1. Aaron Judge sat out with a bone bruise, Cam Schlittler had his worst start in the majors and the Yankees lost again to a team above .500. The Yankees have had some bad losses this season (mostly due to the bullpen), and while Tuesday’s loss wasn’t necessarily a “bad loss,” it was just a bad day.
2. The bad day started when the lineup was posted and Judge’s name wasn’t in it for the first time in 2026. A day off? Odd, considering the Yankees had Monday off. No, it wasn’t just a day off. Apparently, Judge has been dealing with discomfort for some time and it reached the point where he couldn’t play. At least we know why he has a .649 OPS since May 7. The injury seems to be a bone bruise in Judge’s rib cage that he’s feeling in his right shoulder? The last time Judge had a weird injury like this, it was an undiagnosed punctured lung that would have kept him out for the start of the 2020 season, if that season had started on time. I have zero faith that the Yankees will properly diagnose and treat Judge’s injury. The Yankees’ mismanagement of injuries during the Aaron Boone era has been a disgrace, dating back to 2018. Look no further than the Yankees telling us Giancarlo Stanton would avoid an injured list stint the day after hurting his calf in Houston on April 24. It’s June 3 and he hasn’t played since.
3. The bad day continued with Schlittler allowing five earned runs for the first time in 29 major-league starts (postseason included). He allowed his third home run of the season and couldn’t make it through five innings for the first time since last September. Oh well. If anyone deserves a pass for a bad game, it’s Schlittler.
4. The offense wasn’t very good, but that’s no surprise. The 13-run outburst on Sunday made everyone forget or not notice that the team sent the minimum amount of hitters to the plate in the other eight innings. On Tuesday, Paul Goldschmidt — batting second — drove in all four Yankees runs. Goldschmidt went 3-for-5 with a double and a home run. The rest of the lineup went 5-for-31 with no extra-base hits. The Yankees’ offense goes as Judge goes. That has been the case for a long time, and without Judge in the lineup, the offense went nowhere other than to another loss to a team with a winning record. Luckily, for the Yankees, there are only four other teams in the American League with winning records.
5. It does look like the Yankees will eventually get some internal bullpen help to begin to fix the weakest part of the team. Carlos Lagrange will being working out of the bullpen in Triple-A with the plan to join the Yankees’ bullpen and bolster a relief staff that has minimal trustworthy options and several DFA candidates.
6. The “hot” start Anthony Volpe had that allowed him to stay in the majors upon Jose Caballero’s return appears to be the fourth straight mirage to begin the season for him. Volpe went 0-for-4 on Tuesday and his OPS is down to .719. Soon enough he will be back to the mid-600s where he has always been.
7. Austin Wells would give up half of his salary to be in the mid-600s. Yet another 0-for-4 on Tuesday from Wells has his slash line down to .173/.288/.266. He remains at one double (hit on April 7) and seven RBIs (he has two since the end of April) on the season.
8. Jazz Chisholm went on the Tonight Show on Monday and said the Yankees were going to win the World Series. He said the same thing in 2024 and 2025 and then did everything he could in the playoffs to not help them win the World Series. The Guardians’ broadcast team wondering out loud how someone hitting .239 could get on the Tonight Show was pretty funny. I wish I had thought of that.
9. The answer to the Yankees’ shortstop problem may be getting closer to the majors. After going 7-for-55 (.127) with no extra-base hits in his first 15 Triple-A games, George Lombard Jr. is 20-for-55 (.364) with seven extra-base hits in his last 14 games. He’s starting to figure out the top minor-league level and once he does that, the Yankees may have the shortstop of the future they thought they were getting at the start of 2023.
10. Gerrit Cole will make his third start of the season on Wednesday. If he’s as good as he was in his first two, the Yankees will get back in the win column and pick up a win against a team with a winning record. The Guardians will send their best starter to the mound in Gavin Williams, who leads the league in wins (8) and innings pitched (76.1). The Yankees can’t afford to lose both Schlittler and Cole starts in a series.
Last modified: Jun 3, 2026
