About Last Night: 11 More Runs!

By Paul Semendinger

May 13, 2025

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The surging Yankees scored 11 more runs last night as they crushed the Seattle Mariners 11-5. That was the good news.

The bad news was that Oswaldo Cabrera was seriously injured.

Quick Stats:

• WP- Clarke Schmidt

• HR- Trent Grisham, Trent Grisham, Austin Wells

• Aaron Judge - 2 hits, he is hitting .414.

• Paul Goldschmidt - 2 hits, he is hitting .350.

• Cody Bellinger has two more hits. (He's up to .230, not as impressive...)

• Anthony Volpe has two more hits (.245)

The Big Story:

There were three big stories last night:

1. The Yankees continue to put up big scoring numbers. When they're good, they're very good. On this west coast trip, they have scored 12 runs, 11 runs, 11 runs (again), and 10 runs in a game. When it works, it's really working!

2. Clarke Schmidt has been pitching very well. This was his third good game in a row. Schmidt wasn't great, but he gave the Yanks six innings. The turning point for Schmidt (as I see it, albeit through tired eyes) was the bottom of the second inning. He began that inning by walking the first two batters. That usually spells trouble. Schmidt worked out of that situation allowing no other runners to reach base and no runs to score.

3. Oswaldo Cabrera injured himself scoring on an Aaron Judge sacrifice fly. The extent of his injury is not determined yet, but it did not look good. He twisted his leg on an awkward slide and could not get up. The Yankees are already short on quality infielders, and this injury looks bad. Cabrera was removed via ambulance. Oswaldo is an easy player to root for. In his pain, he asked, "Did I score?" I hope he's okay and back soon.

My Takes:

• It seems that D.J. LeMahieu will return to the lineup tonight. I have been very vocal, for years, stating that the contract extension the Yankees gave him was a bad decision. I said this at the time. On this, even my biggest critics have to admit that I was correct. BUT, that being said, and this is going to surprise a lot of people, due to the injury to Jazz Chisholm. I am actually glad DJ is returning. He is the best option for second base. Now, that is not saying much for Pablo Reyes, Jorbit Vivas, and Oswald Peraza, but it is what it is. Now with Oswaldo Cabrera injured, LeMahieu's return is even more important to the team.

• If nothing else, DJ LeMahieu, if he can even stay healthy, should be able to play better than average defense at second or third base. What LeMahieu should not be considered, at least until he proves otherwise over a long amount of at bats, is a top or middle of the order bat. LeMahieu is a bottom of the order hitter with very little power. He used to be a great hitter, but that was a long time ago.

• What more can be said about Trent Grisham? I noted that his batting average was falling the other day. I was starting to wonder if he was regressing back to the sub .200 hitter he has been for years. Then he goes out and blasts two homers. Amazing.

• 17 (2022), 15 (2021), 13 (2023), 12 (2025) - Those are Grisham's career highs in home runs in a season. 11.5% of Grisham's at bats this year have resulted in a home run. When he set his career high in homers, that number was 3.7%

• Aaron Judge has broken baseball. Period. He is too good.

• When I was a kid, I saved up my money from my paper route and purchased an Atari game system. The first game I bought was Asteroids. I was so good at that game that I could play for hours and never run out of lives. I "broke" the game. I soon learned that once a player reached 100,000 points, the game simply re-set. Aaron Judge is doing that to baseball. He is better than the game itself right now.

• Over his last three starts, Clarke Schmidt has a 3.17 ERA. He hasn't been great, but he has been solid. All the Yankees need is solid. Schmidt is that pitcher right now.

• Max Fried, who has been the ace, unquestioned, pitches tonight.

• Have I ever shared that I greatly dislike west coast games? I'm not a night owl. Staying up to watch baseball just is not fun for me. I was kidding last week when I said that there should be no baseball west of St. Louis. With less sleep, I'm starting to kid less about that.

• Anthony Volpe is batting .286 over the last two weeks. Has he finally turned it around? I hope, but we've seen this before. "Volpe has arrived as a hitter..." I hope he has.

• The Yankees at 24-17 now have the second best record in the American League behind only the Tigers and are tied with the Guardians.

NEXT UP:

Max Fried starts tonight. It's another 9:40 p.m. start time. Ugggg.