Recap: Pineda, Yankees Continue Tumbling in the Desert

Following a humiliating 12-2 blowout on Monday night, the New York Yankees (16-21) battled for redemption in the middle game of their series against the Arizona Diamondbacks (18-23).

The Yankees called up a trio of fresh minor league players to round out their bench and depleted bullpen: UTIL Rob Refsnyder, RHP Luis Cessa, and LHP James Pazos. To make room for them on the roster, Chad Green and Conor Mullee were optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Phil Coke was designated for assignment.

Michael Pineda, whose 6.28 ERA ranked him second worst among Yankees’ starters coming into the game, hoped for a reversal of fortunes pitching in a National League ballpark. According to the Yankees PR Department on Twitter (you can follow them @YankeesPR), Pineda had thrown 19.1 scoreless innings in three career starts at NL parks prior to Tuesday night.

The Bombers would have to go through D-Backs’ ace Zack Greinke–who had been performing below expectations to start the season–to creep a game closer to .500.

Wouldn’t you know it! Greinke would be the first to blink in the contest. In the top of the second inning, Starlin Castro took him deep on a 2-1 fastball into left center field. The 400-foot blast was Castro’s fifth of the year, and it put a resounding exclamation mark behind the Yankees’ early lead.

But a short-lived lead it was, as the trend of Pineda’s worrisome inability to close innings after two outs bled into his Arizona outing. After breezing through the first two batters in the bottom of the second, Pineda served up a triple to Chris Owings and an RBI single to Nick Ahmed that tied the game before he collected his third out via strikeout.

Three consecutive singles gave the D-Backs their second run in the third inning. It was Paul Goldschmidt who earned the RBI by pulling a hanging two-strike slider into left field. Welington Castillo continued Arizona’s offensive pounding of the left side of the diamond when he laced a sharp grounder that scored his team’s third run. A double steal threatened an early exit for Pineda, but a shallow pop up and weak ground out kept him in the game, albeit at 47 pitches.

Pineda may have escaped the jam, but dugout cameras seemed to have caught skipper Joe Girardi voicing displeasure to his pitcher between innings. Perhaps it was just a pep talk, but given Girardi’s frustrated expression and Pineda’s season-long poor performance, one can assume that it was the former.

Whichever method it was, it worked for Pineda’s fourth inning. He collected two strikeouts as part of his first 1-2-3 frame of the night. But the fifth inning was a different story. Jake Lamb delivered a crippling blow to the Yankees by depositing a two-run shot to right center field that extended the D-Backs lead, 5-1.

That homer buried any chance of Pineda getting a pat on the back, and instead he was lifted from the game after going just five innings while coughing up five earned runs. His ERA somehow climbed higher to an unsightly 6.60.

Final line for Big Mike: 5 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 1 HR

It would be up to an already gassed bullpen to finish out the night for the Yankees. Chasen Shreve followed Pineda and tossed two scoreless. However, it took Shreve 37 pitches to do so, which likely will open an opportunity for Pazos to be called upon in an upcoming game should the team need a left-handed reliever.

New to the bench, Refsnyder was set to receive his first bit of big-league action in the top of the eighth inning, pinch hitting for Shreve. But back-to-back singles by Didi Gregorius and Aaron Hicks prompted Girardi to pull Refsnyder back inside and send out Carlos Beltran. As a counter measure, Greinke was lifted in favor of hard-throwing D-Backs’ reliever Daniel Hudson.

Beltran deflected an RBI ground out off of Hudson that scored Didi and also allowed Hicks to move into scoring position at second base. Jacoby Ellsbury kept the rally going with an RBI single into left field, slicing the deficit to 5-3 with one out. But Hudson found his grove and punched out Brett Gardner and Mark Teixeira to strand Ellsbury, effectively killing the Yankees’ momentum.

Kirby Yates bridged the gap to the ninth inning, picking up two strikeouts and setting up the Bombers for their last chance to pull even with Arizona.

But the quartet of Brian McCann, Castro, Chase Headley, and Didi were of little challenge to submariner Brad Ziegler, who earned the save for the Diamondbacks.

Nathan Eovaldi (3-2, 4.85) hopes to save his teammates from the sweep on Wednesday night. The Yankees will take on Arizona’s struggling no. 2 starter Shelby Miller (1-4, 6.94), who was acquired from the Atlanta Braves over the offseason. The game will begin at 9:40 PM ET and it can be viewed on the YES Network.