This one was really bookended by bad pitching. Carlos Carrasco was terrible, and let the Rays back into a game they should have been knocked out in. The relief pitching in the middle of the game was very good, and Devin Williams was bad. I’m not 100-percent sure if this was the worst loss of the year so far, but if not, it’s awfully close. The Yankees lost a long slog of an extra-inning game, 10-8 in the 10th, snapping their five-game winning streak.
Now, on to Carrasco. I know he’s here because there are depth challenges. I know that guys like Marcus Stroman and Will Warren don’t exactly inspire confidence, but WOOF. It’s becoming hard to justify the 38-year-old being on the mound in a starting role, after watching him throw 4+ innings and 75 pitches. He threw a first-pitch strike just 42 percent of the time — MLB average this year is 62 percent.
Carrasco consistently gets himself behind hitters, in counts that force him to throw into the zone, where his diminished stuff no longer fools MLB hitters. He got away with it in the first two innings, but it’s always going to catch up to you eventually. Pitching wins is a silly stat in 2025, but if you’re a starter with a five-run lead heading into the fourth inning, and you end the night ineligible for a win, you’re either very badly hurt or not reliable enough to be counted on in an MLB rotation.
The Yankees are kind of over a barrel because where do you go? It’s not like we have a lot of faith in three of Carrasco’s rotationmates, and the Triple-A rotation doesn’t have any particularly inspiring prospects. Still, it’s going to be hard to justify his next start.
Fortunately, the Yankee bats woke up after a sleepy Friday night. Shane Baz had to throw 33 pitches in the first inning, as the Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out to open the game. Paul Goldschmidt bounced into a double play but Ben Rice did come home on the play, then Jazz Chisholm Jr. doubled the lead:
An inning later, the Trent Grisham Trade continued to pay dividends:
Grisham also made a great running catch in a clutch moment, with two men in scoring position and two out:
You keep thinking that eventually Trent Grisham won’t be playing like this, but for now it’s really hard to justify him not being in the lineup every day.
And of course Aaron Judge was as key a piece in this game as anyone:
That hit would loom large as it immediately preceded Carrasco’s terrible inning-plus that let the Rays back into the game. Naturally the Captain helped provide some insurance in the top of the ninth as well:
Judge was thrown out attempting to steal second, but his three RBI push his AL-leading total to 25. Goldy added another single to push the lead to four.
Unfortunately, all those runs would end up being for naught.
A quartet of Yankee relievers held the line over five innings, including Luke Weaver’s second-straight absolutely dominant performance in the eighth. Devin Williams was given the ball in the ninth, with a four-run lead, and managed to blow it. The erstwhile Brewers fireman gave up four hits and a walk before even recording the second out of the inning, another lackluster performance in his bad April. Brandon Lowe’s two-run single tied it up, and only an impressive Oswaldo Cabrera double-play turn saved the game from ending right then and there.
Cabrera had made a throwing error on the second batter of the ninth inning, which didn’t just let José Caballero reach first but second. Devin doesn’t get dinged for that, sure, but the immediate walk to Ben Rortvedt and double by debuting rookie Chandler Simpson that quickly followed? Things got out of hand too quickly and Williams couldn’t get things back under control.
The Yankees managed one hit to lead off the top of the 10th—from Grisham, of course—but Volpe was held at third since he had to freeze on the line drive. The Yanks had three cracks to get him (and Grisham) home, and they all fell short. Cody Bellinger continued his disappointing opening month in pinstripes with a strikeout against Edwin Uceta, and the righty followed by fanning Cabrera as well before pinch-hitter J.C. Escarra flew out to end the 10th.
It didn’t take long for the game to come to a close after that. First up in the home half was Jonathan Aranda, who nearly left the game earlier after a scary collision with Rortvedt on a foul popup in the fifth. He stayed in, and it paid off for Tampa. Aranda jumped on the third pitch from Yoendrys Gómez to send us all home:
The silver lining to all this might be that Ben Rice, removed from the game after being hit hard on the left elbow, underwent imaging mid-game that all came back negative. The Yankees were merely insulted, not yet injured.
The Yankees can still win this series, and Max Fried can go a long way to washing the taste of this loss out of our collective mouths. He’ll look to go 4-0 in the series finale tomorrow, with first pitch from Tampa at 1:40pm Eastern.
