The Yankees’ slump keeps getting uglier, and Tuesday brings no relief: Cam Schlittler goes to the mound trying to stop a five-game skid while Detroit counters with Tarik Skubal, the two-time reigning Cy Young champ. New York has lost nine of its last 12 and now sits 1 1/2 games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East.
Monday’s loss in Detroit was another rough one for the lineup. The Tigers rolled to a 7-3 win behind seven strong innings from Casey Mize, and the Yankees were held to one hit off him and just three overall.
It was the first time in franchise history that New York has strung together four straight games with three or fewer hits. No club had done that since the 2010 Nationals.
The win was also a milestone night for Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who picked up career victory No. 1,000 and moved into a tie with Charlie Manuel for 67th on the all-time list.
Hinch’s path to that number has had its twists. His first managerial run with Arizona from 2009 to 2010 went badly, but he later built a powerhouse in Houston, where the Astros topped 100 wins three times under his watch, reached the World Series twice and won the 2017 title.
He has since helped turn the Tigers around as well, guiding them to back-to-back winning seasons over the last two years.
Elsewhere around the league, Esmerlyn Valdez kept launching baseballs into orbit. The Pirates prospect crushed an Aaron Nola curveball into the left-field seats for a two-run homer last night, his fourth straight game with a homer and sixth long ball in 16 career games.
In a tiny sample of 50 plate appearances, the power numbers are eye-popping: a 69.2% hard-hit rate and a 38.5% barrel rate. “ He’s got some of [the] craziest pop that we have in our organization,” said shortstop Konnor Griffin, as relayed by Jason Mackey of MLB.com.
And in Miami, the Marlins kept their strong June rolling with a win over the Rockies last night. That victory matched the franchise record for June wins, and they can set a new mark at 20 tonight.
The Marlins are now just percentage points behind St. Louis for the final NL Wild Card spot.
In Other News...
Yankees May Have Found Their Best Shot At A Bullpen Fix
The Yankees keep searching for answers in the middle innings, and Yovanny Cruz has surfaced as one of the more intriguing internal options. The right-hander is back from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after a stretch that included 2 1/3 scoreless innings in the majors and steady work in the minors, where he has posted a 3.18 ERA and missed enough bats to stand out in a bullpen that has been under constant stress.
For a club still navigating reliever uncertainty, Cruzs return is less about a single appearance and more about whether he can provide some needed stability at a time when every roster move gets viewed through the lens of the trade deadline. The Yankees have been trying to piece together reliable innings while other arms have wobbled, and another internal call-up gives them one more chance to find help without having to pay a bigger price on the market. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Make Another Annoying AL East Depth Move Yankees Fans Know Too Well
The Rays are back to a familiar kind of roster shuffle, bringing outfielder Austin Slater back on a minor league deal as they keep working the margins of their AL East depth chart. For a club that has long made a habit of turning over the same kind of veteran role players, Slater is the latest low-cost name to cycle through the system, and the Yankees have seen enough of that sort of move from Tampa Bay to know it can matter later.
Slater, 33, has already spent time with three organizations this year and has appeared in 28 games while struggling to get much going at the plate. He previously carved out most of his big league career with the Giants over eight seasons, and now Tampa Bay is betting there may still be a use for him if it needs a familiar bench piece down the line. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Offense Just Reached A Breaking Point Fans Feared Most
The Yankees offense has gone from shaky to flat-out alarming over a recent four-game stretch, with the kind of missed chances and empty innings that make every absence feel bigger. Without key pieces in the lineup, New York has struggled to generate much of anything against the Red Sox and Tigers, and the results have only sharpened the focus on how thin the margin is when the bats disappear.
What makes the skid feel even heavier is that the Yankees had been hanging in there until the trip through Fenway, when the problems seemed to deepen and the whole attack started to look out of sync. At the same time, the club is still waiting for clarity on its injured stars, and the questions around health and coaching decisions are starting to hang over the lineup as much as the results themselves. [Read more 🡒]