Clarke Schmidt had work to do Sunday, but some brutal conditions at Yankee Stadium made it difficult.
After the Yankees’ regular-season finale was delayed 91 minutes by rain, it continued as Schmidt took the mound and pitched through four-plus innings in a 6-4 win over the Pirates.
“We were very surprised that we tried to grind that one out,” Schmidt said. “We’ve got playoffs coming up, and it’s a high injury risk. Even guys running to first base fell over. But we were happy to get healthy, and everybody else got healthy, and we won.
Schmidt said Pirates starter Bailey Falter came up to him in the outfield as the two began warming up in the rain and asked what they were doing.
Once the game started, the team had to apply dry dirt to the mound, infield and home field area between nearly every half inning.
Competing with Luis Gil for a start in the ALDS, Schmidt said he held back his top gear Sunday to make sure he didn’t injure himself in the wet conditions.
“Sometimes you couldn’t really find the rubber from all the dirt covering the mound,” Schmidt said. “The bats didn’t stick. And it was hard to grip the ball because the rosin was so wet, so touching the rosin actually made it worse.
“Obviously brutal conditions, but I didn’t have a good execution regardless, so I didn’t put myself in a good spot.”