About Last Night: Braves 7, Yanks 3

Andy Singer
20 hours ago
3 min read

By Andy Singer

July 19th, 2025

The Big Story

The first game back from the All-Star Break started with little more than a whimper. With Cam Schlittler, Max Fried, and Carlos Rodon all unavailable this weekend, the Yankees were forced to go with a bullpen game in the first game of their series with the Atlanta Braves. Ian Hamilton drew the "start" as the opener, with newly imported (and recently DFA'd) reliever, Rico Garcia, and JT Brubaker serving as the "bulk" guys. In short: the plan didn't work.

Hamilton, who has struggled mightily to regain his previous form throughout the 2025 season, was awful, immediately putting the Yankees in a 3-run hole after the first inning. By the bottom of the 3rd inning, the Braves' lead had swelled to 6 runs on the back of a 3-run homer by Ozzie Albies off of Garcia, who was promptly DFA'd after the game.

Yankee fans likely knew that the game was over even before the Albies homer in the top half of the 3rd inning, though. The Yankees had finally generated some offense, putting runners on 1st and 2nd with one out on back-to-back walks by Vivas and Grisham. The 2-hole hitter, Bellinger, flew out to deep RF with Ronald Acuna Jr. catching the ball on the run. Acuna immediately turned and threw an absolute laser beam 301 feet to the third baseman to nab Jorbit Vivas at 3B for an inning-ending double play. Not only did Vivas not slide as instructed by the 3B Coach, but he didn't run hard on the tag-up. Sadly, none of this was surprising, as poor baserunning and fundamentals are hallmarks of Aaron Boone-led baseball teams. Even worse? Aaron Judge was left in the on-deck circle with 2 runners on.

After the Braves tacked on another run in the 4th inning, the Yankees did their best to mount a comeback in the 7th inning. Giancarlo Stanton pinch hit for Vivas with runners at the corners, and Stanton laced a 115.8 MPH double down the LF line that scored both Rice and Wells, knocking possible trade target Aaron Bummer out of the game. The Yankees tacked on one more run on Bellinger's single to CF, bringing the score to 7-3. Unfortunately, that's where the score would remain through the end of the game.

JT Brubaker finished the game for the Yankees with 3 scoreless innings on the mound. Don't look now, but other than that disastrous 4-run outing in 1/3 of an inning at the end of June, he's been really solid. Brubaker was the only Yankee pitcher to keep the Braves off the board in their 7-3 loss.

Player of the Game

Ben Rice produced consistent offense, and Stanton had the big double, but I'll give the nod to JT Brubaker, who threw 3 shutout, no-hit innings with 4 strikeouts to keep the Yankees vaguely in the game.

Notable Performances

Stanton: 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI

Rice: 2-4, 2 2B, 1 R, 1 K

Grisham: 1-3, 2 BB

Bellinger: 1-4, 1 RBI

Better to Forget

Ian Hamilton, Rico Garcia, Scott Effross: 5 IP, 7 ER, 9 H, 3 BB, 2 K, 1 HR

Aaron Judge: 1-4, 3 K

Jasson Dominguez: 0-4, 3 K

Jazz Chisholm Jr.: 0-4, 1 K

My Take

There aren't any good vibes to be found after the break. We found out that not only is Max Fried dealing with blister issues, something that had plagued him earlier in his career, but Cam Schlittler, who was electric in his Major League debut, was unavailable Friday night due to biceps soreness. For once, the Yankees got an injured player an MRI early, and luckily it was clean. However, that's now 2/5 of a thin rotation that now have renewed injury concerns, and it put a thin bullpen in a brutally tough spot to start this series against the Braves.

The 3rd inning play by Vivas was inexcusable, and even drew a rare public rebuke from Aaron Boone. However, there comes a point at which a public rebuke feels hollow. Boone has allowed plays like that to slide for years from everyone, superstars and journeyman alike. To call out a player who likely won't have a long career in the bigs when we see similar shoddy play from the whole team just feels hypocritical. I knew the game was over when Vivas made the last out at 3B. I'll bet the Yankees knew it too.

If the Yankees don't clean up their game and get reinforcements fast, this season could get away from them.