Clarke Schmidt pounded as Atlanta makes easy work of Yankees

ATLANTA — Well, that was predictable.

Tasked with facing MLB’s best team on Monday night — a little more than 24 hours after blowing a four-run ninth-inning lead in Miami in a shocking walk-off loss — the Yankees were completely outclassed in an 11-3 loss to Atlanta in front of a sellout crowd of 42,717 at Truist Park.

Suddenly, questions about making the playoffs should be shelved in favor of this one: Are they headed for their first sub-.500 finish since 1992?

The Yankees (60-59), holding down the fort in last place in the AL East, fell to 2-5 on this three-city trip that started with series losses to the White Sox and Marlins. They have two more games against Atlanta (76-42), which has scored an MLB-leading 695 runs, nearly six per game.

“Hopefully we can catch fire at some point to make it interesting,” Aaron Boone said before the game.

Instead, the Yankees got flamed by Atlanta, which scored one run in the first, three in the second and four in the third to put the game away.

“Right now, they’re the class of the league. Clearly,” Boone said after the Yankees fell 5 ½ games behind Toronto for the AL’s third wild card. “That’s where you want to be. They’re obviously putting together a pretty great season and have been now in that National League for the last several years, and have a lineup that’s really, really rugged and balanced. A little peek into where you’re trying to get to.”

Clarke Schmidt, the Yankees’ best starter not named Gerrit Cole, entered the night 8-3 with a 3.50 ERA in his previous 18 appearances (17 starts) since May 3. But Monday was a reversion to his first month-plus, when he posted a 6.84 ERA in his first six starts. He lasted 2 1⁄3 innings, his shortest outing of the year, allowing a season-high eight runs and nine hits (his second-highest total in 2023).

“Sometimes you get your [butt] beat a little bit out there and I think, for lack of a better term, [that] is what happened tonight.” said Schmidt, who is from Acworth, which is 20 to 30 minutes from Truist Park, and had a small gathering of friends and family in attendance. “You have to tip your cap sometimes in baseball. For me, just pick myself up, continue to move on and kind of find ways to get better through this.”

Ian Hamilton allowed two hits and three walks in 2 2⁄3 scoreless innings of relief. He could be sent down for a fresh bullpen arm — especially with the struggling Luis Severino slated to start Tuesday night — but the Yankees also could choose to DFA Albert Abreu, who is out of options.

Atlanta lefthander Max Fried, recently activated after missing 73 games because of a forearm strain, allowed two runs and eight hits in six innings.

Eddie Rosario and Nicky Lopez each had three of Atlanta’s 15 hits, with Rosario driving in four runs and Lopez three. Austin Riley, Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna added two hits each.

Atlanta, which came into the night having scored 116 first-inning runs — 27 runs clear of the next team on the list, the Dodgers (89) — tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the first on Riley’s 29th homer.

Lopez’s two-out, two-run single and an RBI single by Michael Harris II gave Atlanta a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the second.

“I felt like they were just getting the big hits, getting guys on base and they were able to drive runners in,” said Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who had three hits. “A lot of times I felt like they beat the shift or beat our defense and they did a good job of just putting the ball in play.”

That continued in a four-run third highlighted by Rosario’s two-run single. The former Met added a two-run homer in the eighth to make it 11-2 before Anthony Volpe lined a two-out RBI triple in the ninth.

“Definitely tough, but I’m optimistic. Hopefully we can get on some type of roll,” Kiner-Falefa said of the Yankees’ standings predicament. “We just have to play better baseball. It’s been a tough stretch.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.