Eugenio Suarez is off to a powerful start to the season.
Suarez leads the majors with five homers through his first five games, and the Arizona Diamondbacks hope to see their third baseman produce another big swing Wednesday night when they visit the New York Yankees.
Suarez lifted the Diamondbacks to a 7-5 victory in Tuesday’s series opener when he hit a 2-2 splitter from Yankee reliever Mark Leiter Jr. into the left field seats. Suarez hit his sixth career grand slam in a five-run eighth inning.
“I never had a start like this year, and it feels great,” Suarez said. “I want to continue doing that, continue trusting myself and see what happens and see how the season treats me.”
After being acquired from the Seattle Mariners, Suarez produced a 30-homer season for the fifth time in his first season with Arizona in 2024. He hit only six home runs through June 30 before heating up over the final three months.
Suarez’s five homers are tied for the third-most in major league history through the first five games. Only Trevor Story (2016) and Larry Walker (1997) had more, when they hit six for the Colorado Rockies.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Suarez is the third player since 1900 to have each of his first five hits go for homers. The others were Rob Deer in 1992 for the Detroit Tigers and Rodolfo Castro in 2021 for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“I’ve been in this game a long time, so I’ve seen some guys get hot right off the bat, but this was a moment for him,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “It was spectacular.”
Suarez also has 11 RBIs, the most through five games in Arizona’s history after hitting his 13th career homer that gave his team the lead in the eighth or later.
“He put a real good swing on it,” Leiter said. “It’s unfortunate it went out.”
The Yankees will attempt to bounce back after taking their first loss following a dominant three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers. Jasson Dominguez, Anthony Volpe and Ben Rice homered, but Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. were a combined 0-for-15 with nine strikeouts.
Even with the quiet nights from their top hitters, the Yankees are up to 18 homers this season. It is the most in major league history through a team’s first four games.
After Corbin Burnes pitched 4 1/3 innings in his debut with the Diamondbacks on Tuesday, right-hander Zac Gallen (0-1, 9.00 ERA) will start on Wednesday after allowing four runs on four hits in four innings last Thursday in a 10-6 loss to the Chicago Cubs in Arizona’s season opener.
Gallen is 2-0 and has pitched 12 scoreless innings in both of his previous starts against the Yankees.
Left-hander Carlos Rodon (1-0, 1.69 ERA) will make his 200th career appearance and is coming off a strong start to his third season with the Yankees. After winning a career-high 16 games last season, Rodon continued to show an expanded repertoire and allowed one run on four hits in 5 1/3 innings in Thursday’s 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.
Rodon is 0-3 with a 5.18 ERA in six career starts against the Diamondbacks.
–Field Level Media
