We’ve all been there, Brooks Kriske. Even the greats—the Aroldis Chapmans and Gerrit Coles of the world (particularly post-Spider Tack)—will throw in a dud now and then. Tasked with protecting a 4-3 lead in the 10th inning Thursday night at Fenway (Chapman was unavailable after pitching the previous two nights), Kriske couldn’t buy a strike against the Red Sox, imploding to the tune of four wild pitches, a major-league record for one inning. The 27-year-old had no feel for his splitter, but insisted on throwing it anyway, pummeling the backstop with misfires while gifting the game-tying run to “ghost runner” Rafael Devers, who began the inning at second base. Xander Bogaerts would eventually score the winning run, walking it off on Hunter Renfroe’s sac fly to right field.
“There are a lot of guys battling their butts off and it sucks to be the one to blow it for the team,” said Kriske (via NJ.com’s Randy Miller), who owns a disastrous 10.80 ERA at the major-league level this season. “I want to be someone this team can rely on in big spots. It’s something I’m going to have to do better.”
The Yankees led for most of Thursday night’s series opener in Boston but New York’s bullpen couldn’t hold it together, yielding two runs in the ninth (the result of Kiké Hernandez’s wall-ball double off the Green Monster in left field) and another two in Kriske’s fateful 10th inning. Thursday’s heartbreaker dropped the Bombers to a dismal 2-8 against the Red Sox, whom New York dominated in 2020 (9-1).
For his troubles, Kriske was demoted after the game, heading back to the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton. A sixth-round pick out of USC, the 6’3” right-hander holds a superb 2.32 ERA across 87 minor-league outings, but hasn’t measured up in the bigs, struggling to a ghastly 12.18 ERA in pinstripes (10 1/3 MLB innings). Thursday’s late-inning collapse halted a four-game winning streak for the Yankees, who trail Boston by eight games in the division and Oakland by 4.5 for the AL’s final Wild Card berth.
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