Yankees.com: Wells’ slam caps 10-run 7th, Yanks’ biggest inning since 2015

From Bryan Hoch:

The bases were full as Austin Wells prepared for his second plate appearance of a memorable seventh inning. And as the Yankees’ catcher limbered up in the on-deck circle, he thought about the at-bats that had kept the line moving – seemingly, one after another.

It had been fun to watch, Wells said; so, too, would be what he was about to deliver. Wells launched his first career grand slam, transforming Yankee Stadium into a party zone with a liner into the right-field seats to cap a remarkable 10-run frame in the Yankees’ 12-3 victory over the Padres on Tuesday evening.

You know, I was about to spotlight Austin Wells’ RBI single that tied the game in the seventh inning for the featured image, because, well, no offense to Wells, but once six runs were in, the grand slam was a bit LESS surprising, while the game-tying single was VERY surprising. However, I did so because I figured Clarke Schmidt didn’t “earn” the featured image, and then I remembered, “Fuck, dude, he only gave up two runs in six innings! How do you NOT give him the featured image?”

And so I did, with Schmidt celebrating a strong fifth getting the featured image.

Tonight was the big difference between Schmidt and Will Warren. They’re both headcases, but when Schmidt is a headcase, he can battle through it, and limit the damage, while Warren isn’t quite there yet. Warren might have even better stuff than Schmidt, so you’d like to believe he can eventually figure things out.

The Yankees’ pitching staff is currently:

Baseball genius – Max Fried
Headcase who is currently calm, with the results to show for it – Rodon
Headcase who is battling through his demons – Schmidt
Headcase who CAN’T battle through his demons yet – Warren
Washed starter who has to be perfect to get by with shitty stuff – Carrrasco, and that’s why Carrasco is gone.
Decent pitcher who throws enough strikes to get by – Yarbrough, who might be the new #5 starter

If they give Allan Winans a shot, and he does well, you could argue that Warren should be sent down, and the rotation should be Fried, Rodon, Schmidt, Yarbrough, Winans until Luis Gil is ready to return. They should probably also be looking to eventually trade for a rental starter, someone like Zach Efflin, who could be the #3 starter in the playoffs.

Anyhow, great win. This team really shouldn’t be as pathetic as it has been. They’ve blown FIVE eighth inning leads, and some of them weren’t even SMALL leads. Devin Williams was involved in all five. I certainly hope they are going to make him work through his shit in low leverage innings until he can be trusted in high leverage spots, but the problem is that they have so many high leverage spots since they can’t score enough to get big leads, so the good relievers get constantly used, thus possibly burning them out. Fernando Cruz fell behind Tatis, and was fucked by it for a double that luckily only scored one. He had a big K of the next batter, and looked good doing it, but you have to worry about overusing the guy.

Hopefully Fried can get them a win on Wednesday, as Cease will strike out 13 Yankees minimum.