Daily Report – 8/26/26
Yankees
As soon as the offense caught up with the pitching, the latter began to deteriorate.
For nearly two months, while the Yankees’ offense struggled, the rotation and bullpen didn’t just keep the team afloat, but kept it competitive. Now, the offense is thriving, and the bullpen might be taking a mental break.
Last night, the Yankees lost the first game of a three-game series 9-7 to the Houston Astros. Eight of the Astros’ RBIs came with two outs, and the Yankees dropped three leads, including 3-2, 5-3, and 6-5, falling to 45-6 this season when scoring at least five runs.
It’s a long season, so it isn’t fair to assume any reliever has bottomed out, especially those like Brent Headrick and Fernando Cruz, two of the league’s most frequently utilized arms. After all, Headrick leads the league with 56 scoreless appearances and has only allowed two home runs since May 11.
But last night, he chose a poor time to give up his fourth homer of the year. Typically, once the Yankees grab the lead in the seventh inning or later, their bullpen finishes the job. But this time, Headrick gave up the ultimate game-tying home run to Yainer Diaz and the go-ahead triple to Yordan Alvarez, the first for the likely AL MVP and Triple Crown winner since 2024.
In the eighth inning, Headrick fired a high fastball to Diaz, but because it came at 92.7 mph, lower than his traditional velocity, the hot hitter drove it out of the park. Diaz finished the game 3-for-4 with two home runs, so maybe his hot hitting could explain Headrick’s woes.
However, Headrick, who averages 94.2 mph on his fastball this season, has failed to reach that mark in four straight outings for the first time this year. Entering the final month of the season, fatigue may finally be catching up with the Yankees’ top left-handed reliever.
“I think we do a great job with workload outside the games and things like that,” Headrick said. “Recovery, just to get back and be healthy every day. I’m feeling great, so I just want to keep going. […] I’m really happy with where we are physically. Didn’t know what to expect coming in, but I trust what we’re doing, I like what we’re doing, and I feel good.”
To Headrick’s point, it isn’t as if he’s injured. His velocity issue is likely a natural byproduct of the fact that he ranks third among American League relievers in innings pitched (67) and first in MLB in total games (68). Paul Blackburn ranks second in innings with 70, and Cruz is tied for ninth in games with 61.
But today, Cruz landed on the 15-day injured list with right elbow discomfort. Last night, he claimed he was healthy. Now? Well…
In his last 15 games, Cruz has pitched to a 5.40 ERA, allowing eight runs on 12 hits across 13 1/3 innings. Half of those runs have come in his last seven games. Recently, he has been dealing with a mechanical issue affecting his splitter, which has always been his best pitch.
Cruz couldn’t control his splitter against Jeremy Peña in yesterday’s sixth inning, so he had to throw him a fastball. But Peña jumped on the 91.5 mph meatball, which Cruz left right down the middle of the zone, and drove it 385 feet to left field for the penultimate game-tying home run.
Last season, Cruz recorded a 36% whiff rate in 49 appearances, but injuries limited his availability. This season, in 61 games (seven short of his career-high), his whiff rate is just 27.1%. Despite the drop-off from last season, his swing-and-miss percentage still ranks in the 99th percentile of Major League pitchers, but it has deteriorated without his splitter.
“I exchanged a lot of swings and misses for outs this year,” Cruz claimed. “I just have the mentality of getting more outs instead of swings and misses.”
At the start of the season, Cruz’s swing-and-miss stuff earned him the top fireman role out of the Yankees’ bullpen, which leads the league with a 3.04 ERA. Throughout the first half of the year, he was an expert at stranding inherited runners, but ever since he lost his splitter, he’s been a shell of his former self.
“My split hasn’t been as effective,” Cruz acknowledged. “A little bit of a mechanical change, grip. And we’re playing with Major League baseball players, and they’re really good at it. So, I think they made the change. Now, we have to adjust.”
When asked about what mechanical issues he needs to fix, Cruz said, “Loading the back leg a little bit more, I think. Baseball players are all about syncing the lower half with the upper half.”
Will Warren, who started yesterday’s game, didn’t do his relievers any favors. For the third straight outing, and the fourth time in his last six starts, Warren couldn’t reach the sixth inning. In five innings, he permitted three runs (two earned) on seven hits. He has a 5.11 ERA in his last 15 games.
Warren’s first blow came in the second inning, when he gave up Diaz’s first home run. He also gave up a pair of two-out RBI singles to Daulton Varsho, including in the fifth inning, blowing the lead Cody Bellinger generated with a three-run home run, his first since June 17.
In the fifth inning, after Ben Rice challenged his way to a walk, Luis García Jr. hammered a high, full-count fastball 379 feet to right field for a two-run home run. After Cruz gave up the sixth-inning shot to Peña that tied the game 5-5, García put the Yankees back in the lead with an RBI double on another high fastball.
“He’s got some serious thunder coming through the zone,” Boone said of García, who went 4-for-5 with three RBIs last night. “He’s a really good hitter. I hope our fanbase was starting to see what a live bat we got in here. He’s hit some balls really, really hard since he’s been here, and he’s capable of nights like this.”
After Houston took an 8-6 lead with three runs off Headrick in the top of the eighth, Spencer Jones doubled in the bottom of the frame, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. cut the deficit to one run with an RBI single. Jones and Garcia are each 9-for-25 (.360) in their last seven games.
Each of García’s four hits came against pitches above the strike zone. When asked about this, García, through Marlon Abreu, said, “I’m usually looking for a pitch up there. I feel like my swing, it’s a little different from other left-handed hitters. It’s somewhat flat. And then, just looking for something up there where I can connect well.”
The Yankees took a one-run deficit into the ninth inning before Bradley Hanner butchered any chance of a comeback. With two outs, Cam Smith tripled, and Diaz brought him home with a single.
Down by two runs in the bottom of the ninth, Josh Hader retired the Yankees on seven pitches to end the game.
Tampa Bay lost last night, but they won today, so the Yankees now sit 4.0 games behind the Rays for first place. But Boston, expected to regain Roman Anthony before this weekend’s four-game series in the Bronx, handled business in Miami.
The Red Sox now rank 1.5 games behind New York for second place in the division and the right to host that dreaded best-of-three Wild Card series rematch.
Tonight, at 7:05 PM (6:05 PM CDT), RHP Elmer Rodríguez (0-2, 4.76 ERA) will make a spot start in Max Fried’s place as the Yankees try to force the rubber game against Houston (Prime Video). RHP Peter Lambert (8-7, 3.68 ERA) will mind the rubber for the Astros.
Here is tonight’s starting lineup for the New York Yankees:
CF Trent Grisham (L)
DH Ben Rice (L)
1B Luis García Jr. (L)
LF Cody Bellinger (L)
SS George Lombard Jr. (R)
RF Spencer Jones (L)
2B Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L)
C Austin Wells (L)
3B José Caballero (R)
SP: RHP Elmer Rodríguez (0-2, 4.76 ERA)
Schedule
7:05 PM (6:05 PM CDT): NYY vs. HOU; Prime Video; SP: RHP Elmer Rodríguez (0-2, 4.76 ERA) vs. RHP Peter Lambert (8-7, 3.68 ERA)
