PHOENIX _ CC Sabathia's 3,000th career strikeout had touched off an impromptu in-game celebration.
A line of Yankees teammates formed as Sabathia walked off the Chase Field mound and into a collection of hugs and handshakes.
Along the visiting dugout, Sabathia's family cheered from their box seats. The veteran lefty reached over the railing and embraced his wife and children.
Ex-Yankee catcher John Ryan Murphy had swung through a Sabathia change-up and the downtown Phoenix crowd made it sound like the South Bronx.
There were cheers and chants for Sabathia, who struck out the side in Tuesday night's third inning _ giving him the three strikeouts he needed to reach that exclusive K club.
That achievement, in the final year of a splendid career, stands as the enduring memory from a 3-1 Diamondbacks interleague win before 36,352 fans.
Sabathia exited to another standing ovation in the sixth, with the Yankees trailing 2-1.
Dating back to Sabathia's last start, when he struck out three Angels during a no-decision at Anaheim, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was eager to see history made.
As a player, Boone was among Sabathia's strikeout victims. They were also teammates in Cleveland and now Boone is managing Sabathia's final season as an active player.
It's a career that could carry Sabathia to baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
"He's somebody I have a ton of respect for," Boone said. "And to see a guy achieve a pretty cool number, yeah, I get pumped for that."
Over a 19-year career, Chris Davis and Carlos Pena are the players who struck out the most (26 times) against Sabathia.
When told of that fact last week, Sabathia smiled and said: "Lefties."
This was Sabathia's 542nd career start but his first at Arizona.
Chase Field is the 33rd different ballpark to host a Sabathia start, and he zipped through the first inning without a strikeout.
Leading off the second inning, Sabathia got David Peralta looking and got Christian Walker swinging at a fastball. And in the minds of the Yankees, that was Walker's fourth strike of the at-bat.
Along with most of the people at the ballpark, Sabathia thought he'd struck out Walker a pitch earlier, on a backdoor slider, though plate umpire Chad Fairchild didn't see it that way.
Sabathia took a long walk off the mound before rebounding to dispatch Walker, but ex-Met Wilmer Flores followed up by blasting a homer to left.
Once more, Sabathia rallied back. And with the crowd's noise level rising, Sabathia put away Murphy to become the 17th pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts.
Only two other left-handers _ Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton _ are in that group with Sabathia, who became the first pitcher to join the 3,000 K club since Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz in 2008.
Sabathia finished with five strikeouts on Tuesday. He also struck out twice as a hitter, going down swinging against Zack Greinke.
The right-handed Greinke yielded just one run in 7 2/3 innings, cooling down a Yankees club that had won nine of its last 10 games and six of seven on this nine-game Western swing entering Tuesday night.
With the roof open on a comfortable desert night, Greinke's only hiccup came in the fourth, when Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres (RBI) delivered consecutive doubles.
But in the Arizona fourth, Eduardo Escobar led off with his second double of the game and scored the go-ahead run on a two-run single by Flores.
Flying home after Wednesday's game, the Yankees (17-12) will attempt to earn a split of this two-game series against Arizona (17-13), with Masahiro Tanaka set to oppose right-hander Merrill Kelly.
