Yankees Fall to Dodgers In Series Opener, 8-2

On a beautiful night in the Bronx, The New York Yankees fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers in game one of the three-game interleague set. Brian Mitchell got the start for New York and just did not pitch well, losing his first game of the year in a contest that he could not make it out of the third inning. José de Leon got the start and the win for the Dodgers, improving to 2-0 with his quality performance in their game one win.

Mitchell struggled out of the gate as Los Angeles jumped all over the rookie early and often. Chase Utley and rookie sensation Corey Seager led off the game with back-to-back singles. Utley took third on a Justin Turner fly out to center, scoring on an Adrian Gonzalez ground out to give the Dodgers a one run lead. Then, with one out in the second, Howie Kendrick hit an opposite field single to right followed by an Andrew Toles opposite-field single to left. Both men would come around to score on a huge error made by Aaron Judge that saw him drop an inning-ending fly ball, extending their lead to three. And then Seager smacked another single passed a diving Starlin Castro to make it a 4-0 ballgame.

Starlin Castro got one of those runs back for New York in the bottom of the second, absolutely blasting his 21st homerun of the season into the second deck in left field to make it a three run game.

But the Dodgers would keep the offensive pressure on Mitchell, scoring on the young righty and knocking him out of the game in the top of the third. Yasmani Grandal hit a one out single, advancing to third on a Josh Reddick double. Longtime Yankee killer Howie Kendrick then nubbed an infield single that scored Grandal and forced Mitchell out of the game. Chasen Shreve came on in relief and immediately got Joc Pederson on strikes for the second out of the inning. During the next at bat, however, the Yankee errors continued as Gary Sanchez tried to gun out a base stealer at second but sent the ball into center, scoring Reddick and widening the Dodgers lead to 6-1. Shreve would go on to strikeout Toles in that at bat to end the frame.

Aaron Judge atoned for his earlier error in the bottom of the fifth by blasting the longest homerun I think I have seen in Yankee Stadium this season; a 436-ft solo shot over the visitor's bullpen in left center to make it a 6-2 game. It's a shame that distance doesn't get you more runs, because that one should've been worth two.

Richard Bleier stepped up big for the Yankees when they needed him most, tossing four innings of no-hit shut out baseball to keep his team in the game into the eighth.

The Dodgers added two late inning homeruns to put to bed any ideas of a Yankee come back. Yasiel Puig added the Dodgers seventh run of the game with a pinch hit opposite field solo homerun in the top of the eighth to push LA out by five.  And then in the top of the ninth, Justin Turner smacked another solo homerun over the right-field fence to make it a 8-2 ballgame, where the score would remain for the rest of the game.

The Yankees will try to turn it around tomorrow night as they face off against the Dodgers in game two, with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 PM/EST.