Sabathia returns, but the offense never shows up in 4-1 loss to Blue Jays

Source: FanGraphs

That had to be one of the least exciting games in recent memory. What a bore. The Yankees dropped Tuesday’s Independence Day matinee to the Blue Jays, 4-1, and aside from Aaron Judge’s solo home run, nothing interesting happened. That one will not be a Yankees Classic. It’s a holiday, so let’s recap with bullet points:

• All With Two Outs: CC Sabathia retired the first eight batters he faced and none of the final six batters he faced. The Blue Jays scored four runs in the third inning and it all started with a two-out walk to No. 9 hitter Darwin Barney. The inning went walk, wild pitch, single (run scores), single, walk, walk (run scores), single (two runs score). Sabathia was yanked after the two-run single. He threw 63 pitches and was apparently only slated to throw 75-80. In hindsight, having him make a start on a pitch limit with no rehab start right before the All-Star break wasn’t a great decision.
• One Token Run: The Yankees scored their only run on Judge’s 28th home run of the season, a 456-foot missile that dented the metal garage door awning in center field. Here’s the video. Aside from the homer, the Yankees had three hits, all singles, two of which did not leave the infield. They drew leadoff walks in the sixth (Gary Sanchez) and seventh (Chris Carter) innings and never advanced the runner as far as second. Their best chance to get back in the game came in the fifth, when Judge had two on with two outs. He struck out though. Alas.
• Leftovers: Shout out to Luis Cessa for sparing the rest of the bullpen. He threw 4.2 scoreless innings after Sabathia’s early exit … Adam Warren returned and got one out, escaping Sabathia’s jam in the third before giving way to Cessa … Clint Frazier went 0-for-3 with two fly outs and a pop-up. He has hit two ground balls in 14 big league plate appearances … Tyler Wade grounded out to end the game. It was his first Yankee Stadium plate appearance. Many more to come.

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Don’t miss our Bullpen Workload page either. The Yankees and Blue Jays will wrap-up this three-game series Wednesday afternoon. That’s a 1pm ET start. Michael Pineda and Marco Estrada are the scheduled starting pitchers.

Minor League Update: I’m not going to be able to stick around for a full minor league update tonight. Here are the box scores. Most of today’s games are night games.