This was different.
This was unexpected.
This was a rare occasion where a Yankees starting pitcher didn’t have it and dug a hole early for his teammates.
Marcus Stroman said, “We have to be better. We can’t allow three runs in the first inning.” “If I do that, I feel like I’m not giving the team a chance.”
Entering the final game of the homestand, the Yankees’ starting pitchers had the eighth-lowest cumulative ERA in the league at 3.39.
They were one of only three teams, along with the Orioles and Nationals, to have their starting pitchers pitch at least four innings in each game.
He has allowed three or fewer earned runs in 31 starts.
But on Thursday, Stroman struggled from the start, touching up three runs in the first inning on two extra-base home runs off Yordan Alvarez and John Singleton, and was fortunate to score just 12 points in the 5th/3rd inning of the fourth inning. He limited them to 4 goals. -3 loss to the Astros.
“Those pitches were basically middle-of-the-field and didn’t have the action I was hoping for,” Stroman said of the home runs. “It looks like it will be better next time.
“We can never get into a hole of 3 wins and 0 losses, we can’t do that.”
It ended an otherwise great homestand on a bitter note, capping a 5-1 winning streak against the Tigers and Astros.
The Yankees are 25-14 through 39 games, so their starting rotation has been a big bright spot.
There have been questions about this group, especially with staff ace Gerrit Cole expected to miss the first half of the season.
Nestor Cortés and Carlos Rodon are coming off shaky seasons.
Lewis Gil, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, didn’t even pitch in the big leagues last year.
Clark Schmidt had no track record and Strowman was a rookie.
All of them have performed very well, especially 25-year-old Gil, who has pitched 37 innings with 45 strikeouts and a staff-leading ERA of 2.92.
All five have ERAs below 3.80.
The group also gave the Yankees length.
Among starting pitchers, he ranks fourth in innings pitched and has the third-highest number of strikeouts at 219 in 213 innings.
“It’s the chance to win games,” manager Aaron Boone said of what he likes most about the starting rotation. “I don’t remember a game where we were able to come back in the middle innings. Maybe the Baltimore game was when we were up by four or five runs. But generally, it was four, five, six, seven, eight. No matter what the starting pitcher pitches in the inning, 99 percent of the time we’re in the game.
“It starts with the bump, it starts with the guy kicking off the game. They’re setting you up to give you a chance to be successful, and that was a common theme early in the season.”
It wasn’t Thursday.
It’s no coincidence that this was the Yankees’ first loss in a week.
