Aaron Judge made his long-awaited return from the injured list on Monday night in the Bronx. The Captain didn’t set the world on fire at the dish—he didn’t even get a hit. But the Bombers were still able to grab a quality victory courtesy of their young star pitcher, who has held it down on the bump all year long.
Cam Schlittler overpowered the Rockies with his signature triple-fastball repertoire, striking out ten while walking none. The Yankee offense grabbed a few defense-assisted runs before finally
putting up a crooked number on an eighth-inning home run by Heliot Ramos, who had subbed in for Judge in the seventh. The Bombers withstood a little bit of late noise by Colorado to start out their homestand with a 5-3 win.
The Rockies are far from masters of the universe, and they proved it when the Yankees grabbed a run aided by two errors on one play. It came right after Judge’s first plate appearance back from injury. Judge looked a little late on his timing, failing to square up sinkers from Gabriel Hughes and ultimately falling on strikes. Thankfully, Luis Garcia Jr. picked him up with a base hit to left center field, which outfielder Jake McCarthy booted to allow both him and lead runner Cody Bellinger to move up a base.
Then, McCarthy’s throw back into the infield just kinda wandered past everybody in the infield and rolled to the backstop. Third base coach Luis Rojas pointed out to Bellinger that home was suddenly wide open, and Cody raced to the dish for a 1-0 Yankee lead.
Gabriel Hughes must be tired of seeing those kinds of poor defensive plays take place on his watch, but he would get a bit more help as the game progressed. First, Adael Amador would wipe away the deficit with a solo homer off Schlittler in the top of the third. Then, McCarthy made up for one of the two errors charged to him—let’s say the one which was actually his fault—with a gorgeous diving catch to rob Ben Rice of extra innings in the bottom half.
But in the fifth, they regressed again. When George Lombard Jr. slapped a seeing-eye single up the middle, the speedy shortstop was well-positioned to take advantage of more subpar defense. This one won’t go down as an error, but it was important.
Ryan McMahon hit a line drive down the right field line for extra bases, and Zac Veen prepared to field the bounce off the wall. But the ball hit the concrete underneath the padded part of the fence, causing it to keep a lot of its zip on the carom. Veen wasn’t prepared for the quick richochet that followed, and had to sprawl out to field it—giving Lombard all the time he needed to motor around third and score all the way from first base. The Yankees retook the lead, though they were unable to add on.
Schlittler, meanwhile, was characteristically cruising. After Amador’s home run, he didn’t allow another hit until McCarthy slapped an opposite-field single with two outs, giving Cole Carrigg an opportunity. The young lefty slugger unsuccessfully challenged a called strike two, then swung through more pure heat from Cam. He slammed his helmet to the ground in frustration as Schlittler picked up his ninth strikeout of the night.
Judge departed the game in the seventh inning after his third at-bat. He finished 0-for-3 with a strikeout swinging, a flyout to center, and a strikeout looking. Heliot Ramos took over in right field. It was far from a showstopping debut from Judge—but that’s baseball. The rest of the lineup performed the way we’ve been accustomed to seeing them: not very well.
Schlittler grabbed one last strikeout in a scoreless seventh inning to reach 10 strikeouts for the fourth time this season. He did so without issuing a single walk—which continues to be the part of Cam’s came which has impressed me more than anything else. His rookie season conditioned us all to expect a decent amount of free passes in addition to the strikeouts and dizzying stuff. Yet, he took the hill tonight with just a 6.2-percent walk rate. He faced 24 Rockies and didn’t let any of them on base for free. One more A-plus performance for Cam Schlittler, who now owns a 2.01 ERA.
At last, in the bottom of the eighth, the Bombers got the separator they were looking for.
Former Red Sox reliever Brennan Bernadino entered to try and hold the Yankees at bay, but immediately got into trouble facing the top of the order. Rice worked a walk, then Bellinger managed to dunk a line drive just between the outfielders in the left-center gap for a double to put two men in scoring position for what would ordinarily be Judge’s spot in the lineup. Of course, Judge wasn’t in the game anymore—but Ramos put on a great impression, socking a hanging curveball the opposite way for a crucial three-run home run.
The last bit of intrigue in this game came in the form of two unsuccessful challenges, one by New York and one by Colorado. In this writer’s personal opinion, both calls—one in which Jazz Chisholm Jr. was called out at second on a would-be double, and one in which McCarthy was called out on a close call at first—should have been overturned. They both ‘stood’. I think Jazz in particular had a beef, and given the Rockies’ comeback effort in the ninth, it would have been nice to have that extra out to work with. (More concerningly, Jazz left the game with a thumb injury; hopefully it’s minor, but postgame news will have more.)
Tim Hill’s start to the ninth inning was orderly enough, as he grabbed the first two outs thanks in part to that second unsuccessful challenge. But he walked former Yankee farmhand TJ Rumfield to give an opportunity to the powerful catcher Hunter Goodman. Goodman didn’t need to get too much of Hill’s 1-1 offering to hit it over the short porch in right for a two-run homer which made the gap a little narrower.
Thankfully, David Bednar entered and struck out Mickey Moniak on three pitches to put this thing to bed. Nice and orderly, and it counts as a save for Bednar.
With that victory, the Yankees have clinched their 34th consecutive winning season. It may not be a championship, but that streak remains extremely impressive, the second-longest in MLB history.
Tomorrow night, Will Warren will lead the Yanks out onto the field as they look for a series win against veteran righty Tomoyuki Sugano, the certified unc of the Rockies pitching staff. First pitch is once again set for 7:05 pm with coverage on YES.
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