The Yankees finished a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night, thanks in part to Clarke Schmidt‘s first start of the year and capped by Aaron Judge‘s seventh-inning home run that proved to be the difference in the game.
Making his season debut, an amped-up Schmidt had to shake off some rust in the first inning, where he threw 21 pitches, but after allowing an early run, the right-hander settled down and managed to complete 5.2 innings on just 72 pitches in his first start off the IL.
“Definitely a little amped up and rightfully so,” Schmidt said. “… The fans got me juiced up a little bit, so I was really happy I was able to settle it down.”
Manager Aaron Boone thought his starter pitched great and was impressed by the length Schmidt ended up giving the team after throwing so many pitches in the first.
“In the first he’s up over 20 [pitches] so you kind of go into the night, hopefully you get four [innings], couple times through [the lineup] maybe,” Boone said. “For him to almost get through six, to be that efficient, keep us right there, I thought it was a good night for him and another good step to being all the way back for him. Really excited he’s back in the rotation.”
Without Gerrit Cole for the entire season and a starting rotation that has ranked near the bottom of the league in ERA (4.96) so far, Schmidt supplies the Yankees with much-needed pitching reinforcements and couldn’t come at a better time.
With that in consideration, the 29-year-old understands how his role is amplified this season.
“Obviously, I always have high expectations for myself, but given the circumstances, I know that it’s a little bit more important right now,” Schmidt said. “… I definitely have to step up. The whole rotation has to step up and I know that my job is to go out there and be consistent as possible every five days and give my team a chance to win, so I definitely know that I have to step up.”
Wednesday’s outing was a start in the right direction and helped New York secure the win as Schmidt dropped it off to Mark Leiter Jr. and Fernando Cruz, who recorded his first career save by getting the last six outs of the game with closer Devin Williams unavailable due to a heavy workload recently.
The pitchers did their part, which set up Judge to do his.
Stuck in a power outage over his last 10 games but still tearing the cover off the ball during that time, Judge stepped up to the plate to lead off the seventh inning and broke a 3-3 tie with a blast to center field for his first home run since April 4. He finished a triple shy of the cycle and looks as “locked in” as his skipper has seen him.
“Honestly, tonight was the most locked in [he was] I felt like at-bat wise where he was just like on everything,” Boone said. [Royals starter Kris] Bubic is tough and I just felt like he was seeing it well and on everything and then all the way to the homer.”
For Judge, it wasn’t about hitting a home run in that situation, but just trying to get on base for the players behind him to drive him in, like Anthony Volpe did in the third inning.
“I want to get on base, I think that’s the biggest thing,” he said. “Especially hitting in the middle of the order and especially if I’m gonna be hitting second a lot, I got to touch first base. That’s my job. Touch first base, let the guys behind me do their thing.
“When you’re hitting at the top of the order, you gotta know what your job is and my job is to get on first base and get on for the guys behind me.”
And even though his manager seems to think he’s as locked in as ever, when asked how he feels, Judge smiled and said, “We’re getting there.”
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