Clarke Schmidt struggles early as Yankees fall to Guardians
Yankees starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt pauses after giving up a solo home run to the Cleveland Guardians' Kyle Manzardo during the third inning of a game in Cleveland on Monday. Credit: AP/Phil Long
CLEVELAND – In the first inning, Clarke Schmidt struggled throwing strikes, walking two batters.
In the third, he struggled missing barrels.
The latter proved far more costly as the Guardians scored four times, three of those runs coming in on a homer by perennial AL MVP candidate Jose Ramirez.
Schmidt never got on a roll and the Yankees offense, though it got a pair of two-run homers in the later innings by Jasson Dominguez and Jazz Chisholm Jr., couldn’t quite catch up from a six-run hole, leading to a 6-4 loss Monday night at Progressive Field.
Schmidt, making just his second start of the season after starting the year on the IL with right rotator cuff fatigue, allowed five runs, seven hits and three walks over four innings. Showing flashes of the stuff that allowed him to go 5-5 with a 2.85 ERA in an injury-shortened 2024, Schmidt struck out seven.
“Obviously, the walks frustrating,” Schmidt said. “Beyond that, I felt like I made some good pitches.”
Including the 0-and-1 slider Ramirez hit out in the third inning to make it 3-0.
“You have to tip your cap to a really good hitter,” Schmidt said. “I was trying to go down and in with the slider, got to the area I was trying to get to and he put a good swing on it. So you tip your cap on that.”
Kyle Manzardo followed that with a blast of his own, hammering a first-pitch, 93-mph sinker to right, his seventh homer making it 4-0.
“I felt [he] was a little off command wise,” Aaron Boone said of Schmidt. “Struggled a little bit with having that next level command where [he was] putting it where he wanted to.”
Guardians hard-throwing righthander Gavin Williams, who came in 1-1 with a 4.58 ERA but with a fastball that touches 99 mph, allowed two runs, seven hits and two walks. He struck out eight. Leading 6-0 in the seventh, Williams allowed Dominguez’s two-run shot, the leftfielder’s second homer of the season.
“It’s a big fastball, and then the mix with his secondary, whether it was curveball or slider and mixing in some cutters too,” Aaron Boone said of Williams. “I thought he threw some good cutters to our lefties. But he mixed enough with that big fastball and breaking balls, got us to expand a little bit. We couldn’t put it together quite enough against him.”
Chisholm’s two-run homer off Paul Sewald with two outs in the eighth made it 6-4 and gave the second baseman seven homers, tying him with Aaron Judge for team-high.
Cleveland righty Cade Smith, called on to close Monday after the struggling Emmanuel Clase suffered the second blown save of his season Sunday in Pittsburgh, allowed a one-out single to Oswaldo Cabrera in the ninth. But Austin Wells took a called third strike and Judge struck out swinging.
Both the Yankees (14-9) – who beat Cleveland in five games in last year’s ALCS, winning Game 5 here on Juan Soto’s three-run homer in the 10th – and Guardians (13-9) had the same number of hits Monday (10).
Cleveland added one in the fifth on an odd play of sorts. With one out in the fourth, Brayan Rocchio shattered his bat on a soft liner toward Chisholm at second. But as the ball came at Chisholm, so too did a large piece of the bat. Chisholm, appropriately in preservation mode, avoided the bat and the ball continued to right for an RBI single that made it 5-0.
“I want to make every play out there for my guy, but at the same time you don’t want to die,” Chisholm said.
A good line to be sure but, Chisholm said, one tinged with some truth. When he was in the Diamondbacks organization in Single-A, Chisholm said, a piece of shattered bat connected with his right calf.
“You’ve got a sharp object coming your way,” Chisholm said. “I’ve seen guys get stabbed with broken bats in person. I know how bad the injury can be.”
Extra bases
Trent Grisham, one of the early-season surprises for the Yankees, was placed on the paternity list Monday afternoon, replaced on the roster by infielder Jorbit Vivas. Grisham has not only been a standout in the field – which is not a surprise – but at the plate as well, hitting .320 with six homers and a 1.093 OPS in 20 games…Boone said righthander Jonathan Loaisiga, who started the season on IL recovering from right elbow surgery, was scheduled to start a rehab assignment on Saturday with Class-A Tampa.
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.
