One man drove in every single run for the Yankees on Tuesday night. His team still lost by five.
Paul Goldschmidt went 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBI in a 9-4 loss to the Cleveland Guardians -- the kind of line that should win most games, except this wasn't most games. The New York Yankees fell to 36-24, a game back of Tampa Bay in the AL East, and José Ramírez spent the evening doing José Ramírez things. Cleveland leads the three-game series 1-0.
The Fifth Inning Decided It
The Yankees actually had a lead going into the fifth. They'd spotted Cleveland one early, then flipped the scoreboard on a Goldschmidt two-run home run off Joey Cantillo in the third -- Ben Rice was on base when Goldy turned on a fastball and drove it to left field. His seventh of the year. Yankees 2, Cleveland 1, and the Bronx crowd had reason to feel optimistic.
Then Kyle Manzardo got hold of a Cam Schlittler pitch in the fourth -- a solo shot to right-center, his sixth of the season. Cleveland 3, Yankees 2. Goldschmidt answered immediately with a two-run single. Jazz Chisholm Jr. and José Caballero both scored, and the Yankees were back in front, 4-3, heading into the fifth.
It didn't last.
Travis Bazzana's sacrifice fly to center tied it at four. (Trent Grisham made the catch. Grisham was fine. The rest of the evening, less so.) And then Ramírez lined his 16th double of the season to right field, Patrick Bailey scored, and Cleveland led 5-4 -- a lead they never gave back.
Ramírez Was the Story
José Ramírez finished 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI, and he was the Guardians' best player for reasons that go beyond the box score. His 5-4 lead in the fifth felt different from the back-and-forth of the early innings -- settled, like the game had already made a decision.
He doubled again in the seventh (his 17th of the year, since apparently he's building a collection), scoring Brayan Rocchio from third and pushing Cleveland to 6-4. The Yankees went silent over the final five innings -- no answer in the sixth, nothing in the seventh after Ramírez's double, nothing in the eighth when it all fell apart.
The back-breaker was Bazzana. He put a fly ball to right in the eighth, and Caballero didn't get a clean read on it -- the ball dropped for a double, his ninth. Ángel Martínez, Daniel Schneemann, and Steven Kwan all scored. Guardians 9, Yankees 4, and the only question left was how the bullpen wanted to finish it out.
Schlittler and the Lineup
Schlittler's ERA sits at a very clean 1.89. He still took the loss, dropping to 7-3. Those two facts coexisting tells you most of what you need to know about Tuesday night.
He went 4.1 innings, threw 76 pitches, gave up five runs on five hits. Ryan Yarbrough opened the game -- clean first inning, zero hits, two strikeouts -- and the opener-plus-bulk arrangement has become fairly routine. Yarbrough did his job. Schlittler mostly did his. Cleveland just found enough openings to pull away.
The Yankees' lineup went 8-for-36. Goldschmidt had three of those hits and all four RBI. Amed Rosario went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Caballero went hitless and had the adventure in right field. Nobody else contributed much of anything, which is how a night where your designated hitter goes 3-for-5 still ends in a five-run loss.
Wednesday at the Stadium
Cleveland's bullpen held the final five innings without allowing a run (Matt Festa, Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, Colin Holderman, and Shawn Armstrong each throwing a clean inning), and that's the part that's harder to replicate game to game. The Guardians are 35-27 and leading the AL Central for a reason -- they don't beat themselves.
The Yankees need more from the lineup behind Goldschmidt, and they need it Wednesday.
One man's four RBI should be enough to win a ballgame. Tonight it wasn't even close.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
