Andrew Heaney was introduced to the rude pitching confines of Yankee Stadium in a hurry in his team debut on Monday night.
The veteran lefty, acquired in a trade just before Friday’s deadline, allowed a solo home run to Orioles All-Star Cedric Mullins in the top of the third, then another to Austin Hays later in the inning, then two more the following inning to bring the grand total to four solo shots in as many frames.
“Usually I say solo homers don’t beat you, but if you give up four in four innings, that’s probably gonna do it,” Heaney said after the Yankees 7-1 loss on Monday night. “It was just frustrating to put the team in a hole like that and not really give us a chance to win there.”
For Heaney, the four long balls tied him for the second-most home runs allowed in a team debut after previously pitching for another team that season, per the Elias Sports Bureau. The most ever was five by Cyclone Miller back in 1884.
He became the first pitcher in Yankee history to allow four home runs in his debut with the team.
“Just started working behind guys for sure,” Heaney said. “Had to get back in the zone more and wasn’t quite as aggressive with some pitches when I was falling behind.”
Heaney looked strong in a scoreless first, but the typically home run prone lefty couldn’t maintain that effectiveness, and watched his season ERA rise to 5.27, his highest since 2015 when throwing at least 25 innings.
“I thought his stuff fell off a little bit there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I thought he was really crisp in the first inning, lot of life on his fastball, his secondary pitches were good…I just felt like his stuff ticked down a little bit. When he’s good, he’s got that good life on the fastball where he can get it by you up in the zone, and I thought it fell off a little bit there after a couple of innings.”
Heaney will still be needed with Gerrit Cole on the COVID-19 IL, Domingo German on the IL with a shoulder strain and both Luis Severino and Corey Kluber still working their way back from their own injuries. But the Yanks will need him to be better than Monday’s debut, which certainly took a bit of the shine off his first taste of pitching in pinstripes.
“It was great,” Heaney said of experiencing the feeling of being a Yankee for the first time. “Wish I could have done better.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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