TAKE ME HOME!
Boone tossed as strong road trip ends with losses to D-Backs:
PHOENIX — Luke Voit rounded second base after knocking his team-leading ninth home run in the sixth inning and screamed “Let’s go!”
Voit was trying to wake up an offense that had suddenly stalled. Voit’s fifth homer of the road trip and his run scored in the eighth were not enough as the Diamondbacks held off the Yankees for a 3-2 win Wednesday at Chase Field to complete a sweep of the twogame series.
“I feel like we hit a lot of balls hard tonight, just got unlucky,” Voit said. “They made some good pitches today, and unfortunately we didn’t get the job done.
“I think we have to take the positives, a good road trip, [with] injuries for us to still
win six games is pretty good,” Voit said. “I guess take this off day as a fresh start. I think we get some guys back this weekend and go from there.”
The Yankees (18-13) lost for just the fourth time in their last 15 games. The dropped their first series after winning four straight. On this nine-game, three-city West Coast road trip, the Yankees did make progress overall. Despite having a major leagueleading 13 players on the injured list, they went from one win above .500 to four. But it was a weak finish.
After scoring 46 runs in the first seven games of this road trip, they finished with just three in two games here. Voit homered and then scored on Mike Tauchman’s single in the eighth. The Yankees had the tying run on first with one
out in the ninth, but stranded Cameron Maybin there.
Masahiro Tanaka wasn’t great, allowing three runs on five hits and striking out six. But he was good enough for the Yankees to have a shot at a win.
“These two days we haven’t been able to get that hit or mount anything offensively,” Yankee manager Aaron Boone said. “Bottom line is we’ve pitched well enough, three runs [allowed] back to back days, we just haven’t been able to mount enough against them offensively.”
That will be more of a concern going forward.
The Yankees faced the worst of the American League West (Angels) and National League West (Giants) on the first two stops. The Diamondbacks (18-13) were the first team with a winning record they have faced since getting swept at Houston earlier this month. With the losses to Arizona, the Yankees are 0-5 against winning teams.
And after a day off on Thursday, their schedule remains tough with three straight series against Minnesota, Seattle and at Tampa Bay. Minnesota and Tampa Bay are leading their respective divisions while Seattle is just a game behind Houston for first in the AL West.
“Minnesota is swinging it good, I think Seattle is on top of a lot of hitting categories,” Voit said. “Good to go back home. A lot of us are tired, it was a long road trip and probably one of the longer ones we’ll have this year. It will be nice to go home and play in front of the fans. It’s our challenge … all the guys on this team accepted it and I am excited to see what is going to happen.”
The Yankees are hoping that they will get healthy players back for this tough stretch. Miguel Andujar is playing minor league rehab games and Boone said he could possibly be back this weekend. Clint Frazier, who went on the injured list after spraining his left ankle in the first game of the trip, was running and working in the outfield before Wednesday’s game and is eligible to come off the IL Friday. DJ LeMahieu missed his second straight game with a sore right knee, but he said he expected to be in the lineup Friday.
Voit comes home from his business trip recognized as the Yankees’ biggest power threat at the moment. He went 14-for-36 with five home runs, 11 RBI and seven walks on this trip, earning American League Player of the Week honors.
“When he walks up there, as a pitcher you better be your best. You better make pitches or you are going to be in trouble,” Boone said. “He controls the zone. If you make a mistake to him, he’s going to hurt you.
“He’s just a really good hitter that’s really rounded these last couple weeks, locked it in and it’s been at a really good time for us, with all the guys we have down. He’s been that stable, on-base power threat. It’s been huge for us and it’s really good to see him swinging the bat the way he is.”