Cam solid, but Yankees offense falters in loss to Twins

New York—The Yankees wasted a chance to pick up a game in the Wild Card game and the AL East race, dropping the finale 4-1 to the Twins. Cam Schlittler got the start for the Yankees and faced off against Joe Ryan, one of the best pitchers in the American League. 

After a one-hour and 52-minute rain delay, the game finally started. Cam retired the Twins in order on just eight pitches in the top half of the first inning. 

Trent Grisham led off the bottom of the first inning with a single right back up the middle. Grisham moved up to second base on a passed ball.  But Aaron Judge struck out, Cody Bellinger flew out to left field, and Giancarlo Stanton just missed a home run with a 401-foot flyout to straight-away center field to strand Grisham at second. 

In the top of the second inning, Cam worked a 1-2-3 inning and picked up his first strikeout of the ballgame. 

Ben Rice led off the bottom half of the second with a groundball single to tight center field. A couple of batters later, Ryan McMahon worked a two-out walk, but Austin Wells grounded out to strand two runners on base. 

Cam retired the Twins in order in the top of the third and recorded two more strikeouts to put his total up to three for the ballgame. 

Cody Bellinger got the scoring started with his 22nd home run of the season into the second deck in right field to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. 

"Got me on my first AB, and Grisham did a good job of getting on base," Belli said. "And you know, just second AB, you know, wanted to make the adjustment, just do everything I could to just put my best swing on the ball."

A leadoff walk followed by a double out, Cam got into some trouble in the top of the fourth inning. Luke Keaschall tied the game up via an RBI groundout to make it a 1-1 game. Cam picked up a strikeout and a popout to strand the go-ahead run at third. 

Yerry De Los Santos, who had only faced nine hitters in high leverage situations this year, for some reason replaced Cam in a high leverage situation in the top of the sixth inning and gave up back-to-back infield singles. The next batter, Kody Clemens, picked up an RBI double and an E8 from Grisham allowed a second run to score and Clemens to move up to third to make it a 3-1 Twins lead. Mark Leiter Jr. then replaced De Los Santos after he couldn't record an out. Lieter picked two pop outs, then served up a two-out RBI double to Royce Lewis just out of the reach of Belli in left field. To make it a 4-1 game.

Cam Schlittler's final line: Five innings pitched, two hits allowed, one earned run, two walks, six swings and misses, and six strikeouts on 86 pitches. Cam threw his fastball 64% of the time, the curveball 15%, the slider 13%, and the sinker 8% of the time. Cam was really solid, the command was still a little shaky, and he had a couple of long at-bats in the fourth and the fifth inning, leading to him throwing 52 pitches in those two innings, but he did a great job holding them to one run. 

"I think just kind of getting in the zone," Cam said. "I think a big thing for me was trying to get the fastball down. So I think I was able to do that and get the results I was looking for." 

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Belli worked a one-out walk, but Stanton struck out and Rice grounded out to strand Belli. 

Devin Williams took over for Leiter in the top of the seventh inning and retired the Twins in order with a strikeout. 

Anthony Volpe lined a one-out double into the left-center gap in the bottom of the seventh. However, Volpe was stranded following a groundout from McMahon and a strikeout looking from Austin Wells in a situation where they should have pinch-hit Paul Goldschmidt for Wells against a lefty. It came out after the game that Goldy was dealing with a knee issue tonight and might need to go to the IL, so that's why they didn't pinch hit him for Wells. 

"No, he hurt himself last night, the knee, so he wasn't available tonight," Aaron Boone said. "Hoping could be an IL, could be a day-to-day, you know, we'll just we'll kind of see here over the next 24 hours, which way we'll go with it." 

Camilo Doval replaced Williams in the top of the eighth inning and worked around a two-out walk and picked up two strikeouts. 

Brent Headrick replaced Doval in the top of the ninth inning and worked into and out of trouble, picking up a strikeout to strand the bases loaded. 

Stanton led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a line drive single to left field, but was quickly erased on a double play off the bat of Rice. Jazz Chisholm Jr. then grounded out to end this one 4-1, as the Twins salvaged the final game of the series. 

The Yankees will have an off day tomorrow, then head to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals. Luis Gil will get the start for the Yankees and face off against Andre Pallante. The first pitch is scheduled for 8:15 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Just a wasted opportunity for the Yankees tonight as the Guardians, Mariners, Red Sox, and Blue Jays all lost, and the Yankees had a chance to pick up a game but got shut down by Joe Ryan. The offense did basically nothing besides a home run from Belli. Cam was solid; I would have liked to see them push him another inning, especially since De Los Santos didn't have it at all tonight, giving up three runs, costing the Yankees a chance of a sweep. Williams was great in another low-leverage situation, Doval was great, Leiter was solid, and Headrick was decent. The bullpen did their job outside of De Los Santos. Annoying loss, but I knew it wasn't going to be easy against Ryan. Onto St. Louis, as the Yankees must take at least two out of three from the Cardinals.