Sometimes, it’s just not your night.
On a chilly, gloomy night in the Bronx, the Arizona Diamondbacks scored a few early runs off of a shaky Carlos Rodón and rode an incredible start by Zac Gallen to victory, as the Yankees dropped their first series of the year in a 4-3 defeat. The offense, which had hit at least two home runs and scored at least four runs in each of the first four games, was completely shut down by Gallen, who could do no wrong with any of his pitches.
Unlike his mound opponent, Rodón came out shaky, walking Ketel Marte to lead off the game. His velo was way down, as after sitting at 95-96 in his first start, he averaged out at 93 mph on his four-seamer.
Rodón faced Lourdes Gurriel Jr. with one out when Michael Kay remarked that he was hitless in his last 34 at-bats against the Yankees. This is hard to believe for me, who has always considered Gurriel a Yankee killer from his time in Toronto. Of course, Gurriel crushed a high fastball down the left-field line for a two-run shot for his first hit against the Yankees since August 2022.
Paul Goldschmidt led off the game with a good at-bat and a long fly ball to center that was caught at the warning track. That barreled flyout was one of the better swings of the night.
Gallen made quick work of Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge before the Diamondbacks plated another two runs. Following an Eugenio Suárez walk, Gabriel Moreno reached on an unlucky infield single, and a slow grounder to move the runners over set up a Geraldo Perdomo sacrifice fly and a Ketel Marte RBI single. Just four outs into the game, Rodón had given up four runs.
Fortunately for the Yankees’ shorthanded bullpen, Rodón gritted his teeth and fared well for the rest of the game. The offense on the other hand, not so much. Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s bloop single and Austin Wells’ rocket double set the Yankees up to punch back in the second, only for Gallen to masterfully spin his knuckle curve over and over again to strike out Ben Rice and Jasson Domínguez.
Rodón walked a pair in the third but got a needed double play ball out of Josh Naylor. That would be his last real trouble for a while.
Meanwhile, Gallen struck out two in the third, one in the fourth, two in the fifth, three in the sixth (including a dropped third strike), and two in the seventh. Ultimately, he fanned 13 in 6.2 shutout innings, tying a career-high in K’s and generating 24 whiffs. His knuckle-curve alone had an unbelievable 13 whiffs on 18 swings.
Rodón winded up grinding his way through six innings, allowing four runs on four walks and three hits. Overall, I loved the way he powered through early struggles and saved the bullpen, which can be huge early in the season.
Yoendrys Gómez came on for the seventh and did an admirable job. The rookie long reliever tossed three scoreless innings, working around a trio of walks. He’s not going to be in the circle of trust this season—not just yet, at the very least—but his ability to eat innings in games like these will pay dividends for him and for the team. He’s now thrown 4.1 shutout innings to start the season.
Things looked extremely bleak into the ninth inning after some great relief from Joe Mantiply, but the D-backs tried to steal some outs with Ryan Thompson and winded up giving up a pair of hard-hit singles to Bellinger and Judge. That forced Arizona to burn their closer, A.J. Puk, who made his third appearance in four days and second in a row.
After the filthy lefty got Jazz to fly out, Anthony Volpe ripped a first-pitch fastball to the Short Porch in right field for his fourth long ball of the season. (He has just four hits, but they’re all dingers.) Fittingly, the only parks where it would have been a homer are Yankee Stadium and George M. Steinbrenner Field. The Yankees now have an MLB-record 19 home runs through their first five games.
Alas, Puk shut the door with some great execution against Wells and Domínguez to end the ballgame.
With that, the Yankees dropped their first series of 2025 and are at risk of a home sweep, which would put them at 3-3 and dump a bucket of cold water on all the fun vibes from the fireworks-laden Opening Day weekend. The offense struck out 16 times tonight. They’ve struck out 30 times in the last two games. Last time that happened? July 2023. Not great!
The Yankees will look to salvage the third and final game of the series tomorrow night. Carlos Carrasco makes his first start as a Yankee against Merrill Kelly at 7:05pm on YES.
