Meltdown in Miami: Yankees blow 6-run lead in gut-wrenching loss to Marlins

Miami—The Yankees lost a wild one in Miami, 13-12, to the Marlins as the new trade deadline acquisitions couldn't get it done in the back end of the bullpen. Carlos Rodon got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Janson Junk. 

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

Rodon worked an easy 1-2-3 bottom of the first inning and picked up his first strikeout of the ballgame. 

In the top of the first inning, Ryan McMahon, Anthony Volpe, and Austin Wells went down in order, as the Yankees have gone nine up nine down to start the game. 

Grisham led off the top of the fourth inning with a rocket double into the right field corner for the Yankees' first hit of the night. Dominguez followed that up with a line drive single to right field of his own. Belli then just missed a three-run bomb, but Grisham was able to tag up and move up to third. Dominguez then stole second base, his 17th stolen base of the season. Giancorlo Stanton followed that up with a three-run home run against his former team, his ninth of the season, to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. 

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Rodon worked around a couple of walks and picked up three strikeouts to put his total up to seven on the night. 

Volpe picked up a one-out single in the top of the fifth inning and stole second base. A couple of batters later, Grisham worked a two-out walk. Dominguez followed that up with an RBI single up the middle, his second hit of the night, to make it a 4-0 game. Dominguez then stole his second base of the night and 18th on the year. The next batter, Belli, made it a 6-0 game with a two-out two-run single.

Rodon served up a two-out home run in the bottom of the fifth inning to Javier Sanoja to make it a 6-2 game. Rodon then picked up the first two outs and was replaced by Jonathan Loáisiga on the mound, and instantly hit the first batter he faced to load the bases. The next batter, Liam Hicks, dunked in a two-run bloop single to put the Marlins right back in it, making it a 6-4 game. McMahon saved another run with a beautiful play at third base. 

Carlos Rodon's final line: 4.2 innings pitched, two hits allowed, four earned runs, five walks, 15 swings and misses, and nine strikeouts on 107 pitches. Rodon threw his fastball over half the time 53% of the time, the slider 30%, the changeup 9%, the sinker 7%, and the curveball 1% of the time. Rodon did not have his best command by any means tonight, walking five batters, which really hurt his pitch count and led to four runs. 

"I don't know, I just definitely had a good little run going and then just got really inconsistent spraying balls and just not good enough," Rodon said. "Five walks, 107 pitches to get 13 outs is pretty unacceptable. You gotta get in the head and count in the and attack the zone, especially when we're up 6-0 and then, yeah, it's not good enough." 

Brent Headrick took over for Loáisiga in the bottom of the sixth inning. It looked like he retired the Marlins in order, but Wells dropped a routine pop-up in foul territory, which led to a walk. But no harm, no foul as Headrick picked up the final out of the sixth. 

In the top of the seventh inning, Volpe led things off with a line drive single to left field, his second knock of the night. Wells followed that up with a single of his own, allowing Volpe to go from first to third. The next batter, Grisham, clobbered a three-run bomb off the foul pole in right field, his 19th home run of the year, to make it a 9-4 game. Dominguez then lined a single to right field for his third hit of the ballgame. The speedy Jazz Chisholm Jr. legged out a two-out infield single. Then Paul Goldschmidt reached via a catcher's interference to load the bases. However, McMahon flew out to left field to strand the bases loaded. 

In the bottom of the seventh inning, one of the newest Yankees, Jake Bird, took over for Headrick. Bird served up a single, double, and walked a batter to load the bases with one out. The next batter, Kyle Stowers, crushed a grand slam to make it a 9-8 game and end a disastrous debut for Bird. Another new Yankee, David Bednar, replaced Bird with one out and served up a game-tying home run to Sanoja, his second of the game, to make it a 9-9 game. Former Yankee Agustín Ramírez then picked up an RBI single to give the Marlins a 10-9 lead as the Yankees' new reliever completely blew it. 

"I just think it's one of those days," Bird said. "Just need to have a little extra focus, a little extra intent. You don't want those days to happen, but they do on occasion. And I just need to kind of look back at it, learn from it, and be better."

Volpe and the Yankees responded right away in the top of the eighth inning with a solo home run, his 17th of the year, to make it a 10-10 ballgame. 

Bednar remained in the game for the bottom of the eighth inning and retired the Marlins in order with two strikeouts. 

"I think the first thing was just a lack of execution," Bednar said. "Didn't execute early in counts, didn't get ahead of guys, and it's something I was able to do in the second inning and have better results."

Ben Rice picked up a two-out pinch-hit single in the top of the ninth inning; another new Yankee, José Caballero, pinch ran for Rice. Caballero stole second base, his MLB-leading 35th of the year. McMahon lined a RBI single up the middle to give the Yankees an 11-10 lead, as a couple of new Yankees produced the go-ahead run. The next batter, Volpe, came through with an RBI double for his fourth hit of the night to add a huge insurance run, making it a 12-10 game. 

In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Yankees turned to another new face, Camilo Doval, and served up a single followed by a walk. Then an RBI single and a massive error in right field from Caballero allowed the tying run to score and the winning run to move to third with one out. Then, a walk-off RBI dribbler in front of home plate from a former Yankee, Agustín Ramírez, to end this one 13-12. 

"Yeah, definitely a routine kind of play there," Caballero said. "You always want to execute on a plate like that. I feel like I took my eyes away from the ball for a split second, and unfortunately, it didn't work out like that, you know, the way we want it. Definitely not the outcome you want. At the same time, you got to get back at it tomorrow. Expecting things to be better tomorrow." 

"Yeah, I felt really good out there," Doval said. "You know, I feel like I was executing good pitches tonight. But unfortunately, it happens, you know. Unfortunately, you can execute and things just don't work out, you know, it happens in baseball." 

The Yankees will look to bounce back tomorrow after their worst loss of the season, with Cam Schlittler on the mound for the Yankees, facing off against Eury Pérez. The first pitch is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: You can’t make this up I don’t even know what to say after that game, on a night when the Blue Jays lost and the Yankees were up 6-0; you have to find a way to win. All three of the Yankees' new bullpen acquisitions completely blew it as Bird, Bednar, and Doval combined to give up seven earned runs, and Caballero made a crucial error. It's only going uphill from here for those three, but that was a terrible introduction. Rodon was solid but not great; he can’t be walking five guys in a start.  The offense was great, at least as Volpe had four hits and a huge home run, finishing a triple shy of the cycle. Dominguez also had three hits tonight and got on base four times. Stanton launched a rocket home run at 116 mph off the bat. Grisham had a great night with two hits and a three-run home run. McMahon also had another huge hit with an RBI single late, but the putrid bullpen performance wasted it. That was a great baseball game, at least, but insanely frustrating for Yankees fans. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees have to find a way to win this series.