NEW YORK — Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez didn’t hold back in his blunt assessment of the New York Yankees after he and partner Dan Shulman updated Sportsnet viewers on the latest developments in Tuesday night’s Yankees-Tigers game.
“The Yankees, they’re not a good team,” Martinez said. “I don’t care what their record is. They have a lot of wild pitches. They make a lot of mistakes in the field. They don’t run the bases very well. If they don’t hit home runs, they don’t have a chance to win.”
The Yankees just won two of three games against the Blue Jays this past weekend, closing Toronto’s lead in the American League East to two games. But they dropped a game in the division after Tuesday’s debacle against Detroit, along with the Blue Jays’ walk-off win. In a 12-2 win over New York, the Tigers scored nine runs in the seventh inning after reaching base on five hits, five walks and a hit-by-pitch.
Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr. combined for zero innings pitched, four hits, four walks and nine runs. It was the first time in franchise history the Yankees had two pitchers allow four-plus runs and get zero outs in a game, according to Stathead’s Katie Sharp.
“I haven’t seen anything like that before,” said starter Will Warren, who pitched six innings of two-run ball.
The Yankees are just the second MLB team in the last 75 years to have two relievers allow four-plus runs and get zero outs in a game, joining the 1999 Anaheim Angels. Entering Tuesday, Cruz had been one of the team’s more effective relievers, posting a 2.66 ERA. It’s 3.76 after his outing against Detroit.
Among relievers with at least 40 innings pitched, Cruz is third in baseball with a 40.1 percent strikeout rate. Aroldis Chapman (40.3 percent) and Mason Miller (41.9 percent) are the only pitchers ahead of him.
Still, a big concern ahead of the postseason is that he can sometimes lose the strike zone completely, which is what happened in Tuesday’s game. The main reason the Reds traded Cruz to the Yankees last offseason was because his command was all over the place.
“This is a sport that, as you see, is not as easy as it looks,” Cruz said. “Sometimes, you’re on top of the horse. Sometimes, you get out of it. So you learn how to get on top again. It’s something that happens in baseball. You always learn from failures.”
One major concern for the bullpen heading into October is the number of free passes it allows. The Yankees’ bullpen’s walk rate is the ninth-highest in baseball.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman identified the team’s bullpen as a major weakness before the trade deadline, but so far, the results of his reliever acquisitions have been mixed. David Bednar has emerged as the club’s most trusted reliever and its closer, Jake Bird has already been optioned to Triple A, and Camilo Doval has been mostly ineffective because of his walk rate.
Outside of Bednar, Luke Weaver and Cruz have been the team’s best relievers of late. Devin Williams has pitched well recently, but no one will feel confident in him come October when the bullpen doors swing open and he’s running toward the mound.
The bullpen is still the Yankees’ biggest weakness as October nears. They need more arms to step up; otherwise, getting deep in the postseason will be a tough task, and Martinez, the Blue Jays’ broadcaster, will likely be saying, “I told you so,” in a few weeks.
“We have the guys down there to get it done,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of his bullpen. “We just got to sync it up. (Tuesday) is a tough night, but it doesn’t change a lot of the good things that have happened in some of these games we’ve been able to close out.”
(Photo of Mark Leiter Jr.: Brad Penner / Imagn Images)
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