Yankees fall to the Phillies, 9–4, as Stroman struggles and Judge hits the IL

New York—The Yankees lost another tough one, 9-4, to the Phillies, which ultimately cost them the series. Marcus Stroman got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Ranger Suárez for the Phillies. 

Stroman served up a leadoff double to Trea Turner, Jazz Chisholm Jr. then made a beautiful diving play to rob Bryce Harper of a RBI single for the second out of the inning. However, the next batter, J.T. Realmuto, drove that run in anyway via an RBI single to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead. 

In the bottom of the first inning, Trent Grisham led things off for the Yankees with a bloop single to right field. A couple of batters later, Cody Belinger worked a walk. However, Giancorlo Stanton and Jazz went down on strikes to strand two runners on base. 

Stroman worked a 1-2-3 top of the second inning, thanks to a really nice running catch from Belli in right field, on a line drive that had a 15% catch probability.

Anthony Volpe lined a one-out single to left field in the bottom of the second inning. The newly acquired Ryan McMahon struck out in his first at-bat as a Yankee. 

Stroman picked up the first two outs of the top of the third inning via the strikeout. Harper launched a 425-foot home run into the bleachers in right field to make it a 2-0 game. Brian Cashman's decision not to even attempt to sign Harper before the 2019 season will go down as one of the worst misses of Cashman's tenure as a GM. 

Stroman walked three batters in the top of the fourth inning, including a bases-loaded walk to the Phillies' No. 9 hitter, Johan Rojas, to force in a run to make it a 3-0 game. The batter Turner picked up an RBI fielder's choice to make it a 4-0 game. After Stroman's fourth walk of the inning, Aaron Boone had seen enough and turned to Yerry De los Santos, who was just activated off the IL today in a bases-loaded jam with two outs. De Los Santos picked up a groundout to strand the bases loaded.

Marcus Stromans' final line: 3.2 innings pitched, five hits allowed, four earned runs, four walks, nine swings and misses, and four strikeouts on 89 pitches. Stroman threw his sinker 33% of the time, the cutter 26%, the slurve 15%, the splitter 11%, the slider 8%, the curveball 6%, and the fastball 2% of the time. 

Jazz led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a swinging bunt single. A couple of batters later, Anthony Volpe picked up his second single of the game. Then, with two outs, Jasson Dominguez picked up an RBI bloop single to put the Yankees on the board, making it a 4-1 game. 

In the top of the fifth, De Los Santos remained in the game and worked around, a leadoff double to put together a scoreless frame. 

De Los Santos came back out for the top of the sixth and served up a RBI double to Turner to make it a 5-1 game. Jonathan Loáisiga replaced De Los Santos and picked up the final two outs of the inning. 

In the bottom of the sixth, McMahon dunked a bloop single to left center field for his first hit of his Yankee career. 

Allan Winans took over for Loáisiga in the top of the seventh inning and immediately gave up a leadoff single followed by a two-run home run to Edmundo Sosa to make it a 7-1 game. It looked like the Yankees were out of the inning, but an error from Jazz allowed the inning to continue. Leading to a two-run double from Kyle Shwarber to make it a 9-1 game. 

In the bottom half of the seventh inning, Stanton continued his hot hitting with a two-run home run into the short porch in right field to make it a 9-3 game. 

McMahon made a beautiful diving play in the top of the eighth inning to take away extra bases and save a run from scoring. 

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Ben Rice, McMahon, and Grisham worked walks to load the bases with two outs. A balk from Phillies reliever Alan Rangel to allow Rice to come and score, making it a 9-4 game. 

Stanton lined a one-out single to right field in the bottom of the ninth for his second hit of the game, but that would be all for the Yankees as they went down without much of a fight, dropping this one 9-4. 

The Yankees will look to avoid being swept tomorrow with Carlos Rodon on the mound, facing off against Cy Young contender Zack Wheeler for the Phillies. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Before today's game, we found out Aaron Judge wasn't in the lineup because he has a right elbow issue, which clearly bothered him on a throw on Tuesday in Toronto. It has just been announced that it is a flexor strain and will need an IL stint. Spencer Jones might be getting called up a lot sooner than most of us anticipated, or potentially Everson Pereira, who has also been killing it in AAAt. Now, for the game, Stroman didn't have it at all today, issuing four walks and getting hit hard all day long. Also, I noticed today that Volpe ditched the torpedo bat and had two hits to show for it, so hopefully he can continue his hot hitting since the All-Star break. McMahon had a great debut with a single, a walk, and a really nice diving play showing off his elite defense. Stanton also stayed hot at the plate, crushing his second home run in as many days. Not many positives other than Volpe, Stanton, and McMahon. The pitching was terrible. Winans is a AAAA player; send that man back to AAA ASAP. On to tomorrow if the rain allows them to play. 

"So he has a flexor strain," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "No acute injury to the UCL. So yeah, I think overall we've got some good news. It is going to require an IL stint, with the thought that hopefully it's right at about that 10 days and those first few days coming off will probably be in a DH mode. Then, he'll start throwing in around then and hopefully get back to the field. Shortly thereafter, as long as it takes to get built up, as long as the symptoms are what they need to be." 

"Just felt a little something trying to throw out, a runner at the plate in Toronto," Judge said. "You know, you kind of feel something, but you kind of feel Nix and stuff throughout your whole body throughout the whole season, so you really don't think much of it." 

Here’s Judges' full postgame press conference if you guys want to listen. 

"Yeah, we're the Yankees. You hope so. That's what the guys upstairs are working on,” Judge said.. “They'll go out there and take care of business. We've got a great ball club already here, and I think we had a couple more pieces to kind of fix a couple things, fine-tune some things, and we're gonna be right where we need to be."