Eovaldi dominates D’Backs, Yankees take series finale 4-2

Source: FanGraphs

I had an uncomfortable feeling the Yankees would regret not scoring more runs against the shaky Shelby Miller for most of Wednesday’s game, but thankfully that was not the case. The Yankees avoided the sweep with a 4-2 win in the series finale. Here’s the bullet point recap for the late West Coast game:

• Nasty Nate: Jean Segura, the first batter Nathan Eovaldi faced Wednesday night, hit a little ground ball back up the middle that literally hit second base and went for a double. Eovaldi did not allow another base-runner the rest of the night. He retired the next 18 men he faced, striking out five and getting eleven outs on the ground. The D’Backs hit two balls out of the infield in six innings against Eovaldi. Two. He was awesome. Fastball on both sides of the plate, splitter in the dirt, slider sliding … it was all working. Total domination. Bravo, Nate.
• Top of the Lineup: The Yankees struck first for two quick runs. Jacoby Ellsbury drew a walk and Brett Gardner smacked a two-run homer in the first inning. Boom. Two-zip lead before an out was made. The Yankees managed to strand a small army of runners against Miller before tacking on an insurance run in the sixth, an insurance run that was ultimately needed. Chase Headley singled, Eovaldi bunted him over, and Ellsbury singled him in. NL ball at its finest. A bases loaded wild pitch created the team’s fourth run in the eighth inning.
• Early Exit: Think Joe Girardi wanted this one? He went to Dellin Betances in the seventh inning even though Eovaldi had retired the last 18 (!) batters he faced and had thrown only 85 pitches. It was a questionable decision at best. It worked — Betances walked two and escaped without allowing a run, but he threw 31 pitches and that will affect his availability the next few days — but geez. The Yankees have been begging for a start like that all season. If Girardi’s not going to let Eovaldi pitch the seventh there, when will he?
• Bad Fundies: Another banner night for ol’ team baseball IQ. In the first Headley declined to throw home for whatever reason even though Segura literally stopped between third and home. Headley fielded the grounder, looked at Segura, then threw to first for the out while the run scored. I do not understand. In the second inning Didi Gregorius managed to run into Headley’s ground ball for an out on the bases. Sloppy. Sloppy sloppy sloppy.
• Leftovers: Andrew Miller allowed a solo homer and struck out the side in the eighth. Aroldis Chapman fanned one in the ninth … Mark Teixeira went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, though he did rip a deep line drive to right field in the first inning. Brandon Drury made a great jumping catch at the wall. It would have been a homer in the Bronx … Ellsbury had one of those “oh hey he can be really great” reminder games by going 3-for-3 with two walks … Headley and Gardner had two hits. In fact, every starter had at least one hit except Teixeira (and Eovaldi).

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. We also have Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages. The Yankees are done in the desert and now go to Oakland for a four-game series. Ivan Nova and Kendall Graveman will be Thursday’s pitching matchup. That’s a 10:05pm ET start. No more of this 9:40pm ET stuff.