Schmidt shines, offense sputters as Yankees drop fourth straight in 1-0 loss

New York—The Yankees' offensive woes continue in Giancarlo Stanton's highly anticipated season debut, as they get shut out for the second game in a row in a 1-0 loss to the Angels. Clarke Schmidt got the start for the Yankees, and José Soriano took the mound for the Angels. 

Schmidt worked into and out of trouble, picking up his first strikeout of the ballgame to strand runners at the corners in the top of the first inning. 

In the bottom of the first inning, Ben Rice lined a one-out single up the middle, and Aaron Judge followed that up with a line drive single to left center, his 100th hit of the season. Cody Bellinger then grounded out to put two runners in scoring position with two outs for Giancarlo Stanton. Stanton got a big standing ovation in his first at-bat of the season, then grounded out to strand two runners in scoring position. 

"It's awesome. It's amazing. It's been a long time coming for the year, so I appreciate them,” Stanton said on his standing ovation. “Good thing I was able to do alright tonight."

Schmidt retired the Angels in order in the top of the second inning and picked up two more strikeouts. 

In the bottom of the second inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr. cranked a leadoff double 110 mph off the bat into right center. But that would be all for the Yankees. 

Schmidt retired the Angels in order in the top of the fourth inning to make it 11 straight hitters retired. 

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Stanton hit a rocket single 111 mph off the bat to left field for his first hit of the season.  However, Stanton was quickly erased on a double play off the bat of Jazz. 

Judge made a nice running grab just in front of the wall in right field for the first out of the top of the fifth inning, to help Schmidt retire the Angels in order; he has now retired 14 straight hitters. 

DJ LeMahieu worked a two-out walk in the bottom of the fifth inning. The very next pitch, Trent Grisham grounded a single right back up the middle. But Rice went down on strikes to strand two runners on base as the Yankees' offensive struggles over the last few games continue. 

Schmidt gave up a two-out single in the top half of the sixth inning to break up a streak of 16 straight Angels retired. 

Judge, Belli, and Stanton went down in order for the Yankees in the bottom of the sixth inning as they have not scored a run in 15 innings since the ninth inning of Saturday's game. 

In the top of the seventh inning, Schmidt worked an easy 1-2-3 inning to get through seven shutout innings. 

Jazz led off the bottom of the second inning with a single to left field, his second hit of the night. The next batter, Anthony Volpe, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Jazz up to second. But Austin Wells struck out, and DJ grounded out to strand Jazz at second base. 

Schmidt came back out for the eighth inning and picked up the first two outs of the inning, then surrendered a two-out triple to Christian Moore, Moore's first career hit. Fernando Cruz replaced Schmidt on the mound and picked up a strikeout to keep it a scoreless game. 

Clarke Schmidt's final line: 7 ⅔ innings pitched of shutout baseball, four hits allowed, 13 swings and misses, and three strikeouts on 97 pitches. Schmidt threw his cutter 34% of the time, the sweeper 28%, the fastball 15%, the knuckle curve 14%, and the sinker 8% of the time. Schmidt was great tonight; it was, hands down, his best start of the season and maybe even the best start of his career, but the offense could not give him any run support.  

"Yeah, I mean, frustrating for sure," Schmidt said on not getting any offensive support. "I think obviously part of the game, I think you go through streaks like this where sometimes you're mashing the ball and things are falling, and then sometimes things aren't kind of going your way. So part of the game, obviously, we play 162 for a reason. And like I said, you go through streaks like this, but it's frustrating for sure." 

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Judge was intentionally walked with two outs and nobody on base, which ended up working out as Belli flew out to end the inning. 

Devin Williams took over for Cruz on the bump in the top of the ninth inning and worked into and out of trouble, stranding two runners on base to work a scoreless frame. 

Stanton led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a bullet double into the left field corner. Jasson Dominguez pinch ran for Stanton. Dominguez then ran into an out on an insanely unlucky hit-and-run hit right at the third baseman, but Volpe did reach first. Volpe instantly stole second base, but Wells struck out to send this game to extra innings. 

Jonathan Loáisiga replaced Williams on the mound in the top of the 10th inning and retired the Angels in order with two strikeouts to give the Yankees a chance to walk it off in the bottom half. 

For whatever reason, DJ decided not to try to lay down a bunt in a 1-1 count in the bottom of the 10th, then proceed to strikeout and not get the runner over to third. The next two hitters, Grisham and Goldy, flew out to center, which easily would have been a walk-off sac fly if DJ could have just laid down a bunt. 

Loáisiga remained in the game for the top of the 11th inning and gave up a one-out double to Nolan Schanuel to give the Angels a 1-0 lead. Loáisiga was able to settle in and strand the bases loaded to keep it a 1-0 game, showing a ton of frustration by spiking the ball coming off the mound. 

Belli flew out to straight away right field just in front of the wall to move the tying run up to third. However, the tying run was gunned down at the plate on a broken bat ground out off the bat of Dominguez as the Yankees can't buy a run. The next batter, Jazz, reached on an infield single to load the bases with two outs. Volpe swung at the very first pitch he saw to strand the bases loaded and end this game 1-0 as the Yankees lost their fourth straight game and haven't scored a run in 20 innings, getting shut out for the second straight game.

"We're barreling some balls up, but that said, we're not punching any runs across,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Not hitting the home run, and we had a couple of situations where we could have produced a run there late, and we weren’t able to take advantage of it.”

The Yankees will look to get the offense going tomorrow against Kyle Hendricks for the Angels and Will Warren for the Yankees. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Schmidt was dominant on the mound tonight, but unfortunately, the offense completely wasted it as they looked unwatchable, going 1 for 18 with runners in scoring position tonight. Loáisiga, Cruz, and Williams were solid. Loáisiga, unfortunately, did give up the Manfred runner, but he did look nasty. Really nice to have Stanton back, as he had two hits tonight. Jazz also had three hits, but unfortunately, the Yankees just couldn't get that big hit they needed tonight. It's been a brutal last five games as the Yankees have hit their first cold stretch of the season. Bad stretches like this are going to happen over a 162-game season. Let's hope the Yankees can turn it around tomorrow. 

"Yeah, it's great to be back," Stanton said. "Yeah, obviously want to win, but yeah, it was good to be back out there. I thought I saw the ball pretty well, besides one at bat. So, be just working on that, make sure my timing's geared up. Get rolling."