Yankees bullpen collapses in 7-6 loss to Marlins after lengthy rain delay
- Davis Cornell
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
After a three-and-a-half-hour rain delay in the Bronx, the Yankees' bullpen imploded, leading to a 7-6 defeat against the Marlins. Max Fried got the start for the Yankees and faced off against an opener for the Marlins, Pete Fairbanks.
The Marlins took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning for the third straight game via a two-out RBI single from Otto Lopez. Fried also recorded his first two strikeouts of the ballgame.
In the bottom half of the inning, Tren Grisham worked a leadoff walk; Aaron Judge followed by dunking a bloop single to center. A couple of batters later, Ben Rice crushed a three-run bomb into the second deck in right field, his third home run of the year giving the Yankees a 3-1 advantage.
Judge led off the bottom of the third with a rocket double, 110.7 mph off the bat to dead center field. Cody Bellinger then worked a walk, and it looked like Rice bounced into a double play, but an E6 from Otto Lopez allowed Judge to score, extending the Yankees' lead to 4-1.
Fried walked a batter with two outs in the fourth inning, and that came back to bite him as the next batter, Xavier Edwards, ripped an RBI double, making it a 4-2 ballgame.
Fried walked a batter and surrendered a single to put a runner on the corners, and a stolen base put two runners in scoring position. It looked like the Yankees were going to pick up the first out of the inning, but José Caballero had a poor throw to pull Rice off the bag, and a run came across to score, making it 4-3. Fried was able to Whodini his way out of trouble, keeping the lead intact.
Fried picked up the first two outs of the seventh, then handed the baseball over to Fernado Cruz, who picked up the final out.
Final line for Fried: He threw 6.2 innings, allowing three runs, five hits, walking three, and striking out four on 103 pitches. Fried threw his sinker 24% of the time, the fastball 19%, the changeup 17%, the cutter 16%, the curveball 14%, and the sweeper 12%. Fried topped out at 95.8 and averaged 94.3 mph on his fastball, with nine swings and misses.
The eighth inning rolled around, and disaster struck. Cruz struck out the first batter he faced, then walked a man. Jake Bird took over and walked the first batter he faced on four pitches, then plunked the next batter to load the bases. Bird hung a slider to Graham Pauley, and he cranked a two-run double into the right field corner, giving the Marlins a 5-4 lead. Ryan Yarbrough replaced Bird and surrendered a two-run single to Edwards, extending their lead to 7-4.
The Yankees showed some life in the ninth as Belli and Rice both worked walks to bring the tying run to the plate. Jazz Chisholm Jr. crushed a two-run double into the right-center gap, cutting the deficit to one run. J.C. Escara pinch hit for Caballero and struck out on three pitches to strand the tying run on second.
The Yankees will now have a much-needed day off tomorrow before the A’s come to town for a three-game set Tuesday. Cam Schlittler will get the start, facing off against Aaron Civale. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: First off, happy Easter, everyone. As for the game, I feel bad for anyone who was at the stadium today and had to sit through a three-and-a-half-hour rain delay just to watch the bullpen implode. That Marlins lineup is pesky and annoying to say the least. Boone should have left Fried in to finish the seventh and given Cruz the eighth, but he always manages to make the wrong decision. Bird just didn't have it at all today, as he didn't record a single out and allowed three runs. Yarbrough did a great job of stopping the bleeding, but at that point, it was too late. This game was always going to be tough to win with the bullpen so taxed. The offense was solid today, but the bullpen couldn't get it done. Judge and Stanton each had multie hit games, and Rice got on base four times and crushed a home run. Jazz finally had a big hit in the ninth after leaving a small village on the base paths early on. The entire offense had its chances, but they went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base. Not much more to say about that game; that was a frustrating one, but losses like that are going to happen in a 162-game season. On to Tuesday, sorry quotes tonight, I want to enjoy the rest of my Easter and forget that game.
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