Fast start, quick exit for Yankees' Wandy Peralta
Wandy Peralta of the Yankees pitches during the first inning against the Mariners at Yankee Stadium on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
For his first career start after 242 relief appearances, lefthander Wandy Peralta did what felt natural. He walked in from the bullpen for the top of the first as if he was making a relief appearance.
Peralta, in his first appearance off the COVID-19 list, was manager Aaron Boone’s choice to open Friday night’s game against the Mariners at Yankee Stadium because two of the top three hitters in Seattle’s lineup bat lefthanded.
Peralta made Boone look like a genius as he retired the Mariners on 11 pitches in the first. Ground ball, ground ball, strikeout, and Peralta was able to come out again for the second inning.
From the dugout this time.
Peralta picked up two more outs in the second but also allowed a pair of singles. Peralta, whose season high in pitches was 28, hadn’t pitched since July 8. He was removed after Luis Torrens’ two-out single on pitch No. 26 put runners on first and second.
Boone called on Long Island’s own Stephen Ridings (St. Anthony’s) to face former Mets prospect Jarred Kelenic in Ridings’ second big-league appearance.
Ridings got Kelenic to ground out to second to end the inning and retired the Mariners in order in the third on two groundouts and a pop fly to center to complete his second successful outing.
In his debut on Tuesday, the hard-throwing Ridings struck out three in a scoreless inning.
The Yankees are playing well as they play through a period in which 60% of their rotation is on the shelf. Ace Gerrit Cole and lefthander Jordan Montgomery are on the COVID list. Domingo German is on the injured list with a rotator cuff strain.
That leaves Jameson Taillon as the last man standing from the Opening Day rotation. He is joined for the moment by Nestor Cortes Jr., who pitched on Thursday; lefthander Andrew Heaney, who will make his second Yankees start on Saturday, and rookie Luis Gil, who will make his second career start on Sunday after throwing six shutout innings in his debut.
The Yankees acquired Heaney from the Angels just before the trade deadline for two minor-leaguers. Heaney had a 5.27 ERA for Los Angeles, but the Yankees saw something in him that they think they can make better.
In his first outing, the Orioles saw something they liked from Heaney: fat pitches they could blast out of the park. Heaney gave up four solo homers in a six-batter span and lasted only four innings.
After a chance to acclimate himself to his new team, Heaney is expecting to be more effective Saturday.
"Yeah, definitely getting a little bit more settled in here," he said. "Kind of getting into my routine. Been talking to each of kind of the departments and tweaking a few things. It’s definitely been a little bit different for me, but it’s been a good process and everybody here has been great and helping me get acclimated quickly."
Heaney already has faced the Mariners twice this season, but in this case familiarity might not be in his favor. He’s 0-2 with a 9.82 ERA against Seattle in 2021. In his first 12 career appearances against the Mariners, he had a 3.69 ERA.
"I have a pretty good idea of the lineup I’m going to be facing," he said. "It was interesting to kind of see how the scouting report here is a little bit different than the one in Anaheim and kind of keying in on some of those differences."
Heaney said the problem in his first Yankees outing was his changeup.
"I talked with [pitching coach] Matt Blake about a couple mechanical adjustments," he said. "I made quite a few mistakes pulling my changeup across my body a little bit. And so, we’ve got a couple things in the works."
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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