NEW YORK – Even though the Yankees’ bullpen has quietly stabilized over the last several weeks, most industry sources expect general manager Brian Cashman to aggressively pursue upgrades ahead of the Trade Deadline.
The late innings on Thursday illustrated why.
Camilo Doval served up Andrew Benintendi’s eighth-inning pinch-hit grand slam on his first pitch of the evening, a drive that sent the Yankees to a 5-1 loss to the White Sox at Yankee Stadium.
"Slumps are part of the game as baseball players. We all go through them,” Doval said through interpreter Marlon Abreu. “I’m not exactly getting the results that I expect of myself right this moment, but I know they’re coming. I know a good streak is coming.”
Doval has displayed electric stuff at times since being acquired from the Giants last July but has largely been unable to recapture his one-time closer’s form. He owns a 5.08 ERA across 28 1/3 innings, with lefties hitting .368 (21-for-57) with a .979 OPS against him.
“Some of those lefties haven’t missed against him,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Benintendi went up there hunting very aggressively, first pitch, and pulled the ball down and in. He’s missed some spots in some situations that have hurt him.”
With each team held to one run through seven innings, Sam Antonacci ripped a pinch-hit double off Fernando Cruz. Tim Hill hit two of the three batters he faced, including plunking Tristan Peters on an 0-2 offering.
Benintendi then pounced on Doval’s 99.8 mph sinker, clubbing it into the right-field seats.
“Sometimes that’s the game. My focus is to execute the pitch,” Doval said. “Once I do that, it’s baseball, right?”
Boone said he believes Doval can still find consistent success in New York. Evaluating the Yankees’ bullpen as a whole, there have been bright spots; even including Thursday’s stumble, their 2.96 relief ERA across 51 2/3 innings this month ranks fifth best in the Majors.
David Bednar hasn’t permitted a run in eight appearances while converting each of his last three save chances, Cruz has been largely effective with a splitter that ranks among the Majors’ best, and Brent Headrick has excelled despite a heavy workload (36 appearances through Thursday).
Boone sang Headrick’s praises before Thursday’s game, saying, “He’s been huge down there,” adding, “He just continues to solidify himself and find himself at this level. He’s pitching with a lot of confidence.”
There may be more finds like that on the horizon. Cashman and his analysts will certainly evaluate outside choices, but the Yankees recently converted hard-throwing prospect Carlos Lagrange into a reliever, believing he could be a second-half force to add needed swing-and-miss.
Despite a strong outing on Thursday, Ryan Weathers may also find himself in the bullpen discussion once Max Fried returns from a left elbow bone bruise.
For now, Weathers delivered on a promise to “get back to executing pitches better,” emphasizing his offspeed pitches to limit the White Sox to one run over 6 1/3 frames.
Weathers had surrendered multiple homers in each of his three previous outings, owning an 8.47 ERA (16 ER in 17 IP) over that span. He didn’t completely keep the ball in the yard -- Chicago’s lone run off him came on Colson Montgomery’s 20th homer -- but Weathers was sharp, striking out eight.
“It feels nice to keep the team in the game,” said Weathers, who permitted just three hits and a walk, throwing 59 of 88 pitches for strikes. “My last couple of times haven’t been that, so it felt nice to be out there and competing. I felt like my old self again.”
Though the bullpen wound up in the spotlight, the Yanks’ bats had a quiet night after producing 22 runs in the first two games of the series, including two outs on the basepaths -- José Caballero getting picked off and Anthony Volpe thrown out attempting to stretch a double into a triple.
Their lone run came on Ryan McMahon’s third-inning homer. It was McMahon’s eighth of the season, representing another display of opposite-field power for the left-handed-hitting infielder, who belted a Sean Burke sinker a Statcast-projected 430 feet into the visitors’ bullpen.
“Overall, it wasn’t the way we wanted to finish it, but it was a pretty solid series,” McMahon said.