Yankees can't get anything going on offense in series-opening loss to Rays
Austin Wells of the Yankees walks back to the dugout after flying out to end a game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Cam Schlittler was neither especially good nor especially bad Monday night in what was the rookie’s third career start in the big leagues.
The offense?
That unit was fairly easy to categorize in the Yankees’ 4-2 loss to the Rays on Monday night at the Stadium.
The Yankees had all of two baserunners after a two-run first inning — both runs came on bases-loaded walks — and managed just six hits against a Rays team that came into the night having lost four straight and 14 of their last 19.
“Just weren’t able to mount enough,” Aaron Boone said. “And couldn’t hold them down enough.”
The Yankees (57-49) had few opportunities, going 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position while leaving six men on base.
Though they did stay 5 1/2 games behind the AL East-leading Blue Jays, who were blown out in Baltimore, 11-4, the Yankees have now lost 24 of their last 39 games.
The trade deadline is Thursday and it very much remains up in the air how many moves general manager Brian Cashman has in him to plug the still numerous holes in this roster, even after acquiring third baseman Ryan McMahon and utility man Amed Rosario last week.
“Ultimately, we would like to be probably in a better spot,” outfielder Cody Bellinger said of the standings. “But this is just kind of where we’re at right now. For me, I’ve got confidence in the guys in here.”
McMahon’s two-out single in the ninth brought the tying run to the plate against Pete Fairbanks, but Austin Wells flew out to the track in right-center, where Jonny DeLuca made a running catch to end it.
The Rays (54-53), who went 2-for-12 with RISP and stranded 11, hit rockets all over the ballpark throughout, many of those finding the gloves of defenders.
The 6-6, 225-pound Schlittler (1-1, 4.91 ERA) repeatedly unleashed a fastball that hit 98 and 99 mph and occasionally reached 100 over 4 1⁄3 innings. But the righthander also showed that he continues to be very much a work in progress — hardly a surprise for a young starter at this level.
The 24-year-old allowed three runs and seven hits, striking out five and walking four. He departed with runners on the corners after allowing an RBI single to Josh Lowe, which gave the Rays a 3-2 lead. Brent Headrick, a lefthander brought up on Sunday from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, struck out two to get out of the jam.
“The first two [starts] were a lot better than [Monday’s],” Schlittler said. “Trying to battle, battle, battle.”
Schlittler’s first inning was a good synopsis of his outing.
He delivered a called strike on a 98-mph fastball to Rays leadoff man Chandler Simpson and then a second, this one clocking in at 99-mph. After fouling off a pair of 99-mph fastballs, Simpson bounced a curveball to second for the first out.
Schlittler struck out Yandy Diaz swinging at a 100.2-mph fastball then lost his command, walking Jonathan Aranda on nine pitches. Junior Caminero then stepped into a hanging slider and launched it over the wall in left for his 27th homer to give the Rays a 2-0 lead.
Schlittler, who then walked Lowe and Jake Mangum back-to-back, was fortunate more damage wasn’t done as Tristan Gray hit a rocket to right but straight at Bellinger.
“They’re going to make you pay if you’re not in the zone,” Schlittler said of major-league hitters.
Rays righthander Drew Rasmussen (8-5, 2.96) allowed two runs — both coming in a 33-pitch first — and four hits in five innings. He struck out five and walked two, at one point retiring 10 straight.
Luke Weaver entered with one out and runners on the corners in the seventh and escaped the jam.
Jose Caballero led off the eighth against Weaver with a grounder in the hole at short, where under-fire shortstop Anthony Volpe couldn’t field it cleanly (it was scored a hit).
In came lefty Tim Hill, who got Taylor Walls to fly out to right. But Matt Thaiss singled and DeLuca chopped one some 15-20 feet straight up into the air for an infield single to load the bases. Diaz’s sacrifice fly to left made it 4-2.
“Pitching did a great job of keeping us in the game,” Bellinger said. “We just couldn’t come through after that first.”
Schmidt talks rehab
Clarke Schmidt, who underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery July 11 for a UCL tear in his right elbow, spoke for the first time since that procedure on Monday. Schmidt, 4-4 with a 3.32 ERA when his season ended, said he believes he’ll be back at some point in 2026.
“Everything I’ve been informed of, it’s kind of the best case of Tommy John,” Schmidt said. “I think if it was full reconstruction you’re looking at 14-16 months, so I think we dodged a major bullet with that."
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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