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How was Devin Williams in the game for the New York Yankees on Friday night?
After a long list of recent, memorable blowups since the All-Star break, Williams took the ball in the top of the 10th inning against the Houston Astros. He promptly allowed a go-ahead single to Carlos Correa and a back-breaking home run to Taylor Trammell.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone claimed David Bednar and Mark Leiter Jr. were unavailable after heavy workloads in the previous series against the Texas Rangers, but it was still hard to justify putting Williams, whose season ERA sits at 5.73, in such a tight spot.
“We just try to find softer landing spots,” Boone said, per Bill Ladson of MLB.com. “Hard to do that right now when you have a short outing by the starter and you are piecing it together and you have a guy down – (you) don’t always have the opportunities.
“We’ll try to find good spots for him and get him back to being a big part of the ‘pen, where he should be.”
It’s been hard to fathom just how poorly Williams, the two-time National League Reliever of the Year, has pitched this season. It’s made all the worse by the fact that the Yankees traded for him with only one year left on his contract.
Sure, the Yankees want to get the most possible bang for their buck. But Williams is actively costing them just about every game he pitches — now three in a row since Monday.
Boone cannot keep putting the process ahead of the results. The Yankees are going to be out of a playoff spot before he knows it.
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