Cam Schlittler turns in rare dud as Aaron Judge-less Yankees battered by Guardians

As far as Tuesdays in June go, this one wasn’t pretty in The Bronx.Aaron Judge missed his first game of the season with the bone bruise near his right shoulder that was diagnosed a day earlier and the Yankees went out and saw Cam Schlittler, who started the day at the American League Cy Young favorite, deliver his worst outing of the season.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.

And it ended with a bullpen in need of reinforcements getting knocked around, as the Yankees fell to Cleveland 9-4 and have lost nine of their 12 games against teams above .500.The Yankees entered the game having won six of their last seven and came back to the Stadium to face the Guardians, leading the AL Central despite the second-lowest payroll in the majors ($88 million).Cleveland got the better of Yankees pitching time and time again.After the Yankees scored four runs off lefty Joey Cantillo in just four innings, Cleveland’s bullpen shut them down.It all started with Schlittler’s clunker, as he allowed a career-high five runs, four earned, in just 4 ¹/₃ innings.He retired the first seven batters he faced before light-hitting catcher Patrick Bailey tripled to center with one out and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brayan Rocchio.The Yankees went ahead in the bottom of the inning.With one out, Ben Rice singled to center and Paul Goldschmidt, who reached on a ground rule double in the first, homered to left to put the Yankees up, 2-1.Goldschmidt entered the game with a 1.172 OPS against left-handed pitching.Schlittler’s uneven performance continued in the fourth.José Ramirez opened with a double to right on a 3-2 cutter.After Chase DeLauter flied out, Kyle Manzardo took Schlittler deep to right, also on a cutter, to put the Yankees in a 3-2 hole.Jazz Chisholm Jr.

reached on an infield single with one in the fourth before José Caballero worked a walk, in part due to his use of ...