Schmidt burned by back-to-back HRs in 4-inning start

CLEVELAND -- Two consecutive swings ended up being Clarke Schmidt’s undoing on Monday at Progressive Field.

The first swing came from José Ramírez, who blasted a three-run, no-doubt shot to right field to give the Guardians a 3-0 lead in the third.

The second swing wasn’t as majestic, but still had the same outcome. After allowing that home run to Ramírez, Schmidt missed on a sinker on the very next pitch to Kyle Manzardo, who smacked a 366-foot home run that just snuck over the wall in right.

While Manzardo’s homer didn’t go as far as Ramírez’s 390-foot smash, it hurt just as much. Those home runs soured Schmidt’s start, as he lasted just four innings in Cleveland’s 6-4 win.

“I felt like he was a little off command-wise,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

After cruising through the first two innings, Schmidt opened the third inning by allowing back-to-back singles to Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan. Both balls had expected batting averages under .200.

Schmidt allowed one more run in the fourth inning on an RBI single from Rocchio, but was able to wiggle out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam.

With their homers, Ramírez improved to 6-for-14 (.428) against Schmidt in his career, including the playoffs, while Manzardo is 2-for-4 with two home runs.

In total, Schmidt allowed five earned runs on seven hits in the loss.

“The walks are frustrating, but I think I was able to make some good pitches,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt was able to generate 13 whiffs and seven strikeouts with his arsenal, but he also allowed four batted balls with an exit velocity of at least 97 mph.

“We did a good job of limiting damage and getting swing-and-miss where we needed to,” he said.

After Gavin Williams allowed three earned runs in 2 1/3 innings against the Yankees in Game 4 of last year’s ALCS, he dazzled in 6 1/3 innings Monday. While he allowed seven hits, he gave up just two runs on a Jasson Domínguez two-run home run in the seventh inning. He also had eight strikeouts.

“He mixed enough with that big fastball and got us to expand a little bit,” Boone said. “We couldn't put it together enough against him.”

But even with that, Domínguez’s 445-foot home run was an impressive display that Yankees fans have been waiting a long time to see.

“[Williams] chewed him up pretty good in the first couple at-bats, but that’s a really good swing on a breaking ball,” Boone said.

Rocchio’s single was a bit of tough luck for Schmidt and the Yankees, as the right-hander induced the soft contact he wanted but saw the ball trickle through the infield after Jazz Chisholm Jr. had to dodge the broken bat.

It was the second straight game where the Yankees had a broken bat impact a play. On Sunday, Aaron Judge recorded a single in large part because Rays third baseman Junior Caminero had to alter his route to the ball due to Judge’s broken bat.

On Monday, Chisholm -- who was playing in -- cut towards the ball before immediately ducking out of the way of the shard that broke off of Rocchio’s bat, which ended up landing between him and first base.

“I don’t know if you’ll go all year and see a play where a broken bat impacts a play, and we’ve seen it twice now in two games,” Boone said.

Chisholm said that he was injured by a broken bat when he was playing in High-A in the D-backs' system, so he was even more cognizant of the shrapnel flying at him.

“That’s a tough one,” Chisholm said. “I want to make every play out there for my guy, but you also don’t want to die.”

That play was part of an eventful day for Chisholm. He nearly helped the Yankees generate their first run in the fourth inning when he smoked a ball to first that Carlos Santana snagged to start an unassisted double play. Four innings later, he connected on a Paul Sewald fastball that cut the Guardians’ lead to two.

“It was very validating,” he said. “Finally [hit] the ball hard and [got] it to fall somewhere.”