From Bryan Hoch:
It has not taken Luis García Jr. long to appreciate the benefits of hitting in Yankee Stadium, noticing that he seems to see the ball well in the Bronx. With each set of fresh at-bats, the slugger is growing more and more comfortable in these new surroundings.
The only problem on Tuesday evening was that the Astros seemed to be picking everything up just as well. Damage piled up as the Yankees’ bullpen endured a rare off night, peppered for six late runs to overshadow García’s four-hit performance in a 9-7 loss.
“They beat our guys tonight, so you’ve got to give them some credit there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “They got us slug for slug. We kept answering for the most part, but they just did a little bit more offensively tonight.”
Most of Houston’s damage came against Fernando Cruz and Brent Headrick, paced by Yordan Alvarez, who ripped a go-ahead triple in the eighth inning as part of a 3-for-5 night.
Excellent all year, Headrick surrendered a season-high three runs, including Yainer Diaz’s game-tying homer – Diaz’s second of the game – and a run-scoring Isaac Paredes single.
“I went in feeling good. I thought I made some good pitches at times,” said Headrick, whose ERA inched north to 1.88 from 1.49. “Sometimes, baseball just happens. I think the best thing I can do is flush it.”
We’ve been seeing it for a couple of weeks now. The overuse of Brent Headrick is clearly taking a toll on the guy. He’s not nearly as sharp as he was a month ago. He’s still a good pitcher, and shit like this game will still be an aberration, but the Astros are a very good offense (they’re the third-best offense in the American League, and only BARELY behind Minnesota while missing a bunch of its lineup for a lot of the season, and that’s before they added Varsho), and when you’re not as sharp, sometimes you WILL get your ass kicked by teams like the Astros.
You can tell this by how Boone has been playing these games. If Blackburn was available, Blackburn WOULD have pitched the 8th in this one. There’s no doubt about it. Boone has clearly placed Blackburn above Headrick in the pecking order.
The good news is that Clarke Schmidt is actually about to start a rehab assignment. Clarke Schmidt has had great success out of the bullpen, and that was before he improved a lot as a pitcher. Schmidt coming back to the bullpen from that advanced level of pitching should make for a VERY good reliever. When you throw in Luis Gil really airing it out in the bullpen, the Yankees are likely soon going to be able to replace Hanner and Topa with two very good arms.
I wouldn’t trust Gil with much more than low leverage stuff, but Schmidt I’d be happy to give the 7th inning to on a regular basis, with Blackburn and Bednar keeping the 8th and 9th. Headrick could then rest a bit and get the 7th or 8th when those guys aren’t available. This would push Cruz down to low leverage work. Let him build his way back up to being trusted again.
So it would be Bednar to close, and, depending on availability:
Blackburn and Schmidt in the 8th
Schmidt and Headrick in the 7th
Cruz, Gil, and Hill in the 6th (or when needed)
With perhaps Yarbs getting a look as a high leverage guy, and Yerry as the long man.
I think that could work.
Meanwhile, the Yankees faced a bad pitcher, and they actually kicked his ass for a change. I have no real complaints about the offense. Could they have done a bit better? Sure, but, I mean, it’s hard to fucking say, “Thanks for the seven runs, but why not NINE?”
Luis Garcia is looking more and more like the guy we thought he would be, and having Belli back is great. One thing I’d like to see is Jones move up in the order, and Lombard drop a bit. I don’t like Lombard batting fifth. Lefty/righty just isn’t THAT big of a deal.
Featured image is the go-ahead triple by Yordan.
About the Author
Lefty-righty was a much bigger deal when pitchers didn’t have to pitch to at least three batters.