A ninth-inning rally fell short, Clarke Schmidt let too many Giants hitters hang in at-bats, and neither the Yankees’ defense nor their bullpen could capitalize on enough advantages.
Too many disappointments on big pitches — the Yankees’ staff threw 185 on the day — spoiled an afternoon on which Anthony Volpe connected for his first two career hits and Giancarlo Stanton launched his first home run of the season.
“[The Giants] did a good job. When they did get some leverage counts, that’s where they’re able to do their damage,” manager Aaron Boone said after the season’s first loss. “They worked some long counts against us.”
In the ninth, the Yankees scored once against flame-throwing closer Camilo Doval and loaded the bases for Stanton.
With dark clouds threatening and the atmosphere ominous, Stanton tried for the knockout and only glanced with his right hook. He grounded sharply to shortstop, which began a game-ending double play.
“I could have put us in a better position to win the game in two at-bats tonight,” said Stanton, who also grounded out to third with two on and none out in the fifth. “I didn’t get it done, and that’s unacceptable in that situation.”
The Giants took the lead for good in the sixth, when reliever Michael King was winning the at-bat, got ahead of left fielder Blake Sabol 0-2 — then drilled him to load the bases with no one out.
The Giants then scored the go-ahead run on a swinging bunt from LaMonte Wade Jr. King induced the lightest contact a pitcher could want, but both he and catcher Jose Trevino sprinted toward the ball and no one covered home, which made everyone safe.
“Just unfortunate,” Boone said. “Just one of those unlucky ones.”
San Francisco pushed one more run across with two outs in the inning, when former Yankee Thairo Estrada hit a line drive that Volpe misread off the bat.
The rookie shortstop took a step to his right, then went left and sprawled out for an awkward dive, the ball falling for another infield single that scored another run to make it 5-3.
Volpe, who also contributed his first two singles of his career, said it was a play he should make “99 times out of 100.”
The Yankees used a cloud-scraping home run from Josh Donaldson to cut the lead to one in the eighth — but the Giants scored two runs off Clay Holmes in the ninth to balloon back the edge.
Until the ninth, which ended with a thud, the Yankees’ best threat might have come in the fifth, when they briefly tied the game but couldn’t steal the lead back.
In the inning, DJ LeMahieu lofted a lazy fly ball to center that Mike Yastrzemski couldn’t find, the ball falling behind him and LeMahieu getting credited with a double. Aaron Judge smacked a single to left, and Anthony Rizzo followed with an RBI double to right to make it 3-3.
But with runners on second and third and no outs — the Yankees one big blow away from taking control — Stanton grounded out, Donaldson struck out and Gleyber Torres tapped out.
The Yankees had jumped out to a two-run lead on an error from Giants pitcher Alex Cobb in the first and a Stanton homer in the third, but Schmidt couldn’t hold the edge.
Schmidt battled for 3 ¹/₃ innings but lost too many of those battles. The 27-year-old, coming off a strong spring that featured a new cutter, consistently was ahead of Giants batters but consistently could not put them away.
Schmidt, who needed 76 pitches to record 10 outs, was charged with three runs, the first of which was scored on the 10th pitch of an at-bat. In the fourth inning, Schmidt could not find strike three in a long duel with Joc Pederson, who golfed a low sweeper to right field for a homer.127
“It’s frustrating when you’re making good pitches and they keep spoiling them,” Schmidt said.
Yastrzemski followed Pederson with a double, and Schmidt then fell behind 3-0 to Brandon Crawford, who got the green light. Gerrit Cole’s brother-in-law blistered a cutter for a two-run homer to give the Giants a 3-2 lead.
The Yankees had enough punch to retake the lead, but their knockout punches continually whiffed.
Source: NY Post
