The Yankees got plenty of offense on Tuesday night, but their pitching failed them in a brutal 9-7 defeat to the Astros .
Taking the loss was setup man Brent Headrick , who endured an uncharacteristically bad outing. The 28-year-old lefty had a sparkling 1.49 ERA and 2.07 FIP on the season entering the game, so New York's 6-5 lead in the top of the eighth inning looked safe.
But Headrick surrendered three runs on four hits and failed to complete the inning. After allowing a game-tying home run to Yainer Diaz , he gave up three straight two-out hits: a single to Jeremy Pea, a go-ahead RBI triple to Yordan Alvarez and an insurance RBI single to Isaac Paredes . Bradley Hanner needed to come in and finally got the final out of the inning, but the damage was done and too much to overcome despite the Yankees getting a run back in the bottom half.
Despite his poor performance, it's difficult to blame Headrick for the tough loss because he's been such a reliable high-leverage arm for the Yankees this year. He's seen appearances as both a setup man and fireman, and most of those appearances resulted in no runs scoring. Before Tuesday, Headrick allowed only five runs over his last 44 appearances .
Yet that's the exact problem the Yankees are facing.
Before the 2026 season, Headrick made 32 pitching appearances-in his career. He's already more than doubled that mark before September.
Headrick currently leads Major League Baseball with 68 pitching appearances , while his 67.0 innings is the seventh-most among all relievers. With over a month remaining in the season, he could theoretically appear in 80 total regular season games; last year, only two pitchers ( Tyler Rogers and Tony Santillian) appeared in as many games , and they were the first pitchers to reach that mark since 2021.
Of course, that number of pitching appearances doesn't include the postseason, and Headrick will surely be a key component of the bullpen in the games that matter the most. Given the long grind of the regular season, there's a strong possibility that Headrick is worn down once October rolls around and the Yankees wouldn't be getting his dominant form when they truly need it.
It isn't just Headrick who the Yankees are overusing. Fernando Cruz pitched in his 61st game last night and was ineffective again; his recent struggles continue to look like the result of fatigue. Tim Hill has appeared in 57 games , David Bednar pitched in 53, and Paul Blackburn took the mound in 50 games-while also tossing 73.0 total innings due to his long relief role before entering high leverage duties.
Ryan Weathers , Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt can all factor into the bullpen down the stretch, but all of these pitchers have health-related question marks. Weathers is currently on the injured list with a left flexor strain, Gil was recently activated in Triple-A after missing over three months with shoulder inflammation and Schmidt is still rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. They have upside (and Schmidt has notable experience as a reliever), but none are sure things.
The Yankees could have mitigated the need for internal help and their overreliance on Headrick and company by acquiring a bullpen arm before the trade deadline. They didn't , and now the lack of bullpen depth is rearing its ugly head with no clear-cut solutions.
There is the possibility that Headrick's bad game is simply a blip on the radar and he maintains the elite form we've seen all year. But if Headrick is starting to run on empty, then the Yankees' bullpen is in serious trouble-and the team would only have themselves to blame for giving him an unreasonable workload.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/yankees/onsi as Brent Headrick's Rough Game vs. Astros Could Indicate Major Concern for Yankees .
