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The Yankees began a 3-game home Interleague series with the San Diego Padres last night. Injuries and a failure to live up to big spending have left the Padres as MLB's biggest disappointment so far this season.
Randy Vásquez, a 24-year-old Dominican righthander wearing Number 98, made his major league debut last night, as the Yankees' starting pitcher. Over the 1st 4 innings, he was adequate, allowing 2 hits, 2 walks, and a hit batsman, but no runs.
But the Yankees couldn't score, either. They didn't get a baserunner until the 4th, when they wasted singles by Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu. Joe Musgrove, who famously made the Mets look like idiots in last year's Playoffs -- not that they needed much help in that regard -- completely shut them down.
Vásquez got the 1st 2 batters out in the top of the 5th. But his control was a little off: Having previously hit Brandon Dixon with a pitch in the 4th, he now did so to Jake Cronenworth. And Juan Soto, one of the heroes of the Washington Nationals' 2019 World Series win, crushed a home run to right field. That was, pretty much, the ballgame, right there.
Vásquez then allowed a single and a walk, before Aaron Boone replaced him with Ron Marinaccio, who got out of the inning. He allowed a home run to known steroid cheat Fernando Tatís Jr. in the 6th, to make it 4-0. Homers by Soto and Tatís: This was the performance that people expected from the Padres.
A Gleyber Torres single, an Aaron Judge double, and a Rizzo groundout made it 4-1, but that was all the Yankees would get. An RBI single by former Yankee Roughned Odor added a run in the 9th.
Padres 5, Yankees 1. WP: Musgrove (2-2). No save. LP: Vásquez (0-1), who really deserved a better fate, and certainly earned another start, given the holes in the Yankee rotation.
The series continues this afternoon. Luis Severino starts against Michael Wacha.