Nathan Eovaldi struggles again, Yankees cannot complete rally in intense 7-6 loss to Padres

The Yankees began a three game set in Sunny San Diego with the All-Star Game hosting Padres on Friday night. Nathan Eovaldi, looking to bounce back from an awful month of June where he went 0-3 with an ERA of 8.65 and an eye-gouging 1.81 WHIP in five starts, was opposed by Colin Rea, who also had a bad month of June going 1-1 with a 6.15 ERA and 1.52 WHIP in five starts. However, in a new month, Eovaldi looked to get back to his May ways, but was unable to do so in a game that featured a lot of offense. The Yankees would rally for four runs in the ninth, but could not complete the comeback in a 7-6 Padres win.

Photo Credit: Lenny Ignelzi | AP

The Padres would jump out to a three run lead in the bottom of the first inning. Eovaldi issued a walk to a scorching hot Wil Myers, followed by back-to-back seeing-eye singles through the infield by former Yankee Yangervis Solarte, and Melvin Upton Jr. Upton’s single brought home Myers. The ensuing hitter, Derek Norris, then turned on a pitch down the left field line for a double scoring both Solarte and Upton, and the Padres quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead.

But the Yankees would begin to chip away in the top of the second thanks to a hot hitting single to start off the inning by Didi Gregorius, who moved to second on a passed ball. Jacoby Ellsbury returned the favor of tough-luck for pitchers in this game with a seeing-eye single through the 3.5 hole to score Gregorius.

Photo Credit: Lenny Ignelzi | AP

Unfortunately, shutdown innings do not exist for New York Yankees pitchers. Eovaldi allowed a solo home run to a guy named Ryan Schimpf, the first of his career. Schimpf was hitting .103 (3-29) before that home run which moved the score to 4-1.

Myers tagged Eovaldi with a two-run, no-doubter, home run to right center field to push the score to 6-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning. Solarte then doubled and that would knock Eovaldi out of the game after just 4.1 innings, moving his ERA to 5.54. Conor Mullee came on in relief.

Photo Credit: Lenny Ignelzi | AP

Brian McCann hammered his 13th home run of the season to center field, his third in his last three games to move the deficit to 6-2 in the top of the sixth. 

Photo Credit: Lenny Ignelzi | AP

In the bottom of the inning, Mullee left the game with an apparent injury after tossing one scoreless inning. Richard Bleier then came on to replace Mullee, in a double switch that also took Chase Headley out of the game, as Rob Refsnyder took over at third base.

McCann let an Anthony Swarzak pitch go right by him off his catcher's mitt for a passed ball in the bottom half of the seventh and it was then 7-2, Padres.

Former Yankee Matt Thornton entered the game for the Padres in the top of the ninth inning. He would allow a four-pitch walk to McCann, then hit Starlin Castro on a pitch high and tight. 

Alex Rodriguez then snuck an RBI single just through the right side of the second base bag to make it 7-3. With the single, A-Rod tied Dave Winfield on the all-time hits list with 3,110. Gregorius followed Rodriguez with an RBI double into the right field corner. Castro scored, and Rodriguez moved to third, and would score on an RBI groundout from Aaron Hicks to make the score 7-5. Gregorius then raced home on a wild pitch to pull the Yankees within one, and a pinch hitting Carlos Beltran would smack a double to put the tying run in scoring position. Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner could not deliever a clutch hit as they both grounded out in consecutive order to end the game.

This was a game that the Yankees really needed to win to put them in a strong position to win the series. It was the hope of many that Eovaldi would begin to turn the page in a new month, but he endured yet another poor outing. Interestingly, Joe Girardi was seen in the dugout telling Alex Rodriguez to get his glove, so we would have likely seen Rodriguez at third base had the Yankees tied the game up. The Yankees will begin game two in San Diego tomorrow night at 10:10 PM ET, with an unfavorable pitching matchup for the Yankees as Drew Pomeranz will oppose Ivan Nova.

Winning Pitcher: Colin Rea: 5-3, 4.79 ERA (6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR)
Losing Pitcher: Nathan Eovaldi: 6-6, 5.19 ERA (4.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R (6 ER), 3 BB, 2 K, 2 HR)
Player of Game: Wil Myers (2-3, HR [19], 2 RBI [57], BB)

Save: Brandon Mauer: 0-2, 5.82 ERA [S, 1] (1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 0 K)

Article by: Chad Raines

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