When he stepped to the plate in the second inning on Tuesday night, the Diamondbacks’ Wilmer Flores knew – just like everyone else at Chase Field – that New York Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia was on the doorstep of a career milestone, needing just one strikeout to reach the 3,000 mark. Flores didn’t even let Sabathia get to two strikes.
“I got my pitch,” Flores said later, a smile on his face. “Why would I?”
Flores hasn’t had many reasons to smile this season, not like he did on Tuesday night, when he homered, drove in another run with a single and made a pair of strong defensive plays to help the Diamondbacks to a 3-1 victory over the Yankees.