Yankees Fall 5-4 in Ohio: Bad News Strikes Again

We got a scintillating display of pitching from both starters tonight, and neither of their efforts ended up mattering. Carlos Rodón handed a three-run lead to the bullpen, who handed the lead right on back. The offense did actually manage to get a lead in extras, and the Yankees lost anyway. This one stunk, and New York loses 5-4.

Chase Burns sat down the first five men he faced in Major League Baseball, and no matter what his career ends up looking like, that is a story he’ll be boring the grandkids with 40 years from now. We definitely saw why Burns is so well regarded on prospect lists, but the Yankees were able to adjust the second time through the order.

Tip your hat to the rookie, his fastball-slider combo kept the Yankees off balance the first three innings. Jazz Chisholm Jr. managed a single — in fact he went 2-2 off Burns — but the rest of the team definitely needed an at bat to get themselves up to speed. Once that happened, well, Ben Rice made noise:

Aaron Judge followed that up with a single and Jazz added his second, before Burns tossed a slider to Anthony Volpe that just missed:

Carlos Rodón wasn’t quite as dominant in terms of pure stuff as his younger counterpart, but went deeper and didn’t allow a run. I mentioned in the gamethread that he’s had a big of a bumpy stretch in his last three starts, but all he did tonight was blank the Reds over six strong innings.

He struck out a pair in the bottom of the first, a nice echo of Burns sitting down the top three men in the Yankee order. I actually thought ‘Los got more than five Ks in his outing, since the Reds only had a runner in scoring position once all night, but a pair of double plays and some outstanding work from Paul Goldschmidt at first meant Rodón wasn’t afraid of allowing some contact.

Unfortunately, once Rodón’s day was done, Jonathan Loáisiga couldn’t hold the three-run lead. The bases were full of Reds with one out, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand came to the dish:

Jazz Chisholm got tossed in the ninth and while I’m not usually one for bringing up ejections, it ended up factoring in the decisions the Yankees had to make as they went into extra innings. He couldn’t stop chirping at a bad strike one call in his at-bat, and while home plate umpire Mark Wegner couldn’t stop engaging with the Yankee third baseman, Jazz has to be smart enough to stop talking at a certain point.

With Jazz unavailable, Oswald Peraza shifted over to third and DJ LeMahieu came in at second, but Aaron Boone elected to send Jasson Domínguez to the plate for Peraza in the tenth. The Yankees ended up loading the bases in the frame, capped off by a great battle from Rice ending in a walk. Judge then popped out to end the threat, and backup catcher JC Escarra was now tasked with standing patiently at third.

The defensive creativity didn’t end up mattering in the tenth, as Mark Leiter Jr. did well in navigating his three outs and keeping the game tied. Cody Bellinger slammed a liner to first base in the top of the eleventh, a productive out that got Aaron Judge to third, and the 2021 Yankee MVP popped up again:

The good feelings lasted about four minutes, as the Reds got the run back quickly. Elly De La Cruz’s natural speed netted him an infield single, moving Manfred Man Matt McLain to third. Spencer Steer singled to re-tie the game, and Mark Leiter Jr. spiked a pitch to move both men into scoring position.

Tyler Stephenson walked to load the bases, and Cody Bellinger came in to form a five-man infield against pinch hitter Gavin Lux. It didn’t matter.

The Yankees are now 1-6 in extra innings games this year.

The June Swoon seems to be real, and the Yankees now find themselves just one game up on Tampa Bay for the division lead since the Rays beat the Royals tonight. Max Fried, for at least the third time this month, will be called upon to be the stopper in tomorrow’s series finale, coming at 7:10pm Eastern. Cincinnati will ask righty Brady Singer to help deliver them a sweep of the Yanks for the second-straight year.

Box Score