It wasn’t on television in New York, it was barely on the radio, and it rained halfway through, and was called after seven, but that didn’t make Joely Rodríguez’s meltdown any more palatable. The Yankees’ B-squad thus lost to the Detroit Tigers, 5-3, Thursday afternoon in Lakeland, Florida.
With a starting lineup filled with backups and minor leaguers, the main story going into the game was Clarke Schmidt. Headed into his age-26 season, the right-hander has battled injuries since undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2017, and has only 12.2 big league innings under his belt so far.