The Yankees lost to the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday night

On Wednesday night, on the same night that the Knicks won game one of the NBA Finals, the Yankees lost the second game of their series 5–4 to the Cleveland Guardians. The Yankees have now lost the first two games of their series to Cleveland.

The Yankees went 0–4 with runners in scoring position in this one run loss. The Yankees had 10 strikeouts in this game and the seven through nine hitters in the lineup in this game went a combined 0–9 with three strikeouts. Paul Goldschmidt was on third with no outs in the ninth inning. He doubled to left and advanced to third on a wild pitch by Cade Smith, who picked up his MLB leading 21st save and 18th in a row. Cody Bellinger hit a sacrifice fly to score Goldschmidt to trim the Guardians lead to 5–4 but then Jazz Chisholm struck out and Jose Caballero popped out to shortstop to end the game.

Gerrit Cole was not dominant in this start like he was in his first two starts this season. Cole allowed four earned runs with six hits and three homers in 5.1 innings in this start after throwing 12.2 scoreless innings in his first two starts of his season after missing the first month and a half plus of this season and all of last season after having Tommy John surgery. Cole had gone 15 consecutive starts without allowing three homers. The last time he allowed three homers in a start was on August 24, 2024 against the Mets. He allowed six hits in this start after allowing six hits combined in his first two starts. He had two strikeouts in this game after having 10 strikeouts in his previous start.

He did not have the command and location of his pitches in this start like he did in his previous start last week against the Royals in Kansas City. Cole retired the side in order in the first, third and fifth innings in this start but he allowed a homer in each of the other three innings that he pitched in. Kyle Manzardo, who was a second round draft pick by the Rays in 2021, hit a solo homer off of him in the second inning. Rhys Hoskins, who is in his ninth MLB season, hit a two run homer off of Cole in the fourth inning to score Jose Ramirez. Ramirez then hit a 363 foot solo homer off of Cole in the sixth inning.

Ramirez went 3–4 in this game and he scored three of the team’s five runs. Ramirez has gone 6–9 with three doubles and a steal in the last two games in this series against the Yankees. He had gone 6–33 in his previous nine games. Ramirez has hit very well against the Yankees in his career.

Ramírez, who got his 21st stolen base and scored three times in this game, is hitting .412 with 10 homers, 10 doubles, 22 RBI, 31 runs, 10 steals and a 1.216 OPS in 36 regular-season games at Yankee Stadium. He has a .344 average in 69 career games against the Yankees overall, which is the highest among active players with at least 150 plate appearances.

Ramirez, who is in his 14th season with Cleveland and his 14th MLB season overall, has been an All-Star in each of the previous five seasons and in seven seasons overall. The Dominican Republic native will likely be a Hall of Famer. He has six Silver Slugger awards, he has finished in the top six in MVP voting six times, he has 294 homers, 308 steals, 415 doubles, a .353 career OBP, an .854 OPS and a 131 OPS+. He has the third most doubles in Cleveland franchise history with 415, he has the second most steals in franchise history with 308, he has the second most homers in franchise history with 294 and he has the sixth most hits with 1,725.

Caballero played right field in this game for the second game in a row with Aaron Judge missing his second game in a row with a bone bruise on his upper right rib that has been causing pain in his right shoulder. These two games have been the only games that Judge has missed this season. Judge is tied with Byron Buxton and teammate Ben Rice for the third most homers in the American League with 17, he has scored the fourth most runs in the league, he has the fifth most walks in the league, he has the fifth best slugging percentage and the sixth best OPS. The Yankees offense would take a step back if he is out for an extended amount of games.

It is not known yet if Judge will go on the injured list but it seems more likely. Judge will miss his third consecutive game today against the Guardians. Judge is being sent for more imaging on “more specific spots” in his right ribcage, Aaron Boone said. “We just want clarity on exactly what we’re dealing with.”

Caballero, the Panama native, had not previously played right field this season. He had played 43 games at shortstop, two games in left field, two games at third base and two games at second base. He said he is willing to do whatever the team needs with Judge out of the lineup.

“Whatever the manager needs, I will be able to do it and I am happy to do so” Caballero said about playing right field with Judge out of the lineup. “I am able to do the job in right field and will be ready to play the position.”

“The Guardians have put good at bats together,” Caballero said about what has made the Guardians tough to play against in this series. “They are a team that plays with energy. They do a good job in the box.”

The Yankees scored three runs in 5.1 innings off of Cleveland starting pitcher Gavin Williams. Williams allowed two homers, one walk and four hits. Williams had allowed just three earned runs and one homer in his previous three starts. Williams got the win to pick up his ninth win of his season, which is tied for the most wins in MLB with relief pitcher Aaron Ashby of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Williams allowed a homer in the second inning to Chisholm, which tied the game at one. He also allowed a 364 foot solo homer to Caballero in the fourth inning to make the score 3–2 Guardians. Caballero’s homer went just over the leaping try of Angel Martinez. Martinez thought he was interfered with by the fan in the first row but the umpires rules that he was not interfered with.

Caballero said that the sinker that Williams threw him on the homer that he hit was the pitch that he was looking for. The previous pitch was a ball an Caballero said Williams tried to quick pitch him in that pitch to leadoff the at-bat. Caballero went 2–4 in this game after going 4–17 in his previous six games played. Caballero now has five homers in 51 games this season after having five homers in 126 games last season. His 15 steals are the fourth most steals in the American League.

Ryan McMahon then struck out swinging in the next at-bat to end the fourth inning. Bellinger hit a sacrifice fly with Tim Herrin pitching in the sixth inning to score Ben Rice, who doubled off of Williams earlier in the inning. The Yankees went 0–4 with runners in scoring position against Williams and then they did not have an at-bat with a runner in scoring position against the Guardians bullpen.

The Yankees have lost two games in a row after going 6–1 in their previous seven games. The Yankees have allowed at least five runs in each of these last two games after allowing three runs or less in five of their previous seven games. The Yankees are still one game behind the Rays in the AL East since the Rays also lost on Wednesday. The Rays have gone just 2–8 in their last 10 games after going 16–3 in their previous 19 games.

The Guardians have a 2.5 games lead over the White Sox for first place in the AL Central. The Guardians have gone 4–2 in their last six games after going 1–3 in their previous four games. Cleveland has won 15 of their last 20 games overall. The Yankees went 3–3 against the Guardians last season with each team winning the series two games to one at their home stadium