Brad Halsey possesses more guts than heat, with a fastball that could best be described as mediocre. What irked the 23-year-old Yankees lefty about yesterday’s performance against the Tigers was that he didn’t throw it enough on the inner half.
Halsey was cuffed around for the second time in four major-league starts, allowing nine hits and seven runs (five earned) over 41/3 innings to Detroit’s torrid lineup during the Bombers’ 10-8 loss. The rookie, after limiting Boston to four hits and two earned runs in 51/3 innings last Thursday, said he relied too much on his splitter and slider.
“I felt like I did a lot better job against the Red Sox of commanding my fastball inside,” Halsey said. “That’s very important for me as a finesse-type pitcher. I have to command that fastball inside and show that pitch more often. More often than I did today.”
The Tigers pounced for three runs in the second inning following a two-base throwing error by third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Halsey (1-2) couldn’t overcome it; he allowed singles by three of the next four hitters. Alex Sanchez capped the scoring by dragging an RBI sacrifice bunt to second to plate Eric Munson.
Joe Torre was particularly disappointed that Halsey walked the leadoff hitter in the third, which led to another run.
“I know we’ve only had a small sampling, but he’s been into the challenge mode more so than other young pitchers,” Torre said. “He just didn’t seem like he was able to spot pitches as well as he did last time out.”
The Yankees fought back and trailed 4-3 heading into the fifth, when Halsey was knocked out of the game. After surrendering inning-opening singles to Omar Infante and Mike DiFelice, the southpaw recovered to whiff dangerous Dmitri Young. It appeared he might escape the jam.
But Carlos Guillen hammered a 1-1 splitter as if it were on a tee.
“I could’ve put a fastball right by him, most likely, because he was sitting on the off-speed stuff because I was throwing so much of it,” Halsey said. “And he knew it was coming.”
The three-run homer was a tracer to left, barely clearing the wall and staying inside the foul pole. It gave Detroit a 7-3 lead and Halsey the gate.
