The Yankees’ offense had really struggled for more than two months, something that has held the team back from truly going on a run. They’ve still managed to win despite it, but that’s due to their outstanding pitching. An unheralded aspect of said pitching is the bullpen, which despite feeling incredibly shallow, has been one of the more effective units in the sport. If you were told entering the night that the Yankees put up seven runs and Will Warren only allowed three in five innings, it would
be reasonable to put this one in the bank as a win.
But with an opportunity to gain a game on Tampa, pretty much nothing went right in the ‘pen. Fernando Cruz and Brent Headrick gave up back-breaking homers as the unit allowed six runs in four innings, spoiling Luis García Jr.’s best game as a Yankee in a 9-7 loss to the sputtering Astros.
It’s never an easy first inning when Warren is on the mound, but this one was less on him than others. After starting the game with a K, he allowed a bullet single to Yordan Alvarez and an infield single off the glove of Jazz Chisholm Jr. to put runners on the corners with two outs, but he wiggled out of it on a Daulton Varsho groundout. Despite a long Ben Rice flyout and a two-out single by Luis García Jr., the Yankees again did not score in the first inning against Ethan Pecko.
Yainer Diaz opened the scoring in the second by ambushing Warren’s first-pitch sinker inside for a two-out home run to make it 1-0 Astros. It wasn’t a bad pitch, but it was a hitter who knew what he wanted to hit. A walk to Taylor Trammell looked potentially perilous when the lineup flipped over, and Jeremy Peña shot one towards the porch, but Spencer Jones made a running play on the track to get back in the dugout.
Pecko had a much rockier second inning with his command, falling behind Jones 3-0 before eventually retiring him and proceeding to walk the next two batters to bring José Caballero up with two on and two out, only for him to ground out with a full count. Warren continued to grind through long at-bats in the third, but got a raw deal with two outs on a ground-ball single by Jose Altuve, a passed ball by Austin Wells, and a Varsho RBI single to make it 2-0, where it seemed Cody Bellinger could’ve had Altuve with a better throw than a three-hopper.
There’s something sweet about the feeling of redemption, though, as Bellinger made up for a rare underwhelming defensive play with a big swing in the bottom half. Pecko continued to struggle with command, walking Grisham and allowing a single to García to put runners on the corners with one out, setting up the Yankees’ left fielder to crush a first-pitch fastball off the face of the second deck for his first home run in over two months and a 3-2 Yankees lead.
Both pitchers finally put up a 1-2-3 fourth, but not without their pitch counts continuing to climb. Warren ran into more trouble in the fifth with a Yordan single and a walk to Isaac Paredes, but it looked like he was going to get out of it when Varsho hit a slow grounder to the right side, but it squeaked just between García and Jazz to tie the game at three. Warren finished his outing with an acceptable five innings and three runs, but it was the slog most of his starts have been of late.
Pecko, even with his bumpy first four innings, was given a bunch of rope in the fifth, and fortunately, the Yankees made him pay. Rice used ABS to get himself on base with a walk with one out, which set up García to hammer a 3-2 cutter at the top of the zone into the short porch for his fourth homer as a Yankee to briefly give the Bombers a 5-3 lead after five.
Fernando Cruz was given a clean inning in the sixth, but his outing was anything but. A one-out walk to Diaz came back to haunt him, as he grooved a 2-1 fastball to Peña, who snuck a game-tying two-run home run over the left-field fence, continuing the recent struggles of Cruz. With the lack of a deadline upgrade, the Yankees are not really in a position to afford this sudden regression in the bullpen.
A quiet sixth against Bennett Sousa gave the Astros a chance to take the lead against Yerry de los Santos in the seventh, but the righty worked around a leadoff walk to keep the game tied. He’s a guy who can earn himself some leverage situations with effective play. Against the tough lefty Steven Okert, a trio of Yankee lefties put together some great ABs. Grisham worked a walk, Rice lined a single, and García did it again with a double down the right-field line to make it 6-5. They had a chance for more, but a good play by Peña on a contact play and Bryan Abreu coming in to get Lombard ended the inning.
Brent Headrick got the eighth for the Yanks, and with the way this game was going, you kinda felt like this was going to happen. After striking out the pinch-hitting Cam Smith, Diaz shot a fastball on the outside corner towards the short porch, which got out for his second home run of the game, tying it at six. Of all the guys on the team who could’ve hit two of them tonight, he’s not high up on that list, having not done so since April 1, 2024.
Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there. Peña ripped a single with two outs after barely holding up on a check swing that would’ve ended the inning to set up Yordan, who hit another bullet into the right-center field gap for an RBI triple. A laboring Headrick ended his night by allowing an RBI single to Paredes to make it 8-6 Astros, needing Bradley Hanner to mop up the rest of the frame.
It wasn’t quite over yet. Jones hit a bullet double to start the inning off Abreu and was able to come around and score on an RBI single by Chisholm. You wondered whether Jazz would try to steal to get the tying run in scoring position, but the AL leader in stolen bases stayed home and paid for it when Wells hit into a double play. Caballero reached on an infield single to force Josh Hader into the game, who struck out Grisham.
Hanner was tasked with getting this one to the bottom of the ninth, which he did, but not without giving up a run on a Smith triple and another RBI by Diaz, who really hurt them all night long. Hader recorded just his third four-out save in the last 10 months (two against the Yankees, typical) to close it out.
The Yankees will look to get back on track tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m. against the Astros. Peter Lambert will go for the visitors against a pitcher to be determined, but it’s assumed that Elmer Rodríguez will be recalled to pitch in some capacity.
Box Score
