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WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — There are plenty of issues surrounding the Yankees, but Marcus Stroman no longer appears to be one of them.
The righty has righted himself after a midseason swoon and logged his second straight encouraging start in a game that had a discouraging finish.
“I thought he was just real sharp,” manager Aaron Boone said of Stroman after the Yankees bullpen coughed up the game in a 3-2, 10-inning, Little League Classic loss to the Tigers at Bowman Field.
Stroman was excellent over six scoreless innings in which he allowed just four hits and walked two with five strikeouts.
Detroit didn’t record a hit until there were two outs in the third and didn’t really threaten until the fifth, when Josh Jong walked and Austin Meadows rifled a two-out double to left-center.
But an excellent relay from Aaron Judge to Gleyber Torres to Jose Trevino nailed Jong at the plate, which was about all the help Stroman needed.
He relied upon seven distinct pitches, and velocity that he searched for during his funk was restored.
“Kept them off-balance, sinker was good, command was pretty decent,” said Stroman, who had been in a tailspin from the middle of June to early August.
In the eight-start span, he logged just one quality start and was pounded for 28 earned runs in 36 ²/₃ innings, skyrocketing his ERA from 2.82 to 4.10.
The Yankees gave Stroman extra time to recover after an Aug. 2 dud, and he has returned a different pitcher — or rather, the kind of pitcher he was in the first few months of the season.
“I thought he was better this time even than last time,” Boone said of Stroman, who has allowed one earned run over 11 innings in his past two starts. “Real efficient. Was attacking the zone but also with command.”
On a busy day during which they landed in Pennsylvania, rushed to the Little League World Series Complex to hang out with kids for a few hours and then bused over to Bowman Field to play an actual major league game against the Tigers, several Yankees found a free moment to take part in a Williamsport ritual.
Or at least they tried to.
A few groups of Yankees climbed up and attempted to sled down the iconic hill that overlooks the field at Lamade Stadium, a tradition for kids on hand and a way for the adults on hand to feel like kids again.
A few ushers “peer-pressured” Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells to slide down the hill, said director of catching Tanner Swanson, who joined the group. They climbed up — engulfed in crowds, signing autographs on the way — and grabbed cardboard to glide back down.
On a wet afternoon, they had issues with traction on the grass. They tried a few times and made it just a few feet, where there were crowds waiting for them, anyway, before they gave up.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. had more success with the hill later.
But the group that included Wells, Volpe and Swanson had fun with the children and signed dozens of autographs and can tell others that they took part in a fun Little League tradition — even if it didn’t go as planned.
“We didn’t slide,” Swanson said with a smile.
“I don’t think we even got down the hill,” Volpe said.
Juan Soto went 0-for-3 with a walk and one rare chant.
During his sixth-inning plate appearance, a Little League team from Canada began chanting “Soto Shuffle.” Soto did not perform the shuffle, but after earning his free pass, he nodded in the team’s direction.
Chisholm threw on the field again and took ground balls at third base as he rehabs his left elbow sprain.
Chisholm still has not swung a bat since suffering the injury.
Clarke Schmidt threw around 40 pitches in a live batting practice in Tampa, where Hal Steinbrenner was among the onlookers.
Schmidt, recovering from a right lat strain, could begin a rehab assignment next weekend.
With 27th-man Jasson Dominguez in left field, a slumping Alex Verdugo was on the bench.
Verdugo is just 10-for-52 (.192) this month with just three extra-base hits, all doubles. His OPS on the season is down to .657.
— Additional reporting by Greg Joyce
