The Yankees got the win they needed on Wednesday night, but it came with plenty of mess along the way.
New York was trying to hold off its hard-charging challengers and had to do it without David Bednar, Brent Headrick, and Fernando Cruz, all of whom had already pitched earlier in the day. Max Fried gave the club exactly what it needed on the mound, and the Yankees’ offense did just enough to back him up. The defense, though, made things far more complicated than they had to be.
Fried was outstanding over five shutout innings against a top-tier National League offense, and Angel Chivilli followed with a scoreless sixth. After an Anthony Volpe double clutch in the seventh opened the door for Pittsburgh, Paul Blackburn worked out of trouble, even after Ali Sánchez threw a ball into center field on a play that allowed a runner to reach third. Blackburn then struck out two and finished the eighth.
The Yankees still had one more hurdle to clear, and that meant Will Warren on a throw day. Warren let Nick Gonzales reach, then retired two hitters and got ahead of Esmerlyn Valdez, the hottest hitter in baseball, 0-2. Rather than risk a third strike out of the zone, Warren walked him, and Aaron Boone turned to Tim Hill with no room for error.
Hill needed one ground ball to end it, and he got one to Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s right. Chisholm made the play much harder than it should have been.
He backed up, rounded off the ball, got it stuck in his glove, and then fired awkwardly to first. Paul Goldschmidt’s scoop was ruled in time.
The Pirates challenged the play, and replay suggested the out may not have actually been made. O’Hearn’s toe appeared to hit the bag while the ball was still working its way into Goldschmidt’s glove. Still, the call on the field stood, and the Yankees were handed the win.
It was a strange finish to a game that should have been much cleaner. Fried’s brilliance was the backbone of it, and Jasson Domínguez and Anthony Volpe delivered the timely two-out hits that mattered. But the final moments were all about Hill, Warren, and a replay decision that left the whole thing feeling a little shaky.
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