Yankees' Aaron Judge, Carlos Rodon too much for Angels in victory

ANAHEIM, Calif. — On a day Gerrit Cole said he could next be headed for a rehab assignment, one of the Yankees top pitchers that has helped mitigate the loss of the club’s ace to start the regular season headed to the injured list.

The Yankees announced Thursday afternoon that righthander Clarke Schmidt had been placed on the IL with a right lat strain and that righthander Cody Morris had been recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as the corresponding roster move.

Schmidt will not throw for 4-6 weeks, Aaron Boone said.

“It’s going to be a while,” the manager stated before Thursday night's 8-3 victory over the Angels in front of a pro-Yankees crowd of 36,312 at Angel Stadium.

The game featured Aaron Judge’s 18th homer of the season — and his 12th homer in May, to go with 12 doubles — and Carlos Rodon providing a boost to a rotation that has been stellar this year but received the sobering Schmidt news beforehand.

Rodon, after allowing a solo homer to Sayville’s Logan O’Hoppe in the second inning, retired 14 straight. The lefthander allowed three runs — the bullpen allowed two inherited runs to score in the eighth — and three hits in improving to 7-2 with a 3.09 ERA. Rodon walked one and struck out five.

The Yankees, 4-2 on this three-city, nine-game trip that continues Friday night in San Francisco, are 39-19. They blew a close game open with a five-run seventh, getting bases-loaded RBI walks from Oswaldo Cabrera and Anthony Volpe, whose 21-game hitting streak came to an end, and a bases-clearing triple from Juan Soto that made it 7-1.

As for Schmidt, he had an MRI Wednesday and saw Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the specialist Cole saw for a second opinion back in March when he was diagnosed with right elbow inflammation, in Los Angeles Thursday afternoon. Boone said righthander Cody Poteet will start in Schmidt’s place on Saturday.

“It’s definitely devastating,” Schmidt said after the game, though he did say he felt the 4-6 weeks Boone mentioned was a “soft” timeline, the pitcher believing he could start throwing again in the 3-4 week range. “Probably having the most fun I’ve ever had playing this game in my career. Not only having success, but the team’s winning, the pitching staff’s doing really well. It’s just fun being able to go out there and compete every five days with these guys…I feel like, a big part of me, I’m letting the team down because I’m not doing that part of being available every five days.”

The 28-year-old Schmidt, who had an up-and-down first full season in the big leagues as a starter last season, so far has enjoyed a breakthrough 2024, going 5-3 with a 2.52 ERA in 11 starts.

“Obviously, Clarke’s been one of the guys that’s been pitching so well,” Boone said before the game. “Stinks for him. Hopefully, we’ll have him down, get him on the mend, and hopefully get him back at some point.”

Schmidt did, in retrospect, drop a hint something was amiss after his most recent start, Sunday in San Diego. After needing 101 pitches to get through five innings, and allowing two runs (one earned), three hits and three walks, Schmidt characterized his day as “physically…one of those outings where you don’t feel like your best.”

Schmidt said Thursday night he didn’t feel quite right in the bullpen before that start, but also nothing completely out of the ordinary or alarming (pitchers, far more often than people think, don’t always feel at their best before a given outing). But it didn’t get better during the game against the Padres and the real red flags emerged in the ensuing days.

“He just wasn’t able to recover,” Boone said. “He wasn’t able to do his throwing that he would normally do in between starts, so we sent him to get an MRI.”

Cole, meanwhile, appears ready for the next step in his rehab — a process that will not be sped up in the wake of the Schmidt news.

The righthander threw a 43-pitch simulated game earlier in the day at the club’s minor league complex in Tampa and afterward said he felt “good” and that a rehab assignment could follow.

“I’ll have to double-check, but it seems like the direction it’s going,” Cole told local Tampa baseball reporter John Brophy, the lone media member in attendance.

Boone said Thursday afternoon “that’s definitely a possibility” of Cole next pitching in a game.

“We’ll see how he recovers,” Boone added. “I actually talked to Gerrit (earlier),” Boone said. "Sounds like everything went well today, he was pretty pleased with his outing and just how he felt. Assuming everything goes well, good chance a rehab (game) is next.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

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.