Yankees lose 5-0 to Marlins, will face Cleveland in Wild Card Series

DJ LeMahieu cemented the batting title while Clarke Schmidt had an acceptable audition for the 2021 rotation as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-5, which rendered the Yankees’ 5-0 loss to the Miami Marlins irrelevant for the standings.

Entering the day, LeMahieu had a seemingly-insurmountable lead for the MLB-wide batting title, holding a .013-point lead over second-place Juan Soto, and a .031-point lead over Tim Anderson for the AL title. He did not rest on these laurels, however, going 2-for-3 with a walk, bringing his batting average up to .364 on the season. In doing so, LeMahieu—who previously won the NL batting title in 2016—becomes the first player in baseball history to win the batting title in both leagues.

In his first MLB start, Schmidt gave up three runs on four hits in four innings, striking out four and walking two. Although he was spotty with his command, he nonetheless showed some flashes of why he’s such a highly-touted prospect in the Yankees system. Were he a veteran, or even a rookie looking to make a potentially-significant postseason impact such as Deivi García, such a start would not have been good; for a guy who only had three starts above Single-A before this season, this was about as solid an outing the Yankees could have asked for.

The same could not be said, however, for the Yankees’ lineup. Going up against Miami starters José Ureña and Daniel Castano, the latter of whom only pitched today because Ureña fractured his forearm in the third after being hit by a 104 mph line drive off the bat of DJ LeMahieu, the Yankees’ offense could only muster six hits. Besides LeMahieu, only Gardner, with three hits, had a truly “good” day, although Aaron Judge walked twice and Gleyber Torres and Gio Urshela had three batted balls with an exit velocity of 87 mph or more.

If there’s one positive, it’s that the Yankees largely had a solid day in the field. For the first time since Thursday and for only the third time since last Sunday, the Yankees did not record an error. Additionally, Torres—whose defense has been much-maligned this year, and rightfully so—made a great play in the top of the ninth.

Behind Schmidt, Jonathan Holder and Nick Nelson gave up one run apiece, in two and three innings of work, respectively.

Clarke Schmidt (0-1) gets tagged with the loss, the first of his career, while Daniel Castano (1-2) records his first Major League win. With this loss, the Yankees finish the season with a 33-27 record, the equivalent of about a 90-win club in a full 162-game season. The Yankees will next play on Tuesday, facing the Cleveland Indians in the Wild Card round. Neither the time nor the starting pitchers have yet to be announced, although it would be a safe bet to assume we will open with a Gerrit Cole/Shane Bieber matchup in Game One.

Box Score.