It’s been a crummy week or so for the Yankees. They dropped back-to-back series against AL division opponents, and lost an ugly, wet, sloppy game last night to the Padres to make it a 2-5 run in their last seven games. It felt like a fever had to break, and in the seventh inning, it sure did. Down by a run to San Diego, the Yankees plated 10 men, spurring a big—and very much needed—12-3 victory.
Clarke Schmidt was going up against one of the National League’s best, and he held serve. He gave up a fair amount of contact, but the Padres are a high-contact team, and six innings with two runs allowed will play any day. He made clutch use of the double play, and his curveball was perhaps his best offering of the night:
Schmidt did get himself into trouble though, loading the bases in the fourth before balking in the game’s first run in a truly strange turn of events.
Jason Heyward’s sacrifice fly made it a two run game. However, if nothing else, the Yankees were great at responding, led by you know who:
Aaron Judge has looked just a little bit off — for him, anyway — the last few games, and the porch job might be just what he needs to get off the skid. Cody Bellinger walked, and Jasson Domínguez laced a single that Fernando Tatis Jr. made a terrible throw on, bringing Belli home and tying up the game. There’s a theme here.
Let’s skip ahead to the seventh. Fernando Cruz has been nigh-untouchable in the first month-plus of the season, but he gave up a go-ahead, run-scoring double to Manny Machado in the top half of the frame to put the Padres ahead. Cruz would walk Luis Arraez before ultimately escaping the inning, but we’d heard all night about how good the Padres’ bullpen was. After all, it was just yesterday when they combined for four scoreless frames of one-hit ball with nary a walk to help San Diego win a one-run ballgame.
This time, however, the Yankees got to begin the seventh against none of the quartet who dominated on Monday. Lefty Adrian Morejon and old friend Wandy Peralta each took the mound and got thoroughly waxed.
Domínguez led off with a hustle double, one from the right side that’s a big plus given how stark his platoon splits have been. Anthony Volpe’s single put two aboard, for Austin Wells’ first big hit of the inning to tie this game up at 3-3:
From there, the team was pretty much on autopilot. Nine more runs would cross the plate, but let’s savor it a little bit (Oswaldo Cabrera immediately popped out on a bad bunt but I’m trying not to think about that).
A double steal from Volpe and Wells led to an intentional walk of pinch-hitter Paul Goldschmidt. Trent Grisham unintentionally walked with the bases loaded, before Ben Rice’s big double broke everything open:
Now, with first base open of course you walk Judge, but then Bellinger tacked on with an RBI single. Wandy actually got the Martian, but couldn’t get the Yankees’ young catcher:
That marked Wells’ first career grand slam and move his RBI total for the inning up to five. That’s not 2009 finale Alex Rodriguez (or the elder Tatis double-slamming Dodger Stadium), but that ain’t shabby.
The New York bullpen wrapped up the rest of this one with easy frames by Tyler Matzek and Yerry de los Santos, and the Yankees tied up the series. A good starting pitching performance paired with the best offensive inning this year? That’s a winning formula for a team that does actually sport the talent the Yankees do, in spite of what happened last night.
Now it’s even better, because you head into the rubber game tomorrow with the guy you want on the hill. The Yankees have won all seven of Max Fried’s starts so far in 2025, and he’ll be charged with getting the club the series win against Dylan Cease starting at 7:05pm Eastern.