About Last Afternoon: Yankees 11, Nationals 2
- Tamar Chalker
- Aug 28
- 2 min read
About Last Afternoon: Yankees 11, Nationals 2
By Tamar Chalker
August 28, 2025
***
The Yankees brought out the brooms on Wednesday afternoon with another dominant game over the struggling Nationals. Trent Grisham started the day with a solo homer that just cleared the right field wall, but that was just the first of six Yankee homers. Between the offense and another stellar outing from Max Fried, the Yankees completed the sweep of the Nationals with an 11-2 victory.
Quick Stats -
Max Fried went 7 innings, allowing one run on four hits, two walks and six Ks.
Paul Blackburn threw two innings and allowed one run on a homer, giving up just two hits.
Ben Rice went 3-5 with a homer and two RBIs.
Clay Bellinger went 3-4 with a solo homer.
Player(s) of the Game -
Fried was able to not just give the Yankees a solid 7 innings, but he managed to do so with an almost 40 minute break while the Yankees poured on nine runs in the bottom of the third.
Notable Performances -
Rice, Bellinger, Aaron Judge, Grisham and Ryan McMahon all had home runs in the Yankees' offensive onslaught Wednesday afternoon.
Better to Forget -
Anthony Volpe continues to struggle at the plate. He went 0-5 on Wednesday, but made some solid defensive plays.
My Take - It was a great game overall, but here are a few thoughts/notes.
Bellinger's solo homer gave him 25 on the year. This is only the second time in franchise history the Yankees have had three outfielders with 25+ homers. The last time was 1941 (Joe DiMaggio, Tommy Henrich, and Charlie Keller).
Fried has been a great pitcher for the Yankees this season and seems to be getting better. The fact that he was able to stay focused after such a long bottom of the third was great to see, too.
The Yankees have been on a pretty good stretch as we close out this month - except against the Red Sox. This should continue as they take on the White Sox this weekend.
Next Up -
The Yankees head to Chicago to take on the White Sox. Will Warren will throw for the Yankees. He has a 7-6 record with a 4.47 ERA. Davis Martin will take the mound for Chicago. He is 5-9 with a 3.93 ERA with 80 Ks in 112.1 innings. First pitch is at 7:40 pm.
Volpe is having a miserable season at the plate and it is not sufficient that he fields well
matter of fact, fielding, during this season, has been less than expected.
he's not been anywhere near to previous seasons and not anywhere near to good.
at his best, he's been just about good enough.
given that there's only a month to go in the regular season, it might not be realistic to believe that his hitting can. be "fixed" by coaching over the course of a week or two.
a real rebuild/repair might have to wait until after the season.
what remains for now is to hope for improvement or, in the absence of any, to replace the guy.
is there…
I made a comment in yesterday's game thread about what I'd do with Volpe. Now, I lived in Toronto at the point that future HOF, and then-current MLB Roy Halladay was sent simply originally reassigned to the minors with assigned his own personal pitching coach, who helped him as he took steps al the way back up to the Majors. He too, had played in the Majors for about 2 years at that point. So why not reassign Volpe to the minors and assign him his own coach and then let him start again next Spring? Hey, I saw it work for Roy, why not for Volpe? And if it takes until some point next season? So what! Volp…