On the night when long-time radio broadcaster John Sterling was honored, the Yankees and Guardians delivered a truly dreadful game that any self-respecting commentator would want to avoid. The Yankees faltered first in a grueling 12-inning marathon filled with more mishaps and mistakes than can be detailed. Luis Gil left the game in the fourth inning due to injury after three shaky and ineffective innings. Although the Yankee bullpen performed admirably in his absence, Aaron Boone had to use all of his relievers to keep up with the Guardians, who eventually broke through in the 12th inning to secure a 9-3 victory.
If you recall, the Yankees actually started strong against Matthew Boyd for the first time since 2019. Juan Soto snapped out of his weekend slump with a home run over the short porch, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead with his 35th home run.
The next batter, naturally, was Aaron Judge, who responded with a home run into the right field stands for his 45th of the season. Soto and Judge have now hit back-to-back home runs five times this year. Everything seemed promising, at least for a while.
Gil’s troubles really started in the second inning. He gave up a leadoff double to Jhonkensy Noel, then issued a walk and a fielder’s choice that moved Noel to third. Bo Naylor followed with a grounder to first base. DJ LeMahieu fielded it, hesitated briefly, and threw home. Noel was initially called out, but the decision was overturned after a lengthy review.
The top of the third looked promising for Gil as he got the first two outs on just four pitches. However, he continued to struggle with his control, issuing his fourth and fifth walks of the game. Trying to escape another jam, he left a slider over the plate for Daniel Schneeman, who hit it to right field for a game-tying single. LeMahieu cut off Soto’s throw from the outfield and attempted a rundown of Schneeman, but the play fell apart as nobody covered second base, allowing Schneeman to advance. It was a critical mistake by the Yankees, forcing Gil to throw seven more stressful.
Gil’s performance worsened in the fourth. Brayan Rocchio, a light-hitting shortstop, hit a homer into the Yankee bullpen to give Cleveland their first lead of the night. After Stephen Kwan walked for the third time and easily stole second base, Aaron Boone and the athletic trainer came out to the mound. Gil was pulled from the game due to what was later diagnosed as lower back tightness. It’s currently unclear if he will be sidelined for any length of time.
It’s not entirely surprising that Gil struggled so significantly with his control or ended up leaving the game with an injury—he had never pitched 100 innings in a season before this year. The harsh reality is that the Yankees have relied heavily on him to perform and push his limits, especially as other starters have struggled and no backup was acquired at the trade deadline. Now, they might face an extended absence of Gil.
Anthony Volpe tied the game with an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth, and then stole third base. Despite having three opportunities to bring him home, the Yankees couldn’t capitalize, and the game remained knotted for the next seven innings.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Yankees continued to struggle with situational hitting. Trevino walked and Volpe singled, bringing LeMahieu to the plate with one out against reliever Nick Sandlin. LeMahieu then hit a weak grounder back to Sandlin, who started a 1-4-3 double play to end the inning.
The Yankee bullpen kept them in the game, with Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver, and Tommy Kahnle each throwing a scoreless inning. This set up a chance for the Yankees to take the lead in the eighth. Giancarlo Stanton walked to start the inning and was replaced by Trent Grisham. Austin Wells, pinch-hitting for Trevino, crushed a drive to center field that hit the top of the wall, just missing a home run. Grisham rounded third and attempted to score but hesitated slightly, allowing a poor relay throw to reach the plate first. Bo Naylor made a spectacular diving tag to get Grisham out, and the Yankees missed out on scoring. This misstep proved to be the game’s turning point.
Both Grisham and Luis Rojas share blame for the missed scoring opportunity. Grisham didn’t run as hard as he could around the bases, and Rojas’ delayed decision to send Grisham after initially signaling him to stop caused the hesitation. Combined with LeMahieu’s flinch on a throw home earlier, these brief lapses ultimately cost the Yankees a run. Against a strong team like Cleveland, such mistakes are costly.
The game moved to extra innings after both teams’ closers held the score steady in the ninth. In the tenth inning, with Jake Cousins on the mound, the Yankees intentionally walked José Ramírez to face Josh Naylor with one out. Naylor hit a grounder up the middle to Volpe, who made a quick play to second base and turned a double play to keep the game tied.
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.
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