Yankees breakout star crashed back to earth in devastating fashion

New York Yankees starting pitcher Jhony Brito looked impressive in his first two starts, but he got destroyed by the Minnesota Twins on Thursday night.

Entering the season, the New York Yankees’ starting rotation was hit hard by injuries. Carlos Rodon was out with a forearm strain. Frankie Montas underwent shoulder surgery. Luis Severino is recovering from a lat strain. But the Yankees appeared to be in decent shape, as they had Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes at the top of the rotation, and saw No. 27 prospect in the farm system Jjony Brito impress in his first two starts.

Heading into his third start, Brito had a perfect 2-0 record, and a 0.90 ERA. But, the latter statistic skyrocketed after less than one inning on Thursday night.

Brito was pulled from the game after getting just two outs in the first inning, where he surrendered a grand total of seven runs to the Minnesota Twins.

Yankees: Jhony Brito hype train derailed after abysmal start vs. Twins

It all started with Brito surrendering a leadoff single to Twins’ No. 4 prospect Edouard Julien, a single to Carlos Correa, and a walk to Byron Buxton to load the bases with zero outs. Brito did get an out, but on a fly out hit by Trevor Larnach to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.

Things only got worse for the rookie, as he surrendered a two-run double to Jose Miranda and an RBI double to Donovan Solano before getting Nick Gordon to force out. Two outs, surely things would get better. Nope, Brito gave up an RBI double to Christian Vazquez and a two-run homer by Michael A. Taylor. After that, Brito was removed from the game by manager Aaron Boone.

Colten Brewer replaced Brito, but he surrendered back-to-back solo home runs to Julien and Correa to put the Yankees in a 9-0 hole. Brewer mercifully got out of the inning after Varnach flew out for the second time in the inning.

So, Brito entered the game with a 0.90 ERA. That has now ballooned to 6.75 after 0.2 innings of work.

According to Katie Sharp of Talkin’ Yanks, this is the first time that the Yankees surrendered nine runs in the first inning of a game since June 18, 2000, when they lost 17-4 to the Chicago White Sox.

Brito was the first Yankees rookie to win his first two starts since “El Duque” Orlando Hernandez did so back in 1998, per ESPN Stats and Info. Hernandez threw to a no-decision in his third start that season. As for Brito, he will have to bank on the Yankees bats’ coming to life later in the game to avoid getting assessed his first loss of his career.