Yankees strike out 16 times in loss to Diamondbacks

The weather was admittedly miserable Wednesday night in the Bronx, though the extra breeze coming from home plate came courtesy of the Yankees.

After a charmed start to the season, the Yankees could count on neither their starting pitching nor their torpedo bats to save them against the Diamondbacks, dropping the second game of the series, 4-3, and striking out 16 times along the way.

They trailed by four in the ninth but the offensive inefficiency of the previous eight innings was too much to overcome as Jasson Dominguez ended the night in thematically appropriate fashion, swinging through a 1-and-2 slider for the final out.

Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge led off the ninth with singles off Ryan Thompson to signal lefty A.J. Puk from the bullpen. One batter later, Anthony Volpe slammed a dead-red, first-pitch fastball to the first row in the short porch in right to get the Yankees to within 4-3.

But Austin Wells fouled out and Dominguez struck out to end it.

They’ll look to avoid a sweep in the finale Thursday.

“It’s challenging a little bit when you’re in the elements . . . and you’re up against a good pitcher,” Aaron Boone said. “I really do feel like [Zac] Gallen tonight especially, it was one of those that we’ll look back on this year where he was dialed [in].

“That said, we’ve got to mount something a little more than that. We battled and gave ourselves an opportunity to get the tying run at the plate there at the end.”

Though he eventually settled down, Carlos Rodon, showcasing his expanded pitch mix, struggled with his command and the Diamondbacks, who scored the most runs in baseball last year, made him pay. Gallen, meanwhile, had no such issues, tying a career high with 13 strikeouts and at one point retiring 11 straight Yankees — a streak that was snapped only because a dropped third strike allowed Oswaldo Cabrera to reach in the sixth.

In two games against the Diamondbacks, the Yankees have struck out a combined 30 times.

The Diamondbacks’ lineup wasted no time getting to Rodon on a cold, bitter evening. Ketel Marte, fresh off what reports Wednesday called a six-year, $116.5 million extension, led off the game with a walk. One batter later, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. turned on an 0-and-2 fastball near his shoulders, slamming it 399 feet to left for the 2-0 lead.

They tacked on two more in the second, when Rodon again opened up the inning with a walk. This time it was to Eugenio Suarez, who came around to score on Geraldo Perdomo’s sacrifice fly. With two outs and Gabriel Moreno on second, Marte drove a seeing-eye grounder up the middle to make it 4-0.

That was plenty for Gallen, who absolutely stymied an overmatched Yankees lineup behind the heft of a devastating knuckle-curve that was responsible for 11 of his 13 third-strike pitches. Of the 29 knuckle curves he threw, only 29% were in the strike zone; the Yankees swung at 67% of those pitches outside of the zone and made contact with none of them. In fact, of the 42 swings the Yankees had against Gallen, they whiffed on 24.

Gallen tossed 6 2⁄3 scoreless innings with three hits and no walks.

“He was giving everyone different looks,” said Volpe, who was 0-for-3 against Gallen before his homer against Puk in the ninth and now has four homers on four hits.

“We were communicating, telling each other what we saw but he was attacking . . . [The hardest part] was the difference between the knuckle curve, the one to hit, or the cutter or the slider. They look pretty much the same.”

In a repeat of his (more successful) Opening Day start, Rodon, who spent much of his career primarily as a fastball-slider pitcher, threw six different pitches, including a good-looking changeup. The only problem was that he couldn’t find the strike zone with enough of them.

He allowed the four runs on three hits with four walks and five strikeouts. He threw 96 pitches, 56 for strikes. He did end the game on a strong note, retiring 10 straight before being lifted for Yoendrys Gomez.

Rodon’s velocity also took a hit. His fastball and slider averaged about 2 mph slower than usual, though Boone said it was likely due to the weather.

There were definite signs of improvement in the final three innings, though, when he collected three of his five strikeouts.

“I was kind of slow with the command and the way I was moving,” Rodon said. “The adjustments were too long. I wish [the bounce back] was sooner. I just need to be quicker with it and I wish I would have had it click sooner and kept that game closer.”

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.