TWO NOT ENOUGH FOR YANKS
SANCHEZ SMACKS PAIR OF HOMERS, BUT BOMBERS STILL LOSE TO LOWLY O’S
Giancarlo Stanton can’t get to Jahmai Jones’ 2-run double as O’s jump on Andrew Heaney (inset) and Yankee pen and hand Bombers 8-7 loss.
Suddenly the Yankees have a month to get their bullpen put back together and get back on track. With the regular season ending four weeks from Sunday, the Bombers lost their most reliable reliever for at least a “few weeks,” and then the pitchers they tried to cover with went out and coughed up six runs and the game to the Orioles, 8-7, at the Stadium.
It was a devastating double gut punch that ended up costing the Bombers (78-58) the series against the Orioles, who have the worst record in baseball but have beaten them seven times this year. With the win, Baltimore (43-92) is now 49 games below .500.
“We’re not happy with the way we play these three games,” said Corey Kluber, who got through only 3.2 innings in his second start off the injured list. “But we don’t have a choice but to kind of put it behind us and come in tomorrow and focus on winning ballgames.”
The only good news Sunday was that the Red Sox lost, so the Yankees are still clinging to the top American League Wild Card spot by half-ofa-game. Before Sunday’s series, the Yankees placed Jonathan Loaisiga on the injured list with a strained right shoulder.
“He’ll be ‘no throw,’ for 10 days. He had a cortisone shot yesterday. So that’s how we’re able to get Albert Abreu back today. Obviously, that’s a tough loss for us,” Aaron Boone said. “Hopefully it is only a couple weeks, but still something we’ll have to navigate.”
Last week, the Yankees had to shut down Zack Britton, who needed more surgery to scope his elbow, for the season and Saturday Aroldis Chapman continued to struggle through what is arguably the worst season of his career.
Loaisiga was having perhaps his best and was slowly moving into a role at the back of the bullpen. He earned five saves this season, the first of his career, but had mainly locked down the seventh inning.
And Sunday, the Yankees felt the loss dramatically.
Instead of having Loaisiga in the seventh inning of what was a 7-4 game, they went to Andrew Heaney. The lefty starter , whom the Yankees had traded for in July and then moved to the bullpen last week, gave up four runs on four hits and recorded just one out.
It was a very real example of how valuable Loaisiga had been this season.
The slight right-hander, who has a history of injuries, had never thrown more than 31 big-league innings until this season. In a career-high 54 appearances, Loaisiga has logged 68 innings and pitched to a 2.25 ERA.
The Yankees have played in 77 games this season that have been decided by two or fewer runs, which has obviously put a strain on their bullpen.
“We’ve had to lean on them a lot and with Lo going down yesterday…. it’s, you know, well, we have a lot of confidence in the guys we do have down there, but obviously in a situation where, especially of late in the stretch of games were in, they’ve been leaned on a lot,” Boone said. “So we’ve got to spread it out with everyone and everyone’s got to kind of share the load and get it done.”
They do not get a chance to regroup or have much time to figure it out, either. They are currently three games into a stretch of 20 straight games before a day off. They have 26 games left this season for Chapman, who has a career-high 3.75 ERA, allowing 19 earned runs in 50 appearances, to figure out what has happened to the command of his fastball.
Chad Green gave the Yankees two solid innings Sunday, which is encouraging. Before the game, Luis Severino said he is trying to get back this season and would be fine with working out of the bullpen and there is also the possibility of Domingo German returning from the injured list to help there.
The Yankees have to find something for this final push, because their pitching has had to carry them most of the season, because the offense has been consistently inconsistent.
On Sunday, only Gary Sanchez provided any power against what is statistically the worst staff in baseball. The catcher, hitting ninth, hit his third career grand slam in the second off Baltimore rookie lefty Keegan Akin. He hit a two-run shot off Marcos Diplan in the bottom of the sixth. Anthony Rizzo’s bloop single drove in the only other Yankee run.
The offense was dismal against the Orioles in this three game series, managing eight runs in the first two games.