About Last Night: Yanks Lose 7-5

About Last Night: The Diamonbacks Won 7-5

By Paul Semendinger

April 2, 2025

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Last night the Yankees' perfect season ended with a 7-5 loss. The Yankees, of note, were winning 4-2 in the game heading into the 8th inning before they gave it away.

Quick Stats:

• Mark Leiter - Loss

• Yankee Home Runs - Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dominguez, Ben Rice

• The top four Yankees in the batting order went 0-for-15

The Game Story:

Will Warren started out strong, retiring the side in the first inning with two strikeouts. Facing him, Corbin Burnes of the Diamondbacks, did the same.

So, Will Warren came back and retired the side in order again. And, Corbin Burnes did the same. (Warren had one strikeout, Burnes, two.) Thus far, the torpedo bats seemed to have no firepower.

In the third inning, Will Warren decided to try something different to see if Corbin Burnes would continue to copy him. With two outs, Warren walked the number nine hitter and then gave up a two-run homer to Corbin Carroll before getting out of the inning. And, it kind of worked. Burns followed suit and walked a guy and he also gave up a homer. But, he did it in the wrong order. Jasson Dominguez homered, Ben Rice doubled, and Oswaldo Cabrera walked, but then the top three Yankees hitters, batting for their second time in the game, all got out. After three innings, Arizona led 2-1.

Leadoff walks kill a team. Back-to-back walks to begin an inning are the worst. Will Warren walked the first two batters of the fourth. Then a 4-6-3 double play followed by a ground out led to no runs.

It's terrible when the leadoff batter strikes out, as Jazz Chisholm did. Anthony Volpe then followed with a homer. Austin Wells then had a fantastic at bat, fouling off 45,000 pitches before walking. Dominguez then singled. Ben Rice struck out, but the runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. Then, on an easy ground ball to first, former Indian and former Guardian, Josh Naylor, soft-tossed the ball way over the pitcher's head (covering first) and two runs scored. After 4 innings, the Yanks were up 4-2.

In the fifth, Warren again walked the leadoff man. After two outs, he feel behind Corbin Carroll 2-0, then came back to strike him out finishing the inning with the Yanks still up 4-2. In the bottom of the frame, the Yanks were able to chase Corbin Burnes, but no runs scored.

Fernando Cruz came in for the Yankees to begin the sixth inning. He got two strikeouts and a soft ground ball to first base to retire the side in order. The Yankees followed suit by going down quickly.

Cruz struck out two of the three batters he faced in the seventh. He retired all six batters he faced in the game. The Yankees then failed to score.

And that's where the fun ended. Tim Hill came in and gave up a loud double followed by a run scoring, "excuse-me", oppositive field single up the first base line. After an out, he was lifted. Mark Leiter came in and had trouble throwing strikes. He walked two batters, got a strikeout, and then gave up a grand slam to Eugenio Suarez to put the Diamondbacks up 7-4. Newly signed Adam Ottovino, wearing number 58, came in and got a three pitch strikeout.

The Yankees answered by doing nothing, three batters all struck out.

The ninth inning was uneventful until Ben Rice hit a two-out upper deck blast to make the score 7-5...where it ended moments later.

Player of the Game - Will Warren. He showed moxie. 5 innings, 1 hit allowed. He also walked four batters, but he struck out four as well.

Better to Forget - Mark Leiter, Jr. You have to throw strikes and Leiter didn't throw enough of them. He threw 19 pitches. Only eight were strikes. One of those strikes sailed over the left field wall for a grand slam.

My Take:

Some random notes... first, I don't hate the beards on the Yankees. Second, the Starr Insurance patch is less obnoxious this year. They made it smaller. I still don't like it, but I dislike it less.

So much for the Yankees' torpedo bats giving them an unfair advantage.

Mark Leiter, Jr. was not good last year. This outing gives me little confidence that the new year will bring better results.

Next Up:

The series continues tomorrow at 7:05 p.m. Don't worry, you can't watch the game. It'll be on Amazon prime or some other outlet. It is a brilliant strategy baseball employs to take the game away from fans. "You like the team, well, too bad, you can't watch." Carlos Rodon will be on the mound for the Yankees.