NEW YORK — Amed Rosario hit two home runs on Tuesday. Giancarlo Stanton produced a physics-defying single that baffled the entire Athletics infield. Those are the names that will dominate every recap of the Yankees’ 5-3 victory over Oakland.
But the story the Yankees needed told most urgently came from four men working in near silence behind a shaky starter. Four relievers. Four scoreless innings. And one answer, however incomplete, to the loudest question this Yankees roster has carried since March.
A bullpen that had nowhere to hide
The Yankees lost Devin Williams and Luke Weaver to the New York Mets in free agency. What replaced them is a collection of arms in unfamiliar roles. Jake Bird and Brent Headrick have not established themselves at the major league level. Camilo Doval, who arrived via trade last July, is still finding his footing as a setup man in The Bronx. David Bednar took over the Yankees closer role after his own rocky 2024 campaign.
On Sunday against the Marlins, those anxieties came into sharp focus. The bullpen unravel in a nightmarish eighth inning. The Yankees lost the game. The questions grew louder.
Then Tuesday came.
Four relievers, four scoreless innings
Cam Schlittler lasted five innings in his third career start, ending his 11.2-inning scoreless streak. He allowed three runs on 84 pitches. The Yankees trailed 3-1 heading into the sixth.
Bird entered to open the sixth. He allowed a leadoff single to Tyler Soderstrom, then struck out Brent Rooker and got Jacob Wilson on a pop-out. Not clean. Not a collapse. Useful.
Boone then went to the left-handed Headrick, who opened by walking Lawrence Butler before recovering to get Max Muncy swinging. In the seventh, Headrick walked ex-Met Jeff McNeil to start the inning. He responded with two strikeouts before Fernando Cruz came on to close out the frame.
Cruz carried the heaviest load in the eighth. He walked two batters. With runners on and the Yankees still trailing, he struck out Muncy to end the inning and strand both. It was the at-bat that preserved the Yankees’ comeback opportunity.
The offense took over from there. Cody Bellinger singled. Ben Rice dropped one in. Stanton’s knuckling line drive found grass past Wilson. Then Rosario launched a three-run homer off former Yankee Mark Leiter Jr. to flip the game entirely. Bednar came on in the ninth, retired the A’s in order, and recorded his fifth save of the season, moving into the MLB lead.
Boone’s measured confidence before and after
Before the game, a reporter asked Boone directly whether this Yankees bullpen was equipped to handle the job or whether the club needed outside reinforcements. His answer was candid and plainspoken.
“I hope they’re there,” Boone said.
He followed up by noting that most of his relievers had pitched well at various points in the young season, while refusing to paper over the group’s vulnerabilities.
“I think they’ve all, to some degree, pitched really effectively,” Boone said. “But they’ve had some rough games.”
The Yankees manager described the bullpen as a unit still defining itself. No role is guaranteed. No arm has fully locked in yet.
“I feel like we have some good answers,” Boone said. “And certain pitchers have to carve out roles and earn roles.”
Tuesday was one night of carving. It was not proof of a finished product. But it was enough to prevent the Yankees from losing back-to-back games for the first time all season.
Bednar leads majors in saves, and the backstory earns that number
David Bednar‘s fifth save on Tuesday moved him to the top of the MLB leaderboard for closers. For anyone who tracked what happened to him in 2024, that sentence does not come easily.
Bednar went 3-8 with a 5.77 ERA in 2024 for Pittsburgh and blew seven saves. The Pirates sent him to Triple-A Indianapolis in April 2025 after he allowed three runs in his first three appearances. He spent less than three weeks there, returned with a 2.37 ERA and 17 saves in 42 appearances, and was acquired by the Yankees at the July 2025 trade deadline. He posted a 4-0 record with 10 saves in 22 Bronx appearances before becoming the Yankees’ full-time closer entering 2026.
He signed a one-year, $9 million deal with free agency on the far side of this season. Every ninth inning he finishes adds to his value and subtracts from the Yankees’ bullpen anxiety.
Bednar has described the mindset that carried him from Triple-A back to elite form with characteristic directness.
“At the end of the day, it’s about finding a way,” Bednar said. “Everybody wants to go three up, three down, but sometimes it just doesn’t fall that way. You want them all to be pretty, but when they’re not, you’ve just got to bear down.”
Still unsettled, but the record is 8-2
The Yankees carry an 8-2 record into Wednesday, leading the AL East by 3.5 games over Baltimore. Their rotation has been exceptional. Schlittler, Max Fried and the rest of the starting staff have carried the early load without Williams or Weaver in the equation.
The bullpen remains the variable. One bad outing against Miami. One steady night against Oakland. Bird and Headrick are still proving themselves. Doval’s Yankees role is not yet defined. Cruz is pitching his way back to full effectiveness.
What Tuesday offered was not a declaration. It was a single data point in a sample that remains too small. Four relievers handled four innings without surrendering a run after a starter exited early. That is what the Yankees needed Tuesday, and that is precisely what they got.
The box score will read: Rosario, two home runs, four RBI. Stanton, the weird line drive. The win.
What the box score will not fully capture is that without Bird stranding Soderstrom in the sixth, without Headrick and Cruz managing walks and keeping Oakland off the board in the seventh and eighth, and without Bednar closing cleanly in the ninth, the Yankees offense never gets its chance.
Can they susutain the momentum? What do you think?
