The New York Yankees’ late-season woes deepened on Friday night, as they suffered a 5-3 extra-inning loss to the Houston Astros at Yankee Stadium. The defeat, their sixth in the last seven games, was punctuated by another high-profile collapse from reliever Devin Williams, whose struggles in high-leverage situations continue to plague the team.
The game, tied 2-2 entering the tenth inning, unraveled quickly for New York. With Jose Altuve on second as the automatic runner, Williams took the mound for the third time in four games. His first pitch was wild, allowing Altuve to advance to third. The next batter, Carlos Correa, hit a tiebreaking single to give the Astros a 3-2 lead. After retiring the next two batters, Williams hung an 82.1 mph changeup to Taylor Trammell, who launched a two-run homer into the right-center field seats, extending Houston’s lead to 5-2 and drawing boos from the home crowd.
This latest performance is part of a troubling trend for Williams in his first season in pinstripes. The two-time National League Reliever of the Year, acquired in a major offseason trade, has seen his ERA climb to 5.73. According to Yahoo Sports, the 28 earned runs he has allowed this season are more than the 26 he gave up in the previous three seasons combined with the Milwaukee Brewers. In his last five appearances alone, Williams has surrendered eight runs in just 4 2/3 innings.
Visibly frustrated after the game, Williams did not mince words about his performance. “I’m not making pitches. It’s pretty simple. I stink right now,” Williams told reporters, as per MLB.com. “You give me the ball, I try to do my best.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone defended his decision to use Williams, noting that key bullpen arms David Bednar and Mark Leiter Jr. were only available in an emergency. Boone acknowledged Williams’ difficulties and suggested a change in strategy might be necessary. “We just try to find softer landing spots,” Boone said. “We’ll try to find good spots for him and get him back to being a big part of the ‘pen, where he should be.”
The late-game drama overshadowed a tense battle that began with an early Astros lead. Jose Altuve hit a two-run home run in the first inning off rookie starter Cam Schlittler. However, Schlittler settled in, pitching five innings without allowing another run. The Yankees’ offense, held in check for much of the night by Astros starter Hunter Brown, finally broke through in the sixth inning with back-to-back RBI singles from Ben Rice and Aaron Judge to tie the game.
The Yankees managed to get one run back in the bottom of the tenth on an RBI single by Anthony Volpe, but Astros closer Josh Hader shut the door to secure the victory.
The loss drops the Yankees to 61-55 and further complicates their postseason outlook. They now sit in third place in the AL East, 6.5 games behind the division-leading Toronto Blue Jays. More alarmingly, their grip on the third and final AL Wild Card spot has become precarious, with the Cleveland Guardians now just a half-game behind them. Meanwhile, the Astros (65-51) solidified their lead in the AL West with the crucial road win.
