according to Stathead\u2019s Katie Sharp.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI haven\u2019t seen anything like that before,\u201d Will Warren, who started and pitched six innings of two-run ball, said.<\/p>\n
\ufeff<\/p>\n
The Yankees are just the second MLB team in the last 75 years to have two relievers allow four-plus runs and get zero outs in a game, joining the 1999 Anaheim Angels. Entering Tuesday, Cruz had been one of the more effective relievers the Yankees had, posting a 2.66 ERA. It\u2019s 3.76 after his outing against Detroit.<\/p>\n
Among relievers with at least 40 innings pitched, Cruz is third in baseball with a 40.1 percent K-rate. Aroldis Chapman (40.3 percent) and Mason Miller (41.9 percent) are the only pitchers ahead of him.<\/p>\n
Still, his biggest concern ahead of the postseason is that he can sometimes lose the strike zone completely, which is what happened in Tuesday\u2019s game. The main reason the Cincinnati Reds traded Cruz last offseason to the Yankees was because his command was all over the place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a sport that, as you see, is not as easy as it looks,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cSometimes, you\u2019re on top of the horse. Sometimes, you get out of it. So you learn how to get on top again. It\u2019s something that happens in baseball. You always learn from failures.\u201d<\/p>\n
One major concern for the bullpen heading into October is the number of free passes it allows. The Yankees\u2019 bullpen\u2019s walk rate is the ninth-highest in baseball.<\/p>\n
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman identified the team\u2019s bullpen as a major weakness before the trade deadline, but so far, the results have been mixed. David Bednar has emerged as the club\u2019s most trusted reliever as its closer, Jake Bird has already been optioned to Triple A, and Camilo Doval has been mostly ineffective because of his walk rate.<\/p>\n
Outside of Bednar, Luke Weaver and Cruz have been the team\u2019s best relievers of late. Devin Williams has pitched well recently, but no one will feel confident in him come October when the bullpen doors swing open and he\u2019s running toward the mound.<\/p>\n
The bullpen is still the Yankees\u2019 biggest weakness in October. They need more arms to step up; otherwise, getting deep in the postseason will be a tough task, and Buck Martinez will likely be saying, \u201cI told you so,\u201d in a few weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the guys down there to get it done,\u201d Aaron Boone said of his bullpen. \u201cWe just got to sync it up. (Tuesday) is a tough night, but it doesn\u2019t change a lot of the good things that have happened in some of these games we\u2019ve been able to close out.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo of Mark Leiter Jr.: Brad Penner \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez didn\u2019t hold back in his blunt assessment of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":215262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,2228,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-215261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-new-york-yankees","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115179541290568923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215261","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=215261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}