The Yankees were swept by the Reds at Yankee Stadium
After splitting their series against their division rival Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees were swept by the Cincinnati Reds at Yankee Stadium with the series finale being an 8–4 loss. Inter-league play started 1997 and this was their first 3-game inter-league series that they have been swept at home.
The Yankees had the best record in baseball at 49–21 on June 12, but they have the worst record in baseball since then after going 5–14 in that span. This 3-game series sweep was the first time that they have been swept in a 3-game series this season. The Yankees are under a 100 win pace for the first time since May 2.
In the Yankees first 22 series this season, they won 17 series, lost three series and tied two series. In their last six series, they have lost five of them and tied their series in Toronto. Against the Reds, who had gone 7–12 in their previous 19 games and came into this series six games below .500, the Yankees lost the first two games of the series by one run and then lost the series finale 8–4 after going 1–5 with runners in scoring position, making two errors and the five through nine batters in the lineup went a combined 2–18 with just two walks.
In the series finale, which was July 4, Marcus Stroman struggled allowing five earned runs with five hits, two walks and three homers allowed in five innings. The bullpen allowed three earned runs in 4.0 innings. Stroman allowed five earned runs in 5.0 innings in his first start in July after having a 5.13 ERA in his five starts in June. He has allowed at least three earned runs in five of his last six starts after allowing one run or less in five of his six starts in May when he had a great 1.67 ERA in that month with just 14 walks in 37.2 innings in May.
“We’ve gotta play better on all fronts,” Aaron Boone said after the Independence Day game.
The Reds had struggled to hit the last few weeks and this season overall but hit well in this series. The Reds were ninth out of 15 teams in the National League in home runs coming into this series but hit a total of seven homers in this series including three in the series finale.
Frankie Montas, who had a not good 6.35 ERA in eight starts in 2022 with the Yankees after being traded from Oakland before the trade deadline, allowed a solid two earned runs in 5.0 innings in this game with both of those runs coming on home runs. Montas had a very good 3.19 ERA with the Athletics in 2022 but partially due to a lingering injury he could not come close to pitching with that effectiveness with the Yankees and that turned into a trade that Brian Cashman would want back.
The two runs that Montas allowed came off of a Ben Rice home run and an Austin Wells home run in the fifth inning. Rice has been effective and productive especially recently since making his MLB debut on June 18. He has a .262 average, a .360 OBP and a 765 OPS in his 15 games and has one homer and five RBI. He had his first MLB home run on July 4 and has four extra base hits in his last five games after not having an extra base hit in his first nine MLB games. He has a .262 average overall but in his 10 games he has a .290 average (9–31) with five walks in those 10 games.
Wells hit a big homer at the time in the fifth inning since the Yankees were being shutout. His homer went into the back wall of the bullpen to make score 5–1. The Yankees only had one hit in the first four innings and that was by Alex Verdugo. Wells continues to get more comfortable at the plate, and he should be the DH when he is not catching. Wells is 4–13 (.308) with three walks, two homers and three RBI in his last five games. He had a .190 average in his first 36 games this season but since then he has a .275 average (11–40) in 15 games to raise his average from .190 to .214. His OBP has also gone up from .281 to .312 and his OPS from .567 to .670 in the last 15 games after having three homers and nine RBI.
With two outs in the fifth inning, Rice smashed his first big league home run into the Judge’s Chambers. Rice would strikeout looking to end the game and finish off the disappointing sweep.
Anthony Volpe has gone 43 straight games without a homer. He tried to level out his swing in the offseason to takeaway the upper cut, which has thus led to less power. He was rightfully taken out of the leadoff spot in favor of Rice in the series finale. Volpe went 0–4 in the series finale and his OBP is all the way down to .307 in his 88 games played this season. Volpe has a .253 average and in his five games he is just 1–23. Volpe only has one multi-hit game in his last 13 games and his average is just .204 (28–137) since the first game of May with just eight extra base hits in those 30 games played. Volpe needs to change his approach at the plate so that he can drive the ball more and get on base more since he only has three walks in his last 31 games.
Yankees first hit on Thursday was a double to right center to the wall by Verdugo in the fourth inning.
Spencer Steer, who is in his second MLB season after finishing sixth in Rookie of the Year voting as a rookie last year, hit a 3-run homer off of Stroman in the 5th inning. It was just over the wall in first row of short porch. Verdugo was thrown out at home in 6th after going on contact after a perfect throw by Elly De La Cruz. De La Cruz really showed off his skill set since he hit well, showed his speed and fielded well at shortstop. He had two steals in the series and leads MLB with his six triples and 42 steals.
Tim Hill has a 70 percent ground ball rate since joining Yankees but in the series finale he allowed two earned runs on two hits. Jake Fraley, who has a .278 average this season, hit a bases clearing triple off of Jake Cousins (the cousin of longtime NLF QB Kirk Cousins) in the 7th to make the score 8–2 and give the Reds a commanding lead. Jeimer Candelerio got to second in the ninth inning after Trent Grisham was slow getting to the ball and then bobbled ball the ball. Grisham got an error.
Verdugo was 3–4 with two doubles in this game. He was just 4–24 in his previous six games. After having a solid .256 average and a .747 OPS through the first two months of the season (55 games), he had just a .219 average, a .265 OBP and a .589 OPS in June. It would make sense if the Yankees take him out of the clean up spot.
Fernando Cruz and Alexis Diaz, who is Mets star closer Edwin Diaz’s younger brother, are a really good back of the bullpen and they used them both in game one of the series. Cruz had a 5.21 ERA through his first 20 games this season but has lowered his ERA to its present 3.89 after allowed five earned runs in his last 18 innings over a span of 21 games.
Carlos Rodon allowed three earned runs on three hits, two walks and two homers in 5.1 innings. He did not get a quality start since he did not pitch three innings. He allowed Noelvi Marte’s first homer of his season, and fourth of his career, to make the score 2–0 and he also allowed a solo homer to Stuart Fairchild. Rodon needs to reinvent himself again since he does not have the same velocity on his fastball that he had a few years ago with the White Sox and Giants. He pitched well to start the season as he had a 2.93 ERA through his first 14 starts but he has allowed 23 earned runs in his last four starts in a span of 19 innings to raise his ERA up to 4.45. He has allowed 31 hits in his last four starts after allowing 31 hits in his previous seven starts.
Rodon pitched well overall besides the two solo homers he allowed that accounted for the three runs.
Volpe had a big two-run double to make the score 3–2 Reds. He was 0–18 coming into that at-bat and had really struggled in June. Judge hit into a routine double play to end the 7th inning.
Tommy Kahnle, who has an elite changeup, threw five consecutive fastballs to get De La Cruz out in the 8th inning. Kahnle retired the side in order in the eighth inning to make it 10 straight scoreless games and bring his ERA down to 2.51. Since June 12, he has thrown 8.1 innings and allowed seven hits, zero runs, three walks and has 13 strikeouts.
Clay Holmes dominated the top of the ninth as he struck out the side. He has gone a few weeks without a save opportunity since the team has struggled and their wins have been blowouts. Wells had a really good at-bat and worked a walk on 3–2 pitch to start 9th but then Volpe hit into a double play and Soto popped out to end the game 3–2 and give the Yankees their second consecutive one run loss.
The Yankees lost the first game of the series 5–4. They were just 2–7 in that game with runners in scoring position and in the game two one-run loss they were 1–4 with runners in scoring position, which means they had many chances in those two games to score more runs.
Grisham had a really good push bunt for a single in the second inning to put runners on first and second with two outs for Jose Trevino, who was in a 2–22 slump in previous seven games coming into this game. Trevino struck out looking to end that inning.
Luis Gil had a no hitter through the first three innings of the game. Cruz hit a leadoff triple in the 4th to right field. That was his sixth triple of the season. Cruz then scored easily on a fielder’s choice. Gil often becomes a two pitch pitcher with men on base in big situations. He got a big fly out to right to end the 4th with runners on first and third.
Rice struck out on a nasty down and away changeup in the 4th by Graham Ashcraft, who allowed three earned runs in 5.0 innings and now has a subpar 5.45 ERA in 14 starts this season. Will Benson hit a 2-run homer in the 5th for his ninth homer of the season. Benson has a lot of power but strikes out a lot since he has 107 strikeouts in his 271 plate appearances, which is a 40 percent strikeout rate. Gil then hit Jonathan India with a changeup after hitting the batter with a changeup in the at-bat before Benson. Gil really decreased in effectiveness after De La Cruz’s triple.
Gil was taken out of game after hitting India after declining in stuff, he walked three batters and hit two batters. De La Cruz hit a two run homer off of Caleb Ferguson into the bullpen to score India and make the score 5–0. In his first 14 starts Gil had a 2.03 ERA and it seemed like he was on track to being the starting pitcher in the All-Star Game. However, he now has a 3.41 ERA after allowing 16 earned runs in his last three starts in a span of 9.2 innings.
Rice had a big 2-run double to the right corner to the wall to make the score 5–3 in the 6th inning. Judge hit a bullet homer 112.5 exit velocity in 7th for his 32nd homer of the season. Judge is on pace for 154 RBI. Last person who had that many was Alex Rodriguez (156) in 2007.
