An interminable rain delay before Sunday’s game at Yankee Stadium was far from the ugliest part of the day for a team that entered as hot as any in the sport.
The Yankees blew a three-run lead to the Marlins in a 7-6 defeat, as a bullpen filled with question marks imploded in the eighth inning and the lineup mostly disappeared after the third.
Down by three runs in the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees rallied with walks by Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice.
Giancarlo Stanton struck out looking before Jazz Chisholm Jr. doubled in the gap to right-center to get the Yankees to within a run.
After an intentional walk to Austin Wells, J.C. Escarra pinch hit for José Caballero and struck out to end it.
“We don’t think the game is over until the last out,” Chisholm said of the late drama.
The defeat was surprising, but what caused it wasn’t, as even with the Yankees winning eight of their first nine games — and four in a row entering Sunday — there were some lingering questions.
Jake Bird (59) reacts after giving Miami Marlins third baseman Graham Pauley (21) a two-run RBI double during the 8th inning of the Yankees and Miami Marlins game at Yankee Stadium. Bill Kostroun/New York Post
At the forefront was the pen, filled with pitchers with lackluster résumés.
And the lack of production from the bottom of the lineup has been alarming.
Both were on display in the loss.
Jake Bird and Ryan Yarbrough gave up run-scoring hits in the decisive eighth inning, but they weren’t the only culprits.
The game began well enough, as the Yankees brushed off an early run allowed by Max Fried — his first of the season — with Rice’s three-run homer in the bottom of the inning.
It was Rice’s third home run in his past four games.
The 410-foot blast into the second deck in right came against Pete Fairbanks, who opened the game because he had to return to Miami for his wife’s induced labor Monday.
The bizarre strategy backfired early, as Fairbanks was terrible in the first, but Yankees hitters hardly did anything once he left.
They scraped together an unearned run in the third to make it 4-1 against Miami’s scheduled starter, Chris Paddack.
New York Yankees first baseman Ben Rice (22) watches his three-run homer during the first inning of the Yankees and Miami Marlins game at Yankee Stadium. Bill Kostroun/New York Post
And with Fried on the mound — having pitched 13 ¹/₃ shutout innings to open the season — that seemed like it would be enough.
But Fried wasn’t sharp and lamented the three walks he issued, as he allowed three runs in 6 ²/₃ innings.
Miami got a run back in the fourth and inched closer in the sixth, as the first three runners reached — including on a throwing error by Caballero on Heriberto Hernández’s grounder to short.
Fried picked off Hernández at first and then Caballero made up for his miscue by throwing out Lopez at the plate on Connor Norby’s ground ball.
Max Fried (54) throws a pitch during the 5th inning of the Yankees and Miami Marlins game at Yankee Stadium. Bill Kostroun/New York Post
Giancarlo Stanton (27) hits a single during the 7th inning when the New York Yankees played the Miami Marlins Sunday, April 5, 2026 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY. Robert Sabo for NY Post
Home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez missed the call despite Wells clearly tagging Lopez’s elbow, but a replay review overturned it to preserve the Yankees lead.
But the game came apart in the eighth.
With the bullpen short after being used heavily, the Yankees went to Bird with one on and one out in the eighth.
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Bird walked Lopez, hit pinch hitter Griffin Conine and then gave up a two-run, go-ahead double to pinch hitter Graham Pauley.
“I have to bear down and I didn’t do my job,” Bird said. “Just not a good day.”
Down a run, the lefty Yarbrough entered and allowed a single to Xavier Edwards to make it a three-run game.
It proved to be too much for the Yankees to come back from.