Long Yankees mound meeting fueling Clarke Schmidt bases-loaded balk was disgusting cinema

New York Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt was scratched from Saturday's start at the last minute with side soreness, inadvertently (or purposely?) paving the pathway for Carlos Carrasco's DFA by giving Ryan Yarbrough a showcase.

The intention was always for Schmidt to return on Tuesday against Michael King and the San Diego Padres, and true to form, he took the mound with a sloshing fog in the air 24 hours after another brutal Yankees loss.

Schmidt held steady in the early going, pitching around a small bushel of singles and walks, but remained unscathed into the fourth, when he issued a four-pitch, one-out walk to load the bases. Nothing a little mound visit couldn't fix, though, and Matt Blake and the Yankees convened for a surprisingly long time to gather Schmidt and take a breath before Jason Hayward stepped to the plate with the bags full.

It ... didn't work. Schmidt delivered the first pitch to Heyward up and in and on the corner of the zone ... but the home plate umpire, as well as the one situated behind the pitcher, combined to call it off. Balk. They called a run-scoring balk.

Yankees spend long time meeting on mound, only for Clarke Schmidt to commit a bases-loaded balk

This is insane. In. Sane. You call a mound meeting so you can treat the rattled pitcher with tender love and care. Look at all the Yankees laughing it up out there with the bases loaded. "Hey, look at that guy hogging the chicken tender bucket in the third row!" Laugh. Snarf. Then you talk a little strategy and refocus the pitcher for the biggest moment of the game to date.

The Yankees then broke the huddle and immediately committed an amateur atrocity. It's like if Coach Thibs called a timeout during the middle of an 8-1 Celtics run, steadied the troupes, and called an OTO play that involved the Knicks picking up the basketball and punting it into the crowd.

As if the irony wasn't already thicker than the fog, Aaron Judge drilled a solo home run off King in the bottom of the inning to cut the deficit. Judge professionalism contrasted directly with Yankees foolishness. What a twist ending!

Somehow, Anthony Volpe and Trent Grisham letting a bloop drop isn't this game's low point. It's only the fourth inning.