Marcus Stroman fired up the Yankees, in the clubhouse and on the mound.
Returning from a knee injury that sidelined him for 2 1/2 months, the 34-year-old right-hander resumed his pregame routine of lighting a scented candle in his stall Sunday morning to set the mood.
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New York Yankees pitcher Marcus Stroman throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
New York Yankees' Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Marcus Stroman, right, react during the third inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
New York Yankees pitcher Marcus Stroman throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
New York Yankees pitcher Marcus Stroman throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
New York Yankees first baseman Ben Rice, left, and Marcus Stroman react walking off during the second inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
He then allowed one run and three hits over five innings in a 12-5 win over the Athletics.
“It’s not the same being on the side. You feel like you’re left out,” he said. “So definitely good to be back with the boys.”
Among the shortest major league pitchers at 5-foot-7, Stroman is distinctive. Sunday's candle was Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender). Next to it was a stack of books: Osho’s “The Great Challenge,” Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations” and Don Miguel Ruiz’s “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom.”
He had not pitched for the Yankees since April 11, when he was chased in a five-run first inning during a 9-1 loss to San Francisco. He got a cortisone shot and slowly worked his way back from left knee inflammation, an injury stemming from a torn ACL in 2015.
Stroman takes pride in his grit. He tore his ACL during a spring training fielding drill with Toronto that March 10, started minor league rehab outings on Sept. 2 and returned to a big league mound that Sept. 19.
Stroman started the season 0-1 with an 11.57 ERA in three starts. After the injury layoff, he was 0-1 with a 6.97 ERA in three rehab appearances with Double-A Somerset.
“I tore my ACL, made it back in five months, so I don’t do doubt,” he said. “Knew I’d be back at some point. It was just a matter of when.”
Not a hard thrower these days, Stroman averaged 89.8 mph with his four-seam fastball. New York needed him for a rotation missing ace Gerrit Cole (Tommy John surgery), AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil (strained right lat) and left-hander Ryan Yarbrough (strained right oblique).
“I thought he had a presence on both sides of the plate,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Was a little unpredictable. Used his sinker, used his cutter and then the different kind of breaking balls. But he got after it in the zone when he needed to.”
Stroman had a scare in the second inning, when Max Muncy hit a 97.2 mph liner off his right hamstring.
“It crushed me. Pretty firm. ... It hurt a lot," he said.
Stroman didn't think he'd have to come out.
“Adrenaline is a great drug,” he said, “so I won't feel it until tomorrow.”
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New York Yankees pitcher Marcus Stroman throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
New York Yankees' Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Marcus Stroman, right, react during the third inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
New York Yankees pitcher Marcus Stroman throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
New York Yankees pitcher Marcus Stroman throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
New York Yankees first baseman Ben Rice, left, and Marcus Stroman react walking off during the second inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — About 40 people were killed and another 115 injured, most of them seriously, after a fire ripped through a bar’s New Year celebration in a Swiss Alpine resort less than two hours after midnight Thursday, police said.
Authorities did not immediately have an exact count of the deceased.
The Crans-Montana resort is best known as an international ski and golf venue, and overnight, its crowded Le Constellation bar morphed from a scene of revelry into the site of potentially one of Switzerland’s worst tragedies.
Valais Canton police commander Frédéric Gisler said during a news conference that work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families, adding that the community is “devastated.”
Beatrice Pilloud, Valais Canton attorney general, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire. Experts have not yet been able to go inside the wreckage.
“At no moment is there a question of any kind of attack,” Pilloud said.
She later said the number of people who were in the bar is “currently totally unknown,” adding that its maximum capacity will be part of the investigation.
“For the time being, we don’t have any suspect,” she added, when asked if anyone had been arrested over the fire. “An investigation has been opened, not against anyone, but to illuminate the circumstances of this dramatic fire.”
Gisler said the priority until further notice would be identifying the victims, and added that “this work will have to take several days.”
Axel Clavier, a 16-year-old from Paris who survived the blaze, described “total chaos” inside the bar. One of his friends died and “two or three" were missing, he told The Associated Press.
He said he hadn’t seen the fire start, but did see waitresses arrive with Champagne bottles with sparklers, he said.
Clavier said he felt like he was suffocating and initially hid behind a table, then ran upstairs and tried to use a table to break a Plexiglas window. It fell out of its casing, allowing him to escape.
He lost his jacket, shoes, phone and bank card while fleeing, but “I am still alive and it’s just stuff.”
“I’m still in shock,” he added.
Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they were inside when they saw a male bartender lifting a female bartender on his shoulders as she held a lit candle in a bottle. The flames spread, collapsing the wooden ceiling, they told the broadcaster.
One of the women described a crowd surge as people frantically tried to escape from a basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs and through a narrow door.
Another witness speaking to BFMTV described people smashing windows to escape the blaze, some gravely injured, and panicked parents rushing to the scene in cars to see whether their children were trapped inside. The young man said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames and likened what he saw to a horror movie as he watched from across the street.
Officials described how the blaze likely triggered the release of combustible gases that ignited violently and caused what English-speaking firefighters call a flashover or backdraft.
“This evening should have been a moment of celebration and coming together, but it turned into a nightmare,” said Mathias Reynard, head of the regional government of the Valais Canton.
The injured were so numerous that the intensive care unit and operating theater at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity, Reynard said.
Crans-Montana is less than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Sierre, Switzerland, where 28 people, including many children, were killed when a bus from Belgium crashed inside a Swiss tunnel in 2012.
In a region busy with tourists skiing on the slopes, the authorities have called on the local population to show caution in the coming days to avoid any accidents that could require medical resources that are already overwhelmed.
With high-altitude ski runs rising around 3,000 meters (nearly 9,850 feet) in the heart of the Valais region's snowy peaks and pine forests, Crans-Montana is one of the top venues on the World Cup circuit. The resort will host the best men’s and women’s downhill racers, including Lindsey Vonn, for their final events before the Milan Cortina Olympics in February. The town's Crans-sur-Sierre golf club stages the European Masters each August on a picturesque course.
The Swiss blaze on Thursday came 25 years after an inferno in the Dutch fishing town of Volendam on New Year’s Eve, which killed 14 people and injured more than 200 as they celebrated in a cafe.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin, speaking on his first day in office, said many emergency staff had been “confronted by scenes of indescribable violence and distress.”
“This Thursday must be the time of prayer, unity and dignity,” he said. “Switzerland is a strong country not because it is sheltered from drama, but because it knows how to face them with courage and a spirit of mutual help.”
Dazio reported from Berlin and Leicester reported from Paris. Geir Moulson in Berlin and Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the name of Mathias Reynard, head of the regional government of the Valais Canton.
A floral tribute left near the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge during New Year's celebration, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
A hearse car drives as police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge during New Year's celebration, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
From left, Mathias Reynard, State Councillor and president of the Council of State of the Canton of Valais, Stephane Ganzer, State Councillor and head of the Department of Security, Institutions and Sport of the Canton of Valais, Frederic Gisler, Commander of the Valais Cantonal Police and Beatrice Pilloud, Attorney General of the Canton of Valais during a press conference in Lens, following a fire that broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
From left, Mathias Reynard, State Councillor and president of the Council of State of the Canton of Valais, Stephane Ganzer, State Councillor and head of the Department of Security, Institutions and Sport of the Canton of Valais, Frederic Gisler, Commander of the Valais Cantonal Police, Beatrice Pilloud, Attorney General of the Canton of Valais and Nicole Bonvin-Clivaz, Vice-President of the Municipal Council of Crans-Montana during a press conference in Lens, following a fire that broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
A skier walks in the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
A banner stating that fireworks are prohibited due to the risk of fire is pictured near the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
