Yankees 1, Padres 5: San Diego stars shine bright

Today’s matchup was an Apple TV+ exclusive in the big apple. Huge news for those of us who like to know that Rougned Odor had a two percent home run probability in the first, or seeing a camera angle a millimeter away from Trent Grisham’s forehead while he argued a called third strike. Anyhow, despite the national broadcast, the Yankees failed to shine very brightly in the spotlight.

Randy Vásquez’s first inning as a big league pitcher was a mostly successful one. He surrendered walks to Jake Cronenworth and Xander Bogaerts, but escaped any damage by striking out former Yankee great Odor on a 96-mph heater up in the zone. The Yanks went down quietly in the first against Joe Musgrove, and Vásquez gave up his first hit to Brandon Dixon in the second, but both lineups remained quiet through the first couple of innings.

The third held much of the same for the rookie right-hander. He allowed another hit but avoided any damage, while striking out Fernando Tatís Jr. and Juan Soto on a pair of excellent breaking balls:

Meanwhile, Musgrove worked through his third perfect inning on just 35 total pitches. The duel continued on, as Dandy Randy finished up his fourth scoreless inning, racking up another pair of K’s in the process.

In their turn, the Yankees finally touched Musgrove, as Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu notched the team’s first and second hits, both on line drives that went in and out of Padre gloves. However, a Harrison Bader groundout ensured nothing would come of it. We pushed on to the fifth, still scoreless.

Sadly, things wouldn’t remain this way. After hitting Cronenworth with a pitch, Vásquez left a cutter up and over the plate to Juan Soto, something I wouldn’t advise anyone doing:

It left the bat at a whopping 114.1 mph, landed at the top of the second deck in right, and gave San Diego a 2-0 advantage. The leash was expectedly short on Vásquez, as Carlos Mendoza, managing for the suspended Aaron Boone, opted to go to Ron Marinaccio out of the ‘pen with two outs, and he got out of the jam with just one pitch.

The rookie would finish with a respectable line of two runs over 4.2, with six impressive strikeouts and three walks. It wasn’t perfect, but there is real reason to be encouraged by how the 24-year-old managed this difficult Friar lineup.

Marinaccio came back out for the sixth, and quickly found some more trouble. After Austin Nola walked, Tatís Jr. came to the plate. Now, symmetry is often a pleasing thing, but another absolute no-doubt Padre home run into the second deck, this time to left field, is not exactly pleasing to Yankee fans:

The blast doubled the San Diego lead, putting them up 4-0, and turned up the pressure for the Yankee lineup to get to Musgrove. This is something they would finally do in their half of the sixth. A Gleyber Torres bloop single and Aaron Judge double to left put runners on second and third with one out. Rizzo grounded out to score Torres, but the Yankees could only scratch across one with this opportunity.

After Ryan Weber worked a 1-2-3 seventh, the Yankees threatened again with a couple of weak singles from Willie Calhoun and Anthony Volpe. Thankfully, this would knock Musgrove out of the game as Steven Wilson came on to face Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Wilson would navigate the inning with relative ease and maintain the Padres’ 4-1 lead headed into the eighth.

Weber did his job once again, and with the top of the Yankee lineup due up, now was likely the time to strike. Torres popped out, Judge K’d, Rizzo looped a single into center, and LeMahieu promptly grounded out to third to end the inning. On to the ninth.

Returning to the hill for the ninth, an attempt at his third inning of work, Weber recorded an out on a 110-mph Tatís Jr. line drive, and was repaid with two singles under 80 mph. The second of which, by Odor, scored the San Diego’s fifth run of the night.

Josh Hader jogged in out of the ‘pen to try and finish the Yankees off in the bottom of the ninth. In fitting fashion, the uber-talented lefty struck out Bader, Calhoun, and Volpe in order, securing a smooth 5-1 victory for the Dads.

The Padres’ stars shined bright in the Bronx, and ultimately coasted to a win on their backs. These two cross-continent squads will square off again tomorrow afternoon, with Luis Severino making his second start of the year, against Michael Wacha. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 pm EDT, with the game back on the YES Network.

Box Score