This was different.
This was unexpected.
This was the rare occasion when a Yankees starting pitcher didn’t have it and dug an early hole for his teammates.
“Just got to be better, can’t let up three runs in the first,” Marcus Stroman said. “Feel like I don’t give my team a chance when I do that.”
Entering the homestand’s finale, Yankees starting pitchers had boasted a 3.39 cumulative ERA, the eighth-lowest in the league.
They were one of three teams to have a starter go at least four innings in every outing, with the Orioles and Nationals the others.
They had allowed three earned runs or fewer in 31 starts.
But Thursday, Stroman struggled early, touched up for three first-inning runs on a pair of long home runs to Yordan Alvarez and Jon Singleton, and was fortunate to give up just four runs over his 5 ²/₃ innings of work in a 4-3 loss to the Astros.
“Those pitches were essentially middle-middle, and they didn’t have the action on them that I wanted,” Stroman said, referring to the homers. “Look to be better next time out.
“Just can’t put us in a hole, 3-0, can’t do that.”
It ended an otherwise terrific homestand on a sour note, capping a 5-1 stretch against the Tigers and Astros.
As the Yankees sit at 25-14 through 39 games, the starting rotation has been a major bright spot.
There were questions about this group, particularly since staff ace Gerrit Cole is expected to miss the first half of the season.
Nestor Cortes and Carlos Rodon were coming off shaky seasons.
Luis Gil, recovering from Tommy John surgery, didn’t even pitch in the big leagues last year.
Clarke Schmidt was unproven, and Stroman was new.
All have performed very well — particularly the 25-year-old Gil, boasting a staff-leading 2.92 ERA with 45 strikeouts in 37 innings pitched.
All five have an ERA of 3.80 or lower.
The group has also given the Yankees length.
They are fourth in innings pitched among starters and have struck out the third most, with 219 in 213 innings.
“The opportunity to win a game,” manager Aaron Boone said of what he has liked the most about his starting rotation. “I don’t recall a game where we were just out of it in the middle innings — maybe the Baltimore game a little when we were down four or five runs. But by and large — whether it’s been four innings, five innings, six innings, seven innings, eight innings, whatever a starting pitcher has given us — we’ve been in the game 99 percent of the time.
“It starts on the bump and it starts with that guy that kicks off the game for you. They set you up to give you a chance to be successful, and that’s been a common theme at the start of the season.”
It wasn’t on Thursday.
It’s not a coincidence that the Yankees lost for the first time in a week.
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