Missed opportunities doom Yankees in 6-1 loss to Reds

Cincinnati—The Yankees drop a frustrating one, 6-1, to the Reds. Allan Winans, who had a 0.90 ERA in AAA, got his first start for the Yankees, and Nick Lodolo got the start for the Reds. 

Aaron Judge wasted no time getting the scoring started for the Yankees as he launched his 28th home run of the season into the second deck in right field to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. 

In the bottom half of the first inning, Winans retired the Reds in order and picked up his first strikeout of the ballgame. 

Austin Wells lined a one-out double to left-center in the top of the second inning. The next batter, DJ LeMahieu, reached thanks to a throwing error from Reds shortstop Elley De La Cruz to put runners at the corners with one out. However, Jasson Dominguez and Paul Goldschmidt both struck out to strand runners at the corners. 

Cody Bellinger led off the top of the third inning with a bloop double in no man's land between second base and right field. Belli moved up to third thanks to a deep flyout from Judge. But Giancorlo Stanton struck out, and Jazz grounded out to strand a runner at third. 

Winans retired the Reds in order on six pitches in the top of the third inning, as he is through three innings on 24 pitches. 

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Winans hit a batter with one out, De La Cruz followed that up with a RBI triple to tie the game up at 1-1. Spencer Steer followed that up with a sacrifice fly to give the Reds a 2-1 lead. The next batter, Gavin Lux, crushed a solo home run to right field to make it a 3-1 game.

Dominguez legged out an infidel single in the top of the fifth inning, a couple of batters later, Belli dunked in a bloop single to put two runners on base with one out. But Judge popped out and Stanton struck out looking to strand two more runners, as the Yankees are 0-for-8 tonight with runners in scoring position (RISP) through five innings. 

Winans hit the leadoff batter in the bottom of the fifth, then gave up a one-out single to put runners at the corners with one out. Ian Hamilton replaced Winans on the mound and immediately walked a batter to load the bases for De La Cruz, who hit a RBI single to make it a 4-1 game. 

"He's a great player. I mean a lot of talent, obviously," Winans said about De La Cruz. "I think if you execute like you're supposed to, I think hitting is really hard even for guys with that kind of talent." 

Allan Winans' final line: 4.1 innings pitched, five hits allowed, four earned runs, three swings and misses, and one strikeout on 62 pitches. Winans his changeup 29% of the time, the sinker 24%, the fastball 23%, the slider 18%, and the curveball 6% of the time. Winans looked great through the first three innings tonight, but unfortunately lost it in the fourth and fifth innings. With Marcus Stroman likely getting activated from the IL later this week, this will probably be Winans' only start. 

"Yeah, you know, I think I pounded the strike zone and was able to attack these guys," Winans said. "I feel like we had a really good plan in place before the game, and the First three innings were pretty smooth. I felt like I was getting some early contact and pitches working how I wanted them to, but a couple hit by pitches and a couple middle-middle fastballs. Kind of would like those were back a little bit."

Hamilton remained in the game for the bottom of the sixth inning and worked around a one-out double to work a scoreless inning. 

DJ, Dominguez, and Goldy went down in order in the top of the seventh inning for the Yankees. 

Hamilton remained in the game in the bottom of the seventh inning and picked up the first out, then Tim Hill took over for Hamilton on the bump. Hill picked up the final two outs of the inning. 

Belli led off the top of the eighth inning with a bloop double, his third hit of the night. Judge then worked a walk. But Stanton and Jazz struck out, followed by a ground out from Volpe, as the Yankees are 0-for-11 with RISP tonight and have left eight runners on base. 

Hill remained in the game for the bottom of the eighth inning and immediately served up a solo home run to De La Cruz to make it a 5-1 game. Mark Leiter Jr. came in to pitch, taking over for Hill, and it looked like he was out of the inning, but a costly error from Volpe allowed a run to score to make it a 6-1 game. 

The Yankees went down without much of a fight in the top of the ninth inning to end a frustrating game for the Yankees, 6-1 final. 

"We had some opportunities, we just couldn't capitalize. So I'll switch that up tomorrow." Judge said about the Yankees' missed opportunities. 

The Yankees will look to bounce back tomorrow with Carlos Rodon on the mound, facing off against the Reds' top prospect, Chase Burns, making his Major League debut. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET on the YES Network.

My thoughts on the game: Very frustrating game tonight as the Yankees had all the opportunities in the world to make this a game, but it's hard to win when you go 0-for-12 with RISP. It felt like it was going to be a fun night after Judge's home run in the first inning, but it was anything but that. Belli also had three hits tonight, and Dominguez had two hits, but unfortunately, that was about it for the Yankees' offense.  Winans was decent tonight in his spot start. He looked solid in the first three innings, then just didn't have it after that. Volpe was a frustrating watch tonight as he looked foolish in the batter's box two different times, throwing away his bat on an off-balance swing, topped off by an annoying error with two outs in the eighth to allow a run to score. Frustrating one, but still a solid chance to win the series with Rodon getting the start tomorrow, and Max Fried getting the start Wednesday.