On a day made for hitting, the Yankees\u2019 bats finally fell in line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clarke Schmidt did not.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Yankees right-hander twirled seven no-hit innings on a steamy Saturday afternoon in The Bronx, but did not get a chance to finish his chase for history because of a rising pitch count.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schmidt matched a career high with 103 pitches to get through the seventh inning before Aaron Boone went to the bullpen, calling on JT Brubaker, who needed just one batter to end the no-hit bid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clarke Schmidt twirled seven no-hit innings on June 21, 2025. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
The Yankees still one-hit the Orioles in a 9-0 win on a much-needed, get-right day for their offense. And while Schmidt admitted he was fatigued by the end of his outing, not putting up much of a fight with Boone, the uber-competitive pitcher may be left forever wondering what might have happened if he got the opportunity to finish what he started.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trent Grisham celebrates his home run during Saturday\u2019s win over the Orioles. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Trent Grisham of the Yankees celebrates with Aaron Judge after he scores on his solo home run against the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday, June 21, 2025 at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, NY. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I would have thrown a no-hitter,\u201d Schmidt said with a chuckle after becoming the 15th starter in franchise history to throw at least seven hitless innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schmidt, who has dealt with various injuries throughout his career (including rotator cuff tendinitis this spring), had a season high of 99 pitches before Saturday. He was coming off a 97-pitch effort five days ago in which he threw 7 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings, so the Yankees (44-32) had reason to be protective of their 29-year-old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was done,\u201d Boone said. \u201cClarke wasn\u2019t in a position to [try to go the distance] today. \u2026 You\u2019re going to power through pitch limits, within reason. Today was not that day for Clarke.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schmidt, who almost always tries to make his case to pitch deeper into games, agreed with this call.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I want to go as deep as I can, but when you\u2019re at the 103-[pitch] mark and you have two more innings to go and you have 80 more games to go, you got to think bigger picture,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cIs it worth throwing 130 pitches? \u2026 I had a lot of adrenaline in the last inning. I also felt like I was emptying the tank.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ben Rice went deep in the Yankees\u2019 win. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
But the sellout crowd of 46,142 voiced its displeasure when ex-Yankee Gary S\u00e1nchez lined a single to center field off Brubaker to lead off the eighth inning \u2014 one pitch after a close check swing that was ruled a non-swing instead of strike three \u2014 ending a bid to become the 13th no-hitter or perfect game in Yankees regular-season history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As it was, Schmidt gave up just two walks \u2014 both in a 27-pitch first inning that drove up his pitch count early \u2014 and hit a batter with an errant curveball. He extended his career-high scoreless streak to 25 \u00b9\/\u2083 innings \u2014 the third-longest in a single season by a Yankees starter since 1961 \u2014 while striking out five and largely breezing through the Orioles\u2019 lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s just getting better and better,\u201d said catcher J.C. Escarra.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schmidt and Boone credited the hot stretch to a better pitch mix, not being so reliant on his cutter or breaking balls and throwing more four-seam fastballs. Schmidt also pointed to less overthinking and more pitching, crediting Max Fried for his growth in that area. He said he was so present Saturday that he did not look up at the scoreboard until the sixth or seventh inning, when the Orioles\u2019 hit column still showed a goose egg but his pitch count was creeping toward 100.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clarke Schmidt of the Yankees throws a pitch during the first inning against the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday, June 21, 2025 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
JT Brubaker allowed one hit in the eighth inning. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sitting there wanting to watch a little history, too, but the player and the long game is the most important thing,\u201d said Boone, who called Schmidt \u201cone of the more underrated starting pitchers in the game\u201d as he lowered his ERA to 2.84.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schmidt had plenty of run support along the way as the Yankees piled on against righty Zach Eflin, who lasted just three innings for the last-place Orioles (33-43).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trent Grisham, Escarra, Ben Rice and Anthony Volpe all homered. Grisham and Volpe, who was in an 0-for-25 skid after his first at-bat Saturday, had three-hit days. Escarra drove in three runs. Eight Yankees had at least one hit by the third inning and the only one who did not, Aaron Judge, had walked in both plate appearances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And yet, the day belonged to Schmidt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIncredible,\u201d Volpe said. \u201cHe\u2019s been really fun to watch and fun to play behind. We were joking, I don\u2019t think J.C. moved his glove once from wherever he was setting up. Really, really impressive stuff. Not surprising, though.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a day made for hitting, the Yankees\u2019 bats finally fell in line.\u00a0 Clarke Schmidt did not.\u00a0 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[1205,143,47,2538,5,1216,4,62,125,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-121562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-anthony-volpe","9":"tag-baltimore","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles","11":"tag-baltimoreorioles","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-clarke-schmidt","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-new-york-yankees","16":"tag-orioles","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114724150051238891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}