Sometimes it’s the small victories. After a managing blunder from Aaron Boone in the series opener and a thorough humbling at the hands of Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the second game relegated the Yankees to losses in the first two games of the series, it became imperative that the Yankees find a way to avoid the sweep in both the doubleheader and the series.
Despite Gerrit Cole and Cam Schlittler going in the first two games of the series, the Yankees improbably received their best pitching performance
of the series from a hastily assembled bullpen game in the finale. It was far from a vintage performance by the offense against the Dodgers’ cobbled together bullpen game, the Bombers wasting a pair of scoring opportunities in the middle innings to leave the door open for a Dodgers comeback that thankfully stalled before they could take the lead. Jazz Chisholm Jr. provided the decisive blow with the go-ahead solo home run in the eighth, and every reliever not named Fernando Cruz was lights-out to secure the victory, 2-1.
Last time Ryan Yarbrough faced the Dodgers, he authored one of the most improbable starts of any pitcher in baseball last year. He held their mighty lineup to a run in six innings last June at Chavez Ravine, out-dueling Yamamoto in the process — part of a crucial eight-start stretch where he allowed two or fewer runs in seven of those outings to help save the Yankees’ season as the rotation was inundated with injuries in May and June.
He managed to tap into some of that same magic tonight. He retired the first eight batters he faced, needing just 17 pitches to go six up, six down in the first two innings. He couldn’t quite make it through three, Eliezer Alfonzo tallying a single for his first big league hit with two outs and then Shohei Ohtani following with a squibber infield single to the left side. That prompted Boone to call on Paul Blackburn as the first man out of the bullpen. It was expected that Elmer Rodríguez would follow Yarbrough as the bulk reliever — the rookie called up as the Yankees’ designated 27th man earlier in the day — but it’s understandable that Boone go to the recently-minted relief ace Blackburn given the high leverage of the situation. Indeed, Blackburn got Andy Pages to fly out to left to strand the pair he inherited.
The offense had to wait until the fourth to register their first hit (and run) against Yamamoto, so it was nice to see them come out of the blocks firing against opener Will Klein. Paul Goldschmidt kept the first inning alive with a two-out double to the opposite field and Cody Bellinger cashed him in with an RBI single lined up the middle. Jasson Domínguez followed with a single of his own, but Jazz stranded the pair in place by striking out to end the frame.
Kyle Hurt was called up as the Dodgers’ designated 27th man for the doubleheader and entered as the bulk reliever in place of Klein to start the second. Things quieted down for a spell with the two bulk guys in the game, until the Yankees gave themselves a golden opportunity to grow their lead in the fourth. Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells drew a pair of one-out walks and both advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch. However, as we have seen countless times in the Boone era, the Yankees made an out at home on an ill-conceived contact play, José Caballero hitting a routine grounder to third and Max Muncy’s throw home beating Volpe by a step-and-a-half. Trent Grisham grounded out to first to strand runners on the corners as the Yankees failed to score.
If you think that was bad, just wait until you see what they did the next inning. They loaded the bases with no outs on three straight singles by Ben Rice, Goldschmidt, and Bellinger to bring Jasson Domínguez to the plate. However, he flailed at four pitches out of the zone to strike out, Jazz popped up a first pitch changeup that was left middle-middle and Muncy caught it in foul territory, and then Volpe chased a 3-2 fastball off the plate for the inning ending strikeout to strand the bases loaded. Probably the worst three batter sequence you are likely to see to Houdini themselves out of scoring a run.
Thankfully for the Yankees, the first two members out of their bullpen appeared to pitch with a steely determination to avoid the sweep. Blackburn gave them 2.1 scoreless innings allowing a hit and a walk. Brent Headrick was even more impressive, twirling two perfect innings in the sixth and seventh and racking up three strikeouts. However, all those wasted opportunities were fated to come home to roost, and indeed they did upon Cruz’s entrance in the eighth. Normally excellent for large stretches this summer, Cruz grooved a 1-0 splitter to pinch-hitter Tommy Edman, and he crushed it to right for the game-tying solo home run. Cruz walked a pair to force Boone out of the dugout to call on his closer, and David Bednar slammed the door on the burgeoning rally to strand the pair.
You wondered whether yet another gut-punch in this series would spiral into a third straight loss. However, Jazz had other ideas in the eighth. He atoned for his pop out with the bases loaded in the fifth with a booming go-ahead solo shot off reliever Evan Phillips. Ryan McMahon followed with a pinch-hit double and Wells drew a walk, the pair advancing into scoring position but ultimately getting stranded by a Grisham pop out.
Bednar navigated around a leadoff Freddie Freeman walk in the ninth, striking out a pair in the frame to nail down the five-out save. The offense remained anemic, scoring two or fewer runs in all three games, and overcame their 11 stranded runners and 2-for-10 showing with runners in scoring position. However, every win is a win, and it’s hard not to feel like this one counts as double given that Yankees were previously 1-9 in their last 10 home games. Thanks to the Rays’ sweep, the Yanks are only a game and a half back of the AL East lead.
The Yankees next welcome the Pirates to the Bronx for three games, thankfully with Paul Skenes having just pitched yesterday. Ryan Weathers gets the series opener against Braxton Ashcraft, who was an All-Star in his own right. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm ET Monday night with the broadcast returning to YES.
