No matter the situation, Camilo Doval tries to enter every game with the same mindset.

“In my head, the game is tied, regardless,” the Yankees’ reliever said Thursday night.

Despite this mentality, Doval hasn’t kept opponents from scoring often enough this season. On Thursday, he came into what actually was a tied game against the White Sox in the eighth inning. It only took one misplaced sinker from Doval to change that.

With the righty inheriting a bases-loaded jam from Tim Hill, lefty-swinging ex-Bomber Andrew Benintendi jumped on Doval’s first pitch and sent it flying far beyond Yankee Stadium’s right field wall. That cemented a 5-1 win for the White Sox, who avoided a sweep.

“Definitely not the result you want right there,” Doval said.

Positive results have been hard to come by for Doval since the Yankees acquired him from the Giants ahead of last summer’s trade deadline.

After a poor first impression with the team but a solid finish to the 2025 campaign, the Yankees believed that they could rein in the erratic former All-Star. Instead, Doval now has a 4.98 ERA over 54 games with the pinstripers, and his 2026 ERA is up to 5.08 after he was only charged with one earned run over 1.2 innings on Thursday.

He had gone five games without allowing a run prior to Benintendi’s grand slam, but he’s permitted at least one earned run in 11 of his 32 appearances this year.

While Doval has managed to cut back on his free passes — his 4.2 BB% would easily be the best of his career — other problems have emerged this season.

Left-handed hitters are among the most significant, as they have a .979 OPS against Doval. Righties, meanwhile, only have a .419 OPS against him.

Doval has typically had trouble against lefties, but never this much. For his career, port-side swingers have a .729 OPS against him vs. a .573 OPS for righties. And Doval was actually better against lefties in 2025, holding them to a .592 OPS while righties posted a .652 mark.

Asked about his lefty woes, Doval didn’t have much of an explanation beyond “sometimes, that’s the game” and “they’ve had some good luck on some good pitches placed in good locations.”

However, Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said Doval could improve his pitch selection against lefties.

“A little bit of it’s just pitch mix,” Blake said. “Obviously, he’s been aggressive with them in the zone. I feel like he’s probably been a little more reliant on the sinker to the lefties than the cutter, and he hasn’t really been using the slider as much. So I think it’s just continuing to pull him into a little bit better usage strategy vs. the lefties, more than anything.”

Blake also said there might be something to the idea that Doval needs to be effectively wild after cleaning up his control this season.

“You can make that case,” he said. “Obviously, you never want to walk guys, but if there’s a little bit of uncertainty, that goes a long way.”

Doval, a former closer in San Francisco and someone the Yankees were counting on to be a setup man, has also been awful in high-leverage situations, tallying a 1.077 OPS. Medium-leverage spots haven’t been much better for him; he has a 1.036 OPS in such situations.

When it comes to low-leverage, Doval has a .398 OPS. The Yankees didn’t trade four prospects to the Giants to have Doval pitch in low-leverage, though.

With Doval struggling yet again on Thursday, Aaron Boone said that he doesn’t think the always-tranquil pitcher gets overwhelmed in big moments. The manager also believes Doval is more than capable of pitching under the bright lights of New York.

“It comes down to execution,” Boone said, but Doval’s lackluster performance is partly why the Yankees will explore the trade market for bullpen help yet again in the coming weeks.

The organization has some internal options who could help their pen, including Triple-A arms Carlos Lagrange and Yovanny Cruz. Both can throw 100 mph like Doval, but Lagrange is still adjusting in his transition to relief, and Cruz has cooled off since an electric start to the season that included his big league debut. The Yankees, depending on rotation health, could also shift Ryan Weathers to the pen once Max Fried is back from an elbow bone bruise.

Clarke Schmidt, recovering from Tommy John surgery, could be an option for the pen by season’s end as well.

But with Jake Bird, Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn among the other Yankees relievers who can’t be trusted in high-leverage — Hill has not been sharp lately either — Doval’s issues have only accentuated the club’s need for established, external bullpen help.

He and the team may believe Doval has more to offer, but the numbers haven’t inspired confidence.

“Slumps are part of the game,” Doval said. “As baseball players, we all go through them. I’m not exactly getting the results that I expect of myself at this moment, but I know they’re coming. I feel it. I know a good streak is coming.”