SEATTLE -- Five thousand and twenty-five days ago, Ben Rice and Will Warren were both 11 years old. Aaron Boone was working for ESPN, just two years removed from the end of his own playing career. The Yankees beat the Angels, with Mariano Rivera earning his 30th save of the season.
And Paul Goldschmidt, in his rookie season with the D-backs, hit a home run in his first career pinch-hit at-bat -- his only pinch-hit home run until the Yankees' 3-2 win over Seattle on Wednesday.
That was all the way back on Aug. 11, 2011. Wednesday in Seattle, Goldschmidt stepped up to the plate to lead off the top of the seventh, hitting for J.C. Escarra, and launched the first pitch he saw from lefty reliever Gabe Speier a projected 377 feet to left field, tying the game up at 2-2 with his second pinch-hit home run.
“It’s just impressive,” Aaron Judge said. “It shows you the type of player he is and the knowledge he has. His preparation to where he was ready to go from the very first pitch, and he put a great swing on it.”
The gap is the longest between pinch-hit home runs since Todd Helton ended a 14-year drought on April 29, 2012.
The homer brought Goldschmidt’s batting average up to .346 and his OPS up to .901. He’s hitting a league-best .571 against left-handed pitchers, with five doubles and four home runs.
“It’s just quality at-bats every day,” Boone said. “It’s elevating our hitting room and culture. He’s killed lefties, obviously. But he’s a real polished hitter that knows how to play the game.”
Goldschmidt, whose 1,864 career starts at first base rank second among active players behind only Freddie Freeman and 29th all-time, hasn’t had many opportunities to pinch-hit in his 15-year career. He came into the day just 2-for-22 off the bench with five walks and eight strikeouts and had only taken 13 pinch-hit plate appearances in the past decade.
"For most of my career, I was playing every day and knew I wasn’t pinch-hitting,” Goldschmidt said. “Coming here, it’s a little bit of a different role. I’ve just tried to embrace that. It was exciting for something new.
"I think that makes it a little different, when you understand that you’re going to be called on to pinch-hit or play defense, versus other times when I was maybe playing every single day, and when I got the off-day I was really trying to rest.”
When he signed a one-year, $12.5 million contract this past offseason, the 37-year-old knew he was signing on to get a few more off-days and pinch-hit opportunities. So he got out ahead of the change, calling up two old friends with pinch-hitting experience: former teammate Matt Carpenter and former hitting coach Turner Ward.
"I didn’t want to go up there blind, knowing I didn’t have much experience doing it,” Goldschmidt said. “Just have some advice that could help me help the team."
They gave him two main pieces of advice. Firstly, be ready for the call. But at the same time, don’t over-prepare.
"You can get in there and swing yourself into a slump or tire out,” Goldschmidt said. “I just tried to take the same routine when I’m playing, but kind of back up and do it in those first few innings, instead of doing it an hour or two hours or three hours before the game.”
After Luis Castillo held the Yankees to one run in six innings, Seattle turned to Speier -- the one high-leverage lefty it has in the bullpen. Boone didn’t hesitate to make the change and Goldschmidt didn’t hesitate either, drilling a first-pitch fastball over the heart of the plate.
Goldschmidt’s blast put the Yankees back on even footing, and an inning later, Judge put them ahead for good with his MLB-best 15th home run of the season. With an exit velocity of 117.7 mph, Judge’s shot -- his 11th at T-Mobile Park in his career -- was the hardest-hit home run hit in Seattle since Statcast began tracking (2015).
“That ball was hit really heavy,” Boone said. “I told him that’s the ball I hit and it one-hops to the wall, and his just keeps ascending. That ball was covered.”
Those two swings turned around the Yankees’ fortunes after a tough-luck start to the night. Will Warren struck out a career-high nine but was in line for the loss after allowing a pair of runs in the fourth inning.
On the other side of the ball, the Yankees tagged Castillo with nine balls with exit velocities at 100 mph or higher but couldn’t scratch a run across until Jasson Domínguez’s two-out single in the sixth.