There were a lot of similarities between today and yesterday’s loss, but at least this one was quicker. The Yankees couldn’t get the one extra hit they really needed, and the Brewers showed why they’ve been so formidable over the past couple years. In the end, breakout star Brice Turang clubbed David Bednar’s offering over the center-field wall in the bottom of the ninth to give the Brew Crew a 4-3 win and sweep the Yankees right out of town.
For the seventh time this season, Aaron Judge was able
to spot his club a first-inning run:
That’s Judge’s 16th bomb of the year, moving him back into a tie for the most in baseball, now knotted up with Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies. He also passed Hall of Famer Larry Walker on the all-time home run list, No. 384 putting him in a tie for 69th with Harold Baines. In his first three PAs, the Captain was the Three-True-Outcome player, going deep, striking out, and working a walk in the sixth. Unfortunately old friend Gary Sánchez gunned down Judge’s stolen base attempt in that frame.
The following inning, Spencer Jones got the monkey off his back with his first career hit and RBI, a single to center that scored José Caballero and made it 2-0, New York:
I am not a Spencer Jones believer, and it had been a tough weekend for the sixth-ranked prospect. Good for him for getting his first MLB knock, and even better that it brought a run in. Hat tip to the kid.
We had a bit of a mixed bag from Carlos Rodón today. I think you can and should be encouraged by the pure stuff we saw — sitting 96 with his fastball and 87 with his slider, both notably harder than he threw them in 2025. The issue, perhaps predictably, was control. Three of the five innings he appeared in opened with a free pass to the leadoff hitter, and while he was able to get through three frames without trouble, if you poke a bee’s nest enough you’ll get stung.
William Contreras and Sánchez both walked to kick off the bottom of the fourth, before Rodón dotted Andrew Vaughn to load the bases. The Yankees cut Contreras down at home but couldn’t get Luis Rengifo out at first, meaning Garrett Mitchell’s fly ball was a sac fly and RBI rather than the third out of the inning, and the Brewers were on the board. A two-run single by recently-recalled erstwhile Yankees farmhand Blake Perkins put Milwaukee up 3-2, and while that would be the totality of damage against Rodón, all of the damage was because of that poor control.
Jake Bird was called upon to navigate a two men on, one man out situation relieving Carlos, and did just that to keep the deficit to just one. Jazz Chisholm Jr. wasted little time rewarding Bird for the clutch bit of pitching with a big swing in the top of the sixth:
That RBI double was as good as it would get though. The Yankees would get a man on in each of the final three innings, but in a repeat of yesterday, couldn’t manage the one hit to push another run across. Five Bombers struck out in the seventh, eighth and ninth, and Cody Bellinger and Jones were the only hitters to get a ball out of the infield — a single and a fly out respectively.
David Bednar was asked to work the ninth, and actually got two outs before facing Brice Turang, who entered action with a 158 wRC+ and a top-10 fWAR that matched Rice (1.8):
This is the second time the Yankees have been swept this year after that nightmare series down at Tropicana Field.
There’s nothing else really to say about the series, the Brewers outplayed the Yankees in all three games, took advantage of mistakes and their pitching staff was seemingly able to stave off disaster at will. Milwaukee’s a very good team, for a reason. The only thing you can do from here is fly down to Baltimore and take a couple games against a team that you should be able to, with a back-t0-health Ryan Weathers back in the rotation for the opener of that series tomorrow against righty Brandon Young. First pitch is at 6:35pm Eastern, and hopefully we get a more robust offensive effort in a different town.
