Yankees can't overcome rare Brett Headrick failure in loss to Astros

The Yankees’ comeback attempts fell short Tuesday night in the Bronx when left-hander Brent Headrick delivered a rare bad outing. After New York fought back to take three separate leads, Headrick gave up three runs in the eighth inning, and the Astros won 9-7 in a back-and-forth game. The Yankees entered needing the Astros’ off-day momentum to stop, but Houston scored in six of nine innings, erasing leads of 3-2, 5-3 and 6-5. Headrick had allowed three total runs over his previous 21 games, but Yainer Diaz hit a two-run homer to tie the score 6-6, followed by hits from Jeremy Peña, a Yordan Alvarez triple and a single by Isaac Paredes. The Yankees dropped to 74-57, missing a chance to gain ground on the Rays, still 3½ games ahead. The loss also left the Red Sox within 1½ games of the AL wild-card race. Astros GM Dana Brown was fired on Monday, and the team played like it mattered as they stayed alive in the playoff hunt.