Happy Monday (said no one ever) and it’s time to talk Yankee baseball. The “Boone Swoon” had been in full effect until we got a ray of sunlight this weekend at the stadium and the tristate for a change. Now the trick will be making a series win stand up as they take their three wins in four games on the road to Cincinnati. Let’s talk about some of the performances and news from the recent home-stand.

The Good

Getting Back on the “Gil”: The Bombers got good news on the injury front this weekend with Luis Gil facing live hitters Saturday at the stadium. The big righty threw 20 pitches and made it look “free and easy” per Aaron Boone. Yankee pitching has already performed well this season, but it would be an even bigger lift to get number 81 back on the bump. Especially given some unfortunate news that came Sunday with an injury to the rotation.

No-Hit Schmidt: The highlight of the weekend series win over the Orioles was Saturday’s 9-0 victory, which was led by Clarke Schmidt’s brilliant outing. Number 36 worked seven no-hit innings with five strikeouts in the game. The two walks he surrendered early on cost him the chance to go for the full no-hit bid as he ran his pitch count up. Though the bid for the combined “no-no” was lost in the 8th by the pen, it’s very exciting to see Schmidt continue to grow. He had a positive year last season and has only gotten better, pitching to a 2.84 ERA so far this year!

The Bad

Losing the Lefty: Baseball always has a funny way of sorting itself out over 162 games. As a prime example there has been tons of discussion about what the Yanks will do with their rotation as Luis Gil returns from injury. That worked itself out Sunday due to some unfortunate news as lefty Ryan Yarbrough landed on the IL with an oblique strain. It’s hard not to feel for the veteran lefty as he was enjoying his best year in a while and now has his work interrupted. Hopefully he can recover and get back soon to help in the pen, but for now the spot is open for Luis Gil to come in and join a rotation that’s pitching quite well. Call up Allan Winans will make a spot start tonight in Cincinnati in Yarbrough’s place.

The Struggles Continue: Here we are again, talking about Anthony Volpe’s issues. After seemingly turning a bit of a corner offensively a few weeks ago, number 11 hit a major skid. At one point he had gone 25 straight at bats without a hit, until breaking out Saturday with a pair of knocks including a homer. He’s hitting just .236, and while his 41 RBI’s is solid production for a shortstop, the peaks and valley’s in his game are very frustrating to watch. These offensive struggles are made worse by the issues he has in the field, as he made his ninth error of the season (tied for 4th most in the league) in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the Angels, an error that led to the winning run scoring. It’s nowhere near good enough for a player that there were such massive expectations for.

Highlight of the Week

Sunday in the Park with Jazz: The Yankees were looking to leave town on a winning note Sunday, but made that a difficult proposition by going 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position. Or at least they did until the 8th inning, when Jazz Chisholm came up and smashed a triple off the wall in right center. Shout out the slide by “speed demon” Paul Goldschmidt too, as he scored the eventual winning run in the 4-2 W! Jazz has really swung the bat well, hitting over .350 since returning from the IL with two homers and 10 RBI’s, a welcome sight for a struggling offense.

Next up is a three game set with the Reds who are 40-38, and just three games out of the final NL Wild Card spot. Following the three games in the Queen City, the Yankees will return home to host the A’s for three games over the weekend before going back on the road to Toronto and across town the face the Mets on the 4th of July. The lead in the AL East is down to just 2.5 games as the Rays are hanging in there despite facing a lot of adversity this year. We’ll see if they and the Jays can stay close the rest of the way, but for the Yankees need to focus on taking care of business themselves!

We have a busy week ahead with a lot of sports topics in the news. Baseball now takes center stage with the NBA and NHL wrapped up, both of those sports offseason’s begin in earnest this week as they will hold their drafts Wednesday and Friday. The Knicks are still searching for a coach as well, though hopefully we’ll get a conclusion to that saga soon. We’ll have plenty of coverage of all this and I’m sure Mike will have some thoughts on the Mets struggles soon. Stay tuned and have a good week everyone!

On twitter you can find Mike @Mike_Sheerin, Tyler @TMon_19 and Sean @SeanMartinNFL. Subscribe to the site by hitting the follow button in the bottom right corner and entering your email address. Check out our Instagram feed @thebroadwaybreakdownsports for special gameday and promotional content. Our podcasts are available on Spotify. Visit the Rangers Ed Shop by clicking the link on our homepage. Check out our mailbag page to join the conversation here on the site and on our partners show, The Rangers Ed Podcast! We’ll be back with more soon.