Felix Heredia’s head hung low as he walked out of Yankee Stadium last night, fresh off another disastrous outing.
The fans milling outside left the struggling lefty alone, but they hadn’t been so kind during the game. He has been so bad for the Yankees this season that the Stadium crowd booed the lefthander before he even entered last night’s ugly 13-4 loss to Oakland.
Once again, Heredia gave them reason to be displeased, as he was ineffective for his sixth straight appearance.
He surrendered a three-run homer to Scott Hatteberg, raising his ERA to an astronomical 6.96 ERA. Still, Joe Torre sounded like a manager who had faith that the reliever would eventually turn it around.
Heredia came on in the eighth inning and promptly walked pinch hitter Marco Scutaro, angering what remained of the 50,625 in attendance. He also walked Jermaine Dye before Hatteberg’s blast.
“Obviously, he’s not pitching with confidence pitchers need or players need to play this game,” Torre said. “We’ll keep searching and hopefully come up with a solution.”
Heredia managed to strike out the side, including the dangerous Eric Chavez, but that did little good. Torre attributed at least some of Heredia’s troubles to a lack of work.
“Again, he hasn’t been out there for a while,” Torre said. “He just has trouble repeating.”