The New York Yankees led 4-1 after three innings on Sunday in Arizona. Three home runs off Corbin Burnes had knocked the Diamondbacks starter out of the game and given the lineup exactly the kind of start it needed.
None of it held. A five-run fifth inning turned a comfortable lead into a deficit, and the Yankees fell 8-4 at Chase Field to drop two of three in the series. New York is 89-66 and now sits six games behind the Rays in the American League East with seven to play.
After the game, manager Aaron Boone met with the media and offered an honest assessment of how it all fell apart.
Boone on Warren’s Start
Will Warren carried a 4-1 lead into the fifth inning before things unraveled. Warren allowed three consecutive baserunners in the fifth, loading the bases with one out, and Boone pulled him for Brent Headrick.
Boone’s evaluation was measured. He saw a pitcher whose stuff was there but whose command slipped at the wrong time.
“Early on he was in the strike zone really well and getting a lot of first pitch strikes ahead,” Boone said. “His stuff was again good. I feel like it’s been in a good place for the last three or four weeks now, but just started falling behind a little bit there in the latter part of the game.”
Warren had retired hitters efficiently through four innings, but back-to-back frames in which he fell behind multiple hitters proved costly. The stuff did not abandon him. The execution did.
The Offense Went Quiet
The Yankees scored all four of their runs in the third inning. Spencer Jones, Heliot Ramos, and George Lombard Jr. all connected off Burnes to build what felt like a comfortable lead.
After that, nothing. The Diamondbacks’ bullpen shut the door, and the lineup could not find a way to respond after the fifth-inning collapse.
“They’ve got a good relief corps. Obviously a lot of big arms,” Boone said. “I thought we had some decent at-bats along the way, but just obviously weren’t able to build on the lead or crawl our way back in.”
A Late Concern Emerges for the Yankees
Boone also provided an update on Clarke Schmidt at the end of his postgame session.
“He felt some cramping in his bicep when he was warming up, so obviously he didn’t want to take any chances there,” Boone said. “He checked out pretty well afterwards and all the strength tests. And so I’m hoping it’s not a big deal. But enough to have him not go into the game.”
Final Word for the Yankees
The Yankees blew a three-run lead and dropped a series they needed. The division is slipping away. The bullpen showed cracks on a day where the workload caught up with one of its most reliable arms.
Boone was honest about all of it. Warren’s stuff was good but the execution faltered. The offense disappeared after the third inning.
The Rays come to the Bronx on Tuesday for a doubleheader. The margin for error is gone.
Yankees’ Aaron Boone Drops Honest Take After Loss to Diamondbacks