Marcus Stroman off again as Yankees fail to sweep Astros

After a strong beginning to his Yankees career, Marcus Stroman hasn’t been at his best over his last few starts.

That included his May 3 outing against the Tigers. While Stroman danced around trouble and held Detroit to one earned run, he walked five batters for the second time in as many starts.

But “there never was that backbreaking blow,” Aaron Boone noted before Stroman took the mound against the Astros on Thursday.

Unlike the Tigers, Houston made a sizeable dent against the right-hander. Stroman limited himself to just two walks, but a pair of first-inning homers helped the Astros win, 4-3, while narrowly avoiding a three-game sweep in New York.

The scoring began in the first inning when Yordan Alvarez smoked a Stroman cutter at 116.8 mph, sending it 395 feet over the right field fence for the Astros’ third first-inning solo homer of the series.

While Alvarez’s jack was no cheap shot, it paled in comparison to Jon Singleton’s two-run bomb later in the inning. With measurements of 115.4 mph and 442 feet, the first baseman crushed Stroman’s sinker off the facing of the upper deck at Yankee Stadium.

Afterward, a wide-eyed Alvarez could be seen oohing and aahing on the Astros’ bench.

“I don’t know that I have,” Boone said when asked if he’s seen a ball go up there.

Jon Singleton follows up Yordan’s HR with a 442-foot blast of his own!@Casamigos | #MLBNShowcase pic.twitter.com/UpeieHuXvy

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) May 9, 2024

The Yankees cut the Astros’ lead to one in the third inning when Anthony Volpe hit his fifth homer of the season to the right field corner. However, Houston responded in the fifth frame when Jeremy Peña picked up an RBI single off of Stroman, who totaled nine hits, four earned runs and five strikeouts over 5.2 innings and 95 pitches.

“Definitely a lot of adversity in there. I wasn’t good enough early on, just kind of put our team in a little bit of a hole,” said Stroman, who made a mechanical adjustment after the opening inning. “Just gotta be better. Can’t let up three in the first. Just feel like I don’t give my team a chance when I do that.”

While Stroman saw his ERA rise to 3.80, Ronel Blanco worked around the Volpe home run and his own control problems.

The righty didn’t allow any other runs despite issuing four walks over 5.2 innings and 107 pitches. The Yankees managed four hits and struck out five times against Blanco, who authored a no-hitter in his first start of the season.

“He changes speeds really well,” Boone said. “The changeup’s real, slider. He’s got enough fastball to keep you honest. But his secondary’s good. We had him on the ropes there a little bit.

“Just couldn’t quite break through enough.”

The Yankees did trim the deficit to one once again when Aaron Judge added his own monstrous longball in the eighth, but the 115.7-mph, 473-foot solo homer off Ryan Pressly wasn’t enough for the Yankees to sweep the Astros for the second time this season.

“Not a lot of people go to that place,” Boone said, “other than a few guys who we’ve got that are capable of doing that.”

Aaron Judge sends one into the seats 🔥 pic.twitter.com/DnjmsD1ab8

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) May 9, 2024

While Judge energized the stadium, Josh Hader pitched a scoreless ninth. The Yankees made him work thanks to a leadoff single from Gleyber Torres and an eight-pitch at-bat from Volpe, but the shortstop ultimately struck out swinging to end the game.

“It didn’t happen for us today,” Judge said, “but it came down to the wire.”

Now the Yankees will hit the road for trips to Tampa Bay and Minnesota. Their series against the division rival Rays begins Friday night, when Clarke Schmidt will take the mound after recording a 3.50 ERA over his first seven starts.

Taj Bradley will make his season debut for the Rays. The right-hander missed the first six weeks of the season after suffering a right pectoral strain during spring training.

As for the rest of the series, Nestor Cortes and Luis Gil are scheduled to start for the Yankees on Saturday and Sunday. They’ll face Zack Littell and a pitcher to be determined before heading to Minnesota.