Tommy Kahnle has been largely untouchable this season.
Of the Yankees reliever’s 62 appearances, he has more games that were both hitless and scoreless (39) than games he hasn’t.
Friday, he got hurt by both.
Kahnle entered the game in the sixth inning to protect a one-run lead and left without it, giving up three runs and taking the loss in a 8-2 setback to the Athletics at Yankee Stadium.
“We pretty much haven’t seen that outing,” manager Aaron Boone said. “The occasional time that he even has gotten dinged, they may have run into a homer off of him or something. But for them to string a little rally against him — I don’t think he really had his fastball command. It wasn’t much of a factor for him tonight. Overall, just not very sharp, which he’s been as much as anyone on our club.”
The Yankees led 2-1 when Kahnle took the mound against the heart of the Athletics’ order. He got into trouble right away when he allowed a leadoff single to Matt Olson and hit Mark Canha on the elbow with a fastball. The Athletics then pinch-hit Seth Brown, who ripped a fastball to right-center field for a double to tie the game at two.
After Kahnle struck out Josh Phegley, Jurickson Profar crushed a two-run double to right that put the Athletics up for good, 4-2.
It was an uncharacteristic outing for Kahnle, who had thrown seven straight scoreless outings and entered with a 2.73 ERA. He has become a trusted arm for Boone in high-leverage spots, but was charged with his first loss of the year Friday.
“He has been so efficient and really so sharp, time after time,” Boone said. “Tonight was just an off one for him. I think you can trace it to really not having a real good feel or command of his heater.”
Kahnle wasn’t alone in his struggles. Asked to provide six innings after CC Sabathia’s early exit because of knee pain, the Yankees bullpen got tagged by the Athletics. Luis Cessa threw a pair of scoreless innings before Kahnle, Cody Gearrin (one inning, two runs) and Nestor Cortes Jr. (two innings, two runs) were all roughed up.
