The Yankees came out of Phoenix with another loss, a thinner margin for error and a division race that is slipping toward Tampa Bay’s hands. Arizona beat New York, 8-4, on Sunday at Chase Field, leaving the Yankees six games behind the Rays in the American League East with seven games left on the schedule.
Arizona turns the game in the middle innings
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New York got to Corbin Burnes early in the third inning. Heliot Ramos opened the homer parade, then George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones went deep on consecutive swings to force Burnes from the game.
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The three rookie home runs carried a combined projected distance of 872 feet. Lombard’s shot traveled 424 feet, the longest drive of his career, and Jones followed with a 448-foot blast.
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Will Warren worked into the fifth for New York, allowing four runs on six hits and three walks across 4 1/3 innings.
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Arizona broke through against Brent Headrick in the fifth. Headrick walked Corbin Carroll with the bases full, then watched Nolan Arenado hook a drive just foul down the left-field line.
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Arenado did not miss the next opportunity, driving the following pitch out for a grand slam that pushed Arizona in front and helped build the 8-4 final.
Rotation work gives way to bullpen planning
Warren is expected to make one final regular-season start, with Baltimore next on his schedule. After that, manager Aaron Boone said the right-hander will move into a relief role for the postseason.
That decision reflects the Yankees’ changing calendar. They had hoped to trim the Rays’ lead before this week’s four-game series, but the sweepstakes now carries a harsher possibility: Tampa Bay could clinch the division in the Bronx.
New York is also staring at the prospect of another American League Wild Card Series against Boston, with the Red Sox potentially returning to Yankee Stadium for a second straight postseason assignment. First, though, the Yankees have seven regular-season games to make the division math look less forbidding.
