After the Yankees’ second straight loss to the Seattle Mariners, Aaron Boone and Clarke Schmidt made a couple of interesting revelations.
Yes, the Yankees manager regretted his decision to use Clayton Andrews over fellow lefty reliever Caleb Ferguson to start Tuesday night’s eighth inning, with the Yanks down by a run.
Before that, Schmidt felt he tipped his fourth-inning cutter to No. 9 hitter Dylan Moore, who belted two homers and drove in four runs in Seattle’s 6-3 win at Yankee Stadium.
Maybe it wasn’t as shocking as Monday night’s 5-4 Yankee loss, when the Mariners got to closer Clay Holmes – sporting a zero ERA through 20 appearances – with four runs in the ninth.
But it was a little stunning to hear those admissions out loud, after the AL East-leading Yankees (33-17) dropped consecutive games to the AL West-leading Mariners (27-22) before 37,257 disappointed fans.
Clarke Schmidt believes he was tipping pitches
Schmidt was coming off a career-best start at Minnesota, with eight shutout innings and his third straight win.
On Tuesday night, Schmidt lasted just five innings, and was somewhat alarmed at his 100-pitch count.
He’d retired the first seven Mariners he faced – four on strikeouts – before Josh Rojas’ one-out double in the third.
And here’s where things got interesting.
After striking out the side on cutters in the second inning, Schmidt’s full-count cutter to Moore – thrown a bit off the outer edge – was lashed over the left field wall.
Asked about that pitch later, Schmidt suggested he’d tipped the cutter enough that Rojas – leading off second base – could signal it to Moore, who did the rest.
Schmidt wasn’t complaining, he was simply stating what he felt had occurred – and it was 100 percent on him.
This wasn’t a TV camera/trashcan-banging moment; it was real-time, on-field baseball savvy at work, the inside stuff that’s happened for 150 years.
“It’s a credit to (the Mariners) to be able to find it,’’ said Schmidt, adding that it’s “a fairly easy fix,’’ and that Seattle probably picked up on that tendency by watching his previous starts.
Aaron Boone admits he made the wrong pitching decision
Boone’s mea culpa was in choosing the as-yet unused Andrews over Ferguson.
After the elite fastball of starter Bryan Woo limited the Yankees to two hits across six shutout innings, Gleyber Torres belted a three-run homer off Trent Thornton.
Just his third homer of the year, Torres’ seventh-inning drive to left cut Seattle’s lead to 4-3, and Boone summoned Andrews for the eighth.
Andrews’ first pitch was smashed by Luke Raley for a solo homer, and Nick Burdi wound up finishing the eighth before yielding Moore’s second homer in the ninth.
Boone said he “liked the lane’’ of having Andrews face two lefty hitters, but “in hindsight, I probably should have’’ gone with Ferguson in that leveraged spot.
Andrews had arrived from Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Monday, when reliever Ian Hamilton was placed on the 7-day COVID injured list.
Following Tuesday’s game, Andrews was optioned back to make room for Tommy Kahnle, due to be activated Wednesday after missing the season’s first 50 games due to shoulder issues.
Reliever Dennis Santana had given up two runs in the seventh, including a solo shot to Ty France, as the Mariners – with terrific pitching and a less than dynamic lineup – belted four homers Tuesday.
Still, the Yankees managed to get the tying runs up in the eighth in Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, and again in the ninth before bowing out.
And here was more promise earlier Tuesday, with Gerrit Cole on the mound, throwing to live batters – his first such session since developing elbow nerve irritation in March.
Kahnle will give the Yankees a needed swing-and-miss presence in the bullpen, and Hamilton could be activated by early next week.
And by next Tuesday at Anaheim, Boone expects to have DJ LeMahieu in his starting lineup, and playing third base for the first time this regular season.
