After spending nine years with the Yankees, and earning All-Star nods in each year from 2014 to 2017, Dellin Betances faced his former team for the second time in as many days on Saturday.
And while his first outing against the Bombers went well (one strikeout, one walk, no runs in one inning), he threw a wild pitch with the winning run on third, giving the Yankees a walk-off win.
"I was definitely trying to throw a fastball up. I think it was just a little too high, and it was unfortunate, obviously," said Betances. "I definitely felt like I didn't have anything today. I was trying to battle out there. It sucks, especially that we did a tremendous job of tying the game out of one of their better bullpen guys. It sucks to come in there and not get the job done."
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Betances' ERA hovered to 6.10, much higher than his 2.21 ERA as a full-time reliever from 2014-2019.
"I've been trying to find that consistency. There's games that I've felt really good. And then there's been a couple games where I haven't done my job, and I gotta be better than that," he said.
That high ERA comes despite allowing no runs in 10 of his 13 outings - four of his seven earned runs this year came on July 31 against the Braves.
But Saturday was his third-straight outing allowing at least one walk, and he has walked a batter in six of his 13 appearances this year.
"I feel like I've hurt myself more than anything," said Betances. "Putting guys on, not being able to a execute good pitch ahead of the count. But the free base passes hurt me the games that I pitch. And I give up runs, it's because of that. Any time you do that, obviously for me, I haven't really been putting guys away as I want to with two strikes.
"I was one pitch away from getting out of it, but I can't walk the leadoff guy. That puts me in a hole right away. That's my fault - put myself in a bad situation right away to start the inning."