Jhony Brito’s Tough Lesson in Yankees’ Loss

BRONX — Jhony Brito was going to have a rough outing one of these days, but Thursday night was a hard way to learn how unforgiving the majors can be when your stuff isn’t there in the Yankees’ 11-2 loss.

Brito went 0.2 innings before manager Aaron Boone came out to relieve him after the Minnesota Twins had just bested him for seven runs. The righty threw 34 pitches before he got the hook, with only 22 of them being strikes, as Brito earned the shortest start for a Yankee pitcher since Jameson Taillon on June 12, 2021, and allowed the most runs by a New York starter who didn’t get out of the first inning since Nathan Eovaldi gave up eight on June 16, 2015.

“It’s back to work. I mean, he’s got a great head on his shoulders and this is, unfortunately, part of the game,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Brito’s performance. “You know, you get punched in the mouth in this game and he’s equipped to handle that. Kind of support, dive in, you know, evaluate and look at it. Where can you make improvements and get back to work? That’s all you can do and he’ll be ready to do that.”

Brito struggled with his pitch placement on Thursday as he relied on his changeup and sinker. The Twins pounded away at his sinker and his four-seam fastball while they put up more runs on Brito in the short night of work than any opponents combined through his first two starts and all of his spring training appearances.

The 25-year-old faced nine batters in the loss to Minnesota and was able to only retire two of them.

“I mean look at the outing, you know, I was falling behind a lot of those hitters there,” Brito said through a translator. “A lot of my pitches were not in the zone, so when I was supposed to get back into the zone they were ready to hit. You gotta give him credit, you know they have a good team.”

Brito said that mechanically nothing was wrong and that everything from his pregame routine to his warmups felt good. The Yankees starter called it “just one of those nights.”

Thursday was the first outing that Brito really struggled with in his brief time in the majors this season. In his first two starts, he went 5.1 innings while giving up three or fewer hits. Brito did have a bit of a rough start on Saturday in Baltimore in the first inning, but recovered and pitched a gem of a game the rest of his time on the mound.

Boone didn’t express any concern about Brito’s ability to learn from Thursday night’s start.

“I do think he’ll be fine and learn from it and grow from it,” the Yanakees’ skipper said. “We’ll dive in as much as we can and then get to work for the next turn. I understand that question, but I do think he will handle it fine.”

Brito seemed to echo the same sentiment as Boone after the game.

“Nights like this they’re gonna happen to a baseball,” Brito said. “It’s how you come back and I can tell you that tomorrow when I sit down with the pitching coach, we’re gonna go over the video. And we’re going to make the adjustments, whatever it may be necessary.”

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