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.
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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 .