Astros fall to Yankees in extra innings
After Devenski coughs up 2-run lead in 9th, Peacock allows walkoff hit to Torres in 10th
NEW YORK — For the second time in three days, Brad Peacock exited the field while a team unleashed a raucous celebration at his expense, another nine-hole hitter crushing a walkoff hit against Peacock to complete an Astros bullpen collapse that began in the ninth.
Chris Devenski blew a save in a two-run ninth inning, allowing a game-tying home run to Brett Gardner before Peacock yielded a walkoff single to Yankees wunderkind Gleyber Torres in the 10th, giving the Astros a 6-5 loss Tuesday night — their second last-pitch defeat in three days.
“Obviously, our bullpen’s been beat up a little bit,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “We had a number of guys we weren’t going to use tonight, but that changed as the game was going.”
Peacock elevated an 0-2 slider to Miguel Andujar, who laced a double into the left-field corner
and extended the 10th inning for Torres — he of two errors on a woeful defensive night for the Yankees.
“It all started with an 0-2 breaking ball to Andujar, and it’s just a bad pitch,” Peacock said. “Kind of led to things happening there.”
Devenski entered with a 5-3 lead and without the fear of facing Aaron Judge. A leadoff fivepitch walk to eight-hole hitter Andujar changed this, ensuring Judge would get an at-bat and altering the course of Devenski’s evening.
“The walk is what killed me,” Devenski said. “That walk is unacceptable in that situation, and it caused a lot of damage.”
A strikeout of Torres gave way to Gardner, the lefthandedhitting left fielder who smoked an elevated 0-1 fastball into the right-field seats for his second home run of the evening.
Devenski is righthanded, but he has carved a role for this scenario, combating an opponent’s most fearsome lefthanded hitter when a stressful situation arises. Entering Tuesday, he’d ceded a .583 OPS to lefties in 48 plate appearances. Just three extra-base hits, too.
Gardner’s was the fourth, one that tied the game and allowed Judge to get to the plate.
Already with a home run against Astros starter Charlie Morton to his credit, Judge laced an opposite-field double on another four-seamer. Devenski stranded him at third base as the winning run.
Devenski’s presence here was curious. Closer Ken Giles — who has converted all nine save opportunities in which he was placed — threw 35 pitches between back-to-back outings on Sunday and Monday and began the game unavailable. But Devenski piched Sunday and Monday, too. Apparently, 20 pitches in his two outings were few enough to warrant an appearance for a third day.
“I feel fine. It doesn’t matter. I’ll throw any day, five days in a row, if it helps this team win,” Devenski said. “Obviously, I didn’t do that tonight, and that’s unacceptable. But I’m going to flush it as much as I can.”
When Devenski walked off the field in the ninth, Giles rose to warm up in the Astros’ bullpen alongside Peacock, who pitched the 10th with no one else warming.
Asked if Giles was available, Hinch said: “Not until after the 10th. That’s why I said things changed as the game went on.”
Aroldis Chapman was. In the 10th, Tony Kemp drew a two-out walk against the Yankees’ flamethrowing closer and took second when Chapman fired a wild pitch against George Springer.
With a 2-2 count, Chapman uncorked another. The 100.3 mph fastball sailed to the backstop with such force that it ricocheted directly to Gary Sanchez on a line. The Yankees catcher fired to Andujar at third base. Kemp arrived too late, tagged out for the third out at third base.
“I was just prepared to be on third base, looked up, and the ball is in his glove,” Kemp said. “You’re in no-man’s land at that point, so you just have to keep going and hope for a bad throw. He put it on the money.”
This was a bizarre play only a pitcher like Chapman could induce and a defensive gem otherwise unbecoming for this night.
The Yankees committed five errors, their most in a game since 2014. Only four times since 1960 had they won a game while committing at least five errors. The last instance was in 1997.
“That’s how baseball is,” Kemp said. “Once you try to make sense of it, it’ll just make your head hurt even more.”