HOUSTON — As far as reliever Devin Williams is concerned, the Yankees’ loss on Wednesday night didn’t come down to one pitch in a nightmarish eighth inning.
“‘You missed four,’” Williams said he told home-plate umpire Brian Walsh before getting ejected after giving up his third walk, which forced in the go-ahead run in what became an 8-7 Astros victory at Daikin Park.
The Astros, who plated just one run through five innings against Yankees starter Will Warren, had come back from a 4-1 deficit. Jeremy Peña’s leadoff homer in the sixth chased Warren, and the Astros tagged Luke Weaver with another run in the sixth and one in the seventh.
Then came the fateful eighth.
Carlos Correa started it with a double off Williams, who then walked Jesús Sánchez, struck out Yainer Diaz, walked Christian Walker and struck out Ramón Urías to set the stage for Taylor Trammell, whose walk on five pitches broke the 4-4 tie.
After the game, Williams specified some of the pitches he took issue with.
“When you’re making good pitches, which I was, not getting those calls really changes the course of an at-bat,” Williams said. “Obviously, Correa hit the double, so I kind of had my back against the wall right away. Made some really good pitches to Sánchez, which [Walsh] missed two in that at-bat. You just keep going, right? But at the end of the day, that changes outcomes. I should have had Sánchez [who walked on five pitches] 0-2 instead of 2-1.”
Williams was also perturbed with a particular call during Trammell’s plate appearance.
“The 2-0 pitch was a strike,” the right-hander said. “That turns into a 2-2 count instead of a 3-1 count.”
Trammell didn’t swing at any of the five pitches he saw, giving the Astros a 5-4 lead and prompting the ejection of not only Williams but manager Aaron Boone.
“I said, ‘I had four that you missed,’ and he threw me out for it,” Williams said. “Never been ejected in my career.”
Boone was tossed as he replaced Williams with Camilo Doval. Peña promptly singled off Doval, who allowed two subsequent runs on a balk and a wild pitch. Every run proved crucial when Cody Bellinger hit a three-run homer off Bryan Abreu in the ninth.
Boone, whose team had won its previous eight games at Daikin Park, wasn’t full of postgame fury.
“Obviously, a tough inning,” Boone said of the eighth. “Thought [Devin] was throwing the ball well. Real competitive at-bats — even the walks. A lot of close pitches. They got the best of us tonight.
“We had a lead, a couple chances to add on, and I thought the Astros put some really good at-bats together, really squaring up some pitches against us the second half of the game.”
Asked if he thought the strike zone changed throughout the game, Yankees catcher Austin Wells simply replied yes.
“[Williams] had the right to be frustrated. I felt like there were definitely some calls that we would have loved to go our way,” said Wells, who contributed a two-run homer and two doubles to New York’s offense.
“I think our guys made a lot of really good pitches tonight and didn’t get rewarded for it. That’s frustrating and feels like it’s been two nights in a row for us. The only thing we’re going to do is stick to the plan and keep going, and I think more times than not, we’ll come up on the other side.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr. also had a beef with the strike zone. Batting after Bellinger’s two-out homer made it a one-run game in the ninth, Chisholm argued with Walsh about a full-count strike that the left-handed hitter thought was outside. The pitch ended the game and dropped the Yankees 3 1/2 games behind Toronto in the American League East.
“It’s just ridiculous,” Williams said. “Jazz got the pitch taken out of his hands on a pitch that was a lot further from the zone than pitches I was making.”
