Yankees Recap: Eovaldi Tosses One-Hit Wonder through Six Innings, Spoils the Sweep

After dropping two straight in Arizona–while being outscored by a 17 to 5 margin–the New York Yankees (16-22) attempted to avoid the sweep from the Diamondbacks (19-23) on Wednesday night.

Nathan Eovaldi was backed by a lineup full of regulars in his duty to eat innings and take pressure off of an overused bullpen. To locate the last time a Yankee starter completed at least six innings, you’d have to date all the way back to May 10, when Masahiro Tanaka went seven shaky innings while giving up six runs against the Kansas City Royals.

Fortunately for Eovaldi, before he ever threw his first pitch the Yankees’ offense granted him a two-run cushion. The 1-2 punch of Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner teamed up against Shelby Miller, who walked Ellsbury to start the game and served up a 418-foot blast that Gardner placed approximately 10 rows deep into the right field bleachers.

A series of odd events would halve the Yankees’ lead in the bottom of the 1st. Jean Segura hit a seeing-eye grounder that deflected off the second base bag and milked two bases out of it for a hustle double. A ground ball to the right side of the infield advanced him another 90 feet, where third baseman Chase Headley allowed him to score on a head-scratching play.

Headley hesitated after fielding a hard-hit ball, and Segura, who had initially made a break for home, froze on the base path anticipating a play at the plate. Headley double clutched and missed his opportunity to hose down Segura, and instead opted for the out at first, bringing the score to 2-1.

It took until the top of the 6th, but the Yankees added some breathing room on a clutch two-out RBI single from Ellsbury–who would go 3-for-3 and reach base in all five plate appearances–that scored Headley from second base.

Eovaldi pitched masterfully following his first inning, retiring a career-high 18 consecutive batters before getting the quick hook from skipper Joe Girardi after six innings. Eovaldi allowed only one hit, walked none, and had efficiently paced himself at 85 pitches, but Girardi wasn’t taking any chances, as he turned to the back of the bullpen to shut the game down.

But Dellin Betances put the manager’s decision on the hot seat to begin the bottom of the 7th when he walked the first two batters he faced. These were the first D-backs’ base runners to reach since the 1st inning. Betances turned the tides and collected two strikeouts and a pop out to escape his self-made jam, but the effort consumed a season-high 31 pitches, making his availability for tomorrow night questionable.

Predictably following the late-game blueprint, it was Andrew Miller‘s turn to take over in the 8th, but he too would run into problems in a hurry. Chris Owings mashed a hanging slider for his first homer of the season and brought the game within one run, 3-2. Since being “demoted” to the set-up role, this made for the second time that Miller had surrendered a leadoff home-run in the 8th.

Before handing the ball to the man that bumped Miller and Betances down a peg in the bullpen hierarchy, Aroldis Chapman, the Yankees mustered one final run in the top of the 9th. Ellsbury’s second walk and Gardner’s second single of the night put runners on for pinch hitter Dustin Ackley with one out. He advanced the speedsters on a softly hit ground-ball out, which prompted D-backs’ reliever Evan Marshall to intentionally walk Brian McCann to face the struggling Mark Teixeira.

Tex struck out in the crucial situation, capping off an ugly night at the plate in which the first baseman went 0-5 with three Ks.

On a positive note, Chapman successfully fired his fourth save of the season for the Yankees (with a little help from a diving catch by Aaron Hicks in the middle of the frame). The left-handed power arm ultimately topped out at 102 mph and struck out one batter in the inning.

The Yankees will head out to Oakland on Thursday to begin a four game series against the Athletics. Ivan Nova (2-1, 3.70) will have the pitching assignment against Kendall Graveman (1-5, 5.84). The game is set to start at 10:05 PM ET and can be viewed on the YES Network.