CLEVELAND — Back on April 2, when baseball’s new rules were still a daily topic of conversation, Aaron Boone was asked about the indirect impact the new 15-second time limit could have on teams’ abilities to challenge replays, an area of strength for the Yankees in recent years.
“That time is definitely going to have a little bit of an effect,” Boone said. He added that managers like himself need to be more “reactionary” now when it comes to replays.
But Terry Francona and the Guardians appeared to take their time challenging a first-inning play involving Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks on Monday.
Initially, umpires ruled that Hicks caught a ball before throwing to second base for an inning-ending double play. While replay showed that he clearly dropped it, a sizeable chunk of time went by before the Guardians initiated a review after the umpires convened to discuss the call.
The amount of elapsed time angered Boone, and he was ejected during one of several conversations with the umpiring crew.
Prior to the 2021 season, Major League Baseball changed its rules to prohibit games from being played under protest.
After a long delay, Josh Naylor, the man who hit the ball to Hicks, was credited with an RBI single. The Yankees returned to the field, where Josh Bell made it a 2-0 game with a single of his own.
The chain of events hurt the Yankees early but ultimately didn’t bury the team in an odd, 4-3, series-winning victory over the Guardians.
Following an Amed Rosario solo homer in the third, the weird afternoon continued in the fifth when Kyle Higashioka plated two with a ball off the center field wall, making it a 3-2 game. A relay throw from Andres Gimenez on the play nailed umpire Larry Vanover in the head. He left the field under his own power but did not return.
Elsewhere offensively for the Yankees, Franchy Cordero continued clobbering on Wednesday. His fourth home run — in just his seventh game with the Yankees — tied the game at three in the seventh inning. Oswaldo Cabrera then gave the Yankees the lead in the ninth when he drilled a single to right field following a two-base error from Rosario.
On the mound, Clarke Schmidt completed four frames for the first time this season, a step in the right direction for the young right-hander. Schmidt allowed three runs to a Guardians lineup with a handful of lefties — who continued to plague the starter — though Hicks’ defense & the first-inning fiasco didn’t help matters.
Schmidt gave up six hits and one walk while striking out three. He gave way to Ron Marinaccio after 72 pitches. Marinaccio, Michael King, Wandy Peralta and Clay Holmes then held Cleveland scoreless in relief, though Holmes certainly made the ninth inning interesting.
Other than Higashioka’s deep drive, Guardians starter Peyton Battenfield mostly kept the Yankees at bay in his major league debut. The righty completed 4.2 innings while allowing four hits, one earned run and zero walks. He didn’t strike anyone out and threw 66 pitches.
