J.C. Escara from Uber driver to walk-off hero in the Bronx to help the Yankees take down the Padres 4–3

New York—The Yankees took down the Padres 4-3 in walk-off fashion in the rubber match of this three-game series. Max Fried got the start for the Yankees, and Dylan Cease took the ball for the Padres. 

In the top of the first inning, Fried worked around a two-out single from Manny Machado and picked up his first strikeout of the ballgame in the process. 

Fried retired the Padres in order in the top of the second inning and picked up two more strikeouts. 

In the bottom of the third inning, Jasson Dominguez worked a walk, then Jorbit Vivas reached on a catcher's interference. But Aaron Judge struck out to strand runners at the corners. 

Jackson Merrill started the scoring with a solo bomb into the Yankees' bullpen to make it 1-0 Padres in the top of the fourth. The first run Fried had allowed in 28.1 innings pitched dating back to April 15th. 

An error from Judge in right field allowed Martin Maldonado to reach with two outs. Fernando Tatis Jr. followed that up with a single and moved up to second base on the throw home. Judge got some redemption, though, and was able to record the final out of the frame to work out of trouble. Fried also picked up his fifth strikeout of the game. 

Fried worked around a leadoff single from Manny Machado and picked up two more strikeouts in the top of the sixth to put his total up to seven on the night. 

Rice and Judge both went down on strikes, then Wells flew out against Cease, as Cease kept the Yankees out of the hit column through six innings. 

Fried picked up his eighth strikeout of the game as he retired the Padres in order in the top half of the seventh inning. 

In the bottom of the seventh with one out, Cody Bellinger broke up the no-hitter in a big way with a no-doubt bomb into the second deck in right field to make it a 1-1 game. Unfortunately, Dylan Cease had to leave the game with an injury after an unbelievable start where he carried a no-hitter into the seventh. 

In the top of the eighth inning, Ian Hamilton replaced Fried on the mound and immediately walked Tatis. Hamilton walked two out of the three hitters he faced to work into trouble. Luke Weaver came into the game and replaced Hamilton on the mound. Weaver immediately served up a go-ahead RBI single to Jackson Merrill to give the Padres a 2-1 lead. The next batter, Xander Bogaerts, hit a sac fly to extend the Padres' lead to 3-1. 

Max Fried's final line: seven innings pitched, five hits allowed, one earned run, zero walks, and eight strikeouts on 100 pitches. Fried threw his fastball 47% of the time, curveball 17%, sinker 14%, sweeper 10%, changeup 8%, and the cutter 4% of the time. Fried dominated yet again as he has been worth every penny and some to start his Yankees career. 

“Just being able to throw all my pitches and put them in good locations,” Fried said. “I felt pretty good overall, that's a really good lineup over there, so you just have to be on your A game, especially going up against Cease, you know you have to really bring it.”

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Oswaldo Cabrera worked a leadoff walk, the next batter, Trent Grisham, hit a pinch-hit game-tying two-run home run to make it a 3-3 game. 

“That just shows you the kind of fight this team has,” Grisham said. “Down in all the games in this series and fought back in these last two, fought back last night for an explosion in the seventh, and then fought back all day today.” 

Weaver remained in the game in the top of the ninth inning and retired the Padres' order to give the Yankees a chance to walk it off against Robert Saurez in the bottom of the ninth.

In the bottom of the ninth with one out, Bellinger dunked in a bloop single into center field, but that would be all for the Yankees in the ninth.

In the top of the 10th inning, the struggling Devin Williams replaced Weaver on the mound and picked up three huge strikeouts to escape a bases-loaded jam and work a scoreless inning. 

“Nasty,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about Williams tonight. “Tough spot you come in and have the ghost runner already out there. You know what he’s been through; you have the top of the lineup. He gets a huge strikeout on Tatis to start things off, then another one on Machado, which is outstanding. Then he runs it full there with Bogarts and just executes a pitch. The changeup was great, but he was in the count from the start with his fastball. So I feel like being in the zone with that heater set up the change, and the depth on it from the side tonight looked great.”

In the bottom of the 10th, Oswaldo Cabrera executed a perfect sac bunt to get the winning run 90 feet away. The next batter, J.C. Escara, delivered a pinch-hit walk-off sac fly to end this one 4-3, from Uber driver to walk-off hero in the Bronx. 

“I can’t describe it, my heart was pumping so fast,” Escara said on his first career walk-off. “I tried to take deep breaths, tried to calm it down. But, it’s one of those things, just live in the moment. And I’m glad that it happened and that I could be here to help my team win.” 

The Yankees will have an off day tomorrow, then head to Sacramento to take on the A’s. Will Warren will get the start for the Yankees, and Osvaldo Bido will get the start for the A’s. The first pitch will be at 10:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Great comeback win for the second night in a row off one of the best bullpens in the MLB. Huge game-tying home run from Trent Grisham in the eighth off of Jason Adams, who has been one of the best relievers in baseball this season. Plus a huge game-tying home run from Bellinger off Cease. Another dominant start from Fried, firing seven innings of one-run baseball. Weaver and Williams were also great out of the bullpen. There was a point tonight where I truly thought the Yankees were going to get no-hit, so to bounce back from that to win the series is obviously huge. Now it is time for the Yankees to focus on taking at least two out of three from the A’s this weekend.