DUNEDIN, Fla.— Another day, another short outing by a Yankees starter.
Corey Kluber lasted only four innings in Wednesday’s 5-4 loss against the Blue Jays in TD Ballpark.
He gave up three runs – and two homers – and needed 77 pitches to get through the performance.
While Kluber and manager Aaron Boone still sounded encouraged by the right-hander’s performance, his early departure forced the Yankees to move to Jonathan Loaisiga to start fifth and demand more length from an already loaded pin.
“I thought his stuff was okay,” Boone said of 35-year-old Kluber, who signed $ 11 million for a year after missing most of the last two seasons with a broken forearm and then a shoulder strain. “I have the feeling that he is getting closer to where he needs to be.”
He threw only 10¹ / ₃ innings over three starts and walked seven.
Kluber called the outing ‘a step in the right direction’.
“I’m just as frustrated as anyone with the results on the scoreboard, so to speak, but I can see things are going in the right direction,” said Kluber.
The veteran said his “stuff is getting better, the location is getting better, and the number of misses over the course of a game is getting less and less. I pay for the mistakes I make. I don’t expect to get away with them. “
He allowed several baserunners in each inning before being removed for the fifth.
“You can only pitch as long as they allow you,” Kluber said.
When asked if he made a plea to stay in the game after the fourth game, Kluber said, “I don’t think that’s my position. I felt my job is to pitch as long as possible and when they go to the pen, that’s the end. I don’t feel like it’s my position to argue. “
More efficiency would help, as a 23-pitch first inning put Kluber in a bad spot.
“I think Corey is, at best, movement and precision,” Boone said. “He has to get over the last bump.”
After the game, the Yankees chose reliever Albert Abreu to the alternate location.
“We’re doing well,” Boone said of the pen, noting the extra days in April that help protect them.
“The whole bullpen has played a part, and we’ve relied on guys to distribute the load evenly,” Boone said. “But as you go into the month and May and summer later, you have to rely on your starting pitchers to get deeper into games.”
Kluber said he didn’t think the starters were pressuring themselves to give length to the rotation, which only Gerrit Cole has foreseen.
“I don’t feel it,” said Kluber. “Most guys are two turns through the rotation – a few guys three [times]I don’t think there is anything wrong. “