One of the Yankees’ obvious stated goals is to make the postseason this year. Aaron Boone also stated his intention to “keep running [Devin Williams] out there.” These two avowals are incompatible with each other, as demonstrated by yet another meltdown from Williams. In his last four appearances, Williams has a pair of blown saves, gave up the game-winning hit, and now surrendered three runs in the tenth inning to sink any chance of a Yankees comeback, 5-3.
Cam Schlittler’s principal issue since being promoted to the big league rotation has been a complete lack of command over his secondary pitches. That was on full display in the first inning, Schlittler putting his team in a 2-0 hole before they’d even had a chance to bat against likely AL Cy Young finalist Hunter Brown. MLB Trade Deadline addition Jesús Sánchez reached with a one out single and Schlittler then hung a first-pitch cement mixer middle-middle sweeper to Jose Altuve, who gleefully deposited it into the seats in left for a two-run blast to immediately silence the customary boos at Yankee Stadium.
It turns out that even those two runs looked too steep a deficit to overcome the way Brown was throwing the ball and the Yankees bats were floundering. They got a runner to third with two outs in the first, Ben Rice reaching on a one-out automatic double and advancing on a grounder, but it was radio silence from the offense from there through the rest of Brown’s start. He struck out the side in the second and then induced quick, harmless contact in the third, retiring the side in order on just eight pitches. The batted balls by the Yankees only got softer and softer from there, Brown needing 24 pitches to go three up and three down in the third and fourth frames.
To his credit, Schlittler settled down after gifting the Astros the early lead. He retired the side in order in the second and navigated around a Jeremy Peña hit-by-pitch and Carlos Correa walk to record a scoreless third. Things looked like they could unravel in the fourth, Taylor Trammell just beating out an infield single and advancing to second on a single by Mauricio Dubón. Cam Smith lined a third straight one-out single to right that seemed certain to plate Trammell, but a hard charge by Cody Bellinger and an inch-perfect cannon throw home nabbed Trammell by a step to hold the deficit at two.
Just when it looked like the offense would roll over for another sleepy loss, they strung together a series of disciplined at-bats in the sixth. Brown retired 14 straight batters between the Rice double and the second baserunner he allowed — a Ryan McMahon walk to lead off the sixth, but that walk proved a harbinger of his worsening command. Austin Wells pulled a double just inside first under the diving attempt of Christian Walker, but Luis Rojas added to a growing list of questionable third base coach decisions by holding McMahon at third despite the ball caroming off the sidewall away from Smith in right. Trent Grisham popped out, but Rice and Aaron Judge lined a pair of RBI singles to tie the game, 2-2, though Cody Bellinger struck out and Jazz Chisholm Jr. flew out to strand runners on the corners.
In the end, the fact that Schlittler held the Astros to two runs in five innings proved to be an invaluable contribution. He still has a lot of work to do commanding his breaking balls, all but two landing belt high or above. However, in a way it is heartening that the bulk of his struggles at the major league level have come in the first inning. Including tonight, he has pitched to a 10.80 ERA in the opening frame and a 1.93 ERA thereafter. Making sure Schlittler is locked in from first pitch is hopefully a skill the organization can help teach as he continues his big league career. His final line on the night: two runs on seven hits and a walk with three strikeouts in five innings.
Yerry De los Santos was the first man out of the bullpen for the Yankees, and he pitched a scoreless sixth and recorded the first two outs of the seventh before running into trouble issuing a pair of walks. Boone called on Camilo Doval, and he struck out Walker to strand the pair in the seventh before working a 1-2-3 eighth on just six pitches. It was encouraging to see Luke Weaver continue to get his confidence back, working around a two-out walk of Sánchez in the ninth to give his offense a chance to walk it off in regulation.
Stop me if you’ve heard this story before, but the moment Devin Williams entered this game, any chance of the Yankees winning flew out the window. His first pitch in the 10th was wild to the backstop, allowing the automatic runner Altuve to advance to third and then walk home on a Carlos Correa RBI single. Devin lured us in with false hope by retiring the next two batters including some help from Walker on a misread of a flyball to the wall in right, but truly stuck the dagger in by serving up a two-run homer to Trammell on a center-cut changeup, just the 18th home run of Trammell’s five-year big league career.
The offense fought back valiantly in the bottom-half, clawing back a run on an Anthony Volpe RBI single and putting a pair on against Josh Hader, but Grisham lined out to end the game, 5-3.
It is truly staggering that Boone refuses to stay away from Williams in high-leverage moments when he has been downright unpitchable for much of the year. He had a nice little run from May to June, but since the start of July, he has looked as dreadful as he did at the outset of 2025. Just this week, he blew two prior games in Texas thanks to the uninspiring bats of Joc Pederson and Rowdy Tellez. Add Trammell to the list, I suppose.
Boone said in the postgame that David Bednar and Mark Leiter Jr. were unavailable, but that doesn’t mean Williams should have been the choice, given his dreadful results. Even though Tim Hill would’ve had a platoon disadvantage against the first three hitters of the 10th, just about everyone in Yankee Stadium would’ve rolled the dice with him instead. At the very least, Hill could have at least come in to face Trammell to keep it a one-run game and a comeback much more within reach. Alas, Boone chooses to live in the alternate reality where Williams hasn’t been a complete disaster in 2025. So many regrettable choices.
The Yankees now only lead the red-hot Guardians by a half-game in the AL Wild Card; they could be out of playoff position as soon as tomorrow. Luis Gil will look to bounce back from his ugly season debut facing Framber Valdez. First pitch is scheduled for 2:05 pm EDT with the broadcast returning to YES.
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