With an offense that scratched across three runs in 10 innings, the Yankees required excellence from their pitching staff.
Yet again, Devin Williams was nowhere near excellent.
A quality, tense game in which the Yankees erased a two-run deficit and forced extra innings was deflated by their most polarizing pitcher in the 10th inning.
Williams entered to what might generously be referred to as groans and exited to boos that rivaled the reception for Jose Altuve, throwing away what became a 5-3 loss to the Astros on Friday in front of a sellout crowd of 46,027 angry fans in The Bronx.
Between a miserable road trip and a poor start to this home stand, the Yankees (61-55) have dropped six of seven.
Aaron Boone went to Williams after Yerry De los Santos, Camilo Doval and Luke Weaver combined for four scoreless, one-hit innings. The Yankees manager presumably did not have David Bednar, who had expended 42 pitches Wednesday, available.
Immediately, Williams showed either a lack of poise or a lack of command. His first pitch bounced to the backstop to move the automatic runner to third. Carlos Correa then singled up the middle for the go-ahead run.
The Yankees caught a break when Yainer Diaz’s drive off the right field wall led to an out — right fielder Amed Rosario crashed against the wall and remained down for a moment, and Christian Walker, who began the play at first base, retreated believing the ball to be caught — but that break was forgotten a batter later.
With two outs in the frame, former Yankee Taylor Trammell drilled a home run into the right field seats to essentially clinch a game that left Williams reeling, wildly unpopular in his home ballpark and owning a 5.73 ERA.
The Yankees scored once against Josh Hader in the bottom of 10th on an Anthony Volpe single, but the potential tying run in Paul Goldschmidt (a fly out) and the potential winning run in Trent Grisham (a line out) could not come through.
Fans will target Williams, who came undone in a season in which he has come undone far too many times. But the Yankees would not have needed a 10th inning or Williams if their offense had a pulse for most of the contest.
Ben Rice doubled in the first inning for the Yankees, who then watched AL Cy Young candidate Hunter Brown sit down the next 14 hitters.
A trace of life arrived in the sixth, when the Yankees exploded for a pair of runs to tie the game on three hits and a walk.
The rally began with Ryan McMahon working a seven-pitch walk to mark their first base runner since Rice. Austin Wells followed by softly grounding a ball down the first-base line that went for a double and should have driven in a run, but a cautious Luis Rojas held McMahon at third.
The stop sign did not matter: With one out, Rice smacked a single to right to drive one run in, and Aaron Judge’s single up the middle then tied the game.
But with runners on the corners and one out, the Yankees couldn’t further capitalize. Houston turned to lefty Bennett Sousa, who baited Cody Bellinger into chasing a slider in the dirt before Jazz Chisholm Jr. flew out.
Cam Schlittler was not perfect but was solid when it mattered in an outing in which he let up two runs on seven hits and a walk in five innings.
The rookie was only victimized by his third batter of the game, Altuve drilling a two-run homer, and he consistently navigated out of danger (with some help from Bellinger) the rest of the way.
The Astros mounted threats against the hard-throwing righty but went just 1-for-5 with runners in scoring.
That one hit: a fourth-inning single from Cam Smith with Trammell on second base. Bellinger charged the ball and unleashed his third assist of the season, a one-hopped throw to Wells that arrived just before Trammell.
The Astros threatened again in the fifth, when Altuve doubled with one out. But Schlittler induced a ground out from Correa and watched as Walker flew out the warning track in right-center, Schlittler exhaling after 97 pitches and giving the game to his bullpen.
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