Yankees 2, Rays 4: Offense can’t manage any thump

Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Forget it Jake*, it’s the Tampa Bay Rays.

*I’m too lazy to check if Jake is my editor tonight. (editor’s note: he’s right, Jake is his editor tonight)

Six singles and two walks, that’s all the Yankees managed tonight. Tampa didn’t do much better, this whole game was one where New York was never more than one big swing away from a very different result. With the game’s biggest swinger on the IL though, this is perhaps the first game we really felt Aaron Judge’ absence, and it came in a 4-2 Yankees loss.

For Cam Schlittler, this game felt like many of his at bats. You see the potential — sitting 98 on his fastball — but there’s a lack of finish. That’s part of the education of a major league pitcher, but the Yankees are committing 40 percent of their rotation to that joint project with Cam and Will Warren.

He got burned in the first inning by Junior Caminero, who took a hanging breaking ball into the left field stands to put the Rays up 2-0. In part, that’s just Junior Caminero, he’s going to be a nightmare for the Yankees for the next three years before the Rays deal him. In part though, Schlittler walked the preceding batter and made the mistake pitch:

Then again, he handled the second, third, and fourth innings well. He gave up base hits but those don’t really hurt you, especially when you strike out five guys and get a big double play, like the one that closed the fourth:

That’s Chandler Simpson too, no easy guy to double up.

Once again though, those walks pile up. The one to Jonathan Aranda was the catalyst for the first inning home run, and three more over the course of the game inflated Schlittler’s pitch count. A walk to Yandy Díaz precipitated an RBI single that untied the game and ended Cam’s night just one out into the fifth.

The offense did enough to get Cam back to square one after the first. Drew Rasmussen wasn’t the monster he usually is against the Yankees, at least for one frame, giving up three straight base hits to load ‘em up. Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked to bring around the first run, and Ryan McMahon continued his Run Production with another walk two batters later. All knotted up at two.

Unfortunately that would be about it, as Rasmussen became Rasmussen again. He retired 12 in a row across the middle innings, blanking any attempt to get the lead before the Rays went ahead again. Drew only lasted five, as the Rays continue to try and protect his oft-injured arm, but after those walks he was dynamite.

The Rays relief pitching was as good as it’s always been, and highlighted a serious mismatch in this series. Aaron Judge is out, the two replacements McMahon and Amed Rosario aren’t exactly the other side of the Judge coin — although Rosario did get a clean hit in his first Yankee AB today. Runs are going to be at a premium this series, and it’s why as good as Tim Hill has been all year, allowing a sac fly, even just that, can feel like a backbreaker.

This was a pretty classic Yankees-Rays game, if it happened in any other context we’d grit our teeth and say “that’s the Rays!”. In this context though, with how bad the Yankees have played, and the fact that Toronto lost meant the club missed a chance to shave a game off the AL standings, this one whomps. Add another to the whomp pile.

Max Fried is slated to go against righty Joe Boyle tomorrow night, and we will once again be focused on the state of his left hand. Battling blisters and hotspots has dominated the last two weeks of Fried’s year, and the Yankees need a big start. First pitch in that one comes at 7:05pm Eastern.

Box Score

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