The Yankees beat the Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball to avoid getting swept

The Yankees (36–22) beat the Dodgers (36–24) 7–3 on Sunday Night on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball to avoid getting swept in their World Series rematch. The Yankees had won their previous seven series and were 9–1 in their previous 10 games played.

The Yankees have a 5.5 game lead over the Blue Jays for first place in the AL East. Toronto is surging as they have won five games in a row. The Rays, who are one game behind Tampa Bay, have also been playing well since they have gone 7–3 in their last 10 games. The Yankees are the second best team in the AL behind the Detroit Tigers (40–21), who are tied with the Yankees for best run differential (+98) in Major League Baseball. The Dodgers have a one game lead over the Padres for first place in the very competitive NL West. The NL West is the only division in MLB with three teams who have at least a .550 winning percentage.

In the first two games of the series agains the Dodgers, the Yankees were outscored 25–7. They lost 8–5 in the first game of the series and then were routed 18–2 in the second game of the series. Saturday night was the same night that the Knicks lost by 17 points in an elimination Game 6 in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Pacers in Indiana. On Saturday night, NYC became the first metro area ever to have an MLB team (Yankees) and an NBA team (Knicks) each lose by 15 or more on the same day (regular season or playoffs).

Will Warren flat out did not have command of his pitches in this game. The Dodgers scored 10 of their 18 runs in the first two innings and Warren allowed seven of those earned runs in his 1.2 innings after allowing six hits and four walks. Max Muncy hit a three-run homer off of him in the second inning. Warren’s ERA went up from 4.09 to 5.19 in this game. Warren allowed seven earned runs in this game after allowing just eight earned runs in his previous five starts.

Aaron Judge hit two solo homers in this game to give him 21 homers for the season. He has the best WAR, average, OBP, OPS, OPS+ and most total bases in the league. He had a subpar .222 average (4–18) with one homer and one RBI and a .391 OBP in the World Series against the Dodgers.

Warren put the team in too big of a deficit to come back from. And then Brent Headrick, who was pitching in his seventh game of the season, allowed three runs in the second inning with one two-run homer to Hyeseong Kim. The Dodgers then scored four earned runs with a 3-run homer by Muncy off of Mark Leiter Jr. in the fifth inning. The Yankees bullpen, which had been pitching very well the last few weeks. allowed 11 earned runs, 15 hits and four homers in this game. The Dodgers had 21 hits overall and went an impressive 9–17 with runners in scoring position. This win improved the Dodgers to season-high 14 games above .500 and they lost on Sunday after Yankees starting pitcher Ryan Yarbrough limited the Dodgers to just one earned run and four hits in six innings pitched.

The former bulk pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays when they started using openers gave the Yankees a lot of bulk in this game. In Yarbrough’s rookie season in 2018 when he was often the Rays bulk pitcher following the opener, he had a 3.91 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP in 38 games in 147.1 innings. Yarbrough struck out the dangerous Freddie Freeman on an 86 MPH sinker to end 6th. He is throwing cutter more recently. Yarbrough was very impressive making really good Dodgers hitters off balance. He had 17 swing and misses in this game.

Yarbrough, who is 33 years old and tall and lanky at 6-foot-5, has made five starts since joining the rotation as the fifth starter after replacing the ineffective Carlos Carrasco. The sidearmer had a 2.25 ERA in his four starts in May with just five walks allowed in those four starts and now in this fifth start he allowed just one earned run on one solo homer and zero walks on Sunday. His first eight games this season were in the bullpen. He didn’t allow a run in his first game of the season in March and then in his seven games in April he had a 4.40 ERA in 14.1 innings. He has shown impressive improvement as a starting pitcher compared to being a relief pitcher this season. His ERA in his five starts is much better than a typical number five starter in a rotation.

His sidearm delivery makes him deceptive and he is also tough to hit since he throws much slower than most other pitchers. Yarbrough has success not being a power pitcher and focusing on command and movement. In an era where many starting pitchers throw 95 MPH or faster he has success keeping batters off balance with slower pitches and is in some ways the 2025 version of Jamie Moyer. Yarbrough pithes to both sides of the plate and its hard for hitters to get a beat on it, according to manager Aaron Boone. He gets lot of soft contact. He has 18 MPH difference between 88 mph fastball and his off speed pitches. This makes his compartively slow 88 MPH fastball appear faster than it is.

Muncy’s single with two outs in the 5th inning ended Yarbrough’s streak of nine outs in a row. Yarbrough is very unpredictable since he throws four different pitches 20 percent of the time. The average MLB fastball is 94 mph and his is six MPH slower and many of the pitches that he throws are in the 70 MPH range.

Muncy, who is in his eighth season with the Dodgers and 10th MLB season overall, had a very productive series against the Yankees. In the three games, he was 5–10 with three homers and eight RBI. He had three of his seven homers in this series and 10 of his 32 RBI, which is almost one third. In his previous nine games coming into this series he had the same amount of hits as in this three games series since he went 5–24.

The Dodgers slugged two solo homers in the seventh inning after Yarbrough was taken out of the game after his six impressive innings. Yarbrough threw a season-high 93 pitches in this game and he tied his season high with 6.0 innings pitched. Jonathan Loaisiga came on in relief of Yarbrough and the Dodgers were pleased that a pitcher was in the game who was throwing from an arm angle and speed that they were used to seeing.

Loaisiga allowed a 374 foot homer to left fielder Andy Pages, who is from Cuba, and a 403 foot homer to right field to Muncy, who is from Texas. Loaisiga allowed two runs in this game after allowing just one run in his first six games in 5.2 innings since making his season debut May 16 after previously being on the injured list. Loaisiga had been showing positive signs in those six games with just three walks allowed and no homers in his first 5.2 innings before those two homers allowed on Sunday.

Loaisiga has tremendous movement on his 4-seam fastball but it was not as effective as usual in this game.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who had a dominant and elite 1.97 ERA in 11 starts this season coming into this game, allowed four earned runs, three walks and a season-high seven hits in 3.2 innings in this game. He now has a 2.39 ERA in 12 starts, which gives him the third best ERA in the National League. This was only his third start this season out of his 12 that he has allowed more than two runs. He struck out a season-low two batters in this game. He has made a seamless transition to MLB from Japan. Last year as a rookie, he had a dominant 3.00 ERA in 18 starts with 105 strikeouts in 90 innings pitched.

Jasson Dominguez had an RBI single to left that scored Trent Grisham to make the score 1–0 Yankees. The Yankees had the bases loaded with one out in first inning and scored just one run.

Then, in the third inning, Ben Rice had a 425 foot two-run homer to center. Judge was pitched around and walked in third before Rice tattooed the ball into the screen in center for his 12th homer of his season. He barreled the 0–2 pitch to give the Yankees a 3–1 lead.

Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells had back-to-back singles after Rice’s homer. DJ LeMahieu then struck out on a high pitch to put the Yankees at one for their last 23 with runners in scoring position. Volpe scored from third on a wild pitch to make it a 4–1 Yankees lead. The ball went about 50 feet. Yamamoto threw 77 pitches in the first three innings. Oswald Peraza struck out on 3–2 pitch to make the Yankees 1 for their last 24 with runners in scoring position.

Yamamoto struggled in this start especially compared to the majority of his starts earlier this season. Dave Roberts said he was off with his entire pitch mix in this game.

The Yankees did go 4–16 with runners in scoring position, which is an improvement after going 0–5 with runners in scoring position in Saturday’s 18–2 loss and 0–6 with runners in scoring position in Friday’s 8–5 loss.

LeMahieu went an impressive 4–5 in this game with two RBI. He had an RBI single in the fifth inning that scored Dominguez to make the score 5–1. Peraza, who was the next batter, had an RBI single to center that scored Wells to make the score 6–1. In the ninth inning, LeMahieu had a double to right that scored Cody Bellinger to give the Yankees a 7–3 lead, which would be the final score.

LeMahieu’s 4–5 game with a double and two RBI improved his average from .171 to .239, his OBP from .261 to .314 and his OPS from .505 to .640. LeMahieu had two RBI in this game after only having three RBI in his first 14 games this season. He had four hits in this game after going 3–29 in his previous 10 games and all those three hits came in the same game. This game was a real positive for LeMahieu and time will tell if this will be a start of more consistent offensive success for him.

The Dodgers bullpen, due to the many injuries in their rotation, has thrown the most innings in MLB this season. In this game, the Dodgers bullpen threw 5.1 innings and allowed three earned runs with four hits allowed and four walks allowed.

Paul Goldschmidt had a great jump off of relief pitcher Anthony Banda, who allowed two earned runs in relief of Yamamoto without allowed a hit and in the World Series against the Yankees he had a 0.00 ERA in four games. Goldschmidt is not the fastest but he is a great base runner. Judge made an impressive hustling catch in shallow right near the foul line to end the 4th inning. The Yankees had many hits with two strikes and the bottom of the order did very well in this game going a combined 6–12 with three RBI and two walks (this includes LeMahieu’s 4–5).

The Dodgers, who are first in MLB in runs scored while the Yankees are not far behind at third in MLB in runs scored, hit three homers in a game for the 12th time this season. In this high profile matchup, Judge and Shohei Ohtani both went hitless.

Judge has won the AL MVP in two of the last three seasons and is on track to winning the MVP again this season. He won the Rookie of the Year in 2017 and finished second in MVP voting that season with a league leading 52 homers, 114 RBI, a league leading 127 walks, a .422 OBP and a 171 OPS+. He finished 4th in MVP voting in 2021 after having 39 homers, 24 doubles and 98 RBI and a 149 OPS+ in 149 games. Ohtani has won the MVP in three of the last four seasons and the season that he did not in that span Judge finished first and Ohtani finished second.

Last season, when Ohtani won his second MVP in a row in his first season with the Dodgers, he had a league leading 54 homers, a league leading 130 RBI, a league leading 9.2 WAR, a league leading .390 OBP, a league leading 1.036 OPS and a league leading 189 OPS+. When he won the MVP in 2023, he had a very impressive 3.14 ERA in 23 starts and then he did not pitch last season due to surgery he had the previous offseason. He has a 3.01 ERA in his 86 starts in his career. There has never been a pitcher who could pitch and hit at an elite level in the same season like Ohtani can.

Judge’s 21 homers are the most in Yankees history before June. The only players with at least a .390 average and at least 20 homers through May of a season are Judge (21 homers and .398) and Mickey Mantle (20 homers and a .414 average n 1956).

Dominguez got a left thumb contusion on his slide into second. It was revealed the day after on Monday that Dominguez was having difficulty grabbing a bat after injuring his thumb on his 5th inning slide. He will have tests in NYC, which is not a great sign.

Additionally, Luke Weaver was unable to pitch due to hamstring discomfort. He is receiving treatment. More information would be known on their dominant closer after Monday’s off-day.

Devin Williams retired the side in order in the eighth inning while recording two strikeouts. He picked up his seventh hold of his season. He throws his changeup in 54 percent of pitches, which is the second highest in MLB to former Yankee Tommy Kahnle.

Williams has not allowed an earned run in 10 of his last 11 games and the one game in that span that he did allow a run was when he filled in for Weaver as the closer in the previous series against the Angels due to Weaver’s workload. It’s possible that he might be called upon to fill in a few more times due to Weaver’s hamstring injury, which might not be ideal due to the success he has had as a primary set up man this season and the surprising lack of success he has had as the closer.

In a six-game span from April 19 to May 5, Williams allowed nine earned runs in 4.2 innings. Williams only allowed three earned runs in his 22 games last season in a span of 21.2 innings for a 1.25 ERA and a 334 ERA+ as the Brewers closer. In the 2023 season, he allowed just 10 earned runs in 61 games in a span of 58.2 innings for a 1.53 ERA, 46 saves and a 282 ERA+. In 2022, he had a 1.93 ERA in 65 games with just 13 earned runs allowed in 60.2 innings. This season, he has a 6.23 ERA in 25 games with a 64 ERA+ and 15 earned runs in 21.2 innings.