NEW YORK — There is nothing quiet about a Sunday at Yankee Stadium when the bullpen costs the team a sweep.
The Yankees walked away from the Bronx on Sunday night with a 7-6 loss to the Miami Marlins. It snapped a four-game winning streak, knocked New York to 7-2, and left manager Aaron Boone with some uncomfortable questions about the group he needs most once the starters hand over the ball.
But what made Sunday sting a little harder for Yankees fans had nothing to do with what happened at 161st Street. It was what was quietly happening across town in Queens.
A comfortable lead, then nothing
Max Fried handed a 4-3 lead to the bullpen after 6 2/3 innings. The Yankees offense was good enough to overcome his struggles, including a three-run home run from Ben Rice in the first inning.
“I didn’t do a good enough job, especially when the offense comes back,” Fried said after the game.
The offense did come back. Then the bullpen made it irrelevant.
Fernando Cruz walked a batter to open the eighth. Jake Bird followed by walking another, then hit Griffin Conine with a pitch to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Graham Pauley stepped in and pulled a sweeper for a two-run double, flipping the lead to Miami. Xavier Edwards added a two-run single off Ryan Yarbrough through a drawn-in infield. Four runs, three Yankees pitchers, zero outs recorded before the damage was done.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. ripped a two-run double in the ninth to close the gap to one run, but it was not enough. Marlins closer Anthony Bender finished it off.
The final was 7-6. The bullpen had given away a game Fried earned the right to win.
Two former Yankees are reminding the Bronx what it let walk
Here is where the story gets uncomfortable for the Yankees.
While Bird and Cruz were loading the bases in the eighth, Devin Williams and Luke Weaver were both sitting at a 0.00 ERA through four appearances apiece for the New York Mets.
Williams, who signed a three-year, $51 million deal with the Mets this past offseason, has already converted two saves. He made his first Mets appearance and immediately locked the door in a perfect ninth inning against the Cardinals, needing just 12 pitches. In four outings totaling 4.0 innings, he has been spotless.
Weaver has matched him. Also through 4.0 innings with the Mets, Weaver is scoreless and has looked nothing like the pitcher who labored through the back half of 2025 in the Bronx.
The Mets needed both of them to replace Edwin Diaz, who left Queens for the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency this past winter. By the early returns, that front office bet is looking sharp.
What the Yankees gave up and why it matters now
Williams spent the 2025 season with the Yankees and it was a rocky ride. He posted a 4.79 ERA across 62 innings and lost his grip on the closer role twice before David Bednar arrived at the trade deadline. But the underlying numbers told a different story. His FIP was 2.68 and his expected ERA sat at 3.05. The surface results were ugly. The process was not.
From 2020 through 2024 in Milwaukee, Williams produced a 1.70 ERA, the second-lowest among all qualified relievers in that span. His strikeout rate ranked second in baseball over that same period. One rough season in the Bronx, and the Yankees moved on.
Weaver was steadier in pinstripes but also had a tale of two seasons in 2025. Before a hamstring injury sidelined him in June, he had a 1.05 ERA in 25.2 innings and picked up eight saves. After his return in late June, his ERA swelled to 5.31. The Yankees did not re-sign him after the season ended.
Both men are now in the same city, same borough even. And both are already outperforming what the Yankees got from their replacements just nine games into the 2026 season.
Boone and bullpen still searching for answers
The Yankees entered 2026 with known questions in the bullpen. The unit ranked 23rd in ERA across the league in 2025. Bednar anchors the backend as the closer, and Camilo Doval adds a secondary option. The middle innings, though, have been inconsistent from the first week.
Bednar has two saves and a 0.00 ERA. The frame around him is less certain. Cruz, Bird, and Yarbrough all handled high-leverage situations on Sunday and none delivered.
Boone has spoken throughout the year about his confidence in the group as a whole. But Sunday was a reminder that the Yankees are carrying real risk in the middle innings while waiting for the rotation to fully return.
Until that reinforcement arrives, the bullpen question is not going away.
What do you think? How can the Yankees reinforce their bullpen?
