Yankees Bullpen Implodes To Give Athletics Sweep

By Kenneth Teape | Apr 21, 2016

Apr 21, 2016; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees relief pitcher Chasen Shreve (45) walks to the dugout after giving up two run in the seventh inning against the Oakland Athletics at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports /

The New York Yankees’ bullpen imploded on Thursday, giving the Oakland Athletics the series sweep.

The New York Yankees have gotten off to a rocky start this season. They have had struggles basically everywhere on the team, but one area that had been relatively strong thus far was the bullpen. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end eventually, and for the bullpen their strong run came to an end on Thursday against the Oakland Athletics.

Facing a sweep at the hands of the Athletics, the Yankees were battling to make that not come to fruition. Luis Severino delivered a strong start after two poor ones to start the season. He did his job, going six innings and allowing only two runs on seven hits and one walk to go with four strikeouts.

His counterpart, Rich Hill, went almost pitch for pitch with him throughout the night. Hill also threw six innings, striking out 10 while allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits and four walks. With the pitchers throwing to a stalemate, the outcome would come down to which bullpen would be able to step up. On this night, it was the Yankees bullpen that came up short.

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Coming into the season the backend of the bullpen was expected to be lights out for the Yankees. With the trio of Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman, the Yankees basically made games six innings long instead of nine, as those three can shutdown even the strongest of hitters. But, they cannot pitch every night, so other players need to step up sometimes. They had been doing it fairly well thus far, but against the Athletics tonight things did not go well.

Chasen Shreve was called upon from the bullpen in a 2-2 game in the seventh inning. It was not a 2-2 games for long, as Shreve surrendered back-to-back home runs on back-to-back pitches to start his appearance. Khris Davis and Coco Crisp got to Shreve to give the Athletics a 4-2 lead.

The Yankees would get one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning as Starlin Castro singled home Brett Gardner. That would be as close as the Yankees got on the evening, as the Athletics continued pouring it on in the eighth and ninth inning.

In the eighth inning, Chris Coghlan hit a two-run home run off Johnny Barbato to give the Athletics a 6-3 lead. Kirby Yates then surrendered a run in the ninth inning, as Mark Canha hit a sac fly to score Crisp and give the Athletics a 7-3 lead, which proved to be the final score.

The Yankees lineup mustered only eight hits and three runs on the night, with Aaron Hicks and Austin Romine knocking in the other two runs. Jacoby Ellsbury was the only player with multiple hits in the game, going 3-for-5 out of the leadoff spot.

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The Yankees will look to get things back on track this weekend when they host a weekend series against AL East rival Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium.

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