About Last Night: Yanks Lose 6-4

By Paul Semendinger

April 22, 2025

***

About Last Night:

Well, the Yankees made it interesting, at least, but they dropped the first game of their series in Cleveland, losing to the Guardians 6-4.

Quick Stats:

LP - Clarke Schmidt (0-1, 7.45)

NYY HR - Jazz Chisholm, Jasson Dominguez

The Big Story:

Maybe the end result of the game (a loss) was apparent after the top of the first - two Yankees walked, another reached on an error, and yet, they failed to score.

The Guardians though, got two base runners of their own (both walks) in the first and also failed to plate a runner.

Both teams went down in order in the second inning.

In the third, that Judge guy doubled, but the Yankees didn't score. The Guardians, though, did score. Jose Ramirez hit a three-run homer. Kyle Manzardo then followed that up with a homer of his own. (Cleveland 4, NYY 0)

Cleveland scored another run in the fourth, on three hits. (Cleveland 5-0)

When the bottom of the 5th rolled around, Clarke Schmidt was out of the game. Yoendrys Gomez came in, allowed no runs in the 5th, but Jose Ramirez singled home Steven Kwan to make it 6-0 in the 6th.

The Yankees came back with two runs in the top of the seventh (Volpe single, Dominguez homer) (Cleveland 6, Yanks 2) and two in the eighth (Goldschmidt single, Chisholm homer) (Cleveland 6, Yankees 4), but that's where the scoring stopped and the Yankees lost the game.

Player(s) of the Game:

Jose Ramirez (2-for 5, 4 RBI)

Notable Performances:

Steven Kwan (2 hits, 2 runs)

Paul Goldschmidt (2-for-3)

Oswaldo Cabrera (2-for-4)

My Take:

Get used to the roller coaster ride, my friends, this is the 2025 Yankees. The Yankees do not have good enough starting pitching for this to go any other way. When the Yankees play soft-hitting teams like the Royals and Rays (last week), the pitching can look good enough. It isn't. One hope was that Clarke Schmidt would come back from injury and be good enough to be a number two starter. Last night he wasn't up to the task.

After Max Fried, these are the Yankees starters:

Carlos Rodon is averaging less than 6 innings per start.

Clarke Schmidt is averaging less than 5 innings per start

Will Warren is averaging less than 4 innings per start

Carlos Carrasco is averaging less than 5 innings per start

Marcus Stroman averaged 3 innings per start

The starting pitching, simply, is not doing the job. Those stats are bad. The bullpen is already starting to run a fumes. It gets worse...

Starting Pitcher ERA's:

Rodon - 4.34

Schmidt - 7.45

Warren - 5.17

Carrasco - 6.53

Stroman - 11.57

None of those pitchers have demonstrated that these early season numbers are a result of small sample sizes. The concern is that the Yankees need not just one, but multiple of these pitchers to turn it around. That's a task that is looking very unlikely. And no help is on the horizon.

***

The Yankees had 14 base runners last night, but only scored when players hit home runs. That is also not sustainable. A team must find ways, other than the home run, to score. One mark of the Aaron Boone era is that the Yankees rely too much on the home run. A team can't hit too many homers, but they can rely on the homer too much. That trait has been a Yankees problem that is now in its eighth year.

***

The Yankees, as I have stated, should be good enough to reach the playoffs, not because they are good, or good enough, but because the competition isn't as good as the Yankees. In other words, the Yankees aren't as bad as most of the rest of the league.

Since the Yankees are a very flawed team, in an even more flawed league, there will be times when they will get on roll and look terrific for a week or so... but then reality will hit, again, and this team will show its true ability level. That happened last night.

The Yankees are 5-0 in games Max Fried starts. The rest of the time, they have played to a 9-9 record. Win, lose, win, lose, win, lose... up and down, up and down... that's a roller coaster ride. That's the 2025 Yankees.

Next Up:

Will Warren takes the mound tonight against the Guardians at 6:10 p.m.