About Yesterday: Too Close For Comfort: Braves 2, Yanks 1 (10 Innings)

About Yesterday: Too Close For Comfort. Braves 2 – Yankees 1 in 10 Innings

By Tim Kabel

August 10, 2026

***

The Yankees fell short in their effort to win the game against the Braves yesterday and to sweep the series. Once again, it was a nail-biting affair in which the Yankees had very little room for error. The Yankees scored one run and had four hits. Amazingly, those hits came from Trent Grisham, who had two, (including a home run), Jazz Chisholm, and Austin Wells. On a day when three of the Yankees players who are struggling the most actually had hits, no one else did. That’s baseball, Suzyn.

On a blistering hot day, the Yankees bats were ice cold for the most part. This weather would be nice, if you were a farmer so that as they say in the play Oklahoma, “the corn is as high as an elephant's eye.” But for the rest of us, especially those running around playing baseball, it is quite uncomfortable. The Braves did not do much better than the Yankees, by scoring two runs, but it was enough to win.

Cam Schlittler bounced back from an uncharacteristically bad outing against the Cardinals. He was dominant, allowing three hits and only one run on Matt Olson’s leadoff hit home run in the seventh inning. Schlittler struck out 11 batters and didn't walk anyone. Olson earned his home run by hitting it off a 100-mile-an-hour fastball. The Braves didn't do anything else until the 10th inning when Michael Harris hit an RBI single off Paul Blackburn, allowing the ghost runner to score. The Braves only mustered four hits as well, but they were able to get two runs out of their four hits.

The Yankees are now 66-52 for the season. Their record in August is 4-4. They continue to hover near the .500 mark, occasionally rising above it and sometimes dipping below it. They have been that way since June 1^st, which coincides with Aaron Judge going on the IL. Yes, they are treading water, but treading water does not inspire confidence when it comes to making the playoffs or advancing very far in the playoffs.

The Yankees have 43 games remaining. They need to shift into the next gear if they want to head into the postseason in a position that would likely lead to success. As they linger in mediocrity, the prospect of them catching the Rays becomes more remote with each passing day. The Yankees need to be more concerned at this point with holding off a charge from the Red Sox. It seems more likely that the Red Sox will pass the Yankees in the standings than it is that the Yankees will pass the Rays in the standings. Well, we will see. That's why they play the games after all.

A Few Tidbits: 

·       This was Schlittler’s third career double-digit strikeout game.

·        Schlittler threw 9 pitches at 100 miles an hour or faster yesterday.

·       The Yankees are now 2-9 in extra-inning games this season.

·       The Yankees have scored two runs or fewer in seven of their last ten games.

·       The Braves’ win was there ninth in their last eleven games.

·       This was the 20th time this season that the Yankees were held to one run.

·       This was the 17th time this season the Yankees finished a game with four hits or fewer. 

·       On August 9th, 1969, Thurman Munson made his Major League debut going 2-3 with two RBI in a 2-1win over the Oakland A's.

***

After a day off today, the Yankees will open a three-game series on Tuesday against the Mariners at 7:05 PM at Yankee Stadium. Ryan Weathers, (5-7, 3.79 ERA) will pitch for the Yankees. Bryan Woo, (8-8, 4.31 ERA) will pitch for Seattle. I guess the Mariners will be pitching woo on Tuesday night.