Aaron Boone already had used Yerry De los Santos, Camilo Doval and Luke Weaver to cover four scoreless innings. Weaver, his ninth-inning reliever, had thrown 19 pitches while pitching on a fourth day out of seven, and the manager did not want to risk the health of an invaluable arm by asking for another frame.<\/p>\n
He could not turn to David Bednar, who expended 42 pitches Wednesday.<\/p>\n
He did not want to turn to Mark Leiter Jr., who was recently activated from the injured list and pitched Tuesday and Wednesday.<\/p>\n
A righty pocket of hitters was due up, thus eliminating Tim Hill from the discussion.<\/p>\n
There was one reliever who might not have made sense but made the most sense to Boone \u2014 a pitcher who shortly afterward would say, \u201cI stink right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Devin Williams took over in a quality, tense and tie game in which the Yankees had erased a two-run deficit and proceeded to throw it away once again.<\/p>\n
The polarizing, struggling and perhaps shell-shocked righty entered in the 10th inning to a reception that might generously be referred to as groans and exited to boos that rivaled the reaction to Jose Altuve, imploding in what became a 5-3 loss Friday to the Astros in front of a sellout crowd of 46,027 angry fans in The Bronx.<\/p>\n
Taylor Trammell celebrates after he scores on his two-run homer during the 10th inning of the Yankees\u2019 5-3 loss to the Astros on Aug. 8, 2025. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
Between a miserable road trip and a poor start to this home stand, the Yankees (61-55) have dropped six of seven, each seemingly more devastating than the last.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not making pitches. It\u2019s pretty simple,\u201d said Williams, who immediately showed either a lack of poise or a lack of command, his first pitch bounced to the backstop to move the automatic runner to third. Carlos Correa then took advantage of a drawn-in infield and singled up the middle for the go-ahead run.<\/p>\n
The Yankees caught a break when Yainer Diaz\u2019s drive off the right field wall led to an out \u2014 right fielder Amed Rosario crashed against the wall and remained down for several moments, and Christian Walker, who began the play at first base, retreated believing the ball to be caught \u2014 but that break was forgotten a batter later.<\/p>\n
Carlos Correa rounds first base after hitting an RBI single during the 10th inning of the Yankees\u2019 loss to the Astros. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
With two outs in the frame, (briefly) former Yankee Taylor Trammell drilled a home run into the right field seats to essentially clinch a game that left Williams reeling, wildly unpopular in his home ballpark and owning a 5.73 ERA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe [changeup] to Trammell was terrible,\u201d said Williams, who blew games Monday and Tuesday in Texas and has allowed at least a run in five consecutive appearances.<\/p>\n
Boone said he has wanted to find \u201csofter landing spots\u201d for Williams, but consistent lack of distance from his rotation \u2014 Cam Schlittler lasted five, two-run innings Friday \u2014 required him to try to piece together five innings from his bullpen, and he ran out of pitchers.<\/p>\n
Devin Williams reacts in frustration after giving up a two-run homer during the 10th inning of the Yankees\u2019 loss. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
The pitcher he turned to has allowed 28 earned runs in 44 innings this season.<\/p>\n
As arguably the best closer in baseball the past three seasons, Williams allowed a total of 26 earned runs.<\/p>\n
His command \u2014 the changeup to Trammell was in the middle of the plate \u2014 is an issue. As likely is his confidence.<\/p>\n
Ben Rice hits an RBI single during the sixth inning of the Yankees\u2019 loss to the Astros. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying [my confidence is] as high as it\u2019s ever been,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Yankees scored once against Josh Hader in the bottom of the inning on an Anthony Volpe single, but the potential tying run in Paul Goldschmidt (a fly out) and the potential winning run in Trent Grisham (a line out) could not come through.<\/p>\n
Fans will target Williams, who came undone in a season in which he has come undone far too many times. <\/p>\n
Ryan McMahon reacts after he strikes out looking during the seventh inning of the Yankees\u2019 loss to the Astros. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
But the Yankees would not have needed a 10th inning or Williams if their offense had a pulse for most of the contest.<\/p>\n
Ben Rice doubled in the first inning for the Yankees, who then watched AL Cy Young candidate Hunter Brown sit down the next 14 hitters.<\/p>\n
A trace of life arrived in the sixth, when the Yankees used three hits \u2014 including RBI singles from Rice and Aaron Judge \u2014 to tie the game.<\/p>\n
Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees reacts after he hits an RBI single to tie the game during the sixth inning. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Yankees consistently find themselves in close or tie games, nine of their past 12 decided by two runs or fewer.<\/p>\n
Which means too many are being decided by Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m close,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt\u2019s come down to essentially one mistake and making me pay for it.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Boone already had used Yerry De los Santos, Camilo Doval and Luke Weaver to cover four scoreless…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":130904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[40617,5914,2382,1266,2228,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-130903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cam-schlittler","9":"tag-devin-williams","10":"tag-houston-astros","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114997089195720901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}