Yankees cant overcome rare Brett Headrick failure in loss to Astros
The first two Yankees pitchers to give up runs on Tuesday had been trending poorly for an extended stretch.The third, Brent Headrick, had not.But after the Yankees had fought back to take three separate leads, Headrick picked a poor time for a rare bad outing, giving up three runs in the eighth inning to sink his team in a back-and-forth 9-7 loss to the Astros in The Bronx.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.
On a night when Will Warren and then Fernando Cruz got hit around and failed to preserve leads, the Yankees bats picked them up in a rare role reversal, which is how Headrick had a 6-5 lead to protect entering the top of the eighth.But the lefty could not do what he has most of the season and throw up a zero, instead squandering the lead as the Yankees (74-57) wasted a chance to pick up another game on the Rays, who remained 3 ¹/₂ games up for the division lead.The Red Sox, who will arrive in town this weekend for a huge four-game showdown, won in extra innings and moved within 1 ¹/₂ games of the Yankees.The Astros (66-66), who used their off day Monday to fire general manager Dana Brown with five weeks left in the regular season, are still right in the thick of the playoff race (thanks to a weak American League and in particular AL West) and played like a desperate bunch.
They scored in six of the nine innings, erasing Yankees leads of 3-2, 5-3 and 6-5.Headrick, who has emerged as one of the Yankees’ best bullpen arms while making the second-most appearances in the majors, had given up a total of three runs over his past 21 games before Tuesday.But Yainer Diaz took him deep for his second home run of the night to tie it 6-6 with one out.The Astros then took the 8-6 lead by stringing together a Jeremy Peña single, Yordan Alvarez triple and Isaac Paredes single off Headrick.The Yankees threatened to come back once more in the bottom of the eighth,...