Bartolo Colon’s Yankees debut was an unusual one.
The large right-hander surrendered four earned runs in four innings of relief in yesterday’s 10-7 loss to the Tigers in front of 40,574 fans at Yankee Stadium, but his performance can easily be split into two bad innings and two good innings.
Colon took over for Phil Hughes to start the fifth inning and allowed a two-run home run to the second batter he faced, Brennan Boesch. Oddly, the former Cy Young Award winner also struck out three batters in the inning.
The sixth was not any kinder to Colon. A single, a walk, a double and a sacrifice fly yielded two more runs for the Tigers (1-2), who led 9-6 by the time Colon got out of the inning.
Colon settled in after that, recording a perfect seventh and a scoreless eighth to remove some of the wretched stench attached to the first half of his debut.
“He threw the ball well,” catcher Russell Martin said. “There was one pitch there, that cutter in to Boesch, I regret calling that pitch. It’s his fourth-best pitch. But if you take away that pitch, he really did a good job. His sinker was there. Not quite as sharp as he was in spring training, but first time out so the jitters are gone now.”
Martin is impressed with Colon, whom the Yankees signed off the scrap heap this winter.
“He’s got quality stuff,” Martin said. “When he keeps his sinker down in the zone, he’s got as good a sinker I’ve seen from all the guys that I’ve caught.”
Colon’s final line was four runs on six hits and a walk over four innings with five strikeouts. He was allowed to throw 69 pitches when several other relievers were rested.
Colon probably will not be available again for extended work till Thursday at the earliest, leaving the Yankees without a long man for rookie Ivan Nova’s start tonight and fifth starter Freddy Garcia’s outing Wednesday.
Joe Girardi defended his choice to leave him out there so long.
“That’s the job of a long man,” Girardi explained. “Try to keep it close. He gave up a couple of runs in the first inning and the second inning and then he shut them out after that. But [if] you start using every guy every day you’ll run into way more problems.
“You can’t manage for one game. You have to manage for a week, a month, for the whole year.”
