The Yankees needed Thursday night’s game against Toronto in the worst way, looking to avoid a four-game sweep, a sixth straight loss and another game lost in the Wild Card standings.
But with a tie game in the seventh inning, Aaron Boone turned to Sal Romano, just called up after Jameson Taillon was put on the IL, to try and keep the game even in the later innings. Then, down two in the ninth, he turned to the struggling Andrew Heaney, who promptly allowed two runs in what turned into a 6-4 loss.
Boone, working through a stretch of 20 games in as many days and with a banged-up bullpen, defended the costly decisions after the game.
“I was gonna close with [Chad] Green today if I got to that point,” Boone said. “Sal was up there, we liked the matchup against righties. He goes out there and has two quick outs, had two strikes and hangs a slider to Jansen.”
Romano, who entered the outing with a 5.63 ERA, got two quick outs before surrendering a two-out double to Danny Jansen and a single to Bo Bichette later in the inning to give Toronto the lead. Wandy Peralta bridged the gap to the ninth, where Heaney allowed his 11th home run as a Yankee to kick off a two-run ninth for the Blue Jays, who needed both runs after Gary Sanchez and Luke Voit hit back-to-back solo shots in the bottom half of the inning.
Heaney’s rough frame raised his Yankee ERA to 7.71 in 30.1 innings of work, but Boone said he will still be needed and called upon the rest of the way, as New York looks to cling to a playoff spot.
“We have to,” Boone said. “There’s gonna be days we gotta get something out of everyone. You know what we’ve been up against this week. The bottom line is, when we started to play better baseball, it’s taken everyone. It takes all 28, and certainly that’s the case right now. There’s gonna be days where we have to lean on somebody else in a given situation.”
Heaney has struggled badly since being traded to New York, as his susceptibility to the long ball has been even more glaring than many initially anticipated, allowing more than a home run every three innings. But he was on the mound in the ninth inning of a must-win game, as Boone had few options, though Green was still in the bullpen.
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“It’s been a little bit of a product of he’s been hurt with the long ball, he’d been hurt in two-strike situations where he hasn’t put a guy away or hasn’t executed the pitch, but the ball is coming out how it should,” Boone said of Heaney. “But again, it’s about execution, especially in those two-strike situations where he’s gotten into a little bit of trouble.”
Boone also said Aroldis Chapman was available, though he had thrown 34 pitches on Wednesday night. With Jonathan Loaisiga hurt, Zack Britton lost for the season and both Clay Holmes and Joely Rodriguez pitching in consecutive days, Boone was dealing with a thin bullpen, leading to decisions that didn’t reflect a close game in a must-win scenario.
“We’ve been a little thin bullpen-wise and had to lean on a few guys, but that’s part of it,” Boone said. “That’s part of the attrition and adversity you’re going to face in a big-league season…I have a ton of confidence in the group in there.”
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