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 f🍸rom the clouds hovering above Yankee Stadium.
When the beauty left Tꦡhe 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 middlไe and late innings of the game.
The Yankees wasted thಌe thirཧd-farthest home run of Aaron Judge’s career and a 10-hit outburst.
Their comeback attempt, with a three-run fifth inning that brougꦜht them into arm’s reach, was not enough because Stroman already had buried them too deep.&n⛎bsp;
“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 ꦍis very disappointing and unacceptable.”
The right-hander was charged with seven runs in an outin𒐪gꦕ in which he recorded eight outs.
The 🐠3🔯3-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 𒆙33 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.
“Hꦆeart 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 t🐬han gas, but Stroman still needs some heat to succeed.
A f꧑our-seamer that averaged 90 mph this season was down to 88.8 mph Friday.꧑
His average sli🎶der 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 ꦍturning into three runs.
Two innings later, four out of six Toronto hitters reached, including RBI singles 🌃from Spencer Horwitz and Ernieဣ 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 𝐆— 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 bꦉases loaded and two outs.
In came Michael Tonkin, who served up a two-run single to Br🌳ian Serven that made it 7-2.𓄧
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 fi♛rst.
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 b🔴een 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 into𒉰 the right-field corner in a ⛄play that ended with Torres — from first base — getting thrown out at home.
Torres ꦜremained in the game for the next inning but was replaced by Oswaldo Cabrera to start the fourth.
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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 h🙈omer.
Boone, who said Torres and others typically “pla🐭y their asses off,” cut off questions about Torres after about two and a half minutes.
The team’s captai𒁃n believes the h🉐ook 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 thaꦐt clear to us.”
Too many didn’t do their jobs Friday night.
