Yanks Prevail In Extras, 7-5 Over Guardians

By Andy Singer

June 8th, 2026

If this game is ever spoken about after tonight, no one will ever refer to it as a "pretty" baseball game. Both starting pitchers struggled; there was an inordinate amount of downtime for challenges and umpire discussions; both teams made costly errors; and neither bullpen inspired confidence. That doesn't make the game count any less, however. The Yankees have struggled this season against teams with winning records. They have also struggled to win close games. For one night, the Yanks improved their mark against winning teams in a close game. Across a long season, sometimes you have to win the ugly games, and the Yankees did that tonight.

The bulk of this game was frustrating to watch for a number of reasons, but no matter what else I have to say, the Yankees just wouldn't quit. The offense put enough balls in play to push runners across the plate, and the 8th inning through the end of the game was truly exciting to watch. Too often, it feels like the Yankees find ways to lose games like tonight's, but this team just wouldn't quit. For a change, it really feels like the Yankees snatched victory from the jaws of defeat as opposed to the other way around.

After jumping out to a 3-0 lead on the back of a 1st inning, 2-run homer by Paul Goldschmidt and a 3rd inning fielder's choice that led to an awful throwing error by Rocchio that scored Grisham, Will Warren just couldn't hold it together in a start that looked a lot more like 2025 Will Warren than the version we've seen in 2026. Warren started by striking out the side, but quickly proved that he didn't have even his grade-C command, working himself into long counts. Warren ran out of steam and quickly coughed the lead back up in a 3-run 3rd before ultimately getting yanked before finishing the 5th inning.

Every time the Yanks fell behind, the offense found a way to pick up the pitching staff. After Warren coughed up the lead, McMahon led off the 4th inning with an opposite field solo shot to regain the lead. When the Yankee bullpen again lost the lead, the top of the Yankees' lineup (Grisham and Rice) strung together hits to begin the 7th inning, allowing Goldschmidt to pick up his 3rd RBI on a productive out on a groundball.

After the combination of Tim Hill and David Bednar held the tie in the 8th and 9th innings, the Yankees again got on-base and allowed Cody Bellinger to poke a single through the left-side with the infield in, bringing home the 2 winning runs. David Bednar looked far closer to the guy he was last season when he was acquired at the trade deadline and used a fastball with life and really sharp splitter to neutralize the Guardians in the 10th to pick up the save.

Now for a random assortment of thoughts on tonight's game:

• The challenges and confused umpiring really ruined the flow of this game. There were multiple challenges, calls overturned, and general confusion, particularly in the 8th inning during a challenge of a play that was initially ruled a catch by Grisham. The runner at 1st couldn't see the call of out or safe on the play because the umpire stationed at 2nd base never made a call, instead deferring to the 3rd base umpire for the call, which was nonsensical. The umpires also completely missed McMahon's homer initially, failing to recognize that it hit above the yellow line at the top of the LF fence. It was a rough night for the ump crew.

• Speaking of Grisham, he should have caught that ball in the 8th inning without diving. Grisham got a very late jump, then took a poor route. This is becoming far more common. As I expected, Grisham's bat has come around, but his defense in CF is quietly becoming a real problem.

• Ready for a batting line I didn't expect? .282/.282/.538, .821 OPS. That's Ryan McMahon's batting line since May 19th, not including tonight. That line has come with 13 strikeouts and no walks, so I don't expect the improved offensive performance to stick, but it's certainly a good time for McMahon to be more productive. He really hits balls hard to the opposite field, and he was rewarded tonight. I still think that the Yankees need an upgrade at 3B, but McMahon has been pretty good lately.

• Stop me if you've heard this before: the Yankees are not a good baserunning team. Yes, they're more athletic than they've been in the past, but they still make so many bad outs on the bases. By my count, they made 3 unforced outs on the bases tonight, which bites them in close games too often.

• Camilo Doval got yanked with runners on in the 8th, and Tim Hill got the Yanks out of the jam. Doval got really unlucky, as he got beat by soft contact and a ball that should have been caught. He also hasn't been very good, so I agreed with pulling him.

• What didn't make sense was turning to long relievers early with a full bullpen. Why would you save Cruz and Hill for later when they are the best firemen the Yankees have? Boone got really lucky with that decision making.

• David Bednar was excellent tonight. His fastball velocity was up a bit and his splitter was so much sharper than it has been. According to Statcast, the splitter was spinning 138 RPM less than it has on average this season, explaining the additional drop. This version of David Bednar is a championship caliber closer. I hope he sticks around.

• Good teams find a way to win when things are working against them, even when they play good teams. Hopefully the Yankees can do more of that as the season rolls along.