After their worst loss of the season, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said adversity was coming for his team.
Adversity could actually be here already for the Yankees, who hope to avoid more of it and keep Aaron Judge off the injured list Monday when they host the Cleveland Guardians in the opener of a three-game series.
New York will play 10 of its next 13 at home and returns to the Bronx with seven losses in its past 10 games since April 20. The last three were without Judge, who is dealing with a hip strain.
Judge has not played since exiting after his second at-bat in Thursday’s 4-2 win at Texas. The Yankees are expected to make a determination if Judge needs an injured list stint Monday.
“I know he came in feeling a little bit better today,” Boone said before the Yankees were handed a 15-2 loss Sunday afternoon. “I’m sure he’ll go through everything and we’ll evaluate where we are.”
As for where the Yankees are, they have scored four runs in their second three-game losing streak of the season and been held to three runs or fewer in 11 of their past 13 games.
Although they finished with eight hits Sunday, New York allowed four homers and 10 of the runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
“Adversity is coming for us. We know it and we will get through it,” Boone said. “The league waits for no one, and no one is going to feel sorry for us for what we’re going through.”
Cleveland is hoping to keep the Yankees slumping, especially after a rough weekend at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox. Since opening a three-game series in Cleveland with a 3-2 win over the Yankees April 10, the Guardians are 6-11 in their past 17 games.
After opening the series in Boston with a 5-2 win, the Guardians dropped the next two. They followed up Saturday’s 8-7, 10-inning setback by totaling four hits in a 7-1 loss Sunday afternoon when they mustered only an RBI single by Amed Rosario against Chris Sale and went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
“We had a runner at second and the guys we wanted up. Give him credit.”
Domingo German (2-2, 5.54 ERA) opens the series for the Yankees and makes his third start since retiring the first 16 Minnesota Twins on April 15, striking out 11 and getting checked for sticky substances three times.
In two starts since then, he has allowed 10 runs and 10 hits, including five homers in outings against the Toronto Blue Jays and Minnesota. On Wednesday, German allowed six runs on five hits in six innings and got the win when New York recorded a 12-6 victory.
German is 1-2 with a 4.68 ERA in five career starts against the Guardians. He last faced them April 10 in Cleveland when he allowed two runs in three innings but also issued five walks without getting a strikeout.
Cal Quantrill (1-2, 5.40) goes for Cleveland and is coming off his shortest outing so far. In a 6-0 loss to Colorado on Monday, he allowed five runs on eight hits in 3 1/3 innings. The rough outing occurred after he tossed six scoreless innings in a 3-2 win at Detroit on April 19.
Quantrill does not own a decision and has a 3.38 ERA in four regular-season appearances against the Yankees. His lone regular-season start against them occurred April 23 of last year in New York when he allowed three runs on six hits in 6 1/3 innings for a no-decision.
–Field Level Media
