Williams and the bullpen meltdown cost the Yankees an 8-7 loss to the Astros

Houston—The Yankees lose a nail-biter 8-7 in game two of this three-game set to the Astros. Will Warren got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Jason Alexander. 

In the top of the first inning, Cody Bellinger worked a two-out walk, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. went down on strikes to strand Belli. 

Warren worked around a one-out single in the bottom of the first inning and picked up his first strikeout of the night. 

Giancarlo Stanton led off the top of the second inning with a solo home run onto the train tracks, his 18th bomb of the year to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. 

Warren worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 bottom of the second inning on just 10 pitches. 

In the bottom of the third inning, Warren retired the Astros in order and picked up two more strikeouts to put his total up to three on the night. 

Ben Rice ripped a one-out single to right field in the top of the fourth inning. The next batter, Austin Wells, snuck a two-run home run into the Crawford boxes, his 20th of the year, to make it a 3-0 game. 

The Astros git on the board in the bottom of the fifth inning via a sacrifice fly from Ramón Urías to make it a 3-1 game. 

Rice led off the top of the sixth with a line drive single up the middle. Wells followed that with a double off the wall in left field, his third hit of the night to put two runners in scoring position. A couple of batters later, Ryan McMahon picked up a sacrifice fly to extend the Yankees' lead to 4-1. 

Jeremy Peña got that run right back with a leadoff solo homerun in the bottom of the sixth inning to make it a 4-2 game. Ferando Cruz then took over Warren on the mound and served up a double; the runner moved up to third on a wild pitch. Jose Altuve then picked up an RBI fielder's choice to make it a 4-3 game. 

Will Warren's final line: five plus innings pitched, five hits allowed, two earned runs, five swings and misses, and four strikeouts on 67 pitches. Warren threw his fastball 49% of the time, the sweeper 19%, the sinker 18%, the changeup 7%, and the curveball 6%. Warren was solid today in one of the biggest starts of his career. It would have been nice to see him get through six innings, but I will never complain about five innings of two-run ball. 

"No, I think they just changed their game plan, started getting aggressive," Warren said. "Made a mistake. And then we were going to change how we were throwing in our attack plan, and then I was gone." 

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Luke Weaver replaced Cruz, who gave up a leadoff single, then walked a batter with two outs due to a missed strike call that changed the whole at-bat. Yordan Alvarez then tied the game up at 4-4 with an RBI single, his fourth hit of the night. 

Stanton, Rice, and Wells went down in order for the Yankees in the top half of the eighth inning. 

Devin Williams took over for Weaver in the bottom of the eighth and immediately served up a leadoff double followed by a walk. Williams then recorded a strikeout, walked a batter, followed by another strikeout. With two outs, and the bases loaded Williams walked Taylor Trammell with the bases loaded to give the Astros a 5-4 lead. Williams and Yankees manager Aaron Boone were both ejected for arguing balls and strikes. Camilo Doval replaced Williams and immediately gave up an RBI single to Peña, making it a 6-4 game. A balk from Doval then bright across another run to make it a 7-4 game. A wild pitch then brought across another run to make it an 8-4 game. 

"Yeah, I mean, obviously tough inning, you know, some, some close pitches all around," Boone said. "I thought the Astros from about the third or fourth inning on just started putting some really good at-bats together and kind of pressured, you first will, then we had varying degrees of success down there. But you know, credit to them, they had a lot of really good at-bats against us, we didn't get a couple of calls, and you know, got away."

"I mean, I already looked at it, he definitely missed four [calls], which is what I told him, and he threw me out for it," Williams said. "That was it, I said I had four that you missed, and he threw me out for it—never been ejected in my career, so." 

In the top of the ninth inning, McMahon and Aaron Judge both singled. Belli followed that up with a three-run bomb, his 27th of the year, to make it an 8-7 game. The batter, it looked like Jazz worked a walk, but the ump missed a clear ball four call and instead called him out on strikes to end this one. 

The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow with Carlos Rodon on the mound, facing off against Christian Javier. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: The Yankees' bullpen was an absolute disaster tonight. Cruz, Weaver, Williams, and Doval combined to give up six runs. I dont know what Boone was thinking going to Williams there. This game was over the second Williams stepped on the mound, as he gave up four runs; he didn't get any help from the ump, but that's still no excuse to walk three hitters and give up four runs. Warren was solid; I would have liked to see Boone keep him in a little longer, as he only had 67 pitches when he was pulled, leading to the bullpen disaster. The offense did its job tonight, as Stanton, Wells, and Belli all went deep to combine for six runs. But Volpe had a rough game, striking out three times and failing to score a run in the sixth inning, which could have been the difference in this game. They should seriously consider benching Volpe and playing José Caballero every day at shortstop; he is a better defender and hitter than Volpe. The Blue Jays also won tonight, so the Yankees are now 3.5 games back from them. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees will look to win the series with Rodon on the mound.