NEW YORK — The Yankees had spent much of the summer treating the late innings as one of the safest parts of their roster.
That confidence took a hit Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
New York built three separate leads against Houston and scored seven runs, but the Astros kept answering. Cody Bellinger ended a 32-game homerless drought with a three-run shot. Luis García Jr. went 4-for-5 with a homer, double and three RBIs. The Yankees still lost 9-7 after their bullpen allowed six runs.
The defeat dropped the Yankees to 74-57 and kept them 3.5 games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East. Boston moved within 1.5 games of New York for the American League’s top wild-card position. Bryan Abreu earned the win for Houston, Brent Headrick took the loss and Josh Hader recorded his 19th save in 19 chances.
The larger concern was not that one of baseball’s best bullpens finally had a bad night. Yankees relievers had allowed only four earned runs over their previous 29 1/3 innings and owned a major league-best 2.44 ERA over the previous 70 games entering Tuesday.
Bellinger’s homer gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead in the third. García’s two-run homer made it 5-3 in the fifth. When Houston tied it again, Luis García doubled home another run in the seventh for a 6-5 advantage.
Each lead disappeared.
That sequence matters because the Yankees have built much of their postseason push around surviving close games until Boone can turn them over to a bullpen that has repeatedly protected narrow margins. The pitching staff had not allowed more than five runs in a game since Aug. 3. Tuesday tested that formula in the opposite direction.
The first warning arrived in the sixth.
Fernando Cruz entered with the Yankees leading 5-3. He walked Yainer Diaz, then left a four-seam fastball in a spot Jeremy Pena could drive. Pena hit a two-run homer to tie the game.
Cruz finished the inning, but the blown save was his sixth of the season. His season ERA rose to 3.13, still a number that looks reassuring on its own.
The trend underneath it does not.
Cruz’s second-half split changes the picture
Cruz carried a 2.25 ERA into the All-Star break after allowing 10 earned runs in 40 innings. He surrendered only two home runs in those 44 appearances.
Since the break, the results have shifted sharply.
Including Tuesday, Cruz has allowed nine earned runs in 14 2/3 innings, a 5.52 ERA. He has given up five home runs in that span. That means 71% of the home runs he has allowed all season have come after the break despite the post-break portion accounting for roughly one-quarter of his innings.
The contact quality has changed, too.
Using Statcast’s post-All-Star split through his previous outing and adding Tuesday’s results, opponents are hitting about .246 with a .358 on-base percentage and .596 slugging percentage against Cruz since the break. That produces an OPS near .954.
Before the break, opponents managed a .582 OPS.
The season ERA therefore tells only part of the story.
The splitter is still doing its job
The decline does not appear to come from Cruz losing the pitch that built his reputation.
His splitter remains one of the most effective offerings in the Yankees bullpen. Statcast lists opponents at a .162 average and .291 slugging percentage against it. The pitch owns a 52.3% whiff rate and accounts for more than half of his usage.
The four-seam fastball has produced very different results.
Opponents are batting .305 and slugging .492 against Cruz’s four-seamer. Its whiff rate is 13.8%.
Pena’s tying homer Tuesday came against that pitch.
Cruz has said he has been making mechanical and grip adjustments. Asked recently whether he was healthy, he pushed back on the idea that an injury explained the results.
“I’m feeling great,” Cruz said.
He also acknowledged the physical maintenance that comes with a full MLB season.
“Every player has the battles with their bodies and stuff, but we’re gonna be good,” Cruz said.
Asked whether fatigue could affect his mechanics, Cruz pointed to the normal demands of a long schedule.
“All those things come with a long season,” Cruz said.
Yankees still need Cruz in leverage innings
The timing creates a roster question that extends beyond one blown lead.
New York did not add an impact reliever at the trade deadline. That left Boone relying on the bullpen already in place as the Yankees entered the final stretch of the postseason race.
Cruz remains part of that structure.
Through Tuesday, he has appeared in 61 games and worked 54 2/3 innings. He has allowed seven home runs and been charged with six blown saves. His ability to miss bats still gives Boone a weapon when the splitter is sharp.
Five of Cruz’s seven homers allowed have come after the All-Star break, including four in August. Tuesday showed why that matters. Cruz faced five hitters and allowed only one hit, but that hit erased a two-run Yankees lead.
The next test is trust
Boone does not have to define Cruz’s postseason role in August.
The Yankees do have fewer games left to determine whether the current trend is temporary or a meaningful change in a pitcher they trusted earlier in the season.
Cruz’s 3.13 ERA and dominant splitter remain valuable to a Yankees bullpen carrying a heavy workload through the AL East race. The second-half split creates a more immediate evaluation.
The Yankees are no longer judging Cruz only by five months of work. They also have to decide which version is most likely to appear with a one-run lead in September and, if they qualify, October.
Houston did not create that question Tuesday.
Peña’s home run made it harder to ignore.
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