NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees pitcher Clarke Schmidt was scratched from Saturday’s start against the Tampa Bays Rays because of soreness in his left side and was replaced by Ryan Yarbrough.
Schmidt said the injury was unrelated to the right rotator cuff tendinitis that sidelined him between his only spring training outing on March 11 and his season debut on April 16.
An MRI on Friday did not show any injury, and Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he made the decision after Max Fried pitched seven innings in a victory over the Rays in the series opener.
“I told them I was good to go today,” Schmidt said before the Yankees' 3-2 loss Saturday. “I actually left the field expecting to start today and then Max went deep in the game and there was maneuverability with the bullpen.”
Schmidt is 0-1 with a 5.52 ERA in three starts and 14 2/3 innings. The 29-year-old right-hander said he felt extra soreness after throwing a season-high 90 pitches on April 27 against Toronto and expects to start on Tuesday night against San Diego. The Yankees have an off day on Thursday, allowing Schmidt to get a fifth day of rest before pitching in Seattle.
“Clarke was just a little concerned, especially just what he’s been through, being a little behind and everything and having some minor things pop up," Boone said. "So, yeah, it was definitely a relief and he should be OK moving forward.”
A 33-year-old left-hander who drops down, Yarbrough threw 53 pitches in relief of Will Warren in Monday's 4-3 loss at Baltimore.
“It's a very different look than what you typically see,” Boone said.
Yarbrough pitched for Tampa Bay from 2018-22, making one start and two relief appearances in the 2022 World Series.
“We asked a lot of him in different roles,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “He did pitch a lot of really big innings for us with a lot of success.”
Cash said Boone let him know of the change in a text and phone call Friday night. It caused Cash to change his lineup.
“I think most guys understand that we were going to run a bunch of lefties had it been Schmidt, but then we had to pull back," Cash said. "It was all sorted out within 20, 25 minutes after the game.”
Yarbrough allowed one run and one hit in four innings with three walks and two strikeouts, throwing 64 pitches. His niftiest move was avoiding Yandy Díaz’s shattered bat and fielding his comebacker for the final out of the second inning.
“Walked a couple leadoff hitters, which wasn’t ideal,” Boone said. “Going into the day if you would have said four innings, one run, sign us up all day long, so he gave us exactly what we needed.”
Boone had told Yarbrough of the start before the pitcher left the clubhouse Friday night. Yarbrough tried to persuade the manager to allow him to pitch the fifth inning.
“The cutter was not really where I wanted it to be,” he said. “Not a really good feel with it today and maybe got a little too headstrong with it.”
Right-hander Marcus Stroman, sidelined since April 11 by left knee inflammation, threw a bullpen session Friday.
“He’s had some injections in there to kind of try and rid himself of just that last bit of uncomfort,” Boone said. “I don’t know as far as the buildup.”
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New York Yankees' Ryan Yarbrough pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Saturday, May 3, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Yankees' Clarke Schmidt pitches during the second inning of the second baseball game of a doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays, Sunday, April 27, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are jumping on Thursday following an encouraging report on inflation that could help the Federal Reserve keep cutting interest rates next year. A strong profit report from Micron Technology also helped AI stocks halt their sharp slides, at least for now.
The S&P 500 rallied 0.9% and is on track for its best day in three weeks, coming off a four-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 124 points, or 0.3%, as of 2:07 p.m. Eastern time, and the strength for tech stocks had the Nasdaq composite up a market-leading 1.5%.
Some relief came from a report showing that inflation was less bad last month than economists expected. That could soothe nerves at the Fed, which is responsible for keeping inflation low and for keeping the job market strong.
Inflation is still higher than anyone would like, at 2.7% last month, but if it creeps closer to the Fed’s target of 2%, Fed officials could feel more free to cut interest rates to help a slowing job market. Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they can boost the economy and prices for investments, even if they may also worsen inflation.
To be sure, some along Wall Street said Thursday’s inflation update may not move the needle much at the Fed given how noisy economic reports have been following the U.S. government’s earlier shutdown. Next month’s update on inflation could provide a better gauge of what’s actually happening. But a better-than-expected report on inflation is nevertheless better than the alternative.
Also helping to drive the U.S. stock market was Micron Technology, the seller of memory and storage for computers, which rallied 12.8% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said each of the company’s business units enjoyed stronger revenue and made more in profit off each $1 of that revenue.
Micron also gave encouraging forecasts for upcoming financial results, and Mehrotra credited its position as an “AI enabler,” among other things.
Billions of dollars are flowing into artificial-intelligence technology, which helped superstar stocks like Nvidia lead the market for years.
But questions are rising about whether those stock prices shot too high and whether customers will get a good-enough return on AI investments through bigger profits and productivity. Worries are also weighing on companies that are borrowing lots of money to pay for AI investments.
Oracle and Broadcom have been at the center of such worries recently, and their stock prices have been falling sharply since last week despite both reporting better profits for the latest quarter than analysts expected. On Thursday, Oracle rose 0.4%, and Broadcom added 1.1%.
Nvidia, the chip company that’s become Wall Street’s most influential because of its immense size, gained 2.2%.
Another winner was Trump Media & Technology Group, which jumped 39% to carve into some of its steep loss for the year so far, 69.3% coming into the day. The company, which began with President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform and then moved into cryptocurrencies and various other lines of business, is now moving into nuclear power.
It’s merging with TAE Technologies in an all-stock deal, and each company will own roughly half of the combined business. The companies said the deal would pair TMTG’s ability to raise significant money by attracting investors with TAE’s technology. They hope to get TAE’s nuclear-fusion reactors, which would create power in a similar way as the sun does, running commercially.
Cintas rose 0.9% after the provider of work uniforms and cleaning supplies reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, while also announcing a program to send up to $1 billion to shareholders by buying back its own stock.
Darden Restaurants, the company behind Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, rose 0.4% even though its profit for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. Its growth in revenue topped forecasts, benefiting from both the opening of new restaurants and increased revenue at its older locations.
CarMax swung sharply between gains and losses and was most recently down 3.9%. The auto retailer reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But it also said it may make less profit from each $1 of revenue in sales of used autos during the current quarter, as it tries to get more competitive in the market. It also plans to increase spending on marketing to drive customers to lots.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose 0.6% in London, 0.8% in France and 1% in Germany after the Bank of England cut its key interest rate and the European Central Bank kept its steady.
Asian indexes were mixed, with stocks falling 1.5% in South Korea but adding 0.2% in Shanghai.
In the bond market, Treasury yields sank following the encouraging report on U.S. inflation.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.12% from 4.16% late Wednesday.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Trader Anthony Confusione works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Dealers work near the screens showing the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, left, and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Jim Boyle, CEO of Medline Industries, poses for a picture outside the Nasdaq MarketSite, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Dealers work near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer watches computer monitors at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
