Sabathia’s winless skid continues against O’s

The blank stare on a solemn birthday face told more about CC Sabathia than the words that spilled out of his mouth.

For the second straight start, Sabathia watched mystified as ground balls found holes, glanced off infielders’ gloves and soft fly balls splashed down in the outfield grass.

“It’s part of the game. It is what it is,’’ Sabathia said after absorbing a 4-1 loss to the Orioles on Thursday in front of an announced crowd of 42,476 at Yankee Stadium. “I need to make a better pitch to [Jonathan] Schoop.’’ Allowed to face the right-handed hitting Schoop for a fourth time with the visitors leading 2-1 and runners on first and second and two outs in the seventh inning, Sabathia fed Schoop a changeup that he dropped into right field toward the foul line. Carlos Beltran needed too many steps to get to the ball and that allowed Julio Borbon to score from first behind Caleb Joseph and hike the lead to 4-1. “I made the pitch to [Nolan] Reimold,’’ said Sabathia, who caught the leadoff hitter looking at a 3-2 pitch for the second out. “I was trying to get Schoop to hit the ball at somebody or get soft contact.’’ He got the latter but lately that hasn’t helped Sabathia, who turned 36 Thursday, and is 5-8 with a 4.40 ERA and winless since June 16 in Minneapolis. In five starts since his last victory, Sabathia is 0-4 with a 7.46 ERA and has given up 46 hits in 35 innings. The first Orioles runs scored in the opening frame when J.J. Hardy’s grounder in the hole between short and third glanced off Didi Gregorius’ glove in the opening frame after Schoop had singled to deep short with one out. The rally in the seventh started with Joseph’s ground single to center and Borbon’s bloop single to center. “It was a gritty performance today,’’ said manager Joe Girardi, who explained not wanting to use Dellin Betances (three games in four days) and liking the way Sabathia was throwing as reasons he let him face Schoop in the seventh. “It’s unfortunate, he didn’t give up a lot of hard-hit balls and you look up and there were four runs on the board.’’ The loss stopped a four-game Yankees’ winning streak, dropped them 6 ½ lengths back of the AL East lead that the Red Sox have by percentage points over the Orioles and lowered their record to 48-47 in front of a three-game series with the NL Westleading Giants starting Friday night at the Stadium. The Giants have lost five straight but have lefty ace Madison Bumgarner going in the first game.

With three dates remaining on a critical 10-game homestand, the Yankees are 4-3 and need at least two victories to instill belief in the front office and ownership that players shouldn’t be moved before the Aug. 1 trade deadline.

Bumgarner is certainly among the best starters in baseball but if he is better than Chris Tillman was Thursday, the Yankees are in trouble.

“We faced an ace and he pitched like an ace,’’ Mark Teixeira said of the righthanded Tillman, who is 14-2 and tied with Chris Sale for the AL lead in wins.

Tillman allowed a run and four hits in seven frames, didn’t face a batter with a runner in scoring position after the second frame and retired 16 of the final 17 batters he faced.

“This guy throws 90 to 95 [mph] and has two different fastballs and a good cutter,” Teixeira said. “The changeup was the best I have seen. He didn’t make many mistakes. Sometimes you have to tip your cap.’’

Sabathia no longer has that kind of gas. But the same stuff that carved out a 5-4 record to go with a sterling 2.20 ERA on June 16 remains intact, which explains the blank stare when talking about getting beat by grounders and bloopers, because the losses count the same whether the hits come on lasers or bleeders.