Yankees 3, Diamondbacks 5, and the guy who beat them wasn't even in the starting lineup.
Pavin Smith came off the Arizona bench with one out in the bottom of the ninth and turned a 3-3 tie into a walk-off with a single swing -- a 391-foot rocket to right-center off Michael Fulmer, 99.7 mph off the bat, that cleared the fence before the Yankees' bullpen had even finished exhaling from the inning before. Ballgame, series tied at one, and a rubber match waiting Sunday.
Chase Field had 47,918 in the building for the Diamondbacks' 25th-anniversary tribute to the 2001 World Series team, and Arizona gave the crowd a new memory to go with the old ones. Not the one the Yankees wanted to help write.
The Review That Set the Table
Give Ildemaro Vargas some credit here too (or blame the umpire, take your pick). Leading off the ninth, Vargas worked a full count, got rung up on a called strike three, and challenged it through the ABS system. Overturned. Walk instead of an out.
That's the difference between a walk-off and a game-tying shot. Baseball's cruel that way -- one pitch-tracking review, and Fulmer's night goes from "bad" to "the kind you don't sleep off easily."
Bench Player Delivers
Smith's homer was the single biggest swing of the game by win probability, a jump of better than 36 points the instant the ball left the yard. That's not a typo. One at-bat, and the Diamondbacks went from a coin flip to a celebration.
The pitch was a cutter, 0-1 count, and Smith put a 28-degree launch angle on it that had no business finding the seats off a swing that compact. He'd entered as a pinch-hitter for Jose Fernandez. Three pitches later he was the story of the night (and probably bought a round of drinks in that clubhouse).
Wells and Ramos Answer First
This game had life in it well before the ninth. Ben Rice's sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth scored Anthony Volpe for an early 1-0 lead, and Jordan Lawlar answered right back in the bottom half with a two-run triple that put Arizona up 2-1.
Then the Yankees got loud. Heliot Ramos and Austin Wells went deep back-to-back in the top of the sixth, both off Kevin Ginkel, both to right field -- Ramos first (373 feet), Wells right behind him (393 feet, 104.8 mph, a 3-2 count he simply refused to give away). That's a 3-2 Yankees lead built in about four minutes of game time.
Corbin Carroll tied it right back up with a sac fly in the bottom of the sixth, and from there it was a stalemate until Smith ended it. Cam Schlittler's line got buried by the finish, but it shouldn't be: 6 innings, 1 earned run, 6 strikeouts against 3 walks, 98 pitches. He gave the Yankees exactly what they needed from a starter on the road.
Brent Headrick and Paul Blackburn kept it clean behind him -- 2.0 combined innings, zero runs -- and for a while it looked like the bullpen had done its job. Then Boone turned to Fulmer for the ninth, and the good work went up in smoke on one swing.
The Fulmer Question
Ginkel blew the save for Arizona with those back-to-back homers (his second blown save of the year, for what it's worth), so this isn't purely a one-sided bullpen story. But Fulmer facing Smith, a lefty bat, with the platoon advantage sitting right there and the season fading for both clubs -- that's the matchup Aaron Boone has to live with. Fulmer got one out. It cost the Yankees the game.
Yankees are 89-65 now, still second in the AL East, five back with the schedule getting tighter by the day. Series is tied 1-1 after New York's 9-2 win in the opener, and the rubber game at Chase Field on Sunday decides who leaves the desert feeling good about themselves.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
