New York Yankees Recap: Chad Green Struggles in Major League Debut

Following a brief ceremony delay out in the desert, Chad Green would make his major league debut with the Yankees against the Arizona Diamondbacks for some inter-league play.

Part of the ceremony included former MLB player and legendary Yankees manager Joe Torre, who spoke in honor of the late Joe Garagiola.

But now on to baseball…

After getting the first two batters he faced out, Paul Goldschmidt gave Green a proper welcome by launching a solo home run over the left field wall to put the Diamondbacks up 1-0.

Welcome to the show kid.

One inning later it was Jean Segura who drove in Chris Herman on a hard-hit RBI double that put the Yankees in an early 2-0 deficit.

The Yankees managed to make things interesting when they tied the ballgame thanks to an RBI singe from Chase Headley – yes Chase Headley in the top of the fourth and a Jacoby Ellsbury little league home run (triple and a throwing error) in the top of the fifth to knot things up at two, but it was all downhill for Chad Green and the Yankees from there.

Just one inning after recording his first major league 1-2-3 inning, Green served up a three-run homer to the slumping Jake Lamb in the bottom of the fifth, putting the D-Backs up 5-2 and effectively starting the beginning of the end to Green’s first start.

Following the homer, Green served up a hard-hit double to the very next batter he faced and was immediately pulled from the game and replaced by Nick Goody.

Of course the whole rally started because of a rare fielding error over at first base when Mark Teixeira dropped a routine put-out when Michael Bourn tried to drop down a surprise bunt to lead off the fifth inning, but hey, that’s baseball.

Green’s final line: (4.0 IP, 8 Hits, 6 Runs (4 earned), 1 BB, 5 Ks, 2 HR, 9.00 ERA)

It turned out that Chad Green wasn’t the only Yankees prospect to make his big-league debut on Monday. Right handed pitcher Conor Mullee also made his debut out of the Yankees ‘pen, allowing one run in the sixth after walking three and plunking a batter, but still managed to give up zero hits.

Following their five run fifth inning, the Diamondbacks tacked on one run in the sixth, one in the seventh and three more in the bottom of the eighth to rout the Yankees 12-2 and spoil Green’s debut.

The Yankees are back in action Tuesday night as Michael Pineda (1-4, 6.28 ERA) will be pitching on an extra day’s rest against 2015 NL Cy Young runner-up Zack Greinke (3-3, 5.26 ERA).

Firs pitch is scheduled for 9:05 pm EST.