Pass the Imodium.
Start with Andy Pettitte, move to Adam Warren and then liberally distribute throughout the Yankees’ lineup that was handcuffed by Lucas Harrell.
“We have been playing well and to give up five runs early in the game, we didn’t have a chance to win,’’ Pettitte said. “It makes me sick to my stomach. It was a very frustrating night for me.’’
Not to mention embarrassing.
While the Astros are listed as a major league team, that’s only on the letterhead. Yet, the newest member of the American League waltzed out of Yankee Stadium last night with a 9-1 win that was witnessed by an announced crowd of 34,262.
How did the worst team in the league and possibly in all of baseball dominate the Yankees?
Pettitte’s cutter vanished early and Harrell induced double plays in three of the first four innings.
“Obviously not a good night at all,’’ Pettitte said. “I felt good at the start of the game, had a good cutter to the number two hitter and after that it abandoned me.’’
It sure did. All three Astros runs in the first scored after there were two outs. Ditto the fourth when the visitors pushed the advantage to 5-0.
“I have seen Andy since 1996 and I don’t know if I have ever seen him not have the slider [cutter],’’ manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s a signature pitch for a long time and it didn’t have the bite. It’s a swing-and-a-miss pitch for him.’’
The loss halted a four-game winning streak for the Yankees, who fell to 15-10. The Astros stopped a four-game skid and are 8-18.
Pettitte was most annoyed at the two runs in the fourth that Brandon Barnes drove in with a two-out double on a 0-2 pitch.
“We are down three and I have the kid, 0-2,’’ Pettitte said of the fateful at-bat. “I tried to go back to the cutter.’’
In a season-low 4 1/3 innings, Pettitte allowed an alarming seven runs and 10 hits and is 3-2.
From there, Warren surfaced from the pen and he gave up two runs and three hits in 1 2/3 innings. One of the hits was Carlos Corporan’s two-run homer in the fifth when the Astros scored four runs to put the game out of reach. Corporan, the Astros’ catcher, went 4-for-5 and drove in four runs.
As for Harrell, the 27-year-old right-hander might be the lowly Astros’ top hurler. He posted a third straight victory and is 3-2 after allowing a run and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings.
“He did exactly what we thought he would do,’’ Girardi said of Harrell. “He got the lead and kept pounding the strike zone.’’
Vernon Wells grounded into an inning-ending double play in the first. Brennan Boesch, who started the game 4-for-4 against Harrell, grounded into two outs in the second. Robinson Cano did it in the third. And just to prove Harrell didn’t have a patent on GIDPs, Travis Blackley induced Brett Gardner to bang into a 4-6-3 in the seventh.
“He had a tough start, it happens,’’ Girardi said of Pettitte. “When [he] doesn’t have success it surprises you. It happens to the great ones.’’