Three takeaways from Yankees' loss to Royals in ALDS Game 2
Juan Soto of the Yankees strikes out during the fifth inning against the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
1. The Yankees' hitting with runners in scoring position was atrocious, but they insist it’s nothing to worry about.
They went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position, left eight men on base and managed only one extra-base hit — Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s solo homer in the ninth — in their 4-2 loss to the Royals in ALDS Game 2. Even in their 6-5 win in Game 1 on Saturday, they went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base.
“It was a lot of unlucky plays, a lot of good plays in the field, a lot of diving plays, a lot of great catches out there,” Chisholm said. “I felt like we swung the bat well — just at people.”
Chisholm is right — the Yankees did make some hard contact, with seven off the bat at 100 mph or faster — but this also is the result of a Royals team that fields exceedingly well (their 47 defensive runs saved was seventh in baseball, according to Fielding Bible). Still, Aaron Judge thinks the hits will come.
“A couple of those fall in and it’s a different ballgame,” he said. “Some guys are hitting the ball hard.”
2. Would you look at that? Jon Berti actually can play first base.
Aaron Boone raised some major eyebrows Monday when he announced that Berti, who had never played first base at any level of professional baseball, would get his first official reps there during Game 2 of the ALDS. And he actually looked good!
Berti acquitted himself more than admirably, making every play he should have. He also turned in a nice, sprawling pick on a wild throw and dived to his right to snare a line drive, turning it into an unassisted double play.
Boone has been nothing but laudatory of Berti’s play at first, and it translated to the field when it counted. And frankly, it’s not as if the Yankees are rife with options as Anthony Rizzo works to get back from two broken fingers.
“It’s just taking it pitch by pitch like I do at any other position,” Berti said. It’s “understanding the situation of the game and the scenario and what my responsibilities are and just doing my best to execute.”
Of the sixth-inning double play — one in which he caught MJ Melendez’s liner and doubled Michael Massey off first — Boone said: “Heck of a play. I thought he was great over there tonight and at the plate. He had terrific at-bats all night . . . But he had that first play there [in the second, on a ball hit by Yuli Gurriel], the squibber, sneaky tough play, especially when you're not over there a lot where that ball's spinning on you. I thought he handled himself really well tonight over there and just all around gave us quality at-bats, too. That was good to see.”
Berti said he isn’t exactly sure how he’ll be deployed in the future, but it appears as if he and Oswaldo Cabrera will rotate at the position depending on matchups.
3. Wednesday could very well be the most important start of Clarke Schmidt’s career, and the Yankees have to pray he can build on this season’s success when it counts the most.
Boone announced Monday that Schmidt will be the Game 3 starter, giving him the nod over Luis Gil despite the fact that Gil is a career starter with limited bullpen experience in the minor leagues. Schmidt had a big relief role in 2022, but Boone said he didn’t weigh that too heavily since “he still hasn’t been down in the pen for a couple years.”
Asked why Schmidt was the pick, Boone essentially said it came down to feel. “The best I can tell you is I just feel like he’s the right guy for that game,” he said.
Schmidt is 5-5 with a 2.85 ERA this year. His only playoff experience came in 2022, when he struggled big time in relief — 0-2 with an 11.57 ERA in appearances in the ALDS against the Guardians and the ALCS against the Astros.
Still, Boone said before the game that it would be all hands on deck, and you’d imagine that counts doubly so now that the Yankees dropped Game 2 and Schmidt is tasked with playing stopper in Kansas City.
“It's the playoffs now,” Boone said. “It's postseason. There are going to be games, hopefully if you get long in this, where it's a little unorthodox and the starter ends up in a big moment at the back end of a game. Those things are going to come up.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
