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Devin Williams walked off the Yankee Stadium mound Friday night with a loud roar of boos showering him.
The New York Yankees reliever’s struggles continued when he surrendered three runs in the top of the 10th inning, including a two-run homer with two outs, in a 5-3 loss to the Houston Astros.
Williams was supposed to be the Yankees’ bona fide closer in 2025, but he has not found any consistency in that regard despite 17 saves on the year. Since the All-Star break, Williams has been downright bad, and each of the Yankees’ last three losses included either a blown save or a loss by Williams.
Williams spoke with reporters in the Yankees’ clubhouse after the loss, which put them just half-a-game above the Cleveland Guardians for the final wild-card spot in the American League, and he was blunt about his performance.
“I’m not making pitches,” he said, via multiple outlets. “It’s pretty simple. I stink right now.”
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Williams has given up at least one run in five straight outings since the All-Star break. Before that, he had allowed just one home run despite his struggles. He allowed four in his last eight appearances.
On the team’s recent road trip to face the Texas Rangers, Williams gave up a game-tying home run to Joc Pederson, the veteran left-handed hitter who has been dismal this season with just two homers and an OPS under .460 entering the series opener, in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Yankees lost that game in extra innings.
The very next night, Williams was called upon again and gave up a go-ahead, two-run single to Rowdy Tellez in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Yankees fell 2-0.
Yankees fans have moaned and groaned about Aaron Boone’s deployment of Williams in crucial situations this season, and it’s only exacerbated now that every game counts in the postseason race. So, with a sold-out home crowd against an Astros team that had become a rival of the pinstripes, fans weren’t happy with the results in the top of the 10th inning.
With the runner already at second base, Williams’ first pitch was an overthrown fastball that went to the backstop, allowing Jose Altuve to move to third base immediately. Then, Carlos Correa hit a go-ahead single to make it 3-2.
The backbreaker, though, was the two-run shot surrendered to Taylor Trammell, who has two homers on the season, on an 82 mph changeup that sat in the middle of the zone.
“I really haven’t struggled like this since probably 2018,” Williams said, referencing time in the minor leagues when he was coming off Tommy John surgery. “All I did then was continue to work and just try to help the team in any way I can.”
When asked why Williams was the man for the 10th, Boone said David Bednar, a trade deadline acquisition, wasn’t available and Mark Leiter Jr. was “probably” not either. With three right-handed hitters due up, lefties Tim Hill and Brent Headrick weren’t the preferred arms in Boone’s eyes.
Leiter, though, threw just 12 pitches combined Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We’ll try and find good spots for [Williams] to get him back to being a big part of the pen, which he should be,” Boone said.
Williams, a trade acquisition from the Milwaukee Brewers this offseason, gave up just 26 earned runs over 141 innings with his former squad from 2022-24. He has now allowed 28 over 44 innings with the Yankees and has a 5.73 ERA on the season.
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