How Yankees explained midgame meltdown in bummer loss to Guardians

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CLEVELAND — It was like all of the New York Yankees’ good fortune had suddenly taken a stroll a couple of blocks away to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and never came back.

A sixth-inning meltdown was one of the team’s ugliest moments early in this season, and it led to a tough 3-2 defeat to the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on Tuesday night.

“It just didn’t bounce our way, really,” said reliever Mark Leiter Jr., who took the loss after surrendering one earned run and allowing two inherited runners to score in the frame.

There was a passed ball-turned-wild pitch, an error-turned-hit and missed attempted at a diving catch that turned the Yankees’ two-run lead into a deficit that would hold until the final out.

It gave the Yankees their second straight loss, dropping them to 14-10. They have a half-game lead atop the American League East, just ahead of the Boston Red Sox.

“It happens,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s baseball. That’s why we do this all the time.”

It also wasted an otherwise strong start from rookie Will Warren, who lasted five innings, rebounding from a disastrous 1 2/3-inning performance against the Tampa Bay Rays five days before. Ben Rice led off the game with a home run on the first pitch, and Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s sacrifice fly in the sixth scored Aaron Judge, who went 4-for-4 with a double to push his batting average to .411.

Warren, who struck out five and walked one, held a 2-0 lead into the sixth inning before he gave up a leadoff single to Steven Kwan, and then a Nolan Jones dribbler got by second baseman Chisholm. That pushed his pitch count to 82.

Then, Boone went to Leiter, who had given up just one earned run over his previous eight outings.

After Leiter struck out the dangerous Jose Ramirez, he got to a 0-1 count with Kyle Manzardo. The runners on first and second base stole as Leiter delivered a curveball that missed its spot low and in. Catcher J.C. Escarra missed it with his backhand, and Kwan scored. Jones raced to third base.

A passed ball allows Kwan to score who was already stealing third and the lead is cut to 2-1 pic.twitter.com/M1fhNkR4yV

— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) April 22, 2025

The Yankees’ lead was cut to 2-1. The pitch was initially called a passed ball but was changed by the official scorer to a wild pitch after the game.

Boone described Escarra as “maybe a little quick out of the crouch and didn’t handle the ball.”

Later in the at-bat, Manzardo hit a low liner to right field. Judge took two steps in and tried for a diving catch. He missed, and he wasn’t able to knock the ball down. It bounced past him as Jones scored, and Manzardo reached second base as center fielder Cody Bellinger backed up Judge.

Judge called it a “do-or-die” play.

“I know that’s the game right there,” he said. “Tying run is on third. Off the bat, you’re trying to get in there and make a play, but I got about two steps away and saw that all I could do is kind of try to knock it down at that point.”

It got worse for the Yankees. After Carlos Santana grounded out to second base and moved Manzardo to third, Leiter walked Bo Naylor. Then Angel Martinez hit a humpback liner at shortstop Anthony Volpe, who was shifted up the middle and behind second base. The ball one-hopped Volpe, who knocked it down in front of him. He wasn’t able to throw out Martinez. Manzardo scored and Cleveland went up 3-2.

Volpe beat himself up over it.

“I feel like I’ve got to make that play,” he said. “Those are the types of situations where you want the ball hit to you and I didn’t come through. Obviously, you take it on the chin and you wear it for the team. But you just want more of those opportunities to come through. So when it doesn’t happen, it’s frustrating.”

The play was initially called a hit, and then it was changed to an error.

“That’s almost an impossible play,” Boone said. “When it’s spinning like that and it’s in between, it’s almost like a catcher. Just smother it and stick it.”

After one more infield single, Leiter was pulled for lefty Tim Hill Jr., who forced a flyout to end the inning.

“Sometimes it goes your way,” Leiter said. “Sometimes it doesn’t. You’re just making pitches and trying to induce some weak contact and the ball didn’t fall our way.”

The Yankees had a chance in the eighth inning. Judge led off with a single, and then he stole second base with one out. Chisholm’s two-out walk brought up Volpe, who struck out swinging against reliever Hunter Gaddis on a 2-2 slider well out of the zone.

“He has good stuff,” Volpe said. “He executed against me. I feel like I stuck to my approach besides the last pitch.”

In the ninth inning, Yankees hitters Jasson Domínguez, Austin Wells and Oswaldo Cabrera combined to see just four pitches from reliever Cade Smith, who got the save.

But the night hinged on the sixth-inning scuffles.

“I thought Mark threw the ball well,” Boone said. “They just put some balls in play that we couldn’t quite make a great play on and that was the difference in that inning.”

(Photo of Steven Kwan scoring as Mark Leiter Jr. tries to make the tag: Jason Miller / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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