NEW YORK — Cam Schlittler pitched like an ace Friday night. Ben Rice hit a two-run homer in the fourth. The Yankees had a two-run lead through five innings and everything pointed toward a comfortable win.
Then came the sixth. Then came the eighth. Two separate Yankees mistakes on the same night nearly handed the Royals a win they had no business claiming.
A dropped fly ball. A blown lead. And somewhere in between, a 4-2 win that required Ryan McMahon coming off the bench to save it.
Grisham drops a routine fly and opens the door
The Yankees had a 2-0 lead heading into the sixth. Schlittler was cruising. Two quick outs and a walk to Maikel Garcia. Then Bobby Witt Jr. hit a fly ball to deep center field. Routine enough.
Trent Grisham went back, got under it, and the ball bounced off his glove for a two-base error. Garcia advanced to third. Witt reached second. The Yankees had invited the Royals into a game they had been shut out of.
Vinnie Pasquantino grounded out to score Garcia and make it 2-1. Schlittler struck out Salvador Perez to end the inning. One run, unearned, all because of the drop. Schlittler’s line read six-plus innings, three hits, one unearned run, two walks, six strikeouts. His ERA sat at 1.95 after the outing. He did not allow a single earned run all night.
Grisham was charged with a two-base error on a ball that had no business being dropped. In any other game, that kind of mistake ends a solid outing cleanly. On Friday it handed the Royals life. It set up everything that followed.
Doval gives up the lead he was handed
Brent Headrick took care of the seventh. He inherited two runners and got out of it clean, helped along by a nifty backwards catch from Rice on a foul pop behind first base.
Then Doval entered for the eighth with a 2-1 Yankees lead. Two quick outs. Clean so far. Then Pasquantino, with two out and nobody on, pulled a Doval sinker deep to right field for a solo homer. Tie game. Back to square one.
The latest in a growing Yankees bullpen concern. In his previous outing Monday, Mike Trout hit a solo homer off him during the Angels series. Over his last seven appearances, Camilo Doval has allowed seven runs in six innings. The Yankees setup man has given up big flies at the worst times.
Aaron Boone was asked about Doval after the game. The Yankees manager pushed back on the narrative that his reliever is falling apart, but did not ignore what happened.
“He missed in the slug zone, but the three outs around that were really good,” Boone said. “I know he’s gotten hurt with a couple of long balls. He’s close to being dialed in.”
The Yankees have no real alternative. Doval is the setup man. The Yankees bullpen behind him gets thin in a hurry. Boone made that clear.
“He’s gonna be in the fire,” Boone said. “The good thing is he’s got all the equipment to get it done. If he can just get the last layer of consistency, the stuff and way of throwing is there.”
Before the game, Boone had also noted Doval had been “really good, sharp and the strike-throwing is there.” The results Friday night told a different story in the one moment that mattered most.
McMahon rescues the Yankees from their own mistakes
With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth, the Yankees needed someone to step up. Ben Rice kept the inning alive with a two-out single. Then Ryan McMahon came to the plate.
McMahon had watched from the Yankees bench all night. Five hits on the season, all singles, no extra-base hit until that at-bat. He had entered as a defensive replacement for Amed Rosario at third base before the top of the eighth. The crowd gave him boos when he stepped in. He answered with a 372-foot two-run homer to left field off Alex Lange. Just like that, the Yankees led 4-2.
David Bednar handled the ninth. A leadoff walk, then three straight outs, two by strikeout. Sixth save of the season. Game over.
The Yankees improved to 11-9, winning for just the third time in their last 10 games. It took one of the worst-hitting players on the roster stepping off the bench to bail out a night that two Yankees mistakes had nearly derailed. Schlittler pitched well enough to deserve better. McMahon gave him the win anyway.
McMahon had a word for the moment afterward that said everything.
“You want to play good for the men in the room with you,” McMahon said. “It doesn’t feel good, letting your brothers down. That’s not the first time I’ve done that. It’s a humbling game.”
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