New York Yankees Report Card: Grading Michael Pineda’s First Start Back From DL

Michael Pineda, now 9-8 with a 4.19 ERA made his first start off the disabled list today after sitting our nearly an entire month with a strained right forearm. With the potential loss of veteran pitcher CC Sabathia for the remainder of the season and an offense struggling so bad that it looks like it would get shutout by a pitcher from the Little League World Series, the New York Yankees were relying on Michael Pineda to step up and deliver a dominant performance against the Houston Astros to get them back on track.

Unfortunately, this was far from the case, and ‘Big Mike’ was tagged for five runs on six hits and one walk after being chased from todays ballgame after just 4.1 innings pitched.

Evan Gattis continued to tear up Yankee Stadium, as he took Pineda deep with a solo home run that put the Astros up 1-0 in the top of the second inning. Pineda pitched relatively well through the fourth inning, but he completely fell apart in the fifth, turning a one run ball game into a five run deficit that the Yankees could not overcome.

He allowed the first four Astros to reach base in the fifth, including two infield singles to Carlos Gomez and Jake Marisnick and a single to Luis Valbuena. The small ball of the Houston Astros lead to four runs in the inning, giving them a commanding 5-0 lead with all five runs earned and charged to Michael Pineda.

The Yankees would go on to lose 6-2, but Pineda hurled a total of just 71 pitches, 44 of which were strikes. He faced just 19 batters, but did manage to throw a first-pitch strike to 12-of-the-19 hitters he faced.

Giving my honest assessment of Pineda’s first start back since coming off the DL, I’ll give him an overall grade of a D – on this edition of Yanks Go Yard Player Report Card, and the only thing saving him from an F is because the Yankees offense has been abysmal since the Minnesota Twins left town.

Yes the team isn’t hitting, but I’m a firm believer in Santana Moss’ famous line; “Big time players make big times plays in big times games.”

The Yankees needed Pineda to be a big time player today, and he failed to deliver, and because of his ugly performance the Yankees dropped the series to Houston, finished their road trip at .500 (5-5) and they dropped to 2.0 games back of the Toronto Blue Jays for first place atop the AL East. Pineda needed to be better, and there’s just no other way to put it.

The Yankees will get a much-needed day off on Thursday before heading down to Atlanta to take on the Braves in an inter-league three-game series. Masahiro Tanaka (9-6, 3.61 ERA) will take the hill against Williams Perez (4-4, 4.76 ERA) to start the series on Friday.

Michael Pineda will likely make his next start on the road in Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox in early September.

More from Yanks Go Yard

• Carlos Correa-Giants-Mets bombshell makes Aaron Judge’s return to Yankees even better
• Did Yankees troll Jon Heyman with Aaron Judge contract tweet?
• Matt Carpenter leaving Yankees for massive raise is hard to argue with
• What on earth is going on with Yankees, Fernando Tatis Jr. and flight to New York?
• 4 former Yankees players New York can still reunite with in free agency