The June swoon that was promised arrived late, as it often does—but it is unmistakably here. The Yankees took their butts home to Yankee Stadium after an excruciating four-game sweep at the hands of the reviled Red Sox and performed in a similarly moribund fashion en route to a 7-3 loss to the Tigers. To add injury to insult, Jazz Chisholm Jr. exited the game in the top of the fourth inning after colliding with Jasson Domínguez on a popup, and entered concussion protocol.
This may seem like an awfully
apocalyptic way to begin a recap of a 7-3 game, but Amed Rosario’s pinch-hit three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning is carrying the world on its shoulders with that scoreline. Because I like you, dear readers, I will let you watch that homer first before we get into anything else. Believe me, there’s plenty of anything else to last us a tick.
Just like in Boston, the Yankees fell behind the 8-ball near instantaneously. I cannot stress enough how important a clean first inning is to a struggling team, but Ryan Weathers would not listen, coughing up a double to Tigers terror Dillon Dingler. The slugging Detroit backstop advanced to third on a passed ball, the first of several unforced mistakes tonight, before Spencer Torkelson’s two out knock brought him home for the opening tally. A conventional, if frustrating early setback.
What followed in the top of the second was a parade of silliness enabled and exacerbated by a careless throwing error from José Caballero. Had Cabellero’s throw from third base hit Paul Goldschmidt square, the runner who was already on third would have scored anyway, but the ensuing sacrifice fly from Dingler would have been a harmless final out to leave the score at 2-0. I will not fully excuse the rest of Weathers’ performance, but it is worth noting both this detail and the unfortunate fact that Weathers receives significantly less run support than his teammates. The Yankees were one-hit over seven innings by the ascendent Casey Mize in the meantime; candidly, they have done Weathers few favors, and he responded in kind.
The worst part about the frame, in which the Tigers scored four runs on five hits (and the aforementioned error), was that all but one of Detroit’s base hits (all singles) were under the 95-mph exit velocity threshold as a hard-hit ball. To be fair, all were at or above 90 mph, so they were solidly struck.
But like the penalties that decided Paraguay vs. Germany in Boston earlier in the evening, this was more of a placement rally than a power rally. There’s nothing quite like seeing five potential double play balls squeak through without being touched. Either the Yankees’ index cards need an update, or the baseball gods really had it out for Ryan Weathers. He hit the showers before the frame concluded.
By the bottom of the second inning, I was already showing my friend the ‘dibigah’ video while only keeping one eye on the game. (Please comment below what you think that fine young man is eating.) I know the recapper is not supposed to let the audience behind the curtain like this, but you have my heart, humble citizens of Pinstripe Alley. You are not alone in your suffering. Protect your peace.
Unfortunately, the worst had yet to come. Not on the scoreboard, but on the implications this baseball game may have on the remaining 78 games of the regular calendar.
First of all, Cody Bellinger dropped a fly ball. I’ll let you sit with that one.
Then, it got worse.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. must have thought he’d narrowly avoided disaster when he collided with Kevin McGonigle on a throw to second base in the top of the fourth inning. I certainly did, and surely most of the 40,506 sad saps in attendance. McGonigle had flapjacked a single to score a pair of runners—one of whom may have been thrown out at the plate had Caballero not cut off the throw in a vain attempt to throw out the precocious rookie. Like with his error in the second, they got nothing; and Chisholm got tangled up with McGonigle in the process.
Thankfully, Jazz was okay to stay in the game. Two batters later, Hao-Yu Lee hit a lazy popup toward right field. Chisholm backed out, and Domínguez traveled in from right field. Domínguez failed to communicate that he had a path to the ball, and while he caught the ball, his elbow also caught Chisholm right in the face. Jazz tumbled on his back and stayed down, eventually being led off the field by the training staff to enter concussion protocol.
The Tigers never scored again, but the damage had been done. The Yankees were down a man. Chisholm’s week-or-so from hell continues. Hopefully he does not miss an extended period of time; while his season has fallen short of expectations, he’s still a critical player for this team.
Nothing of note really happened the rest of the way with the exception of Rosario’s home run, an off-the-bench jolt in the place of Austin Wells, who is setting an ignominious kind of history.
Irritatingly, the Yankees blew through their bullpen, stapling together appearances from seven different pitchers in an attempt to hold the Tigers back for a heroic final push that was never coming. You need to be able to save your bullets in a bad stretch like this, and I’m not sure that holding the Tigers scoreless from the fifth inning onward was a wise use of ammo. I doubt it’ll be something to build upon for tomorrow, since morale can’t be high after Jazz’s early exit.
In tonight’s game thread, I asked the hypothetical question: if you were the Yankees, would you prefer a day off or a game right after the four-game sweep in Boston? It would appear the Bombers really could have used a reset day. Baseball, though, offers such favors only when it deems them necessary. This great march of steamrollers rolls on, or whatever James Earl Jones said in that stupid movie.
Same time, same place tomorrow? Yeah, sounds fun. Okay, to cut the sarcasm, a Cam Schlittler-Tarik Skubal pitching matchup is exactly what you dream for as a baseball fan. Nobody get hurt okay? That’s first pitch at 7:05 PM on Amazon Prime Video.
