On a night where longtime radio broadcaster John Sterling was honored, the Yankees and Guardians put together a truly repugnant game from which any self-respecting commentator would flee. The Yankees blinked first in an unpleasant 12-inning slog which contained more oddities and blunders than are worth recounting. Luis Gil exited the game in the fourth inning with an injury after three erratic and ineffective innings.
While the Yankee bullpen performed well in his stead, Aaron Boone had to use all of his relievers (yes, all of them ) to keep pace with Cleveland, who finally tore down the castle walls in the 12th to win 9-3. If you can remember that far back, the Bombers actually got off to a great start in their first look at Matthew Boyd since 2019. Juan Soto broke out of his weekend funk and smacked a short-porch special for his 35th home run and a 1-0 lead.
Soto Solo Shot pic.twitter.com/f0YRZkLuSZ The next man up, of course, was Aaron Judge, and he followed suit with a drive into those right field stands for his 45th round-tripper.
Soto and Judge have now gone back-to-back five times this year. All was good, for a little while. Back-to-Back, Belly-to-Belly! #AllRise pic.
twitter.com/ZvSSF6Z6c1 Gil’s struggles truly began in the second. He allowed a leadoff double to Jhonkensy Noel, followed by a walk and a fielder’s choice which advanced Noel to third.
The next batter, Bo Naylor, grounded a ball toward first base. DJ LeMahieu fielded the ball, briefly hesitated, then threw home. Noel was initially ruled out, but the call was overturned after a lengthy review.
The top of the third looked promising for Gil, with the first two outs coming on four pitches. But he continued to miss all over the place with his pitches, issuing his fourth and fifth walks of the night. Looking for a way out of another jam, he left a slider over the middle for Daniel Schneeman, who pulled it to right for a game-tying hit.
LeMahieu cut off Soto’s throw from the outfield to catch Schneeman in a rundown, but he escaped to second base because nobody covered. It was a play the Yankees had no business flubbing, and it forced Gil to throw seven more high-stress pitches to Bo Naylor before he recorded the inning-ending strikeout. More nightmares followed for Gil in the fourth.
Light-hitting shortstop Brayan Rocchio crushed a ball into the Yankee bullpen to give Cleveland their first lead of the night. After Stephen Kwan walked for a third time and collected the easiest stolen base of his career, Aaron Boone walked out of the dugout with the athletic trainer. Gil was removed the game with what was later revealed to be lower back tightness.
As of right now, it’s unclear whether he’ll miss time. Yankees announce that Luis Gil was seen at the stadium by Dr. David Trofa, the team's orthopedic doctor.
He will be re-assessed tomorrow. No imaging is scheduled at this time. It’s not altogether surprising to see Gil struggle this badly with his command, or even to leave with an injury — he’d never pitched 100 innings in a season as a professional before this year.
The unfortunate truth is the Yankees have needed him to perform and push his body to the limit as other starters have faltered and they didn’t acquire any backup at the deadline. Now, they face the possibility of being without Gil for an extended period. Anthony Volpe brought the game into a deadlock which would hold for seven more innings with an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth.
He then stole third base, but with three chances to score him, they went down in order. In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Yankees’ struggles with situational hitting continued. Trevino walked and Volpe singled to bring up LeMahieu with one out against reliever Nick Sandlin.
He promptly tapped one right back to Sandlin, who started a 1-4-3 twin killing to send the Yanks packing. The Yankee bullpen continued to keep the Yankees in it, as Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver, and Tommy Kahnle each worked a scoreless frame.
That set up an opportunity for the Yankees to take the lead in the eighth. Giancarlo Stanton worked a leadoff walk and was lifted for Trent Grisham. Pinch-hitting for Trevino, Austin Wells crushed a rocket to center field which struck the top of the wall, a few feet shy of Monument Park.
Grisham rounded third and came home, but hesitated for just a moment on his way around the base, which allowed a very bad relay throw to beat him to the plate. Bo Naylor made a beautiful diving tag on Grisham, and the Yankees failed to score. This mistake was ultimately the play that lost the game.
Grisham and Luis Rojas deserve equal parts of the blame for that play. Grisham did not run as hard as he could rounding both bases, but Rojas’ late send after initially putting up the stop sign caused Grisham’s second pause. Combined with LeMahieu’s flinch on the throw home in the second, split-second hesitations cost the Yankees a run in both directions.
These mistakes will always add up against good teams like Cleveland. Once both team’s closers put up zeros in the ninth, this shambolic game lurched into extra innings. With Jake Cousins pitching the tenth, the Yankees intentionally walked José Ramírez to get to Josh Naylor with one out.
Naylor grounded one up the middle to Volpe. The Gold Glove shortstop raced to second and turned two with a flourish to preserve the tie. Turnin' 2 pic.
twitter.com/Wfii10fjd4 When Emmanuel Clase shut down the Yankees again, Cousins soldiered on into the 11th and came through to put up another crucial zero and set up the Yankees for a walk-off. Wells cranked another long fly ball, this time to right, but Schneeman made a great catch against the wall to take away another potential game-winning RBI.
The Yankees again failed to score. In the 12th, Tim Mayza was summoned to face some lefties and immediately faced a righty, Lane Thomas, off the bench. Thomas doubled to right to drive in the go-ahead run.
Michael Tonkin, the final remaining Yankee reliever, came in to face Ramírez. That’s when the rickety wagon finally fell apart. The Guardians would score five more runs on Tonkin, with the death blow coming on a three-run triple by David Fry.
By the end of the inning, you’d never know the game was even close. Aaron Judge hit a two-run double in the bottom half to make the box score more appealing. There were so many stupefying mistakes and blunders on both sides but ultimately the Yankees were the team living on borrowed time once Gil had to leave early.
There were about five different dumb mistakes I didn’t even have time or space to mention. Altogether, it was another night of horrible fundamentals, terrible situational hitting, and just plain ugly baseball from a team that should be far more polished in these areas than they are. If you still have an appetite for baseball after tonight, believe it or not these teams play again tomorrow night! Nestor Cortes will face recent call-up Joey Cantillo in the middle game.
First pitch is set for 7:05 PM on Amazon Prime Video. Box Score.
