With Judge Out, Rodón Deals and McMahon Delivers: Yankees 2, Guardians 1

The Yankees didn't swing their way out of Thursday's mess. They scratched their way out.

Without Aaron Judge in the lineup and staring down a 1-0 deficit heading into the seventh, the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 2-1 at the Stadium on a gorgeous 87-degree afternoon. The go-ahead run didn't come off a homer or a ripped double. Jazz Chisholm Jr. worked a walk off Codi Heuer, stole second base, moved 90 feet on a wild pitch, and scored on a Ryan McMahon grounder that barely snuck through the right side. Two-one, final. Yankees salvage the series finale and go home without having been swept.

The Seventh

Heuer had no business throwing a wild pitch with the game tied and Chisholm on first. (He also issued the walk that put Chisholm there in the first place.) But that's the sequence: walk, stolen base, Heuer bounces one in the dirt, Chisholm trots to third with one out. Then McMahon stepped in.

The grounder to right was nothing that looked like a game-winner. It found the gap on the right side, and Chisholm jogged home. 2-1 Yankees, and the rest was going through the motions.

McMahon's at-bat swung the win probability by 19 points -- the biggest single play of the afternoon by a considerable margin. But Chisholm deserves as much credit for the run as McMahon does. He created the opportunity without a hit, through a walk, a stolen base, and heads-up baserunning on a freakin' wild pitch. That's the kind of run that goes unnoticed when the Yankees win big and gets quietly appreciated when they win small.

Rodón Was the Story

Before McMahon's single, Carlos Rodón spent six innings being the main reason the Yankees were in this game.

Six innings, two hits, one run, three walks, seven strikeouts. The only damage came in the 4th when Ramírez singled, Hoskins walked, and Stuart Fairchild, batting with two outs, dropped a single into left to score Ramírez. Rodón had already punched out Bazzana swinging with two on and one out to keep things from unraveling faster. Give up one, strand two. That's what a top-of-the-rotation guy does.

With Judge out, the rotation was carrying more of the load. Rodón finished six with a 70 game score and handed Headrick a 1-1 tie he could actually work with.

The One That Got Away

The Yankees had a chance to turn this into a comfortable afternoon and didn't take it.

Paul Goldschmidt singled to start the 4th, Cody Bellinger singled him to second, first-and-second with nobody out against Cecconi. Chisholm then flew to left -- Steven Kwan caught it, Goldschmidt scored to tie it 1-1, but Bellinger got gunned down at third trying to tag and advance, turning a productive out into a double play. (The single biggest moment of the entire game, and the Yankees came away with exactly one run from a first-and-second, nobody-out situation. That's one of those plays you forget about when you win by five and remember for a freakin' week when you lose a close one.)

Cecconi left the inning still breathing. Then in the 6th, Goldschmidt grounded into another double play to erase a Ben Rice walk. The offense did just enough and no more -- which, on a day when the starter's dealing, is genuinely all you need.

Three Relievers, Zero Drama

Rodón handed the 7th to Brent Headrick, who worked a clean inning and earned the win (4-1). Fernando Cruz handled the 8th. Then David Bednar closed the 9th on 12 pitches -- three up, three grounders, season save No. 13.

Cleveland didn't threaten in the final three innings. The Guardians went quietly enough that you almost forgot they'd won the first two games of this series 9-4 and 5-4. (For a team that just dropped 14 runs over two days, giving up one today felt like a different sport.)

The Yankees are 37-25, half a game behind Tampa in the AL East. They lost the series but avoided the sweep, and Rodón looked like a genuine front-line starter when the lineup needed him to carry it.

That's worth something on a Thursday in June.