot of bad at bats and swings against the righty before he tired and lost his control in the sixth with the Royals up 2-0. Judge led off with a single, then Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt struck out and it looked like nothing was going to happen. However, Chisholm and Anthony Volpe walked to load the bases and that ended Wacha’s night at 80 pitches and brought lefty Angel Zerpa into the game. He immediately walked Wells on four pitches to force in a run before Dominguez doubled down the line in left to chase home all three runners.

➤ The big news there is before that at bat, Dominguez had been 1-for-20 as a righty batter this season so that was really good to see. He had three of the Yankees six hits in the game, the other two swinging lefty off Wacha. Boone continued to yank him for defense, though, the seventh time he’s done that in the kid’s 15 starts. I’m not going to argue because while he’s improving in the field, Grisham is a great fielder who goes into center in these situations with Bellinger moving to left. And sure enough, as soon as Grisham came in he made a tremendous catch in deep center in the top of the seventh. I just hope it doesn’t curtail Dominguez’s confidence, or slows his development because he has to learn to play full games and be reliable out there in all situations.

➤ Max Fried was terrific. He wasn’t quite as sharp as he was in his last outing against Detroit, especially in the third when he allowed his only two runs. He gave up a solo homer to MJ Melendez who finished the game with a batting average of .093, and after two outs, Garcia singled and scored on a double by Witt. After that he worked around a leadoff double by Perez in the fourth, a leadoff single by Freddy Fermin in the fifth, and then was pulled with two outs in the seventh after walks to Hunter Renfroe and Cavan Biggio. His line was 94 pitches, 6.2 innings, two runs on five hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.

➤ Weaver kept rolling. He rescued Fried by getting Garcia on two pitches to end the seventh, then threw a nine-pitch 1-2-3 eighth, keeping his ERA at 0.00. And hey, Williams finally had an easy save, his first 1-2-3 inning as a Yankee to close it out.

What they said in Tuesday’s clubhouse

• Dominguez on his double: “Everybody wants to have a three-RBI game and three hits. It feels really nice. Yesterday I had a big game in my defense; I felt that confidence, for sure. I’ve been having a little bit of struggle from the right side, but lately I feel like I’ve made some adjustments. I’m getting more reps and being on time.”

• Boone on the diversity of Fried’s arsenal: “I’ll turn to Brad (Ausmus, the bench coach) and I’ll be like, ‘Man, I would not like to hit off this guy.’”

• Boone on Grisham’s great catch which saved a run: “First play Grish goes out and makes an unbelievable play. It’s just part of how I want to use the roster here and let JD continue to get more and more comfortable.”

April 16: Yankees 4, Royals 3

➤ Props to the bullpen after Schmidt exited. Leiter retired all four men he faced with two strikeouts, and then Cruz was so good during a 12-pitch 1-2-3 eighth, Boone let him pitch the ninth in search of his first MLB save. I even tweeted after the eighth that Boone should do this, but I also said I doubt he would, so yeah, I was surprised to see Cruz out there.

➤ Naturally, the ninth is almost never easy for this team and he immediately gave up a single to Pasquantino, then after Perez grounded into a double play, it got really sticky. Garcia walked and took second on a wild pitch and that brought up Melendez who is one of the worst hitters in MLB this season with a .085 average and 40% strikeout rate. He roped a hooking line drive to right and Bellinger made a diving catch to end the game. If Judge had been in right last night, I do not think he catches that and the game would have been tied.

➤ Speaking of Judge, he hadn’t homered since April 4 in Pittsburgh before slugging his game-winner to right-center in the seventh. Yet in those 10 games without a homer, his on-base percentage was an insane .523 and his OPS was .934. He was 3-for-3 with a walk and he now leads MLB in average (.409), on-base (.519), slugging (.803) and OPS (1.322). The guy is incredible.

➤ Volpe is off to a poor start with a .219 average, but his on-base is .320 which is well above his career mark of .290, and he now has 15 RBI, second behind Judge’s AL-leading 21. He whiffed with the bases loaded in the first and the Yankees didn’t score, but in the third, Judge doubled, Chisholm walked, and Volpe plated them with a one-hop off double off the wall in left.

➤ Bellinger is having a rough time at the plate, but he drove in the third run with a two-out double in the fourth before making the game-ending catch in the ninth.

What they said in Wednesday’s clubhouse

• Judge on his hot start: “I want to get on base. That’s the biggest thing, hitting in the middle of the order and hitting second a lot. I’ve got to touch first base. That’s my job; touch first base and let the guys behind me do their thing, and if there’s guys out there on the pond, try to drive them in.”

• Bellinger on his catch: “That might be my first game-saving catch, I’m not sure. I was glad I came down with it. I had a little awkward second step there, and my head was bobbing a little too much. But I had a good beat on it and I saw the way the ball was going. I was just glad I was able to catch it and get the win.”

• Judge on the catch: “Wow. That’s the reason he’s got gold on his glove. Very few people make that catch, especially in a big moment like that with the game on the line. To lay out there and extend it for the team, that was pretty impressive.”

The Yankees are heading down to their spring training home, where they will be forced to use the visitors’ clubhouse and dugout in their four-game series against the Rays, Hal Steinbrenner’s 2025 tenant. The Rays are playing their home games at Steinbrenner Field because their old home, Tropicana Field, was decimated by a hurricane last fall.

The Rays are as annoying as ever - they will never not be annoying to me - but they’re off to a ho-hum 8-10 start and they just dropped their last two games to the Red Sox, falling Wednesday 1-0 as they managed just five hits. Of course on Monday they beat Boston 16-1, so who knows what this team is.

Here are a few of their players to watch:

➤ 1B Jonathan Aranda: A little-used bench players for three years, he has suddenly emerged and is hitting .396 (second in MLB behind Judge) and is third in OPS (1.193). Seriously, I’d never even heard of this guy.

➤ 3B Junior Caminero: He’s advertised as the Rays’ next star and he’s off to a solid start with a team-leading four homers.

➤ CF Kameron Misner: Another guy I’ve never heard of but the rookie has a slash line of .395/.429/.744 with an OPS of 1.173.

➤ DH Yandy Diaz: This guy I’ve heard of, and he always seems to hurt the Yankees. He’s off to a bit of a slow start thus far with an OPS of .658 but does have three homers.

➤ RP Pete Fairbanks: The Rays’ closer has three saves and a 1.50 ERA in six innings.

The pitching matchups are scheduled to be:

• Thursday, 7:05, Amazon Prime: Will Warren (5.14) vs. Taj Bradley (3.71) and is averaging 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings with a 1.059 WHIP.

• Friday, 7:05, YES: Carlos Rodon (5.68) vs. Drew Rasmussen (0.60) who has allowed one run in 15 innings and has a microscopic WHIP of 0.733.

• Saturday, 4:10, YES: Carlos Carrasco (5.94) vs. Shane Baz (1.42) who when he’s on, is dominant. He has a 0.842 WHIP and is averaging 12.8 strikeouts per nine.

• Sunday, 1:40, YES: Max Fried (1.88) vs. Ryan Pepiot (4.91) in the only game this series where the Yankees have the better starting pitcher.