Yankees’ worst inning of the season overshadows Judge’s milestone

New York—The Yankees' bullpen put together one of the worst innings you will ever see, leading to a 12-2 Tigers win. Will Warren got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against former No. 1 overall pick and Auburn Tiger Casey Mize. 

Warren served up a one-out double in the top of the first inning to old friend and former Yankee Gleyber Torres, but Warren picked up his first two strikeouts of the night to help strand Gleyber at second. For the first time since 1957, a new Yankees slugger has entered the top five on the all-time Yankees home run list. 

With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Aaron Judge launched a solo shot to pass Yogi Berra for fifth on the Yankees' all-time home run list with No. 359 and give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. 

In the top of the third inning, Warren worked a 1-2-3 inning thanks to a spectacular leaping catch at the wall in right-center field from Trent Grisham. 

Cody Bellinger crushed a solo bomb into the second deck in right field in the bottom of the third inning, his 28th home run of the season, to make it a 2-0 game. 

Warren served up a two-run home run to Parker Meadows in the top of the fifth inning to even this game up at 2-2. 

Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Austin Wells picked up back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the fifth inning. However, Anthony Volpe popped up a bunt and heard loud boos from the crowd, followed by a strikeout from Ryan McMahon, and a flyout from Grisham to strand two runners on base. 

"That's a chance to kind of grab the lead there and hopefully run with it, just weren't able to get it done," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. 

Fernando Cruz replaced Warren in the top of the seventh inning and immediately served up a double followed by a walk when he was ahead in the count 0-2. Cruz then walked the next batter to load the bases with nobody out, Meadows followed that up with an RBI single to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead. Cruz then walked in a run to make it a 4-2 game, as he had no idea where any of his pitches were going tonight, only throwing seven strikes in the 19 pitches he threw. Mark Leiter Jr. took over for Cruz in a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam and gave up an RBI bloop single to former Yankee Trey Sweeney just out of the reach of Volpe to make it a 5-2 game. 

Leiter hit the next batter to make it a 6-2 game with still nobody out. Leiter then walked in another run as this disastrous inning continued, making it a 7-2 game, still with no outs. A wild pitch from Leiter made it an 8-2 game with still nobody out. This is the most pathetic inning we have witnessed all year long from the Yankees' pitching staff. Kerry Carpenter then came through with a two-run triple to make it a 10-2 game, as Cruz and Leiter combined gave up eight runs and didn't get a single out. Tim Hill took over for Cruz, and another run came across to score on an RBI fielder's choice, making it an 11-2 game. 

"It just got away from us, five ends up being five with the hit batter free passes," Boone said. "You know, we managed contact that you know it's not like we got hit a lot of all over the yard and some balls finding holes, but you know, just too many free passes." 

Will Warren's final line: six innings pitched, two hits allowed, two earned runs, one walk, 13 swings and misses, and five strikeouts on 91 pitches. Warren threw his fastball 45% of the time, the sweeper 21%, the changeup 16%, the curveball 12%, and the sinker 5% of the time. Warren was excellent tonight except for the one mistake to Meadows that cost him two runs. I would have liked to see him start the seventh inning; anything would have been better than that disaster. 

“It was tough,” Warren said on that disastrous inning. I don't know what to say. I haven't seen anything like that before.”

The Yankees went down in order in the bottom half of the seventh inning. 

Paul Blackburn replaced Hill in the top of the eighth inning and gave up an RBI bloop single to Riley Greene to make it a 12-2 game. 

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Judge, Belli, and Ben Rice went down in order to end a frustrating one for the Yankees, 12-2. 

The Yankees will look to bounce back tomorrow with Carlos Rodon on the mound, facing off against Jack Flaherty. It can’t get much worse than tonight; the first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET on Prime Video. 

My thoughts on the game: Boone should have kept Warren in for another inning; he was rolling. Judge and Belli each went deep, but the rest of the offense did nothing. Cruz and Leiter both looked abysmal, probably the worst inning I have ever witnessed. Jose Caballero has to start tomorrow at shortstop; Volpe is somehow getting worse.  I was hoping the Blue Jays would lose tonight, but they tied it 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth inning and are in position to walk it off, so the Yankees will likely be three games back in the AL East. On to tomorrow, that game was borderline unwatchable.