Casey Mize walked into the Bronx Monday night and left with ten strikeouts, one hit allowed, zero walks, and zero regrets. The Tigers won 7-3. The New York Yankees, for their part, gave Mize a hand.
That's not a metaphor. In the second inning, José Caballero sailed a routine throw into the backstop, turning what should've been a manageable deficit into a four-run disaster. The final score -- 7-3 -- looks marginally competitive on paper. It wasn't.
The Inning That Settled It
Ryan Weathers started and immediately gave the Tigers a foothold. The first inning was survivable -- Vierling grounded out, Dingler doubled, McGonigle struck out, Torkelson singled home Dingler (1-0), Lee doubled, Jones K'd to end it. Not great, but one run. Then the second started.
McKinstry singled to lead things off. Outman singled, McKinstry moved to third. Vierling hit a routine grounder to third -- a play Caballero makes nine times out of ten -- and the throw sailed wide. McKinstry scored. Outman moved to third. Then came a Dingler sacrifice fly to make it 3-0, and Hao-Yu Lee lined a two-run single to left that pushed it to 5-0, effectively over in the freakin' second inning.
Weathers threw 1.2 innings total, giving up seven hits and five runs (three of them unearned, though the unearned label doesn't make them feel any better). The bullpen did the heavy lifting from there -- Tim Hill, Jake Bird, Brent Headrick, and Camilo Doval all threw scoreless frames -- which is admirable and completely beside the point.
McGonigle added a two-run single in the fourth -- Vierling and Dingler both scored -- and just like that it was 7-0. The Bronx spent the next four innings staring at that number before Rosario finally gave them something to cheer.
Mize Was Just Better
Here's the honest part: even without the defensive meltdown, the Yankees probably weren't winning this game. Mize was that good.
Seven innings. One hit -- a third-inning single from Spencer Jones. Zero walks. Ten strikeouts, matching his career high. He wasn't relying on one dominant pitch; he was mixing, locating, and making the lineup look overmatched at every turn. Ben Rice struck out three times. Cody Bellinger went 0-for-4. Anthony Volpe went 0-for-3 without a meaningful at-bat to his name.
Three hits total on the night for the Yankees. That's a Mize problem, not just a lineup slump.
One Good At-Bat
In the eighth inning, Amed Rosario stepped in as a pinch hitter for Austin Wells and turned on a Drew Sommers changeup. Line drive, left-center, 378 feet, 105.3 mph off the bat. His eighth home run of the year, scoring Domínguez and Spencer Jones -- a three-run shot that gave the 40,506 at the Stadium something to actually stand for.
It made the final 7-3. Credit Rosario for refusing to go quietly.
And Then There's Jazz
Before you could fully process the loss, the Yankees put out the news that hit harder than the box score. The team pulled Jazz Chisholm Jr. after he collided with Domínguez mid-game; he's currently going through concussion protocol.
The full timeline is unknown, and the team hasn't said much beyond the standard announcement (which is standard, which is also how you know they don't know yet either). But this is the part that follows you home. Jazz is the most dynamic presence in this lineup, and "concussion protocol" in late June -- with the All-Star break two weeks out and the team already grinding through five straight losses -- is the kind of news you end up checking your phone about at midnight.
Five Straight
The Yankees are 48-36, L5, and 1.5 games behind Tampa in the East. The Rays have won five in a row, which means every Yankees loss is doing double work on the standings.
Two more games with Detroit. Mize doesn't pitch again until Friday. That's the one thing working in their favor right now.
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.
