Anthony Rizzo almost has his wish come true, nearly gets to pitch again
The Yankees' Anthony Rizzo celebrates after scoring off an RBI double by Matt Carpenter in the seventh inning of a game against the Cubs on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. Credit: AP/Mary Altaffer
Manny Banuelos threw the final three innings of the Yankees’ 18-4 victory over the Cubs on Sunday and earned his first career save.
Banuelos allowed one run, struck out four and threw 41 pitches. Manager Aaron Boone said if Banuelos had thrown a lot of pitches in the ninth, he would have replaced him with another lefty: first baseman Anthony Rizzo.
Rizzo has been asking Boone to let him pitch in a blowout all season, and that request really ramped up this weekend as the Yankees faced Rizzo’s former team.
“Per the norm, he was wearing me out starting about the eighth inning to get in there,” Boone said. “Had it got to be a long inning — I wouldn’t have let Manny throw 30 pitches that inning — probably next up would have been Riz.”
Rizzo had two career pitching appearances with Chicago, one in 2018 and one last season. He has faced four batters and retired three with one walk, and in 2021, he struck out Atlanta's Freddie Freeman.
A first baseman did pitch in Sunday’s game. Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel allowed a run and two hits in the eighth.
Kyle Higashioka led off the eighth with his second home run of the game and the season on a 35.1-mph blooper pitch from Schwindel. It’s the slowest pitch hit for a home run in the Statcast era.
Higashioka, who hit seven home runs in the shortened spring training, was in the lineup only because Jose Trevino was scratched with back soreness.
Aaron Boone said Trevino has “a little back thing going on” that he played with on Saturday night and “obviously played very well with it.” Trevino went 3-for-4 with a home run Saturday in the Yankees’ 8-0 victory over the Cubs.
Gleyber Torres also was a pregame scratch with what Boone called a “stomach, nauseous” illness. Asked in the morning if there was a COVID-19 concern with Torres, Boone said: “No, not at this point.”
Torres was replaced by Matt Carpenter, who had two home runs and drove in seven runs.
Schwindel also gave up a single by Aaron Judge.
Extra bases
Aroldis Chapman (Achilles tendinitis) will throw a second bullpen session on Tuesday, Boone said . . . Jonathan Loaisiga (shoulder inflammation) rejoined the team after tending to a family matter in his native Nicaragua. Boone said he hopes Loaisiga will be able to start a throwing program on Monday . . . The Yankees are off on Monday before playing 20 days in a row, with their next day off scheduled for July 4. .
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.
More Yankees headlines
