Schmidt Pitched Good. “Can’t Win a Game If You Don’t Score”. Toronto 5 NY 1

April 24, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0

Clarke Schmidt pitched good.

While RJ Barrett — ripped the F apart by Yankee fans on Twitter in recent weeks — was having another Redemption game leading the Knicks to a Game 4 win at Madison Square Garden (after he had led them to a Game 3 win) — Clarke Schmidt — ripped the F apart by Yankee fans on Twitter in recent weeks — was having a redemption game of his own up in the Bronx at Yankee Stadium.

Schmidt had a 1-hit shutout going through 5 innings.

Unfortunately in the 6th, Schmidt was done in by his defense. Anthony Volpe of all people, made an error to give Toronto an extra out in the inning, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.got to Schmidt with the homerun ball — a 2-out, 2-run rocket just over the leftfield wall — followed by an Daulton Varsho Homer and just like that Schmidt was down 3-0.

As sports analyst and marine journalist/publisher John Snyder put it, “You can’t win a game if you don’t score.” And the Yankees didn’t score, until the bottom of the 9th when Anthony Rizzo hit a meaningless homer to make the final score 5-1 Toronto.

“Have to tip your hat to Gausman — dominant,” added Snyder. Toronto’s right hander Kevin Gausman was all that — 7 innings of 3-hit shutout ball; striking out 11. And that was ballgame.

“He was very aggressive,” said manager Aaron Boone about Schmidt. “I thought his sinker really put him in a good place today. And everything worked off of that. Had a good slider going too, but the sinker — especially against them they have a lot of good right-handed hitters — really put him in a good spot.”

The Yanks lost their first series of the season, and fall to 13-9, tied with the Blue Jays for 4th place; Baltimore is in 2nd at 14-7. Incredibly, Tampa won again to go 19-3.

1. Schmidt Fantastic

The only good news for NY was that Clarke Schmidt finally put it together. He’s had good stuff, and pitched good for parts of games — but made mistakes, and lost.

Not this time — on a sunny Sunday afternoon at the Stadium, he was great.

2. Gausman Dominant

But Kevin Gausman was greater. He used off speed stuff to stifle the Yankees. His fastball only rang in at 90 MPH. But his 83-MPH splitter did the damage. He used the two pitches almost exclusively — predominantly the splitter, intermixing an 80-MPH slider on a rare occasion.

3. Volpe Error Opens Doors; Guerrero Jr Capitalizes

Volpe has been fantastic defensively at shortstop — but made a rare error with 1 out in the 6th, and that opened up the door for Toronto.

With 2 outs, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ripped a line drive just over the fence in left. Toronto 2 NY 0.

Varsho followed with a high fly homer to right center.

Schmidt got the final out of the 6th but the damage was0-1 done. His slash line: 6 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER. He loses to go 0-2 6.30.

4. King & Hamilton Cough Up Runs

Michael King pitched the 7th, and got the 1st out — but then back-to-back doubles — the 2nd by Dan Jansen — made it 4-0 Blue Jays. King got the final two outs of the inning to strand the runner.

Ian Hamilton pitched a 1-2-3 8th but allowed a single and walk to start the 9th, the leadoff runner coming around to score on a fly out then ground out. Toronto 5 NY 0.

5. Rizzo HR in 9th

Anthony Rizzo hit a homer off Adam Cimber with 2 outs in the 9th to make it 5-1, and then the Yanks got back-to-back singles by Gleyber Torres and DJ LeMahieu to give the Yanks scant hope, but Oswaldo Cabrera fouled out to 3rd for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

During the game, David Cone showed how Rosin along with a little bit of sweat (or alcohol from cleaning your fingers) provides quite a lot of stickiness — an amazing analysis:

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401471348

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