The big story for the Yankees going into Friday night’s matchup against the Brewers was the debut of Spencer Jones. The outfielder is a former first round pick and has some intriguing tools, including massive power. However, we didn’t get to see any of that in his debut, because, unfortunately, other teams are allowed to have young talent too.
On the mound for the Brewers was their young ace Jacob Misiorowski, who the Yankees were facing for the first time. In this particular game, they had no answers for this newest puzzle. Regularly topping 100 MPH all night, Misiorowski ended up going six innings, striking out a peronal season-best 11 Yankees, while giving up just two hits and two walks.
Jones did end up drawing one of those walks, but other than that, it was an uneventful game for him and an uneventful one for the Yankees in general. Misiorowski and the Brewers blanked them, as Milwaukee won the series opener 6-0.
With Misiorowski throwing fireballs, the Brewers gave him an advantage verus Fried in the second inning. While fomer Yankee Gary Sánchez led off the inning with a single, Fried then hurt himself by walking the next two batters to load the bases with no outs. Brandon Lockridge and Sal Frelick then hit a couple of soft singles, scoring a run each. While Fried then finally got an out, it came on a grounder that scored one run, and moved another runner to third, where they scored on another weak single. Fried then bounced back with two strikeouts, but plenty of damage had been done. Milwaukee added more the following inning when Lockridge hit another RBI single.
The top of the fourth saw an unfortunate moment, as Lockridge — who is a former Yankees’ prospect — slammed his knee into the bottom concrete part of the wall in the left field foul territory. It evoked memories of former Yankee Dustin Fowler, as Lockridge was carted off the field.
After the bumps in the second and third innings, Fried did settle in and at least soaked up some innings. He ended up going six frames, allowing five runs on six hits and three walks. He wasn’t particularly sharp, but he did also get bit by just some unfortunate contact.
The main issue with the game was that the Yankees just had no answer for Misiorowski. The young star ended up allowing just two hits while he was in, both singles to José Caballero. That’s just never going to be enough, no matter how good or bad Fried was doing.
The Yankees also gave another debut — this one not an MLB one, though — to reliever Kervin Castro, who they called up alongside Jones. He gave up one further run, as the Brewers picked up some insurance in the seventh inning. However, he came back in the eighth and looked better. Castro ended up striking out two batters in his two innings.
For the day, Jones ended up going 0-for-2 with two walks, while striking out twice. Swinging and missing is the major question mark surrounding Jones, but Misiorowski was making pretty much every Yankee hitter doing that all night.
The Yankees and Brewers will continue their matchup tomorrow night at 7:10 pm ET. The Yankees will get to send their young stud to the hill in that one, as Cam Schlittler and Kyle Harrison are penciled in to be the respective starters in that one.