Appropriately for a series with two struggling lineups and strong pitching staffs, the Yankees and Padres battled to the margins in Sunday afternoon’s rubber game. The contest could hardly have gone off to a worse start for the Yanks, as Gerrit Cole surrendered home runs to each of the first three batters he faced. The Yankee offense wasted a lot of good chances against old friend Michael King, and it seemed like a sleepy loss was in order.
New York, to their credit, made good on a rally in the eighth
inning, but were foiled by Friday night’s walk-off hero. Padres catcher Luis Campusano, not long after giving San Diego a key insurance run with a solo shot of his own, threw out the would-be tying run attempting to steal second, and Mason Miller struck out Ben Rice representing the go-ahead tally in the ninth to turn the Bombers away at the door. Another close game slipped away from the Yanks along the margins.
The temperature at first pitch in San Diego was 81 degrees with cloudy skies—hardly the weather in which you would expect balls to fly out of the yard. And yet the Padres’ power bats were switched on from the jump. Leading off, Fernando Tatis Jr. took Cole the opposite way for his 20th home run of the season to strike the opening blow.
The next batter, Jake Cronenworth. stayed back on his fastball and got enough of a piece to line it to the opposite field. It had enough zip to stay fair and clear the wall for a second straight homer. Cronenworth had been mired in an 0-for-22 slump before that swing.
Then there was Manny Machado, who was responsible for the Padres’ lone run last night. Machado got better wood on his homer than either Tatis or Cronenworth, slamming it deep over the center field wall to make it back-to-back-to-back jacks for San Diego to begin their offensive effort. That this was a disorienting start to a Gerrit Cole start the way he’s been cruising lately is an understatement.
Ty France very nearly made it four consecutive with his own high fly all the way to the warning track in center, but it mercifully stayed in the yard. To Cole’s credit, he rallied from that stunning start, refusing to allow the deficit to expand, even when an ugly Jasson Domínguez error on a routine base hit to right put a runner on third base for free.
Meanwhile, the Yankees failed to make good on two great opportunities to score. In the second inning, they brought the tying run to the plate in the person of George Lombard Jr., who grounded into a force play. With the rally still alive, Ryan McMahon came up with two in scoring position, but King got him to roll over on the changeup to retire the side.
The Yankees wouldn’t get another good shot at getting on the board until the fifth, with a rally which began on a double to right field by Lombard. King managed to get to two outs before he started missing his spots, and before long he’d walked a pair of Bombers to load the bases for Cody Bellinger—just about the first guy you’d want in that particular spot if you’re Aaron Boone.
But Bellinger got overaggressive, swinging at the first pitch King threw, popping out to right to leave the bases loaded and allow their old friend to escape with no damage on his line. He would make it unscathed through the sixth to extend his personal scoreless innings streak to 21.2. I’ve always been fond of Michael King, and I’m happy to see him succeed, but the Yankees should have put up a couple of runs on him today at the very least. They failed to cash in their chances.
To be fair to the Yankees, they were also continually hitting into hard luck. Both Spencer Jones and Luis García Jr. hit wall-scrapers that died at the warning track. In the fourth, Jazz Chisholm Jr. lined a comebacker directly at King, who snagged the ball and easily doubled off García at first. Then in the sixth, Domínguez roped a line drive which threatened to extend a rally with Jones aboard, but Cronenworth made a slick diving catch to once again send the Bombers packing.
These near misses were particularly hard to swallow since the Padres’ greatest team strength is their bullpen.
Bradgley Rodriguez, for instance, entered action in the seventh with a 1.99 ERA. That’s a tough foe for the bottom of the order to solve while trailing 3-love. They didn’t. Rodriguez retired them in order on 11 pitches.
And if you thought a 3-0 deficit was going to be a tough ask to rally against, try 4-0.
Cole had performed brilliantly after the first-inning barrage, keeping his pitch count in control while doing his best to keep the Yankees within striking distance. But he finally coughed up one last mistake in the bottom of the seventh inning. Friday night’s walk-off hero, Luis Campusano, slugged his second home run of the series out to left on a 2-1 fastball that caught far too much of the strike zone.
This game marked the first time in eleven starts that Cole allowed more than three runs in a start. He very nearly extended that streak even with the nightmare beginning. And that fourth run was about to start mattering real fast.
The Yankees lineup faced a tough lefty who reportedly saw interest from the Yankees this trade deadline: Adrian Morejón. But they were up to the task, quickly getting two aboard for the grooving Spencer Jones. Jones snuck a grounder just inside the third base bag for a double to finally get the Yankees on the board and put two more runners in scoring position. A solidly struck base hit would likely bring the Yankees back within a run.
Or, as it turned out, a very weakly struck base hit.
Amed Rosario came off the bench to hit for Jazz Chisholm Jr. and tapped a swinging bunt along the third base side. Morejón probably should have held onto the ball and cut his losses, but his vain attempt to record the out at first resulted in a low throw which skipped into foul ground, scoring both runners and thinning the margin down to 4-3.
José Caballero pinch-ran for Rosario and immediately decided to force the issue, racing toward second base with Domínguez at the plate. But Campusano, continuing to play hero for the Padres, gunned Caballero down at second to neuter the Yankee rally. Domínguez lined out to center to retire the side.
And not to beat a dead horse, but trailing by a run against Mason Miller is definitely not where you want to be. The best closer in baseball struck out Lombard, then a savvy ABS challenge by Campusano—enough of this guy—turned a ball into a strikeout of McMahon.
That set up two down with Austin Wells at the plate. Miller fell behind the Yankee catcher 3-0, then battled back to work the count full. The payoff pitch missed low and in, setting the stage for Ben Rice to take on the Reaper.
Rice battled valiantly, working the count full, but Miller snuck a slider past him which landed directly on the outside edge to secure the strikeout and dash the Yankees’ hopes of a comeback. A tough loss to swallow.
The Rays lost to the Rangers, but the Red Sox won in Baltimore. The Bombers have struggled mightily to gain any ground in the divisional hunt—they’ll have to content themselves with a 3-3 split of the final West Coast trip (excluding the Arizona detour next week), and get ready to fly home.
Enjoy Labor Day tomorrow, everyone! The Yankees will have the day off as they return to their native time zone, then they’ll host the Rockies and Mets in the upcoming homestand. Cam Schlittler will face fellow righty Gabriel Hughes on Tuesday at 7:05pm ET.
Box Score
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