Three more Yankees homers not enough as bullpen torpedoes lead late in loss to Diamondbacks

The Yankees aren’t going to torpedo their way through the season.They learned that Tuesday night in The Bronx, blowing a late lead to the Diamondbacks in a 7-5 loss, their first defeat of the year following a sweep of the Brewers to open 2025.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.

The Yankees still managed to hit three home runs, but that wasn’t enough to overcome a poor performance from the bullpen in a fateful five-run eighth inning.Trying to hold onto a two-run lead, left-hander Tim Hill struggled before giving way to Mark Leiter Jr., who gave up a go-ahead grand slam with two outs to Eugenio Suárez.Hill started the trouble by allowing a laser double to pinch hitter Randal Grichuk.Grichuk scored on a Geraldo Perdomo single down the right field line to make it a one-run game.Hill got Corbin Carroll on a comebacker before Leiter came in and walked the first two batters he faced to bring up Josh Naylor, a Yankee nemesis from his days with Cleveland.With the bases loaded, Leiter struck out Naylor for the second out.But Leiter and the Yankees paid for a 2-2 splitter that he didn’t bury, and Suárez turned on it for his fifth homer in five games.The Yankees had taken the lead with the help of two more homers, and they finished the game with an MLB-record 18 through four games.They scored two runs on a Naylor error at first base to give them the lead in the fourth.But they weren’t able to add to the advantage and wasted a solid season debut from Will Warren, who gave up just two runs in five innings.The Yankee offense made new Arizona ace Corbin Burnes work, as he threw 98 pitches while getting just one out into the fifth inning.They weren’t able to solve Arizona’s pen, though, as four relievers shut the Yankees down for 4 ²/₃ innings until Ben Rice’s solo shot with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.There were no base runners in the game until Per...