Yankees pitchers' wildness costly in loss to Guardians

CLEVELAND — Domingo German walked the proverbial ballpark and made a key error on an easy play, among several factors that led to the Yankees’ ugly 3-2 loss to the Guardians on Monday night at Progressive Field.

The righthander tied a career high with five walks in three undistinguished innings in which he had little swing-and-miss stuff. It marked the shortest outing by any Yankees starter this season. In all, the Yankees allowed only four hits but walked nine Guardians.

“I don’t know,” Aaron Boone said of why he felt German, typically a strike-thrower, struggled so much with his command. “Just maybe one of those nights.”

German said through his interpreter: “I can’t give you a specific answer why. But it was terrible. Terrible outing tonight.”

But German’s wildness was just one element of a defeat that dropped the Yankees to 6-4.

Four batters into the game, the Yankees had a 2-0 lead and two runners in scoring position after Giancarlo Stanton’s two-run double, but they failed to take full advantage of Shane Bieber’s early ineffectiveness and allowed the 2020 American League Cy Young Award winner to last seven innings. That was critical for a bullpen that had been needed for a 12-inning game Sunday.

The key at-bat in the first may have been Willie Calhoun lining out sharply to second with runners at second and third for the first out of the inning.

“He’s a great pitcher, but I thought the at-bats continued all game,” Boone said. “We were squaring him up. It’s amazing that’s a 3-2 game, really, both sides, with us walking as many guys as we did and I felt like our guys having really good at-bats and hitting the ball on the nose against him throughout the night. But he did manage his way through. A testament to the kind of pitcher he is.”

The Guardians (7-4) took a 3-2 lead in the seventh against Ian Hamilton, who walked Steven Kwan and Amed Rosario to begin the inning and allowed a sacrifice fly by Josh Naylor.

In the eighth, James Karinchak allowed a leadoff triple by Gleyber Torres, who got a break when centerfielder Myles Straw made an ill-advised diving attempt at a catch and saw the ball trickle to the base of the wall. But Aaron Judge popped to second while attempting to check his swing and Anthony Rizzo and Stanton struck out.

“We have to come through in the middle of the order, especially me,” said Judge, whose first-inning walk extended his career-best on-base streak to 43 games. “I have to get something out of the infield and at least score him [Torres] there and keep it moving for Rizz and the big guys behind me.”

Of the 1-and-0 curveball he popped to second, he said: “I thought it was going to have a little more depth than what it [did] and it ended up landing right where I swung. In that situation, I have to either miss it or just take a full swing and get the job done.”

Emmanuel Clase struck out two in a perfect ninth for his third save.

German helped the Guardians get on the board in the second. Andres Gimenez popped up a bunt and German should have had an easy play, but he booted it for an error. Gimenez stole second and scored on Will Brennan’s sacrifice fly to left. Franchy Cordero might have had a play at the plate with a good throw, but he didn’t come close to that and the Guardians moved within 2-1.

Josh Bell walked to start the fourth and scored on Mike Zunino’s RBI double. Colten Brewer relieved and walked Straw on four pitches to load the bases, but he got Kwan on a comebacker for a force at the plate and induced an inning-ending 4-6-3 double-play ball off the bat of Amed Rosario.