Yankees: Aaron Boone’s late game bullpen decision backfires in first loss of the season

The Yankees suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday by a score of 5-3 to the lowly Orioles. The Yanks offense struggled throughout the game but it was Aaron Boone’s late-game decision to have Jonathan Holder pitch a second inning that backfired on him and probably proved to be the difference of the game.

Let me start by saying I’m not one of those Yankee fans who’s an Aaron Boone hater. I don’t dissect every little move he makes and puts him on blast. Last season there were certainly times where myself and I bet many other fans disagreed with some of his decisions, but for the most part, I thought he did a solid job managing the club in his first year as the Yankees skipper.

However, if there’s one complaint I had about Boone’s decision making last season it was the way he employed his bullpen at times. That was on full display last October when he stuck with both Luis Severino and CC Sabathia far too long during the ALDS against the Red Sox and it cost him.

There were also times during the regular season where Boone would go to his bullpen and call on one of his dominant relievers at the perfect time. They would pitch a scoreless inning and do the job but then he would send them back out for a second inning and they wouldn’t be nearly as effective. It happened a handful of times with Dellin Betances and Chad Green in particular and they would lose gas in that second inning of work and get knocked around.

On Saturday he did it again, this time with Jonathan Holder. Holder entered the game in the top of the eighth inning for the Yanks and pitched a strong scoreless inning to keep the Yankees deficit at 3-1. After the inning, I figured since the game was still very much undecided, especially with the Yankee offenses ability to come back with one swing fo the bat, that Boone would go to another reliever such as Zack Britton. Even Tommy Kahnle or Luis Cessa would have been a better option because they were fresh.

Had it been the middle of May maybe it would have made more sense to let Holder go another inning because he would be worked up to do so. However, in the second game of the season, I think Boone stuck with him for far too long and it cost him when he gave up two runs in the top of the ninth.

In that ninth inning, you could clearly see he was running out of gas because his location was off and he was hanging his breaking pitches. A hanging slider led to a two-run double from light hitting catcher Jesus Sacre which pushed the deficit to four when the Yankees came up in the bottom of the ninth.

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In the bottom half, Troy Tulowitzki led off the inning with his first home run as a Yankee to cut the lead to 5-2. D.J. LeMahieu followed with a double, Brett Gardner flew out and Aaron Judge singled to bring Giancarlo Stanton up as the tying run.

Stanton struck out in the big spot and Luke Voit than singled to drive in LeMahieu to cut the lead to two. Miguel Andujar struck out with runners at the corners to end the game and the Yankees hopes of going 162-0 ended.

Obviously, there’s no way of predicting how the top of the ninth inning would have played out had the Yankees gone to someone other than Holder out of the pen. However, the odds of someone else putting up a zero would have been greater in my opinion and if they did than the Yankees could have tied the game at 3 to send it into extras.

This is just one game and in the grand scheme of things Saturday’s loss probably won’t mean much at the end of the season. I’ll admit it’s unfair to judge Boone based off one blunder in a game this early in the season even if it is now his second season managing the club.

My main concern with the loss is that Boone once again stuck with a pitcher for too long and didn’t realize he had until it was too late. It’s something that we’ve seen a lot of since he took over for Joe Girardi and my hope is that as the season progresses he learns his lesson and brings in the fresher arm when the situation calls for it.