The Yankees’ rotation problem spilled into a bullpen problem, which translated to a problematic loss.
Carlos Rodon was hit hard before sustaining a hamstring injury that knocked him out early.
Manager Aaron Boone then had to ask too much from his bullpen, which faltered in a 9-7 setback that finished a disappointing series split with the Astros in front of a sellout crowd of 46,345 in The Bronx on Sunday.
The Yankees (58-54) have won none of their past four series and fell 4 ½ games back of an AL wild-card spot before traveling to face the White Sox.
A day after Nestor Cortes took a step forward, Rodon took a step (and maybe a leap) back.
The lefty allowed five runs in 2 ²/₃ innings before throwing his 58th pitch of the afternoon, a ball to Houston’s Chas McCormick.
He finished his delivery and felt his hamstring grab, initially believing he was cramping. Boone and a trainer huddled by the mound with Rodon, who stretched out his left leg, took a few warm-up pitches but couldn’t continue.
Rodon walked off the mound to some boos and, though he later said his hamstring improved and was feeling “normal,” he will learn his fate with an MRI exam Monday.
“I’m pretty frustrated. This is not the way I wanted to come out here and perform,” Rodon said after his sixth start, his ERA rising to 7.33. “Especially today, with a game that I felt like we needed to win. … I gave up five runs again, and it wasn’t good.”
The frustration is understandable for the 30-year-old, who signed a $162 million, six-year deal and missed the first three months of the season with a left forearm strain and back issues. He returned in early July and has been ineffective since.
With Domingo German (who left the team to seek treatment for alcohol abuse) gone and Luis Severino (7.74 ERA) possibly on the outs, the Yankees’ rotation is paper thin.
“It’s definitely taken a hit,” Boone said of a rotation that covered just 6 ²/₃ innings Saturday and Sunday, which eventually left the bullpen exposed.
Rodon exited in a four-run hole that the Yankees escaped.
They pieced together a string of strong at-bats, if not strong contact, that forced the Astros to throw 51 pitches in a four-run fourth.
The Yankees entered the frame down 5-1 and used a bases-loaded single (from Harrison Bader), hit by pitch (from Anthony Volpe), walk (from Jake Bauers) and walk (from Aaron Judge) to tie the game.
But after Cortes, who was rushed up following German’s exit, pitched four innings Saturday, the Yankees were forced to rely too much on an overworked bullpen.
Jhony Brito recorded five outs before Boone turned to Wandy Peralta, whose effectiveness waned as he went deeper. In the lefty’s second inning of work, he allowed a three-run homer to Jake Meyers, who also homered off Rodon and finished with a career-high six RBIs.
Martin Maldonado followed with a solo homer, and the Yankees could not come back a second time.
His bullpen options were “just short,” said Boone, who was staying away from Ian Hamilton (who threw 34 pitches Saturday), Michael King (who had pitched two of three days), and would have preferred not using Tommy Kahnle (three of four) and Clay Holmes (three of four).
The Yankees mounted threats but too often could not find the big hit.
They left multiple runners on base in every inning from the fourth through ninth. They wasted a season-high 12 walks and stranded 15 runners.
In the ninth, the Yankees put two on for Giancarlo Stanton, whose bid for a game-winning home run died in deep center.
“You take seven runs and try to make that stand up,” said Boone, whose club lost just its fourth game [of 24] when scoring at least seven. “We’re probably one swing away from a double-digit day.”
They needed more because of the hole Rodon created. He allowed two walks and three hits — two of which were home runs — before leaving another disappointing outing.
He has given up eight home runs in 27 innings — including a second-inning, three-run shot from Meyers and a third-inning, two-run shot from Yordan Alvarez.
“I would like [the homers] to stop, that’s for sure,” said Rodon, who was signed to beat the Astros in October and could not in August.
