Nationals rally vs. Yankees bullpen for 11-4 victory
NEW YORK — The Yankees bullpen dominated in April.
They went into Friday night’s game leading the majors in WHIP and had the third-best ERA in the big leagues and fourth-most strikeouts. They carried a starting staff that came north not ready to go deep into games and struggled out of the gate. So the Yankees relievers racked up the eighth-most innings pitched as a group in baseball.
It looks like it’s starting to show now.
For the second straight game, the bullpen, aided by some defensive mistakes, lost the game for the Yankees. After back-to-back errors by Aaron Judge and DJ LeMahieu put him in a jam, Jonathan Loaisiga gave up five runs and only recorded one out as the Nationals rallied for an 11-4 win at Yankee Stadium.
It was the second straight loss for the Yankees (16-16), who dropped back to .500 on the season. While the Yankees are very careful about not using their relievers three days in a row, they have had to lean on it hard to start the season.
Loaisiga had allowed just two earned runs in 18 1/3 innings pitched over his first 14 appearances. Those 18 1/3 innings pitched, however, were tied for the second-most by a reliever in the majors. Luis Cessa gave up a two-run homer to Juan Soto in the ninth.
This came on the heels of Chad Green, who had been spectacular in April, gave up a three-run homer that blew open a loss to the Astros on Thursday. Green has pitched 18 innings this season, tied for third-most in the majors. Justin Wilson also gave up a home run in Thursday’s loss.
The bullpen was not helped by the Yankees sloppy defense, which was an issue earlier in April for them. Yadiel Hernandez’s line drive to right field was bobbled by Judge, allowing him to get to second. LeMahieu made a short throw on Victor Robles’ sacrifice bunt attempt, putting him on base. That set up Trea Turner’s RBI-single and Josh Harrison’s three-run homer.
Cessa, who came out to clean up the eighth, allowed an RBI-single to Kyle Schwarber and Gleyber Torres made a fielding error Yan Gomes’ ball, which allowed another run to score.
It was a very rare error for Judge, who had not been charged with one since September 2018. It was LeMahieu’s second error of the season and Torres now has four errors.
That spoiled what should have been a special night for LeMahieu, who was playing third base because Gio Urshela was out with a swollen left knee.
LeMahieu has always hit Nationals starter Patrick Corbin hard, going back to their days in the National League West. LeMahieu, who faced Corbin regularly when he was with the Rockies, hit a home run to lead off the game and introduce himself. In the sixth inning he crushed the game-tying homer off the former Diamondback left-hander. In 54 career at-bats against Corbin, LeMahieu is hitting .388 with six home runs.
The first homer was LeMahieu’s 300th hit as a Yankee, the second fastest to that mark in franchise history. He is 25 games behind Joe DiMaggio.
Gary Sanchez had not only been homer-less in his previous 72 plate appearances, dating back to April 3, the embattled catcher had not made an extra-base hit in 63, dating back to April 7.
Of course, Sanchez has lost chances with the Yankees now platooning him with Kyle Higashioka.
Jameson Taillon had also given up home runs early. He gave up a solo shot to Josh Bell to lead off the second and after issuing a one-out walk to Schwarber, he gave up a two-run shot to Gomes. After that, Taillon retired 15 straight. After giving up a single to Starling Castro, having thrown 99 pitched (15 more than he had gone this season), Boone went to his usually reliable bullpen. Wandy Peralta, who has not allowed a run in his four appearances since the Yankees acquired him last week, got them out of the seventh.
