1. Yesterday, following Tuesday’s first loss of the season, I wrote:
The Yankees can never just lose. By “just lose” I mean get blown out, shut down, shut out, never have a chance in the game. They either win, blow a game late, bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth, have an abundance of blown opportunities to tie or take the lead, or suffer a painful, excruciating loss. Yes, it keeps every game entertaining and means the Yankees are “in” every game, but at the same time, their losses and the way they lose always seem to be extremely detrimental to the health and wellbeing of their fans.
I finished yesterday’s Thoughts with this:
If the Yankees don’t get back in the win column on Wednesday or Thursday, I’m sure it will come as the result of an agonizing loss. That’s the only way they lose.
The Yankees lost a second straight game on Wednesday, and sure enough, it was the type of loss where they drag you back in in the ninth by bringing the tying run to the plate only to lose anyway.
2. For the first eight-and-a-half innings on Wednesday, the Yankees’ 4-3 loss to the Diamondbacks was shaping up to be a “Get ’em tomorrow” kind of game. Carlos Rodon was brutal in the first two innings, staking the Diamondbacks to a 4-0 lead, and Zac Gallen was masterful for 6 2/3 innings, completely stifling the Yankees’ bats, both standard and torpedo.
It was exactly a year to the day (April 2) that Gallen shut down the 2024 Yankees in Arizona: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K. But he was even better against the 2025 Yankees on Wednesday: 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 13 K. Combine those two lines and you get 12.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 19 K. That is a Cliff Lee-against-the-Yankees line.
“It will be a game we will look back on,” Aaron Boone said. “He was just dialed in. He had both breaking balls going. The changeup was working. He was moving the fastball around.”
So based on that summarization, Gallen was … pitching? Using two two breaking balls?! Throwing an effective changeup?! Moving around the fastball?! He was … doing his job? Something Rodon didn’t do in the game until it was too late.
3. Gallen kept the Yankees’ bats off balance the entire night, consistently getting swings and misses on his curveball and changeup. It was frustrating to watch his dominance as he became the first pitcher in history to strike out 13 Yankees without allowing a walk for a win.
The strikeouts didn’t end with Gallen. In 2 1/3 innings of relief, the Diamondbacks’ bullpen added three more for a game total of 16. Add those 16 to the 13 from the previous night and the Yankees struck out 29 times over the last two nights. Twenty-nine! TWENTY-NINE! Over two games, they struck out the equivalent of a full game of outs plus two more outs. That’s the thing about the torpedo bats: they only work when you make contact.
4. Austin Wells was the only Yankee to not strike out, while Aaron Judge, Jasson Dominguez and Ben Rice all picked up hat tricks at the plate. I wasn’t OK with the Yankees’ offensive effort, especially after they mustered only three non-error-aided runs the night before, but I was OK with them losing the way it seemed like they were going to lose rather than giving fans hope they may stage a late comeback. And then they went and tried to stage a late comeback.
5. After making a three-run lead stand up on Tuesday, A.J. Puk took the mound with a four-run lead on Wednesday. Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge greeted him with singles, but Jazz Chisholm flew out for the first out. Then Anthony Volpe torpedo’d the first pitch he saw just over the wall of the short porch for a three-run home run. Suddenly, the Yankees’ four-run deficit was one.
In that situation I wish Volpe had singled, or walked, or doubled. If Volpe had loaded the bases with one out, or had driven in a run with still two on, I would have liked the Yankees’ chances more. I under statistically that’s wrong, but the math doesn’t account for the human element of Puk having to deal with runners on base and increased pressure. Once Volpe cleared the bases, it allowed a Puk to reset, and he got Wells to pop up and struck out Dominguez to end the game.
6. Never a normal loss. That’s what I wrote after Tuesday’s loss, and it proved true again on Wednesday. The Yankees couldn’t just go down quietly in the ninth. They had to make you momentarily believe they could do to the Diamondbacks what the Diamondbacks had done to them the previous night. They had to make you start playing the “what if” game from the earlier innings. Like what if the Yankees hadn’t stranded runners on second and third with one out in the second? What if Rodon hadn’t thrown 92-mph meatballs in the first two innings? Unfortunately, they did strand those runners, and unfortunately, Rodon was awful in the first two innings.
7. “[Early in the game] maybe it was just a little weather-related, a little cooler and stuff,” Aaron Boone said of Rodon’s performance. “[Rodon] was searching to find the strike zone a little bit there in those first couple of innings, but I thought stuff-wise, once he settled in, he was pretty good.”
YES also talked about Rodon being affected by the weather in the first two innings. Oddly, Gallen didn’t have any issue with the weather. Rodon has spent his career pitching for the White Sox, Giants and Yankees, all teams that are exposed to the elements and all teams that have games at the beginning and end of seasons in poor weather. Gallen has only ever pitched for the Marlins and Diamondbacks, in controlled climates, where weather isn’t a factor.
It’s nice that Boone thought Rodon had “pretty good” stuff “once he settled in.” Once he settled in the Yankees were down four runs against once of the game’s best pitchers. It was the type of performance we have seen from Rodon so many times where he puts the team in an early hole and then figures it out once it’s too late. I guess being able to regrow facial hair wasn’t the key to unlocking the White Sox and Giants version of Rodon.
8. It was a bad night at the plate for everyone other than Wells (single, double, only Yankee to not strike out) and Volpe (three-run home run). I understand Wells hasn’t led off since Opening Day because Boone says the Yankees have faced reverse-split starters since then, but it didn’t seem to matter which hand any of the Yankees used to bat against Gallen on Wednesday. As for Volpe, he has four hits this season and all are home runs. He batted seventh on Opening Day, and then after homering in that game, he has batted fifth since. Being the Golden Boy of the organization is nice.
I could see Wells sitting for the first time of the season on Thursday. I could also see Paul Goldschmidt sitting since Michael Kay said as much on the broadcast, opining, “In all likelihood — he’s played all five games — probably gets tomorrow off,” in regard to Goldschmidt. I’m sure Kay knows something. No Wells and no Goldschmidt would mean the Yankees would need to use a third leadoff hitter for their sixth game of the year.
9. It will be Merrill Kelly against Carlos Carrasco on Wednesday in the series finale. Kelly was good in his first start of the season and was good against the Yankees on April 3 of last year: 7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR. (It’s crazy both Gallen and Kelly will face the Yankees on the same dates in consecutive seasons.)
I don’t have a lot of confidence in Carrasco. He was good enough to win a roster spot on the team in spring training, helped by the excessive injuries to the Yankees’ staff, but he was horrible in two innings of relief against the Brewers. Do you think Carrasco is the guy who pitched well in fake games in March, or the guy who a 5.36 ERA over his last 401 1/3 innings dating back to 2021? I don’t expect much from Carrasco. I don’t expect anything. I expect Carrasco to make Rodon’s performance from Wednesday feel like Gallen’s based on how I think Carrasco is going to fare on Thursday.
10. Carrasco is pitching for his career at this point. He’s already in line to be a DFA candidate once (if) the Yankees’ pitching gets healthy. Maybe that’s enough for him to turn back the clock five-plus years. It wasn’t when he pitched on Saturday. It needs to be on Thursday, or the offense is going to have to show up after taking the last two nights off. Otherwise, all of the runs, all of the home runs, all of the winning from the weekend will be undone and the Yankees will be sitting at .500.
Last modified: Apr 3, 2025
