Yankees' bullpen falters late, unable to secure sweep in 7-6 loss to Marlins
The Yankees couldn't secure a three-game sweep of the Miami Marlins on Sunday, losing 7-6 and ending their four-game winning streak. Here are the takeaways... -- Despite the start of the game being delayed by three hours and 35 minutes due to inclement weather, scheduled starter Max Fried still took the mound for New York when the game began and delivered a gusty performance in less-than-ideal conditions to help out the bullpen which had a taxing night the previous game following Ryan Weathers ' short start.
The left-hander was down early, allowing a run through the first four batters in the first inning after Otto Lopez singled home Austin Slater who led off the game with a single before stealing second base. Fried limited the damage to just one run and struck out two in the inning. -- The Yankees' offense quickly up their starter in the bottom half of the frame, though.
Trent Grisham started things off with a walk, followed by a single from Aaron Judge . With one out, Ben Rice turned on a 97 mph fastball on the inner half of the plate and absolutely crushed it to the second deck in right field for a three-run homer and just like that, New York had the lead. -- Fried took it from there and didn't allow another run until the fourth inning when Xavier Edwards doubled in Connor Norby who worked a two-out walk.
Fried put an end to the threat with a flyout and pitched a clean fifth inning before finding more trouble in the sixth. After a walk led off the inning, Lopez singled to put runners on the corners and then promptly stole second to put two in scoring position. Heriberto Hernandez followed and reached base on a throwing error by shortstop Jose Caballero which allowed a run to score and trimmed New York's lead to one.
But Fried immediately picked up his shortstop by picking off Hernandez at first base for the first out of the inning. The runner was initially ruled safe, but the Yankees challenged the call and it was overturned. With the tying run at third base, Norby hit a ground ball to the drawn in infield and Caballero wasted no time making a strong throw to home plate which beat the runner by a mile.
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