injury concerns with Cam Schlittler and Max Fried<\/a>, the Yankees began the second half Friday night by throwing a bullpen game, featuring a bullpen that was overworked and exposed heading into the break. <\/p>\nAnd it went just about how you might expect.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ian Hamilton got things off to a rocky start and it did not get much better from there \u2014 with Jorbit Vivas committing a baserunning blunder that sank a shot at a rally before things got out of hand \u2014 on the way to a dud of a 7-3 loss to the Braves at Truist Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ian Hamilton of the New York Yankees pitches in the first inning against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park on July 18, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cShould have showed up for the team today a little bit better,\u201d said Hamilton, who could have been speaking for a number of teammates, after putting the Yankees in a 3-0 hole in the first inning. \u201c[My stuff] was hittable. I wasn\u2019t getting the ball past people. Should have made some better pitches. Didn\u2019t give my team the best start.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The final tally was four relievers combining to throw eight innings, a far-from-ideal way to start the second half of the season. The Yankees (53-44) have dropped three straight games after winning five straight after losing six straight, all of which has them trailing the Blue Jays by three games for the division.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Yankees\u2019 Jorbit Vivas was caught tagging up in the Yankees\u2019 loss on Friday night. AP<\/p>\n
The Yankees could have opted to bring up a starter to give some length (\u00e0 la Allan Winans or Carlos Carrasco) instead of going with a straight bullpen game. <\/p>\n
But doing so would have meant having to place Schlittler or Fried on the injured list (when the Yankees believe they can start against the Blue Jays on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively), optioning Hamilton or Scott Effross to Triple-A or designating Rico Garcia for assignment before he threw a pitch for them. (As it was, Garcia was designated for assignment by the end of the night anyway, The Post\u2019s Joel Sherman reported, after giving up three runs on 53 pitches in 2 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could have [called up a starter], but we felt like all things considered, this was the best way to go,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said before the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two batters into the bottom of the first, the Braves (43-53) led 1-0. One batter later, it was 2-0 and by the end of the frame 3-0. Jurickson Profar led off with a single against Hamilton before Matt Olson and Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. roped back-to-back doubles. Acu\u00f1a later came in to score on Ozzie Albies\u2019 sacrifice fly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. of the Atlanta Braves reacts after hitting a RBI double in the first inning against the New York Yankees at Truist Park on July 18, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Yankees were shut down early by Spencer Strider, but they began to threaten in the top of the third when Vivas and Trent Grisham drew consecutive walks with one out. Cody Bellinger then hit a high fly ball to right field that Acu\u00f1a eventually camped underneath and caught nonchalantly as Vivas tried tagging up to third. <\/p>\n
But Acu\u00f1a unleashed a cannon and Vivas slowed down before getting to third \u2014 despite third-base coach Luis Rojas waving for him to slide \u2014 and he was tagged out standing up by third baseman Nacho Alvarez Jr., who did not act as if the throw was coming until the last second.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGot deked,\u201d Boone said. \u201cCan\u2019t happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead of having Aaron Judge bat as the tying run, the inning was over as a fundamental miscue haunted the Yankees once again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my mistake,\u201d Vivas said through an interpreter. \u201cAcu\u00f1a has a really good arm. Especially in that situation there \u2026 it\u2019s something I can\u2019t let happen again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies (1) reacts after hitting a three run home run against the New York Yankees during the third inning at Truist Park. Dale Zanine-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The Braves then piled on in the bottom of the inning, as Albies crushed a three-run homer off Garcia, the righty the Yankees claimed off waivers from the Mets on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After the Braves made it a 7-0 game with a run off Effross in the bottom of the fourth, the Yankees finally broke the shutout in the top of the seventh. Pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton delivered a two-run double and Bellinger added an RBI single that made it 7-3. But Judge extinguished the rally when he struck out against lefty Dylan Lee with runners on the corners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) reacts after striking out against the Atlanta Braves during the first inning at Truist Park. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
\u201cIntermittent, some quality at-bats, but [Strider] also had the swing-and-miss going,\u201d Boone said. \u201cAnd then we\u2019re kind of chasing and in a little bit of a hole and then couldn\u2019t ultimately get that big one to get us back into it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 Baseball has a way of surprising its spectators on any given night.\u00a0 This was not one…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":74623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1280,10624,1266,405,403,2228,5226,5225,5228,5227,38819,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-74622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-cody-bellinger","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-yankees","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-ronald-acuna","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114878333826409480","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}