CHICAGO — With the recent adversity the Yankees have encountered with their starting rotation, right-hander Clarke Schmidt’s presence only looms larger.
And Schmidt continues to answer the bell.
“Clarke Schmidt has really come of age here over the last few months,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Monday.
Schmidt has been a steady presence in New York’s rotation for a while now, and that continued in Tuesday’s 7-1 win over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. He allowed one run — a Luis Robert Jr. solo homer — on four hits in 5 1/3 innings, walking one compared to seven strikeouts.
It marked the 14th straight start that Schmidt allowed three runs or fewer.
“I think you can say he’s been one of the better pitchers in the league for probably the last two, three months,” Boone said. “After kind of taking his lumps the first month of the season, he’s been really consistent for us.”
Schmidt got off to a slow start this season, carrying a 6.30 ERA through nine starts while pitching less than five innings in six of those outings. But he turned a corner in May and has been on quite a run since.
Entering Tuesday, the 27-year-old held a 3.23 ERA in 14 games (13 starts) since May 19. That was tied for 18th in baseball (among pitchers with a minimum of 60 innings) with Astros ace Framber Valdez.
His presence has proven especially valuable for a Yankees rotation that hasn’t been whole for extended stretches this season. Carlos Rodón began the season on the injured list, made his debut in July and went back on the IL on Monday with a left hamstring strain.
Nestor Cortes spent close to two months on the IL with a rotator cuff strain and only recently returned. Domingo Germán went on the restricted list last week.
“He’s been, after Gerrit [Cole], that guy we’ve been able to kind of hang our hat on,” Boone said of Schmidt.
Schmidt had a good 2022 season largely spent in the bullpen; he finished with a 3.12 ERA in 29 appearances, including three starts. Being in the rotation full-time has its differences, but even when he struggled early on in ‘23, his confidence did not waver.
“It’s baseball, and it’s inevitable that you’re going to face adversity, obviously,” Schmidt said. “Sometimes, it’s worse than others. The way that you kind of handle adversity in this game tells you a lot about yourself.
“For me, I was just kind of continuing to put the work in and continuing to trust in my stuff and that the results were going to come. When they did start coming, once that ball got rolling down the hill, it was like it couldn’t be stopped, in a sense.”
Schmidt didn’t allow a hit Tuesday until Robert’s homer to lead off the fourth. He struck out six White Sox hitters in the first three innings, and the Yankees’ bats responded soon after.
New York, after leaving a combined 28 runners on base in its previous two games, went 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position Tuesday. But the Yanks posted a four-run fourth inning; after back-to-back singles by Giancarlo Stanton and Billy McKinney, Isiah-Kiner Falefa hit a two-run double.
Kyle Higashioka and Aaron Judge hit home runs in the eighth to provide insurance runs. It was Higashioka’s first career pinch-hit homer; it was Judge’s second homer since coming off the IL late last month.
“It felt good to break the ice right there and start things off,” Kiner-Falefa said. “The two guys in front of me did a great job getting on.”
With their offensive struggles in recent days, Tuesday’s performance was a good sight for the Yankees. Of course, at this stage in the season, each win is as important as the next.
The Yankees have had an up-and-down stretch over the past week but will enter Wednesday 4 1/2 games out of an AL Wild Card spot.
“It’s just a matter of getting the job done, which is the theme, if you will, going down the stretch,” said outfielder Harrison Bader, who drove Kiner-Falefa home with an RBI single in the fourth. “Any way we can do it, whether it’s by one run in the ninth or by 20, or what we saw tonight …
“Just getting the job done, getting wins, keeping it moving and moving forward. That’s all that matters to us.”
