Yankees 2, Indians 7: Jaime Garcia drops his first start for the Yankees

There used to be a time when you could come home on a Friday night after a long week, kick your feet up in a recliner, grab a cold one, and watch the Yankees knock some runs in. It was a simpler time. It was a better time. It was like a week ago.

Yes, the struggles continued tonight as Jaime Garcia took the mound for the first time in a Yankees’ uniform. Garcia didn’t have his best stuff tonight, but he also wasn’t terrible. He was a victim of some more sloppy defense, highlighted by a tough game from Gary Sanchez. Though Sanchez seemed to be a force behind the dish last season, he hasn’t been sharp this year. It definitely hurt the Yankees tonight.

In the bottom of the second, a couple of two-out hits scored a run before a passed ball allowed Francisco Lindor to come in from third and put Cleveland up 2-0. The inning could have blown open but Didi Gregorius made an incredible leaping catch to put it away. Unfortunately, that nice flash of leather from Didi was the exception and not the rule for the defense tonight.

The third inning saw more of the same. Brandon Guyer made his way from first to third on a Michael Brantley liner into right. Aaron Judge made an accurate throw to third that took an unlucky hop off of Guyer’s foot and into the stands. This allowed Guyer to score and Brantley to move to third. A sac-fly from Edwin Encarnacion made it 4-0, Cleveland. Thankfully Garcia struck out Carlos Santana to end the inning.

One of the few bright spots in the Yankees’ offense on the night came from a solo home run by Todd Frazier in the top of the fifth. Though Frazier managed to put New York on the board, it was overshadowed when all time and happiness evaporated in the bottom half of the inning. A handful of hits and wild pitches put Cleveland up 6-1 and made the urge to change the channel reach all-time highs.

All-in-all, Garcia’s Yankee opener was less than ideal, giving up five earned runs off of five hits and four walks over 4.2 innings. He was relieved by Chad Green who pitched a couple of scoreless innings before giving way to Tommy Kahnle in the 8th. Kahnle gave up a run on a deep Encarnacion double to make it 7-1 Cleveland.

Brett Gardner drove a single up the middle in the 9th to knock in Ronald Torreyes from second and make it 7-2, but that was as far as the rally would go. Like the story has been for every game of late, the Yankees’ offense was nonexistent. The Bombers scored two runs on 11 hits, while going 1-5 with runners in scoring position. Trevor Bauer pitched seven innings of one-run baseball and notched seven of the Yankees’ 10 strikeouts on the night. A reminder that Bauer had 5.25 ERA entering tonight’s game.

There aren’t a lot of positives to take away here, besides a hit and two walks from Judge. So, eyes on the future. Let’s look to take the last two games and leave Cleveland on a high note.

Catch the third game of this four-game set tomorrow night at 7:10PM EST on YES.