Yankees drop opener to Guardians despite big night from Goldschmidt

The Guardians took down the Yankees 9-4 to kick off this three-game series. Cam Schlittler got the starting nod and faced off against Joey Cantillo

Schlittler worked a 1-2-3 top of the first inning with some help from a beautiful diving play from Trent Grosham in center field. 

Paul Goldschmidt lined a one-out double to right field in the bottom of the frame, but Cody Bellinger and Amed Rosario each grounded out to strand Goldy. 

The Guardians struck first in the top half of the third inning with a sacrifice fly from Brayan Rocchio to give them a 1-0 lead. 

The Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the inning thanks to a two-run bomb into the left field bleachers, thanks to Goldy. 

The Guardians took the lead right back in the top of the fourth inning via a two-run home run from Kyle Manzardo to give them a 3-2 lead. 

In the bottom of the inning, the Yankees responded with a two-out two-run single from Goldy, giving them a 4-3 lead. 

It looked like Schlittler induced a double play in the top of the fifth, but Rosario bobbled it, then Schlittler plunked the No. 9 hitter to load the bases with nobody out. Travis Bazzana knotted the ballgame up with a sacrifice fly, then José Ramírez gave the Guardians a 5-4 lead with an RBI double. Brent Headrick took over for Schlittler with two runners in scoring position and walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. But Headrick dialed in and picked up back-to-back strikeouts to strand the bases loaded and keep the Yankees' deficit at one.

Final line for Schlittler: 4.1 innings pitched, five runs, only four earned due to the Rosario error, didn't walk anybody, and struck out three on 76 pitches. He threw his fastball 43% of the time, the cutter 24%, the sinker 18%, and the curveball 14%. He topped out at 98.6 mph and averaged 96.8 on his heater, with six swings and misses tonight. 

“I just didn't have my stuff today,” Schlittler said. “They had a good approach. Made me fight a little bit, just didn't have it.”

“Stuff down just a tick, which maybe the last couple of times has been a little bit down,” Aaron Boone said of Schlittler. “They were selling out to some things. I thought they did a good job of getting to some of his fastballs, but just lacked a little of his normal power. And then locating where he wants to throw in strikes still obviously, but getting it to the spots he wants.”

Headrick came back out for the top of the sixth and worked a 1-2-3 inning with a couple of strikeouts. 

Tim Hill replaced Headrick in the top of the seventh inning and gave up an RBI double to Ramírez to extend the Guardians' lead to 6-4. Anthony Volpe made a nice heads-up play, faking a throw to first, deking Ramírez, and was able to tag him out in between third and home for the final out. 

Belli dunked a one-out single into left-center field in the bottom of the frame. Trent Grisham then reached with two outs thanks to an E2. But Volpe grounded out to end the seventh inning. 

Camilo Doval came in relief for Hill and gave up three straight singles, one was an infield single and another was a bunt single. Doval picked up back-to-back strikeouts and was a strike away from stranding the bases loaded with nobody out. But Travis Bazzana cleared the bases with a double to right to make it a 9-4 game. 

Ryan Yarbrough came in for the top half of the ninth inning and worked around a walk to put together a scoreless frame. 

In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Yankees went down in order to end the ballgame, giving the Guardians a 9-4 win. 

The Yankees will look to avoid losing the series tomorrow with Gerrit Cole on the mound, facing off against Gavin Williams. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET on Prime Video. 

My thoughts on the game: Brutal night all around and of course, it came on the Yankees' first game in June as the June swoon may have arrived. The Yankees are now 3-9 against teams above .500. Schlittler has been so good since he got called up, but he had a tough night tonight. He also didn't get much help from his defense. Rosario had a tough night all around, with an error in the fifth inning on what should have been a routine double play also wasn't able to track down a pop-up in, I believe, the eighth inning. He also had some brutal at-bats. Goldy had a great night at the plate, accounting for all four of the Yankees' runs, with three hits, finishing a triple shy of the cycle. Other than that, it was basically all bad. Doval wasn't good yet again. He also didn't get any help from his defense; if it wasn't for a double clutch from Volpe, he would have been out of that inning, as his ERA is now 6.04. Hill was off to a great start to the season, but had a tough game on Sunday and gave up another run tonight; his ERA is now 4.24. Headrick was great and Yarbrough did his job. We also found out before the game that Aaron Judge has been playing hurt with a bone bruise in his rib/upper shoulder area, which probably explains why he has gotten off to a slow start by his standards; he wasn't in the lineup tonight. Hopefully, it isn't an IL situation. Overall, a tough day of baseball for the Yankees, but the good news is that the Rays lost, and that tomorrow is a new day. On to tomorrow. 

“No update. I mean, it would be kind of symptomatic,” Boone said of Judge. “Dr. Ahmad saw them in line with what the imaging and stuff, but I think we're going to have a specialist look at it too, just because it's kind of a unique spot and everything. So we'll have a specialist probably look at it tomorrow and see where we're at and see how he feels tomorrow with it.”