About Yesterday Afternoon: A Clean Sweep. Yankees 8- Guardians 4.

June 10th, 2026

By: Tim Kabel

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The Yankees would have made Bert, the chimney-sweep proud yesterday by closing out a three-game sweep against the Cleveland Guardians. To borrow a line from the Broadway musical, Mary Poppins, the Yankees were practically perfect in every way.

Carlos Rodon pitched six innings, allowing three runs, and striking out seven while walking three. He has improved his record to 2-2 since returning from the IL. In an all-left-handed day, Brent Headrick, (of course), and Ryan Yarbrough combined for three innings of relief to close out the game. Yarborough surrendered a run but at that point the Yankees lead was insurmountable.

On the offensive side, the only starter who did not have a hit was catcher, Ali Sanchez. Something tells me that he is not the answer to the Yankees’ offensive woes at the catcher position. He's just more of the same. The only difference between him and either Austin Wells or JC Escarra is that Sanchez is a right-handed hitter. If you deduced from my statement that Sanchez was the only Yankee starter to not have a hit that Anthony Volpe did, you are correct. Hallelujah!! He even drove in a run. More on that later.

The Yankees are now 11-4 since May 24th and swept the Guardians at Progressive Field for the first time since 2007.

Jazz Chisholm, Jr. had a two-run triple in the first inning and added an RBI ground out in the 7th inning. Jose Caballero, Trent Grisham, and Paul Goldschmidt all had two hits in the game. Caballero drove in two runs and Goldsmith drove in one.

The Yankees are on a roll now and after an off-day today, they will be opening a three-game series against Toronto. Jasson Dominguez is seemingly getting close to a return to the Major Leagues. On Tuesday night, Dominguez made his season debut and second career start in rightfield for the Rail Riders. Dominguez was 3-3 with a home run and two line-drive singles batting right-handed. The Yankees would prefer not to move Cody Bellinger from leftfield. It would make sense for the Yankees to put Dominguez in rightfeld when he is recalled from Scranton. However, Aaron Boone's response to this was to say, “we'll see.” He said the same thing regarding the idea of keeping Jose Caballero at shortstop after initially promising that he would do so.

This is the problem as I see it. If the Yankees do recall Jasson Dominguez from Scranton and install him in rightfield during Judge's absence, that would mean that Jose Caballero would not be playing out there. The Yankees and their fans want Jose Caballero to play every day. The logical move and the move that makes the most sense in any way baseball or otherwise, would be to put Jose Caballero back at shortstop. Jose Caballero is an excellent fielding shortstop. He is a sparkplug for the Yankees. He is batting .258 for the season. He has fifteen stolen bases. He has become an important part of the Yankees offense.

Despite his RBI single yesterday, Volpe is batting .194 for the season. He has two hits in his last seven games. Yes, he is 2-24 in those games. That is a .083 batting average. When Volpe plays, he plays at shortstop. He doesn't play anywhere else. That means that if Caballero is in the lineup, it has to be somewhere else. The most logical place right now is rightfield.

My translation of the “we'll see” by Aaron Boone is that Dominguez will either stay in Scranton or come up to be the fourth outfielder. The reason behind this is that Aaron Boone refuses to see what everyone else sees. Anthony Volpe is not very good. The other day, Boone said in an interview that Volpe is extremely talented. As noted above, Jose Caballero is an excellent defender. Yesterday, Volpe made an error on a throw in the third inning. It appeared as if he thought he was playing bocce. 

So to break it down, Caballero is a better fielder, better hitter, and better base runner than Volpe. Yet Volpe plays the bulk of the games at shortstop. I don't believe that Aaron Boone will move Caballero to the starting shortstop position and put Jasson Dominguez in right field, which would be the smart move. Dominguez right now is a better player than Anthony Volpe. My suspicion is that Boone will refuse to make that move. The best move for the Yankees would be to move Jose Caballero to the starting shortstop position and send Anthony Volpe to the minor leagues to work on positional versatility. Jasson Dominguez should be brought up and put in rightfield and left there until Aaron Judge returns. When Judge is ready to return, whenever that is, the Yankees can then assess what the best moves will be. Perhaps at that time Trent Grisham will have cooled off. Perhaps Paul Goldschmidt will wear down again. Perhaps Dominguez won't hit as well as we expect. It is not in the Yankees’ best interests to keep Anthony Volpe as the starting shortstop. At this point, he should be in Scranton learning to play other positions in addition to shortstop. Maybe he could help the team in a utility role. For now, Jose Caballero should be the starter at shortstop and Jasson Dominguez when he is ready, which should be soon, should be in right field.

A Few Tidbits:

• Trent Grisham who for most of the season was colder than dry ice, has raised his batting average to .232. I know that's not Ted Williams territory, but it is a major improvement. He has had four multi-hit games in his last six games. Will it last? Who knows. That's baseball, Suzyn.

• The Yankees ended Cleveland's streak of not being swept at 31 consecutive series the last time the Guardians were swept was in August of 2025 by the Texas Rangers.

• The Guardians have dropped six of their last seven games.

• Carlos Rodon is now 11-5 in his career against Cleveland.

• On June 10th, 1921, Babe Ruth became the all-time home run king when he hit his 120th home run. Of course, he hit 594 more after that and held the record until 1974.

After an off-day today, the Yankees will open a three-game series against the Blue Jays at 7:37 PM at Rogers Centre on Friday. Ryan Weathers, (2-4, 3.86 ERA) will face Trey Yesavage, (2-3, 3.16 ERA). Hopefully it's not rough Weathers tomorrow night.