David Robertson’s early-season success made the loss of Mariano Rivera bearable to the Yankees, but the new closer blew his second save of the year in Sunday’s 7-2 loss to the Twins in The Bronx.
Robertson (0-2) surrendered a leadoff home run to Josh Willingham with the first pitch in the ninth to tie the game at 2-2 and wound up walking three batters as Minnesota rallied for six runs and made a winner out of Phil Hughes in his return to Yankee Stadium.
After it was over, Robertson was booed loudly as he walked off the field and was left to wait for another chance.
“I stunk today,” said Robertson, who gave up five runs in just two-thirds of an inning. “What can I say? I didn’t get the job done.”
That happens, but after converting his first nine save opportunities, Robertson has now blown two of his last five.
“I’ll try to put it behind me,” he said. “We’ve got another game [Monday]. If I don’t pitch [then], I hope I get a chance the next day. I’m itching to get back out there. I want to prove I can still do this.”
Robertson’s implosion happened quickly with Willingham’s homer and then got worse. Following a Jason Kubel strikeout, he walked two of the next three. Brian Dozier then ripped a run-scoring double to give the Twins the lead and former Yankee Eduardo Nunez added another double to provide two more insurance runs.
It wasted a solid start by Chase Whitley and allowed Hughes to improve to 6-1, as he seemed right at home at Yankee Stadium.
The right-hander didn’t give up a hit until Brett Gardner led off the bottom of the fourth with a triple and gave up two runs in the inning, while Whitley allowed just one run in five innings.
Dellin Betances continued his dominance, tossing two perfect innings and striking out all but one of the six batters he faced. Adam Warren pitched a scoreless eighth before Robertson attempted
to pick up his 13th save.
But Robertson left a cutter that was supposed to be down and away over the plate to Willingham.
“His command was probably the biggest thing,” Joe Girardi said. “Walks are what got him into trouble.”
The manager would have liked to have had more than just a one-run lead for Robertson, but the offense was unable to take advantage of a bases-loaded, no-out situation with a run in in the fourth.
Yangervis Solarte popped out, Ichiro Suzuki hit a sacrifice fly to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead and Brian Roberts struck out to end the threat.
“We’ve got to be able score more runs there,” Girardi said. “At times, runs have been tough for us. We do have some injuries, but you can’t make excuses. We need to get some guys going who are expected to be big production guys.”
And it doesn’t figure to get any easier Monday, when the Yankees have to face Seattle and Felix Hernandez .
Still, it looked as if the two runs would be enough thanks to another strong performance from the bullpen.
Girardi thought Robertson might have been affected by his 27-pitch outing on Saturday, when he did get the save, but Robertson insisted he felt “great.”
“I just wasn’t consistent and it cost us a lot of runs and a chance to even come back in that ball game,” Robertson said. “I’m frustrated with that, absolutely. I still had to keep fighting. In my head, I kept thinking, ‘I’m a pitch away,’ but I couldn’t stop them.”