Dud of a Day at Yankee Stadium. Houston 7 NY 1

August 11, 2025 paperbacklou 2025 0
Jazz Chisholm makes good catch in the 1st.

This looked like it was going to be an easy win on paper — the Yankees trotting out their Ace Max Fried and going against Jason Alexander, a 32-year-old journeyman righty with a 5.97 ERA.

But the fine print was that Alexander was coming off a couple of good starts, including 6 innings of 3-hit, shutout ball against Miami — and he did it again against the Yanks — throwing a no-hitter into the 6th, and finishing with 6 innings of 1-hit, shutout ball.

The Yankees immediately rallied against Houston’s bullpen in the 7th — loading the bases with 1 out — but only managed 1 run on a sac fly.

Meanwhile Max Fried got ahead in counts but Houston kept slapping the ball around for 4 runs, knocking Fried out after 5. To be fair, Fried didn’t get a call on what looked like an inning-ending, 3rd strike to Cam Smith in the 5th; a pitch later Smith slapped a 2-RBI double to the opposite field right.

Manager Aaron Boone was thrown out for arguing balls and strikes. Tim Hill got clobbered for 3 runs in the 9th and the result was an absolute Dud of a baseball game.

Houston 7 NY 1 on a beautiful, 85-degree, low-humidity, sunny Sunday at Yankee Stadium.

One little bit of good news: Devin Williams struck out the side in the 7th.

“They have a lot of really good hitters over there that have a plan, and were really aggressive in using all parts of the field,” said Fried afterwards. “Tried the ball around a bunch and they were able to battle and put the ball in play. I gave up a lot of hits and there was a lot of traffic on the bases. They really grinded me down.”

NY falls to 62-56, and are 6.5 behind Toronto and 2.5 behind Boston. Houston improves to 66-52, in 1st in the AL West by .5 over Seattle.

1. Weiss Gets Slapped Around with 2 Outs & Robbed by Umps

Max Fried has not pitched that great since the beginning of July. In 7 starts since then his record has gone from 10-2 1.92 to 12-5 2.94. He has allowed 4 runs in 5 of those starts, 6 runs in one, and 3 runs in one.

This was his 5th straight start where he has allowed 4 runs or more, pitching typically 5 innings.

In this game he was getting ahead of batters — something he hadn’t been doing — but was unable to finish them off as Houston kept slapping the ball in play for singles, and scoring all their runs after 2 outs in an inning.

  • Fried allowed a solo HR to Jose Altuve with 2 outs in the 1st — as the fans at Yankee Stadium booed Altuve as usual, seemingly causing Altuve to amp up his game.
  • Fried pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 2nd, but after getting the first 2 outs of the 3rd, allowed a single to Altuve, and an RBI double to Christian Walker.
  • In the 4th, Fried again got the first 2 outs, but then yielded a single and ground rule double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd — before getting a groundout to end the inning.
  • In the 5th, Carlos Correa singled to lead off, and after Fried struck out Altuve, Christian Walker worked a walk. Fried got a fly out for the 2nd out — but hit Jesus Sanchez with a pitch loading the bases.
  • Fried went 0-2 on Cam Smith, and appeared to strike him out on a 2-2 fastball — but the ump called it ball 3. Smith then fouled off a strike, and slapped a 3-2 sinker to opposite-field right for a 2-RBI double. Houston 4 NY 0.

2. Alexander No Hits Yanks Into 6th

Meanwhile Jason Alexander came in as a confusing joke as the Yankees are also having a Seinfeld “George Costanza Sleeping Under His Desk” bobblehead day on August 21 — Jason Alexander the actor having played George Costanza.

The pitcher Jason Alexander is a 32-year-old journeyman who has spent much of his career in the minors, surfacing in the majors with Milwaukee in 2022 and with the A’s early this year — before being waived and picked up by Houston on May 18th.

He went 5-0 1.69 in AAA for Houston and was brought up to the big club. This was his 5th start with the Astros.

Before the game, Boone said Alexander had a good sinker that he moves around a lot.

He did that and more, shutting down the Yanks on no hits into the 6th.

Alexander:

  • Walked Ben Rice with 1 out in the 1st, but got the next 2 outs (fly out, foul out),
  • Pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 2nd (all ground outs),
  • Walked Austin Wells with 1 out in the 3rd, but got the next 2 outs (fly outs),
  • Walked Aaron Judge leading off the 4th, but got fly out, fly out, ground out, and
  • Pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 5th (fly out, line out, strike out).

Finally with 1 out in the 6th, Ben Rice broke up the no-hitter with a single to left with 1 out.

But next batter Aaron Judge hit into a double play to end the inning.

Aaron Boone was tossed for arguing strikes in the 3rd — feeling Alexander was getting strike calls on pitches that were low.

3. Devin Strikes Out Side in 6th

Good news for the Yanks — Devin Williams came in and struck out the side in the top of the 6th — Chas McCormick, Jeremy Pena (2nd in the AL in batting), and Carlos Correa — all swinging.

4. Yanks Rally in 7th

With Alexander gone the Yanks immediately rallied in the bottom of the 7th off reliever Bennett Sousa.

With 1 out, Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled to right, Giancarlo Stanton singled to left, and Anthony Volpe walked to load the bases — knocking out Sousa.

Bryan Abreu was brought in — and Ryan McMahon hit a sac fly to shallow left that Jazz Chisholm raced home on for a 4-1 game.

But Abreu got Austin Wells to fly out to right to end the inning, leaving runners on 1st and 2nd.

5. Headrick Throws Shutout 7th & 8th

Brent Headrick pitched well again. The 6’6 lefty threw a shutout 7th and 8th — allowing only a walk in the 7th to Altuve and a 2-out walk in the 8th to Chas McCormick.

That kept the Yanks in the game, down 4-1.

Abreu pitched the 8th as well — allowing a leadoff walk to Trent Grisham so the Yanks had the tying run in the on-deck circle, and were a HR away from making it a tight game.

But Ben Rice lined out to right on a great catch by Cam Smith, Aaron Judge flied out to medium center, and Cody Bellinger struck out swinging.

6. Hill Clobbered in 9th

But Tim Hill got Clobbered in the 9th.

Carlos Correa hit a homer to start the inning, making it 5-1.

Jose Altuve then walked, Christian Walker doubled to center, and after a lineout, Ramon Urias singled in a run to make it 6-1. Mauricio Dubon reached on an infield single and it was 7-1.

Houston’s Bryan King struck out the side in the 9th for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401696670

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*