Lance McCullers Jr. came to the ballpark Friday with a plan. Aware that first innings had been his undoing in recent starts, he moved up his pregame bullpen session, sharpened his focus on location, and made the workout more intense than usual. He wanted to be ready.
His roughest first inning yet followed.
McCullers needed 30 pitches to navigate the opening frame against the New York Yankees, who scored three times, aided by a throwing error from Jose Altuve, and never looked back in a 12-4 rout of the Houston Astros at Daikin Park. The loss dropped Houston to 10-17.
The Yankees wasted little time. Trent Grisham drew a walk to open the game. Aaron Judge followed with another. They saw 12 combined pitches and swung once. Cody Bellinger singled on New York’s second swing of the inning, loading the bases with nobody out. McCullers induced what looked like a double-play grounder from Ben Rice, but Altuve’s backhand flip to second sailed wide of Carlos Correa, and a run scored with no outs recorded. McCullers did turn Giancarlo Stanton’s comebacker into a 1-2-3 double play, but could not finish off Jazz Chisholm Jr., who lined a full-count cutter for a two-run single and a 3-0 lead.
“I’ve got to control the first inning better,” McCullers said afterward. “It’s really nothing more than that. It’s not a stuff thing, it’s not a game plan thing, it’s not a health thing. It’s just simply got to do a better job controlling the first inning.”
McCullers settled in after that—he worked into the sixth inning for the first time since his season debut—but the damage was done. Ryan McMahon sliced a cutter into the Crawford Boxes in the second. Chisholm added a solo homer in the fourth. Rice doubled and scored on a Stanton single in the sixth, ending McCullers’ night in a 6-2 deficit. In total, McCullers allowed seven runs (five earned) on six hits with four walks and three strikeouts. His ERA sits at 6.75 through five starts.
Colton Gordon came on in the sixth and could not stop the bleeding. He allowed seven hits, walked two, and gave up five runs across two innings as the Yankees turned a manageable deficit into a rout. Chisholm, who entered the game hitting .188, finished with three hits, a homer, and four RBI. The Yankees totaled 13 hits and drew six walks on the night.
The Astros were not without their moments. Jose Altuve doubled and scored in the fourth on a Cam Smith groundout. Yainer Diaz drove in a run with an opposite-field single in the second and added a solo homer in the seventh. Braden Shewmake, pinch-hitting with the game long out of reach, connected for his first major league home run. But Houston went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position while the Yankees were 7-for-12 in those situations, a gap that told the story of the night.
Manager Joe Espada had noted before the game that the Yankees entered with the majors’ lowest swing rate and sixth-lowest chase rate, and that his pitchers would need to get ahead in the count. McCullers did not, especially early. The Yankees offered at just 31 of his 92 pitches and chased only five outside the zone. When they did make contact, the 16 balls in play averaged a 95.4 mph exit velocity.
Jayden Murray tossed a scoreless eighth. Bryan Abreu, making his first appearance in a week, retired the side in the ninth, though his fastball averaged 93.7 mph, down from his season average of 95.4.
Houston turns to Mike Burrows on Saturday night as the series continues at Daikin Park.
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