With Effross hurting, Trivino answers the call
Lou Trivino took the ball and didn’t give it back.
With fellow newcomer Scott Effross unavailable due to right shoulder stiffness, Trivino played the role of hero out of the Yankees’ bullpen, recording the final seven outs in a must-have, 4-2 win over the Blue Jays on Sunday to prevent a four-game series sweep at the Stadium.
“I’m up for anything,” Trivino said following his longest outing of the season that required 32 pitches, matching his season high. “Honestly, whatever I can do to help this team win, I’ll do it . ... I enjoyed today. It was nice to go out there and succeed and have success.”
Trivino entered with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh inning and retired Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on a groundout to keep the game even at 2-2. The former A’s right-hander then mowed down the Blue Jays in the eighth and ninth innings to collect his first win as a Yankee.
“We were just going to try and piece it together. I didn’t expect him to go two-plus,” manager Aaron
Boone said of Trivino, who has allowed just one earned run in nine innings with the Yankees. “You can’t say enough about that effort from Lou. I thought he threw the ball great, gets Guerrero in the biggest spot with the bases loaded to start things and then a real efficient inning that allowed him to go back out there for the ninth. As long as he was holding up, I was going to ride him until the end.”
As impressive as Trivino’s outing was, the potential of losing Effross is just as concerning for a Yankees bullpen short on dependable arms. After pitching on Saturday, Effross wasn’t feeling right on Sunday and unable to go.
“All I know is he was still a little bit stiff today,” Boone said.
It didn’t hurt the Yankees on Sunday, mostly because Trivino had his best outing as a Yankee. The 30-year-old righty has struggled at times this year, pitching to a 5.27 ERA for the Yankees and A’s. But one area he has excelled at is stranding inherited runners. Only 5 of 33 have scored on him. In the seventh, with the game potentially on the line, Trivino got the biggest out of the game against Guerrero, and he didn’t look back.
“It’s one of those things, you try to be as aggressive as you can in the zone and hopefully get weak contact or swing and misses,” he said.