The New York Yankees capped an uneven June by escaping an injury scare for Juan Soto and averting another series loss. After finishing 14-13 in June and relinquishing control of the AL East lead, the Yankees seek to get back on track when they face the Cincinnati Reds in the first of a three-game series on Tuesday night. Following their 8-1 victory over Boston on June 14, the Yankees were 50-22 and led the division by three and a half games, but they lost 10 of 14 games, including seven by three runs or more.
As a result, they lost four consecutive series before winning 8-1 on Sunday against the host Toronto Blue Jays. Soto batted.275 in his third month with the Yankees, missing four games due to injury. He missed a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers from June 7-9 due to left forearm discomfort, a 9-3 loss on Saturday due to a bruised right hand, and was not in the starting lineup Sunday until proclaiming himself fit to play.
Soto provided a single in the first inning, just before Aaron Judge blasted his major league-leading 31st home run. Judge’s home run ended a month in which he batted.409 and drove in 37 runs, bringing his MLB-leading total to 82. “Especially given the hitting climate we’re in, it’s head and shoulders above anything we’ve seen,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Soto and Judge.
“What he and Juan are doing as a tandem is hard to wrap your brain around.” The Reds go to New York with 10 losses in 15 games, with Jonathan India and Stuart Fairchild getting their only two hits in a 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday. Before this span, the Reds had won 14 of 19 games from May 24 to June 14, but Sunday exposed their flaws at the plate.
Cincinnati scored 20 runs on 29 hits in its two victories in the four-game series, but was blanked twice and only had six hits in its two defeats to the Cardinals. India is one of Cincinnati’s most consistent hitters of late. He is batting.489 (22 for 45) over a 12-game hitting run that included eight consecutive multi-hit games prior to Sunday.
“I’m looking at all aspects of our game, as I do every day, to find ways to improve in each one,” Reds manager David Bell said. “I know two of the games in this series were our inability to score, so we just have to figure out how we can get better in these situations, and we’re going to do that.” The Reds’ next opportunity to improve their offensive performance will come against rookie Luis Gil (9-3, 3.15 ERA), who has been pounded for 12 runs on 12 hits in 5 2/3 innings in blowout defeats to the Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets after winning his previous nine decisions.
Gil will face the Reds for the first time in his career, against Graham Ashcraft (4-4, 5.45), who returned to the rotation after being optioned to Triple-A Louisville. Ashcraft struggled in his return against the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing six runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings. Ashcraft received no decision in his only start against the Yankees on July 12, 2022, in New York. He allowed three runs on seven hits in five innings before the Reds scored four runs in the ninth inning to secure a shocking 4-3 victory.
