After adding relievers David Bednar, Camilo Doval and Jake Bird at the MLB trade deadline, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone insisted Devin Williams would remain the team's closer despite his unreliability in late-inning situations this season.
Williams again showed that the Yankees likely have to consider another option to close out games, serving up a two-run home run to Taylor Trammell in the 10th inning of a 5-3 loss to the Houston Astros on Friday.
Taking over for Luke Weaver in the 10th, Williams allowed a leadoff single to Carlos Correa that drove in automatic runner Jose Altuve for a 3-2 lead. In Williams' defense, Correa reached for a low changeup that he smacked into center field. But he then retired Christian Walker and Yainer Diaz. With two outs, the Yankees had a chance to escape the inning down by only one run.
However, Williams then left an 82.1 mph changeup out over the plate that Trammell launched into the right-center field seats to give the Astros a 5-2 lead. No defending that one. Williams made a bad pitch.
He struck out Mauricio Dubón on a 94.6 mph fastball high out of the strike zone to end the inning, but the damage was done. The Yankees got a run back on an RBI single by Anthony Volpe. Yet Josh Hader retired Paul Goldschmidt and Trent Grisham, with a Giancarlo Stanton walk in between, to finish the game and giving the Yankees their sixth loss in the past seven games.
With the two earned runs allowed on Friday, Williams has now allowed 28 this season. That is more than the 26 earned runs he gave up altogether during the previous three seasons, from 2022-24.
In his past five appearances, Williams has given up eight runs in 4 2/3 innings.
Following the game, Boone was asked why he didn't keep Weaver in the game to pitch the 10th, as the Astros did with Hader. He said Weaver walking Jesús Sánchez on a seven-pitch at-bat to extend the ninth essentially took that away as an option.
"I feel like we've gotten Weave in such a good spot now. With that righty middle lane coming there and him being at 20 pitches or whatever, we gotta use our guys," Boone said, via The Athletic's Chris Kirschner.
"When you go a five-inning outing, you gotta be able to finish it off with the guys, just because somebody's struggling," he added. "I wasn't going to go once he lost Sanchez and the inning extended. It kind of took him out of play for the second inning."
Amid those six losses in seven games, the Yankees have dropped to third place in the AL East, seven games behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays and three back from the second-place Boston Red Sox. They are also now only a half-game ahead of the Cleveland Guardians and 1.5 games ahead of the Texas Rangers for the AL's third wild-card playoff berth.
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