Yankees load bases for Aaron Judge in ninth but fall to woeful Marlins
Aaron Judge #99 of the Yankees reacts after flying out to end a game against the Miami Marlins at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The law of averages — or is it the law of improbability? — caught up with the Yankees on Wednesday night.
The Yankees were 10-2 when they took the field against the 1-11 Marlins. But it was Miami who came away with a 5-2 victory before 36,295 at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees had a chance in the ninth with the bases loaded and two outs against Marlins lefty closer Tanner Scott, who had entered the game with one out in the eighth in search of his first save of the season.
But Aaron Judge, who is batting .178, hit a fly ball to medium center to end the game. The Yankees were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Juan Soto, who walked ahead of Judge in the ninth, said: “You don’t want to try to be the hero every swing and every at-bat. You’ve got to pass the baton. If they don’t want to play with you, just give that bat to the other guy. More than happy to give it to Judge with bases loaded right there. I mean, it was a good moment for him.”
Jake Burger hit a three-run home run off Marcus Stroman in Miami’s four-run third inning. Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the seventh.
Giancarlo Stanton, a former NL MVP with the Marlins, homered in the sixth for the Yankees. With that blast to right, Stanton has now gone deep against all 30 clubs.
The Yankees were shut out in their other two defeats this season.
Soto’s no-out RBI double in the eighth, which scored Anthony Volpe, brought the Yankees to within 4-2.
Boone had used Volpe in the leadoff spot for the first time this season. Gleyber Torres, who had been leading off, moved to sixth.
Volpe went 1-for-3 with two walks. Torres went 0-for-2 with two walks.
The Marlins were so desperate for a win that manager Skip Schumaker, with a 4-2 lead, brought in Scott for a five-out save.
Scott walked Stanton on four pitches before getting Anthony Rizzo on a popup to short and striking out Torres.
The Marlins added an insurance run in the ninth on a Volpe throwing error.
The Yankees fell behind 4-0 in the third inning. Stroman (1-1, 2.12 ERA), who didn’t allow an earned run in his first two Yankees outings, was having trouble with his control. He walked four in the first three innings after walking three total in his 12 previous innings.
“I think mechanically, I was just losing the zone,” Stroman said. “It’s very uncharacteristic of me to walk four guys. That’s not me at all.”
Miami took a 1-0 lead on a walk, a hit-and-run single and Luis Arraez’s single to left. One batter later, Burger sent a hanging cutter 425 feet into the visiting bullpen in left-center for a three-run homer and a 4-0 Miami advantage on his 28th birthday.
Volpe tried to ignite the Yankees with two outs in the bottom of the third. He lined a hot shot that ate up second baseman Arraez for an infield single. Soto followed with a single to bring up Judge.
But Judge, who did not address the media after the game, grounded out to third.
With Rizzo on first and one out in the fourth, Torres walked on four pitches. The table was set again, but winning pitcher Ryan Weathers got Alex Verdugo looking at a questionable third-strike pitch from umpire John Bacon and Jon Berti grounded out to end the inning. Weathers (1-1, 2.57 ERA) threw five shutout innings.
“Gosh, I thought we competed really well all night,” Boone said, in language probably different than what he used with Bacon. “We didn’t get the big hit tonight. We had chances in the middle of the game where it looked like we were building something. They were able to get out of it and then all the way to the end there.”
Torres was miffed about a third-strike call in the sixth, and Boone’s ire with Bacon bubbled over in the next inning on a strike two call to Verdugo. Boone argued, Bacon ejected him, and bench coach Brad Ausmus managed the rest of the game.
“I thought it was a pretty well-called game,” Boone said. “Verdugo had some, I thought, [calls that] went obviously against him pretty bad in key spots. It’s going to happen every now and then.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
