About Last Night: CLE 3, NYY 2
- Ethan Semendinger
- 8 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Ethan Semendinger
April 23rd, 2025
***
The word of the morning is: Uggggggggggg.
Quick Stats -
Winning Pitcher: Tanner Bibee (2-2, 5.19 ERA)
Losing Pitcher: Mark Leiter Jr. (2-2, 3.48 ERA)
Save: Cade Smith (2)
Home Runs (New York): Ben Rice (6)
Home Runs (Cleveland): None
Big Story - The Yankee offense is perfectly fine. So far on the year, they've scored fewer than 2 runs on only three occasions, which is pretty darn good for being 24 games (~15%) through the season already. They aren't unstoppable, but the hope is many of the guys start regressing back to the mean (and start hitting over .200 soon).
The question is, and will continue to be, their starting pitching. And, going into this game, the question was: "Which Will Warren are the Yankees going to get?"
In his first start, he was good (5 IP, 1 H, 4 BB's, 2 R's), then he had a bad start (4.0 IP, 6 H's, 1 BB, 4 R's), then he had a good start (5 IP, 2 H's, 2 BB's, 2 R's), then he had a terrible start (1.2 IP, 4 H's, 2 BB's, 1 R). Through 4 starts, his season has been a rollercoaster.
If Warren can manage to find some consistency, however, the Yankees should be comfortable with him as a back-end rotation guy who can give them a good 5 to 6 innings of work.
Here was the Yankees line-up behind Warren as they headed into the middle match of their Cleveland series:
---
Player(s) of the Game -
Aaron Judge: 4-4, Run, Double, Stolen Base
Notable Performances -
Will Warren: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R (2 ER), 1 BB, 5 K's
Ben Rice: 1-4, Run, Solo Home Run
Paul Goldschmidt: 1-3, BB, K
Jazz Chisholm: 0-1, 1 RBI (Sac Fly), 2 BB's
Better to Forget -
Mark Leiter: 0.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 1 K
Cody Bellinger: 0-4, 2 K's
Jasson Dominguez: 0-4, 2 K's
Oswaldo Cabrera: 0-4, 1 K
---
The Game - I think the most frustrating thing about baseball is how slowly things fall apart.
When watching a hockey game, it takes just a moment for an opponent to take advantage of your favorite team when they're "napping" and to set-up a good position and score a goal. (This is what happened to the Devils last night...darnit.)
When watching a football game, it takes the wide receiver just a quick juke or two to get a step on a defensive back for a big break and a long touchdown.
When watching basketball, all of a sudden the opposing team puts up 5 three-pointers in a row and delivered 15 points in their favor.
Meanwhile, in baseball, it takes time for things to fall apart. And, you can see it happening ahead of time. And, there is nothing you can do to stop it.
Last night, Ben Rice started off the game with a first pitch solo home run. Will Warren came to play and shut-out the Guardians through 5 innings of work, while allowing just 1 hit to Steven Kwan as the lead-off hitter in the first inning. Aaron Judge continued to rack up hit-after-hit and eventually came in to score on a 5th inning sacrifice fly by Jazz Chisholm.
And then, in the bottom of the 6th inning, Will Warren allowed his second hit of the night (also to Steven Kwan). Then his third on the next pitch to Nolan Jones. He reached his limit, and he was pulled for Mark Leiter Jr, who got Jose Ramirez to strike out!
...and then Steven Kwan came around to score- from second- on a wild pitch curveball that crossed up J.C. Escarra as the Guardians were attempting a double steal. Nolan Jones advanced to third on the play from first. Then, Kyle Manzardo tied up the game on a line drive that Aaron Judge mistakenly dove for, allowing Manzardo to turn for a double.
Carlos Santana then grounded out (Manzardo to third), and Bo Naylor walked before Angel Martinez singled in the 3rd run of the inning on a tough groundball for Anthony Volpe to field. Daniel Schneemann followed it up with an even tougher to field infield single for Volpe to try, loading the bases.
Mark Leiter Jr. was then pulled. Tim Hill finished the innning by getting Brayan Rocchio to fly-out to Judge in right.
Mark Leiter threw 21 pitches in that exchange and it took 7 batters for the Guardians to score 3 runs and take the lead.
And it was just a slow, slow, bleed.
This is the agony of baseball.
The Yankees didn't do much in the 7th, 8th, or 9th innings to try and mount a comeback. The best position they had was Judge on 2nd and Chisholm on 1st in the 8th with 2 outs.
Will Warren showed up. Aaron Judge showed up. But, the Yankees need the team to start coming together.
Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm, and Austin Wells are all hitting comfortably under .200.
Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dominguez, and Oswald Peraza are just a little over hitting .200.
Once May comes around, the early season slack starts to fade. Quickly.
Let's start hoping these guys can start a good hot streak to get those numbers up. Soon.
Yankees lost 3-2.
Darnit.
---
Next Up - The Yankees will finish their 3-game weekday series against the Cleveland Guardians this afternoon at 1:10 PM EDT. Carlos Rodon (2-3, 4.34 ERA) will look to build on a recent great start (6 IP, 0 R) for the Yankees, as Luis Ortiz (2-2, 5.48 ERA) will pitch for the Guardians. Game on YES.
