The Yankees’ bats were kept in check by Zac Gallen, picking up just three hits against the right-hander before the offense woke up late in their 4-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on a cold, windy night in The Bronx on Wednesday.
Here are the takeaways…
–Carlos Rodon‘s second start of the season wasn’t as good as his first, but if you tuned in for the first couple of innings you’d be surprised by how well the southpaw pitched.
In the first, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. smashed a 94.2 mph fastball up in the zone that went into the second deck in left field. In the second, Rodon had some tough luck, reaching for a groundball up the middle that if he let go could have been a double play, instead everyone was safe. Arizona would caash in, with a sac fly to push their lead to 3-0 and then Ketel Marte — who signed a big extension earlier in the day — with a two-out seeing-eye single, gave the D-backs a four-run lead.
After that, Rodon was cruising. He wound up getting through six innings allowing the four runs on three hits, four walks and striking out five. Impressive considering how poorly Rodon pitched.
-But even if Rodon allowed just one run it wouldn’t have mattered by how well Gallen pitched. The Arizona right-hander entered Wednesday’s game with two career starts against the Yankees and was dominant. He was 2-0 and hadn’t allowed a run in 12 innings against the Bombers and he continued his dominance.
Gallen got into trouble just once in this game, which came in the second inning after a Jazz Chisholm Jr. single and Austin Wells double but Jasson Dominguez and Ben Rice struck out swinging on knuckle curves. The Yankees struck out seven times on Gallens’ knuckle curve and 13 times in total against him. Gallen allowed just three hits in 6.2 innings (101 pitches/64 strikes) without allowing a walk.
-Even when Gallen was out of the game, the Yankees struggled. Joe Mantiply pitched a perfect inning and Ryan Thompson got an out before he allowed back-to-back singles in the top of the ninth. Arizona went to AJ Puk to close out the game, but the southpaw allowed a first-pitch homer to Anthony Volpe to cut their lead to 4-3. Wells and Dominguez sat down in order to end the comeback.
It’s Volpe’s fourth home run of the season and he had just one of the team’s six hits. Cody Bellinger (1-4), Aaron Judge (1-4) and Wells (2-4) were the only players to get a hit.
Arizona’s lineup wasn’t much better, getting just three hits against Rodon and Yoendrys Gomez, who allowed three walks while striking out one batter in three innings of work.
Highlights
The Yankees have life in the 9th!
Anthony Volpe with a 3-run shot to cut it to 1! pic.twitter.com/rFEMDMgWPm
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 3, 2025
What’s next
The Yankees and Diamondbacks complete their three-game series on Thursday. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.
Carlos Carrasco will make his first start with the Yankees, and he’ll be opposed by Merrill Kelly.
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