PHOENIX — Line change straight ahead.
In the wake of the Yankees getting drubbed, 12-2, by the Diamondbacks on Monday night in front of 32,718 at Chase Field, you can expect the roster to be changed.
Likely on the way back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre are Chad Green, Conor Mullee, two right-handers who made their major league debuts, and Nick Goody. Phil Coke is also a candidate to be designated for assignment after giving up four runs in two mop-up innings. Luis Cessa could be on his way from SWB to help a bullpen that has been sensational at the end but spotty in the middle. Johnny Barbato isn’t eligible to return from SWB until Friday.
Green found out quickly there is a vast difference between Triple-A hitters and big-league hitters in the first inning, when Paul Goldschmidt sent a 96-mph fastball over the left-field wall with two out and the bases empty. Jake Lamb hit a three-run homer off Green in the fifth, when the Diamondbacks scored five runs and were helped by Mark Teixeira’s fielding error to start the frame.
“I tried to get ahead with the fastball, and he hit it pretty good,’’ Green said of Goldschmidt.
There were glimpses of why the Yankees like the 24-year-old Green, who with Cessa came from the Tigers for Justin Wilson last December, but likely not enough of them to avoid being returned to SWB.
“He left a couple of balls up,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of Green, who gave up six runs (four earned) and six hits in four-plus frames. “He did OK. We know there is more there. The first game in the big leagues, I thought he handled it very well.’’
After going 7-3 at home and not gaining ground on the AL East leaders, the Yankees fell 7½ lengths back of the Orioles and Red Sox, who are atop the division.
While Green was punished, he wasn’t alone. Goody gave up a run and two hits in an inning. Mullee, a former St. Peter’s College shortstop who made seven relief appearances his senior year, walked three, hit a batter and gave up a run in one frame. Coke worked the final two innings and was awful.
The pitchers weren’t the only problem. Robbie Ray, who went from the Tigers to the Diamondbacks in the deal that landed Didi Gregorius in The Bronx, limited a resurgent Yankees lineup to two runs and six hits in seven innings.
Teixeira didn’t catch a throw from Green on Michael Bourn’s bunt leading off the fateful fifth. Gregorius missed stepping on second base in the third, which cost the Yankees an out, and made a fielding error in the seventh, when the Diamondbacks scored a run.
“It’s never a good time to have a game like this,’’ Girardi said of the ugly affair.
Jacoby Ellsbury, who tripled in the fifth and scored on a throwing error by shortstop Nick Ahmed that hit Ellsbury in the head and tied the score, 2-2, was ready to put the awful night to bed.
“Come back tomorrow ready to play,’’ Ellsbury said. “We are a confident team.’’
And one that likely will have some new faces for Tuesday night’s action.
