CLEVELAND — Domingo German walked the proverbial ballpark, one of several factors that led to the Yankees' ugly 3-2 loss to the Guardians on Monday night at Progressive Field.
The righthander tied a career high with five walks in three undistinguished innings in which he had little swing-and-miss stuff. It marked the shortest outing by any Yankees starter this season. In all, the Yankees walked nine Guardians.
But that was just one element of a defeat that dropped the Yankees to 6-4.
Four batters into the game, the Yankees had a 2-0 lead, but they failed to take enough advantage of Shane Bieber's early ineffectiveness and allowed the 2020 American League Cy Young Award winner to settle in and last seven innings. That was critical for a gassed Cleveland bullpen that had been needed for a 12-inning game the day before.
The Guardians (7-4) took a 3-2 lead in the seventh against Ian Hamilton. who walked Steven Kwan and Amed Rosario to begin the inning and allowed a sacrifice fly by Josh Naylor.
In the eighth, James Karinchak allowed a leadoff triple by Gleyber Torres, who got a break when centerfielder Myles Straw made an ill-advised diving attempt at a catch and saw the ball trickle to the base of the wall. But Aaron Judge, attempting to check his swing, popped to second and Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton struck out to end the threat.
All-world closer Emmanuel Clase struck out two in a perfect ninth for his third save.
Bieber, who at one point retired 11 straight, allowed two runs and five hits in his 99-pitch outing. Eight pitches into the game, however, the Yankees had the bases loaded and none out against Bieber, and 11 pitches in, they led 2-0.
Torres led off with a double Judge walked, extending his career-best on-base streak to 43 games, and Rizzo singled, making it nine straight games in which he has reached base. Stanton followed with a rope off the wall in left-center for a two-run double that made it 2-0. Stanton, who started in rightfield, has reached base in each of his nine games this season.
Bieber held it there, though. Willie Calhoun lined out to second and Jose Trevino chopped one back to Bieber, who caught Rizzo, who broke home on contact, in a rundown. Franchy Cordero struck out to end the inning.
German helped the Guardians get on the board in the second.
Andres Gimenez popped up a bunt and German should have had an easy play, but he booted it for an error. Gimenez stole second and went to third on Josh Bell’s groundout to first. Will Brennan hit a liner to left and Cordero might have had a play for Gimenez at the plate with a good throw, but he didn’t come close to that and the Guardians moved within 2-1.
The Guardians drew even in the fourth, driving German from the game. He walked Bell and Brennan to start the inning and Mike Zunino yanked a double over the third base bag.
Colten Brewer relieved and ended up as the Yankees' star of the night. He walked Straw on four pitches that were not especially close but escaped the jam, getting Kwan on a comebacker for a force at the plate and inducing an inning-ending 4-6-3 double-play ball off the bat of Rosario.
