Yankees news: Spencer Jones gets first career hit and RBI
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MLB.com | Casey Drottar: Although the Yankees suffered a second straight walk-off loss and a series sweep on Sunday, at least one Yankee enjoyed a nice moment. After going hitless with four strikeouts in his first two games, Spencer Jones got his first major league hit in the second inning against Logan Henderson, a 106.4 mph single up the middle that scored José Caballero. Fittingly for Mother’s Day, his mom (along with the rest of his family) was there to cheer him on. Hard to top that in terms of presents, I imagine. Congratulations, Spencer, and I hope the hits keep coming for you.
NY Daily News | Gary Phillips: Camilo Doval was trusted with the eighth inning of the Yankees’ Saturday extra inning loss to Milwaukee, and Doval played his part in getting the game to extras by allowing Brice Turang to get aboard, steal second, and score on a William Contreras hit. Doval has managed to cut back on issuing walks, his previous Achilles heel, and yet he’s allowed 10 runs in his last 12.1 innings of work largely due to the 15 hits he’s allowed over that span, three of which were long balls. The former Giants closer doesn’t look like he can be trusted with high leverage outings at this point, leaving a gap in the team’s bullpen hierarchy that needs to be filled sooner rather than later.
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MLB.com | Casey Drottar: Another Yankee who achieved an important milestone on Sunday was Carlos Rodón, who made his first start of 2026 after missing the first month of the season while recovering from offseason surgery to remove a bone spur from his left elbow. While his overall line was forgettable – 3 earned runs, 5 strikeouts and 5 walks over 4.1 innings – Drottar points to one undeniably positive sign; Rodón averaged 95.7 mph on his heater during the start, 1.6 mph faster than his 2025 average. If nothing else, this suggests that his elbow is indeed in better shape. If he can improve his control, Rodón might be able to recapture his excellent 2025 form, or maybe even surpass it.
FanGraphs | David Laurila: If you’re a fan of the splitter, you’ll enjoy this interview with Spencer Medick, currently the pitching coach for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, on the various shapes and properties that splitters can have. According to Medick, by generating less spin on their splitters, pitchers can make the pitch “dance” in a way akin to knuckleballs from the batter’s viewpoint. The erstwhile Driveline coach cites Fernando Cruz as an example of a low-spin splitter, while naming Yovanny Cruz and Brendan Beck as current Triple-A hurlers that have the pitch in their arsenal (though their spin rates vary).
ESPN | Bradford Doolittle: You might’ve taken a look at the AL standings at large lately and become perplexed at how bunched up most of the field is. Outside of New York and Tampa Bay, everyone else is either under .500 or skirting around it. While the standard deviation between the teams in the league is currently 14.4 wins, it’s projected to dive back down towards a final number of 8.8, by far the lowest amount since the turn of the decade and a sharp nosedive from the drastic disparity that 2019 displayed with three 100 win teams and three 100 loss teams in the league. Whether this can hold up or not remains to be seen, but the huge clump that has formed at the start of the year should give us a race where most teams are in the running for a long time.
MLB.com: There are flaws to be spotted on each and every team after more than a month of play, and the Yankees have their fair share of them. One of the areas they can reasonably improve on is their leadoff production, and their biggest culprit can lead the charge to fixing the problem. Trent Grisham has received the lion’s share of starts atop the lineup but struggled out of the gate. Grisham’s peripherals have looked amazing, however, and he’s starting to see more of the hits that he’s deserved based off of how hard he’s been ripping the ball setting the table quite nicely for the Yankees’ sluggers behind him.
The Athletic | Amy Cuddy: ($) Baseball players are a superstitious bunch, and there’s no shortage of stories of weird rituals that escape the confines of the clubhouse — like, for example, Jason Giambi’s lucky gold thong. Here, Cuddy, a social psychologist, sheds some light on why baseball’s characteristics make the sport uniquely conducive to ritualistic behavior, and argues based on neuroscience that rituals may actually help hitters perform.