Cardinals 13, Yankees 7, in a game the Yankees actually led. Alec Burleson hit three home runs and drove in six, Angel Chivilli surrendered three of them in the same inning, and somewhere in the middle of all that the Yankees clawed all the way back from a 6-0 hole to take a 7-6 lead that lasted about as long as it took Chivilli to jog in from the pen.
This one had a little bit of everything -- ten total home runs, a debut blast, a dead-arm start from Cam Schlittler, and a bullpen collapse that turned a legitimately great comeback into a footnote. By the time it ended, the New York Yankees had dropped to 63-50, 3.5 back of the Rays in the East (a fresh L1 that feels a lot worse than a normal single loss, given how it happened).
The Turning Point
Down 6-3 in the bottom of the 7th, the Yankees put together the kind of inning that makes you forget the first six. Ryan McMahon led off with a solo shot. José Caballero followed with one of his own. Three batters later, after Trent Grisham doubled in between, Luis García Jr. -- in his first game in pinstripes, acquired from Washington the day before -- lined one to right-center for a two-run homer that scored Grisham and put the Yankees ahead, 7-6. First lead of the night for New York, and it came on the newest guy's first swing that mattered.
It didn't survive the next half-inning.
Ryan Yarbrough opened the 8th still protecting that 7-6 lead and immediately gave up a leadoff triple to Blaze Jordan. That brought in Chivilli, and it did not go well. Masyn Winn walked, and Nathan Church turned around a pitch for a three-run homer that put St. Louis back in front, 9-7. Two batters later, José Fermín singled and Jimmy Crooks went deep to make it 11-7. Chivilli got his first out on a Jordan Walker flyout, then immediately allowed a two-run shot to Burleson -- his third of the night -- that made it 13-7. He stayed in to finish the inning himself, retiring Iván Herrera and Jordan (up for the second time) to close it out. Nine batters faced, three outs recorded, six earned runs allowed on five hits and three home runs. Gordon Graceffo cruised through the 8th and 9th for the save opportunity he didn't even need and picked up the win instead; Chivilli took the loss and the blown save both.
Star of the Game: Alec Burleson
Three home runs, six RBI, a 3-for-5 night with twelve total bases. It was the first three-homer game of Burleson's career, and he got there on both ends of the ballgame -- a two-run shot off Schlittler in the first, another off Tim Hill in the fourth to make it 6-0, and the exclamation point off Chivilli in the eighth.
By pure win-probability terms, García's go-ahead blast and Church's three-run shot each moved the needle more than any single Burleson swing (both landed in tighter spots). But this was Burleson's game from the first inning on, and he never let it slip. Six RBI is six RBI.
Key At-Bats and Pitching Lines
Schlittler never found it. Three innings, four earned runs, six strikeouts, and five walks -- the kind of start where the stuff is there but the command isn't, and it costs you a two-run homer to Burleson before the first inning is even over. Tim Hill and Kervin Castro at least stabilized things for a stretch (Castro's 1.2 scoreless innings were probably the calmest anyone on the Yankees' pitching staff looked all night), which is exactly what set up the comeback in the first place.
On the other side, Austin Wells and Grisham traded solo-adjacent shots in the 5th to cut the deficit to 6-3 -- Wells' a two-run blast that scored McMahon, Grisham's a solo the next at-bat -- and neither swing gets talked about enough given what came after. This was a legitimate seven-run Yankees rally across two innings against a team that was up 6-0. It just happened to run into a worse inning immediately after.
Boone's Bullpen Math
Bringing Chivilli in with an inherited runner on third and nobody out in a one-run game is a defensible call on paper -- somebody has to pitch that inning, and it's the kind of low-margin decision that looks fine right up until it doesn't. It didn't. What stands out isn't just that Chivilli allowed three homers -- it's that Boone left him in to finish the inning after the third one. Nine batters, three outs, six earned runs. Fernando Cruz came on the following half-inning and threw a scoreless top of the 9th (0 ER, 2 K on 10 pitches) to shut the door on the Cardinals, which is the kind of clean outing that just makes you wonder what a different arm does with that 8th.
Series opener goes to St. Louis. Two more at the Stadium this week, and the Yankees are going to need a cleaner finish than this one to walk away with it.
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.
