PITTSBURGH – With their closer on the mound in the 11th inning, the Yankees couldn’t prevent the Pirates from scoring on Sunday.
The extra-inning series finale between the two teams ended when Tommy Pham lined a single to deep left field with one out. With a runner on third, the lowly Buccos walked off the Yankees for a 5-4, sweep-spoiling victory at PNC Park.
“I’m going for a swing and miss there and I couldn’t get it,” Devin Williams, who lost the battle to Pham after nine pitches, said.
Raise the Jolly Roger!
Tommy Pham lines a walk-off single for the @Pirates. pic.twitter.com/p3X5mOXv4j
— MLB (@MLB) April 6, 2025
Pham got a hold of Williams’ signature changeup, nicknamed The Airbender, on a 3-2 count, but the righty didn’t exactly make a bad pitch. In fact, Williams got his changeup below the strike zone after leaving one over the middle of the plate a few pitches earlier.
However, Pham was sitting on Williams’ go-to offering.
“I haven’t seen [the video] yet, but it looked like he got the change down, below the zone even,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Pham, clearly kind of selling out, was able to get the barrel to it. So pretty good at-bat there, obviously, against a really tough, tough customer. And I don’t think Devin made a big mistake with it.”
While Boone didn’t have much issue with the execution, Williams took responsibility for the loss.
“I’m expected to do a job,” he said, “and I didn’t do it today.”
Williams is right about that, but neither did the Yankees’ offense.
While the Bombers were able to tie the game at four after an RBI double from Oswald Peraza and a two-run single from Trent Grisham in the ninth inning, they stranded multiple men in the 10th and 11th innings despite having the benefit of ghost runners.
Overall, the Yankees left 10 on base and went 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position on Sunday.
“Not being able to push it across a few times just caught up with us,” Boone said. “So a little bit of a tough day for us offensively, but what a great rally there in the ninth to get us back into it.”
Prior to the ninth, the Yankees only scored once off former employee Andrew Heaney while their own starter, Will Warren, pitched into trouble.
The left-handed Heaney allowed an RBI double to Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the first inning, but he ultimately struck out 10 batters. He also held the Yanks to five hits and one walk over 100 pitches.
“I thought he had a really good mix,” Boone said. “He used everything and, even from the side over there, just seemed very unpredictable.”
