Lifeless in Miami: Yankees drop series to Marlins after the offense's no-show

Miami—Just a lifeless performance from the Yankees' offense today as they dropped this one 2-0 to the Marlins to lose the series after their worst loss of the season yesterday.  Cam Schlittler got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against 22-year-old Eury Pérez. 

Trent Grisham worked a leadoff walk to start the ballgame. Then, Grisham picked up his first stolen base of the season. A couple of batters later, Giancorlo Stanton hit a rocket two-out single to left field, but a horrible send by third base coach Luis Rojas caused Grisham to get thrown out by a mile for the third out of the inning. 

"I think it was a little aggressive,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But I understand the two-out situation there. You're forcing a good throw. An accurate throw, you know he's going to be out."

Cam quickly picked up the first two outs of the bottom of the first, then served up a solo home run to former Yankee prospect Agustín Ramírez to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead. Cam did pick up three strikeouts in the inning. 

In the top of the second inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr. worked a leadoff walk. But Jazz was doubled up on another boneheaded base running mistake, getting way too far off first base on a routine pop-up off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt. 

"It's a guy trying to make a play,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on Jazz's baserunning mistake. “I get it looks bad. But it's not a case of a guy that's dogging it. Just because it's going bad right now and the world's on fire, I'm not just going to take guys out for a giving a crap." 

Boone also added that Jazz thought Edwards would purposely drop the pop-up. Jazz said he would have beaten the throw to second if that had happened.

Cam served up a one-out double in the bottom of the second inning, but was erased thanks to a perfect throw from Ben Rice behind the plate to gun down the runner trying to steal third. 

Ramirez launched his second home run of the ballgame with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning to make it a 2-0 game. 

In the top of the fifth inning, Rice crushed a one-out double into the right-center gap. Goldy followed that up with a walk. However, Ryan McMahon struck out looking on a call well below the knees, and Anthony Volpe grounded out to strand both runners. 

Cam worked around a one-out walk in the bottom of the fifth inning and recorded two strikeouts to put his total up to six for the ballgame. 

In the top of the sixth inning, Grisham, Jasson Dominguez, and Cody Bellinger went down in order for the Yankees. 

After a disastrous Yankee debut last night, Jake Bird took over for Cam on the mound in the bottom of the sixth inning. Bird had a much better second impression, as he retired the Marlins in order and picked up two punchouts. 

Cam Schlittler's final line: five innings pitched, four hits allowed, two earned runs, two walks, 10 swings and misses, and six strikeouts on 92 pitches. Cam threw his fastball 49% of the time, the slider 23%, the curveball 18%, the sinker 5%, and the sweeper 4% of the time. Cam was solid today, but he needs to work on that slider; he has just been hanging it too much. 

"Yeah, I mean, I think it's obviously a lot better than last week, just, you know, trying to get the off-speed in the zone, just trying to get the fastball in the zone," Cam said. "You know, the hits they really had were just me being behind the count. So I think when I was ahead, I got good results. So it's just, it's just kind of, you know, work on the getting ahead, staying ahead, and not letting them get those opportunities."

Luke Weaver took over for Bird in the bottom of the seventh inning and worked a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout. 

Goldy, McMahon, and Volpe went down in order in the top of the eighth inning, and now 11 straight Yankee hitters have been retired in order. 

Tim Hill replaced Weaver in the bottom of the eighth and faced the minimum, thanks to an unassisted double play lined right at Goldy. 

The Yankees went out without any fight at all, going down in order and looking completely lifeless after their worst loss of the season yesterday. They are now 4.5 games back from the Blue Jays and are likely to be passed by the Red Sox if they hang on to beat the Astros. 

The Yankees will look to avoid getting swept tomorrow with last year's AL Rookie of the Year, Luis Gil, making his season debut for the Yankees, facing off against Edward Cabrera. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:40 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Decent start from Cam as he gets a little better each start. The bullpen was great as Bird, Weaver, and Hill combined for three shutout innings. However, it is impossible to win when you score zero runs and only have two hits. Just a completely lifeless performance after the worst loss of the season yesterday, just a pathetic response. On to tomorrow, as hopefully, Luis The Real Deal Gil can help the Yankees avoid being swept, but the offense has to score if we want to do that.