1. Jacob deGrom had to be feeling like he was still a Met on Tuesday night against the Yankees. The soon-to-be 37-year-old righty went six innings, allowed three baserunners and one earned run and took the loss in a 3-2 Yankees win. He took the loss because Cam Schlittler was better than deGrom, as he continues to have the type of early-career success deGrom once had.
“He embraces every opportunity,” Aaron Judge said of Schlittler. “He wants to be in the moment. He’s not scared. There’s no fear.”
2. It was Schlittler’s fourth start with no earned runs in seven starts this year. His ERA is down to 1.51 and he leads the league in strikeouts (49) and the majors in FIP (1.52), WHIP (0.744), walks per nine innings (1.3) and strikeouts per walk (8.17).
“He’s a superstar,” Fernando Cruz said. “What he’s doing is really impressive — throwing three pitches at one speed — but they’re going in different directions.”
3. Last week, Michael Kay made a comment about the Yankees’ rotation and how once Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole come back that Schlittler will be quite the No. 4 starter. No. 4? He’s the No. 1. He’s the best pitcher on the team. He’s the best pitcher in the league! I don’t care who has more service time or what anyone’s salary is, Schlittler would be my choice to get the ball for Game 1 of the playoffs right now. We saw what he did in the playoffs last year, and we have seen what Max Fried, Rodon and Cole have done in their careers in the playoffs. It’s no contest. To think Schlittler is the team’s No. 4 is simply a joke.
4. The Yankees won for the second straight night against the Rangers the way they always seem to win: dominant starting pitching and the long ball. Schlittler gave them six scoreless innings and the Yankees hit two home runs: one from Austin Wells and one from Judge. Their other run came on a first-inning double from Cody Bellinger that hit the highest part of the wall in right-center. The offense was the double from Bellinger and the home runs from Wells and Judge. The Yankees went 5-for-33 in the game with no walks and those three had all five hits. The other six hitters in the lineup went 0-for-26.
5. Here is how the Yankees have scored their seven runs in Arlington:
Two-run home run
Solo home run
Solo home run
Double off the highest part of the wall
Solo home run
Solo home run
The Yankees lead the American League with 48 home runs (the next closest team is the Angels with 40) and also lead the majors (the next closest team is the Dodgers with 45.) The Bronx Bombers, indeed.
6. The Rangers had their chances to take a lead in the game and win it late. They drew two walks against Schlittler, which is impressive considering he had walked four total in his six other starts, they put two on against Brent Headrick, two more on against Cruz in the eighth and scored a run and had the winning run on base against David Bednar in the ninth. The play Cruz made on the really dumb sacrifice bunt attempt from Joc Pederson was amazing. It wasn’t amazing that he slid during the play, but it was amazing that he was able to make an accurate throw to third in time to get the lead runner for the first out of the inning and likely save the game.
7. As for Bednar, here is what I wrote about him after Monday’s game:
Michael Scott describing Andy Bernard is how I would summarize my confidence level with Bednar: “Pros: I trust him … Cons: I don’t really trust him.”
Bednar delivered nearly the same performance on Tuesday that he produced on Monday, including being hurt by another infield error as well. Instead of having two outs with no one on, Bednar was faced with one out and one on after Ryan McMahon bobbled a ground ball and then made a poor throw. If you’re going to post a .539 OPS, you’re going to need to make every play at third base. Danny Jansen followed with a run-scoring triple because why wouldn’t he as someone who has made a career off of big hits against the Yankees. Bednar then hit Brandon Nimmo with a 1-2 pitch to put the tying run on base. He threw five straight splitters to Josh Jung and Jung hit the fifth one for an RBI single to make it 3-2. With Corey Seager up with one out and the winning run on base I envisioned a double in the right-center gap or a three-run home run for a Rangers walk-off win. Bednar managed to get a ground ball from Seager for a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.
8. Bednar finished the game throwing seven straight splitters and 10 of his final pitches were splitters. Just five of his 22 pitches were fastballs. I hate having a closer whose best pitch isn’t a fastball. We just went through this last season with Devin Williams. The Yankees’ philosophy that if you have an elite non-fastball pitch you should throw it over and over and over is tiresome. We saw what happened with Tommy Kahnle throwing only changeups in the 2024 World Series. We saw Williams lose his closer role because of the same approach and now we’re watching Bednar throw mostly splitters with some curveballs and almost no fastballs. Bednar will undoubtedly be unavailable on Wednesday and with the day off on Thursday he won’t pitch against until the Orioles series if he’s needed. Hopefully he’s not needed because the Yankees have blown out the Orioles, but if he is, hopefully he has better command or is more willing to go to his fastball.
9. Elmer Rodriguez will make his major-league debut on Wednesday against the Rangers. His line in four Triple-A starts this season: 21.1 IP, 12 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 7 BB, 20 K, 1 HR. I’m excited to see what someone from the minors can do that isn’t named Luis Gil. It’s a great spot for the righty to make his debut, coming against a Rangers team with an extremely top-heavy lineup. It’s a good way for him to get his feet and for the rest of the rotation to get an extra day of rest built into this time through.
10. The Yankees will face Nathan Eovaldi who is always the starting pitcher on my annual All-Animosity Team. Here is what I wrote about Eovaldi for last year’s team:
Never trust a pitcher who throws triple-digit fastballs and has trouble striking hitters out, which is what Eovaldi was with the Yankees and has mostly been in his career. The Dodgers gave up on him and then the Marlins gave up on him. The Yankees thought they could be the ones to hone his incredible velocity, but they weren’t.
As a Yankee in 2015, Eovaldi pitched to a 14-3 record, so every idiot who relies on wins and losses to determine a pitcher’s success thought he had a great season. It didn’t matter that he received 5.75 runs of support per start or that he routinely struggled to get through five innings because he needed 20-plus pitches to get through each inning. In 2016, it was more of the same. Eovaldi pitched to a 4.76 ERA over 21 starts and 24 games before being shut down for another Tommy John surgery, ending his time with the Yankees as they let him walk after the season.
Eovaldi returned to the mound in 2018 and pitched well with the Rays and was traded to the Red Sox. He went on to shut out the Yankees in an important August series for the division lead and shut them out again in September. He did it again in October (even if he received more run support than any opposing starter had received in a postseason game at Yankee Stadium in history).
In 2018, Eovaldi beat the Yankees and Astros in the playoffs, mixed in a few relief appearances and then became a hero for his bullpen work in Game 3 of the World Series (even though he took the loss after giving up a walk-off home run). Eovaldi helped the Red Sox win the World Series and five years later helped the Rangers win it all after earning five wins in six starts in the 2023 postseason.
The only thing that could possibly make ending a nine-game road trip on a three-game winning streak and with an 8-1 going into a scheduled day off, even better is if it were to come at the expense of Eovaldi. The Yankees have the chance to board the plane home happy and put a smile on the faces of all of their fans going into the weekend by beating “Nasty Nate” who was never “nasty” as a Yankee.
Last modified: Apr 29, 2026
