In opener role, Yankees' Michael King has trouble with the third inning, but thinks he can build off outing

It turns out, you can take the pitcher out of the bullpen, but you can’t necessarily always take the bullpen out of the pitcher. Not right away, at least.

Michael King was serviceable in his opener role against the Nationals in the Yankees' 6-5 loss Thursday afternoon. But, despite allowing just one unearned run, the righthander still wants to work on his mindset – a mental shift as he perhaps tries to show the Yankees he has what it takes to be part of the rotation.

“It’s not great but it’s buildable,” said King, who allowed the unearned run on one hit with two walks and three strikeouts, and threw 50 pitches (31 for strikes) over 2 2/3 innings. “I was pretty upset with the two walks in the third inning.”

Notably, King said he wanted to go deeper in the game, but felt he took too much of a reliever mentality into the third – prioritizing the strikeout over weak contact.

He worked a full count against the leadoff hitter, Jake Alu, before losing him to a walk, allowed a sacrifice bunt, struck out C.J. Abrams, and then walked Lane Thomas, again after a 3-2 count. He was then lifted for Keynan Middleton, who coaxed what would have been an inning-ending groundout from Joey Meneses that was instead booted by Anthony Volpe to tie the score at 1.

“When I’m looking back at it, there’s a fine line between being a reliever and a starter,” he said. “As a reliever, you don’t want contact. You don’t want balls in play because things can happen. And I got to 3-and-2 counts on both of them and just went for a strikeout, a chase and I didn’t execute. I think as a starter…[you go for] weak contact early and I feel like I failed doing that.”

It's something he intends to work on, though Aaron Boone has been impressed with his stuff and his four-pitch mix – something that will make him a good rotation candidate once he’s fully stretched out. And who knows? Maybe it’ll earn him that role again next season.

“Anytime you can add another starter to the mix as a real option that’s intriguing,” Boone said. “He has, I think, the pitch mix and the arsenal to be able to do that if he can sustain his stuff throughout that time…It wouldn’t be surprising if he’s able to do it, but obviously, he’s developed into a real weapon in the bullpen, especially in multiple roles.”

Broken leg for Garrett

Stone Garrett, the Nationals outfielder who sustained a scary injury Wednesday and needed to be carted off the field, has a fractured left fibula, the team said. Garrett slammed into the right field wall Wednesday while attempting to rob a home run from DJ LeMahieu and appeared to get his cleat stuck in the padding before crumpling to the grass. Garrett’s has been a feel-good story this year: After getting designated for assignment by the Diamondbacks, he joined the Nationals in the offseason and was hitting .269 with 40 RBIs.

From DFA to FA

Outfielder Greg Allen, who was designated for assignment earlier in the week, elected free agency rather than accepting an outright assignment, the Yankees announced.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.