The Yankees needed a shutdown inning in the eighth Thursday afternoon. Instead, Camilo Doval threw one pitch. One 99 mph sinker over the middle of the plate. Andrew Benintendi crushed it 393 feet over the right-center field wall for a go-ahead grand slam. Game over.
New York lost 5-1 to the White Sox and dropped the series finale in the Bronx. Doval didn’t create the mess himself — Fernando Cruz opened the eighth with a leadoff double and Tim Hill plunked two straight batters to load the bases — but he certainly made it worse. That’s been the story of his season in pinstripes.
The right-hander was charged with one earned run in 1 2/3 innings and now carries a 5.08 ERA. The guy who led the National League in saves in 2023 looks nothing like that guy right now. And the Yankees, sitting at 45-28, are in the position of needing to trust a reliever they can’t really count on in high-leverage spots.
Doval isn’t panicking
After the game, Doval chose optimism. He talked about slumps being part of the game and insisted the results he wants are coming. “I know a good streak is coming,” he said, according to Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News. Doval pointed out he’d actually been sharp recently — five straight scoreless appearances before Thursday.
He’s not wrong that baseball can flip on you quickly. But confidence only goes so far when the numbers tell a different story. Since the Yankees acquired him from San Francisco last summer, Doval’s ERA sits near 5.00. Left-handed hitters have been especially tough on him, and Thursday’s disaster only reinforced the worry.
Can the Yankees afford to wait this out?
Every team needs a couple reliable arms late in games. New York’s bullpen has been solid overall, but Doval was supposed to be a difference-maker, not a question mark. He still throws hard. His stuff still moves. But the results keep slipping, and the margin for error in the AL East isn’t kind to guys searching for their mechanics.
Doval might be right. He could get hot and look like the All-Star he was two years ago. But until that actually happens for more than a week or two, a lot of fans are going to take his glass-half-full talk with a serious side of skepticism. The Yankees need outs, not optimism.
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