Yankees drop series finale at Pirates as Andrew Heaney outduels Will Warren

The Yankees missed a chance to earn their second series sweep of the early season when they suffered a 5-4 loss at the Pittsburgh Pirates in Sunday’s 11-inning finale.

Takeaways

1. Ex-Yankee Andrew Heaney outdueled Will Warren, whose second start of 2025 saw him hit a fourth-inning wall after retiring his first eight batters. Warren’s two-out walk to ex-Yankee Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the third inning — Warren’s first and only free pass of the afternoon — spiraled into a 2-1 swing for the Pirates after Ke’Bryan Hayes‘ single and Bryan Reynolds‘ two-run double. The Pirates added two more runs in the fourth inning, which Warren finished but not before allowing a cumulative four runs on six hits while striking out five. The Gerrit Cole-less Yankees (6-3) need more than four innings from pitchers in their starting rotation, and Warren failed to meet the bar while pitching with an initial lead.
2. Heaney, meanwhile, dominated the Yankees in a seven-inning gem. He allowed one run on five hits, struck out 10 and walked one against his former team — the Yankees acquired him from the Los Angeles Angels in a July 30, 2021 trade that did not age well and ultimately led to a late-season DFA — while helping the Pirates (3-7) back into the win column.
3. Jazz Chisholm struck out three times but scratched across the Yankees’ only run of the game until the ninth-inning rally with a two-out double in the first inning that scored Cody Bellinger, who followed Paul Goldschmidt‘s leadoff strikeout swinging with an infield single. Through nine games, Chisholm — who batted cleanup Sunday — has nine hits and nine RBI.
4. The Yankees’ three-run ninth inning sent the game into extras before Tommy Pham‘s game-winning RBI single in the 11th walked the Pirates off. Aaron Judge and Jasson Dominguez each reached base with one walk apiece, but they were the only Yankees to go hitless in a pair of 0-for-4 efforts.

Who’s the MVP?

Heaney, who shoved for six straight scoreless innings after allowing a run in the first and got enough support from the Pirates’ offense to defeat his former team.

Highlights

What’s next

The Yankees continue their six-game road trip with a three-game series at the Detroit Tigers. New York LHP Carlos Rodón (1-1, 3.97 ERA) and Detroit RHP Casey Mize (1-0, 0.00 ERA) are set to start Monday’s 3:10 p.m. opener.

Read the full article here