Following their first loss of the season, the Yankees would need Carlos Rodon to be the stopper and put the team in a position to take their second series win. It wouldn’t be an easy task, however, as the Diamondbacks would send out Merrill Kelly, who is quietly one of the best starters in the entire league. The offense fell silent yesterday, getting shut out for the first time all season, as Aaron Judge’s struggles on the season have left the team dormant in the scoring category on the road.
Despite a tough matchup on the mound, the Yankees were able to come through in a wild and wonky 11-inning game that came down to the wire, as they improved to 6-1 on the season and completed a brilliant road trip.
Aaron Judge Leads the Way As Yankees Wrap Up Excellent Road Trip
The New York Yankees have waited on one thing all week, and that’s been a huge game from their captain Aaron Judge, who delivered a two-run blast to open the scoring against Merrill Kelly. He has been ice cold to open the season, having his worst start to a season in his MLB career, but today quickly silenced any irrational doubts about baseball’s best hitter as he came up in huge spots. With the Diamondbacks blasting two solo shots against Carlos Rodon, we’d see these two offenses hit a stalemate in the later spots of the game.
Ian Hamilton was brilliant for the Bronx Bombers, collecting eight outs with just four strikeouts and bridging the game to the likes of Jonathan Loaisiga and Clay Holmes later in the ballgame. They didn’t get a bad start from Rodon either, who fired 5.1 innings of two-run baseball as his ERA on the season sits at 2.79. He looked tired in the sixth inning and hasn’t had the signature swing-and-miss on his stuff that we’re used to, but the movement and velocity were all right where you want it to be.
Loaisiga would fire a perfect top of the ninth inning with a strikeout, and then Alex Verdugo would deliver his best swing as a Yankee yet. Crushing a ball to right field, you could see a week of frustration off of his shoulders, as he has struggled mightily with the bat since coming over from the Boston Red Sox. We all assumed that would punch the Diamondbacks hard enough to put them away for good, but Arizona didn’t want to go down quietly, as they rattled a poor throw from Anthony Volpe on a grounder from Geraldo Perdomo.
Rushing the throw, Anthony Rizzo couldn’t hang onto the ball as he went for the tag, making the game 4-3, and while they would get Ketel Marte to ground out, Corbin Carroll would hit a chopper over the head of Clay Holmes. His blazing speed was too much for their infield, and the Yankees would need another big hit in the 11th to get them the win. Scott McGough would step in, and after allowing a single to Gleyber Torres, he’d balk and allow the fifth run of the game to score.
Aaron Judge would come up with a chance to add more, and he drove in a crucial RBI double, as the Yankees headed into the 11th with a similar situation as the inning before it. Clay Holmes would just clip Christian Walker, but then he fought back from down 3-1 in the count to strike out Eugenio Suarez. Caleb Ferguson would come in to face Jace Peterson to get the lefty-lefty matchup, striking him out with a good cutter, but Jorge Barrosa would extend the game with an RBI single.
Then, with the game on the line, the Diamondbacks would need to send up Scott McGough to hit, as the Yankees smartly walked Gabriel Moreno, forcing a pitcher to take the most crucial at-bat of the game. Ferguson would dispose of his reliever counterpart in four pitches, and your New York Yankees are now 6-1 after a relentless road trip, holding sole possession of first place.