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ATLANTA — If Monday night was any indication, the Yankees are in for a long series.
The last-place club looked overmatched against the best team in baseball, losing to the Braves, 11-3, at Truist Park. Atlanta’s mighty offense scored eight runs off Clarke Schmidt, ruining a homecoming start for the Acworth, Georgia product.
Schmidt, pitching in front of family and friends, found trouble right away, as Austin Riley put the Braves on the board with a solo home run in the first inning. No. 9 hitter Nicky Lopez then hit a two-run single in the second before Michael Harris II pushed another across the plate with a single of his own.
After battling fatigue in the second, Schmidt surrendered three more singles in the third inning. Knocks from Eddie Rosario, Orlando Arcia and Lopez drove in four before Schmidt hit the showers.
“There’s just a handful of two-strike pitches that I wish I had back,” Schmidt said. “But sometimes you get your ass beat a little bit out there, and I think that’s kind of, for lack of a better term, what happened tonight. You gotta tip your cap sometimes in baseball.”
Monday marked Schmidt’s first time allowing more than three earned runs in a game since May 14. That span covered 15 games and 14 starts, during which the righty had a 3.12 ERA.
The 27-year-old, getting his first extended look in a major league rotation this season, has made impressive strides since recording a 6.30 ERA over his first nine starts. But Schmidt simply didn’t have it against the Braves’ lethal lineup.
“Right now, they’re the class of the league,” Aaron Boone said. “I mean, clearly. That’s where you want to be, and they’re obviously putting together a pretty great season.
“[They] have a lineup that’s really, really rugged and balanced. A little peek into where you’re trying to get to.”
Atlanta, which recorded 15 hits, scored again in the sixth on a wild pitch from Albert Abreu. The reliever then served up a two-run homer to Rosario in the eighth.
“They’re aggressive in the zone and they get big hits,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa said of the Braves. “They had two home runs tonight. The second one was already when the game was out of reach. So I think just one homer in the beginning of the game — and they’re able to pull off that kind of lead — just shows that they’re able to get singles in big situations and just move the line.”
The Yankees, meanwhile, didn’t put up much of a fight despite tallying 11 hits. That’s because they grounded into three double plays, went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, and made two outs on the bases.
“That can’t happen there,” Boone said of Harrison Bader getting picked off first with the Yankees down, 8-2, in the sixth inning. The centerfielder agreed, adding, “I take full responsibility for that.”
The Yankees scored a run on a soft grounder from Bader in the opening frame, yet that was all they got in the first after starting the game with two hits and loading the bases with one out.
Kiner-Falefa stayed hot with an RBI single in the second, but Max Fried cut the Yankees off there.
The 2022 Cy Young runner-up totaled six innings, eight hits, two earned runs, one walk and two strikeouts over 83 pitches.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in the league,” Boone said of Fried. “He’s got that next-gear heater; he four-seam sinks it. Can slow you down with the breaking ball and the changeup, cut it in on your hands. I thought we, for the most part, had tough at-bats against him all night, gave ourselves some opportunities. Obviously, it’s difficult when you get behind like we did and he can then kind of just go a little bit. But obviously couldn’t get to him quite enough.”
Anthony Volpe tripled a run home in the ninth, but that score came far too late.
With the first game of the series in the books, the Yankees are now hoping that Luis Severino and his 8.06 ERA will somehow fare better against Atlanta’s lineup. Bryce Elder, who has a 3.64 ERA, will pitch for the Braves on Tuesday.
Charlie Morton will take the ball for Atlanta on Wednesday. Randy Vásquez is lined up to pitch in some capacity for the Yankees in the series finale.
With Monday’s loss, the Yankees are now 60-59. A mere game over .500, they dropped to 5.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot. The Blue Jays occupy that spot, and the Mariners and Red Sox also lead the Yankees in the standings.
With only 43 games left in the season, time is running out.
“We don’t have a lot of room for error,” Schmidt admitted.
Kiner-Falefa, meanwhile, tried to keep the faith.
“It’s been a tough year,” he said, “so hopefully we can turn things around.”
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