Latest ugly Marcus Stroman start sinks Yankees in loss that included Gleyber Torres benching: ‘Unacceptable’
About half an hour before the first pitch of a game that had been delayed by rain, a rainbow emerged from the clouds hovering above Yankee Stadium.
When the beauty left The Bronx, ugliness invaded.
In an eventful game that saw a rare benching, a failed comeback and too many mistakes, among the most concerning developments for the Yankees was Marcus Stroman getting knocked around again in an 8-5, series-opening loss to the Blue Jays in front of 44,883 on Friday.
Gleyber Torres did not hustle on a blast off the left-field wall, a 363-foot single that cost the Yankees a run and cost Torres the middle and late innings of the game.
The Yankees wasted the third-farthest home run of Aaron Judge’s career and a 10-hit outburst.
Their comeback attempt, with a three-run fifth inning that brought them into arm’s reach, was not enough because Stroman already had buried them too deep.
“The offense did enough today to get a win,” Stroman said after the Yankees (65-46) snapped a five-game win streak. “To put us in that position is very disappointing and unacceptable.”
The right-hander was charged with seven runs in an outing in which he recorded eight outs.
The 33-year-old, whose first season in pinstripes started so well, has watched his ERA swell from 2.60 to 4.10 in his past 10 starts.
Since June began, he has allowed 33 earned runs in 47 innings (6.31 ERA), a midseason downturn that is troublesome not just because of the results but because of the stuff.
“Heart of the plate, especially with some of the secondary pitches,” manager Aaron Boone said after Stroman allowed eight hits and walked one. “Really struggled I think with the profile of his fastball, with his sinker too.”
He relies more on craft than gas, but Stroman still needs some heat to succeed.
A four-seamer that averaged 90 mph this season was down to 88.8 mph Friday.
His average slider had fallen from 85.4 mph to 83.9 mph.
Stroman said he was “not at all” concerned with the dip, but it will be worth watching as the season winds on.
The Blue Jays sent seven men to the plate in the first, a steady stream of hard hits turning into three runs.
Two innings later, four out of six Toronto hitters reached, including RBI singles from Spencer Horwitz and Ernie Clement.
Stroman might have gotten out of the inning with a double play, when Davis Schneider hit a soft, one-hopped liner to Ben Rice, but the fledgling first baseman took a few steps toward first — where base-runner Clement was hung up — before pivoting and throwing to second, a misplay that ensured only one out was recorded.
Following a walk, Stroman was pulled after 64 pitches and with the bases loaded and two outs.
In came Michael Tonkin, who served up a two-run single to Brian Serven that made it 7-2.
The Yankees never led in a game in which Judge crushed a 477-foot, two-run homer deep into the left-field seats in the first.
That and a two-run shot from Anthony Volpe in the fifth would be the best moments of the night for the Yankees because disappointment, in different forms, surrounded those at-bats.
In what has been a trying contract season, Torres turned a positive into a significant negative. He smacked a second-inning shot off the left-field wall and watched its flight for several steps and only reached first base.
Two batters later, Volpe doubled into the right-field corner in a play that ended with Torres — from first base — getting thrown out at home.
Torres remained in the game for the next inning but was replaced by Oswaldo Cabrera to start the fourth.
Torres apologized “especially to the fans and my teammates” and said he “has to be better” after not running on a ball he believed to be a homer.
Boone, who said Torres and others typically “play their asses off,” cut off questions about Torres after about two and a half minutes.
The team’s captain believes the hook sent a message to the club.
“If you’re not doing your job, you’re going to be out of there,” Judge said. “[Boone has] made that clear to us.”
Too many didn’t do their jobs Friday night.
