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          New York Yankees

          Yankees' Dellin Betances not superhuman after all

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          • Wallace Matthews, ESPN Staff WriterMay 2, 2016, 01:16 AM ET
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              Wallace Matthews has covered New York sports since 1983 as a reporter, columnist, radio host and TV commentator. He covers the Yankees for ESPNNewYork.com after working for Newsday, the New York Post, the New York Sun and ESPN New York 98.7 FM.
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          BOSTON -- After Dellin Betances served up a first-pitch home run to David Ortiz that resulted in a 4-2 New York Yankees loss to the Boston Red Sox on Friday night, Alex Rodriguez offered a line that seemed to sum up the team's attitude to a rare failure by its outstanding set-up man.

          "It's good to know that Dellin is human," he said.

          No one in the Yankees clubhouse was offering up similar platitudes after Betances did it again on Sunday, another first-pitch home run resulting in another Yankee loss. Only this time, it wasn't the fearsome Ortiz but Christian Vazquez, a strictly defensive catcher, the weakest hitter in the Red Sox lineup and a player who had not homered since September 25, 2014, after missing all of 2015 following Tommy John surgery.

          This time, Betances' humanity didn't seem nearly so amusing, or more disturbingly, all that surprising.

          Vazquez's two-run homer, on a 97 mph fastball that was the first pitch Betances threw after relieving Ivan Nova with two out in the seventh, broke a 6-6 tie and provided the Red Sox with a come-from-behind victory in which they overcame two-run Yankee leads twice in the game.

          On Friday, it was a first-pitch breaking ball to Ortiz, and most alarmingly, it was the third consecutive outing in which Betances allowed a home run, going back to last Monday in Arlington, an eighth-inning solo shot that was the first home run of Brett Nicholas' major league life. That one also came on a curveball that, like the one to Ortiz, "didn't do all that much," according to manager Joe Girardi.

          And suddenly, a pitcher who for the first nine appearances of this season had appeared to be superhuman was shown to be all-too-human after all. In his first nine innings of 2016, Betances had struck out 22 batters.

          He had been so dominant that even after his meltdown Sunday night, when Girardi was asked if he had considered leaving Nova in to pitch to Vazquez, he said, "I could have, but it's Dellin Betances," his words verbally italicized, as if he were saying "Mariano Rivera."

          But over Betances' past three outings, there has been a notable change in results, perhaps due to a subtle shift in tactics. Betances' fastball is still humming in the high 90s, but hitters are changing their approach when they face him. Nicholas hit a 1-1 pitch. Ortiz and Vazquez jumped on the first pitch. It could be that opposing hitters have come to realize that engaging in a long battle with Betances is likely to end in a strikeout. Betances himself admitted on Friday that he was trying to slip something past Ortiz on the first pitch, a tactic that had worked for him in the past.

          Sunday night, Vazquez, who was hitting .222 and had an OPS of .588, had a brief discussion with Red Sox hitting coach Chili Davis before stepping in against Betances. "I knew he throws hard, he throws 100," Vazquez said. "So I was trying to get out in front of the fastball."

          Did he ever. His blast left the premises, clearing the seats above the Green Monster in left and sailing out onto Lansdowne St. beyond.

          "I left a ball down the middle and he was aggressive right away. Put a good swing on it," said Betances, the lament of losing pitchers everywhere.

          Asked if he was concerned at the sudden frequency with which balls are leaving the ballpark after leaving his hand this year -- Betances allowed just six home runs in all of 2015 and did not allow No. 3 until August 23 -- Betances said, "No, I’m not because I feel great. The ball’s coming out good. It’s not like I’m falling behind. Last year, in the second half, I was falling behind a lot and walking a lot of guys. I’m pounding the strike zone. I just feel like I made two mistakes these last couple of games and they capitalized."

          That is probably the case. But the fact is, one of the few portions of a Yankee game that had seemed automatic suddenly doesn't seem so automatic anymore.

          "I'm going to bet on Dellin's track record," Girardi said. "I'm going to bet all day on that. He's too good not to get back on track. Believe me, Dellin is probably the least of my worries."

          It was even less worrisome when there was still no evidence to prove that Betances was, in fact, human. That may have seemed nice to find out on Friday. By Sunday, it was just another thing for the Yankees to worry about.