YANKS SNOOZE
Bombers sleepwalk through ‘L’
HOUSTON — A large green scoreboard with white letters and numbers in left field was impossible to ignore for the Yankees on the field and in the dugout. And when the results from Baltimore, Toronto and Boston were posted the Yankees understood what their game Wednesday night against the Astros meant.
A victory would allow the Yankees to gain a game on the Orioles, Red Sox and Blue Jays in the AL East, give them to sweep of a very solid Astros club and after a day of rest send them into a weekend series against the bottom-feeding Rays with more opportunities to close the gap.
Instead, staff ace Masahiro Tanaka was naked without the usual bite on his splitter and Astros starter Lance McCullers combined a filthy curveball and a dominating fastball to hurl the hosts to a 4-1 victory in front of 35,186 at Minute Maid Park.
Yes, the Yankees copped two of three from the Astros but not sweeping was a lost chance.
“Those are the days you have to win because we are trying to make up ground,’’ said Joe Girardi, whose club trails the AL East-leading Orioles by 6 ½ games and is four back of the Blue Jays in the race for the second AL wild-card ticket. “You try and win series but when you have a chance to sweep it can really help and we weren’t able to do it tonight.’’
The Yankees fanned a season-high 15 times so it wasn’t all on Tanaka, but from the second inning until he exited after the fifth it was clear the Yankees’ ace wasn’t crisp and his splitter was flatter than a table top.
“It was really off, flat,’’ said Tanaka, who is 7-3 after losing for the first time since June 11. In five innings he allowed four runs and seven hits. Colby Rasmus, who had been hitless in his previous 29 at-bats, hit a tworun homer in the three-run third off a hanging splitter.
Having won eight of 10 on the backs of the starting rotation that posted a 1.85 ERA in those tilts, the Yankees were looking for Tanaka, who had two strong outings in that stretch, to continue the dominance even though he was working on four days’ rest instead the five he and the Yankees prefer when possible. Tanaka’s previous outing on Friday against the Giants was on four days’ rest and he provided six shutout frames in a 3-2 victory.
Tanaka is 1-3 with a 4.95 ERA on four days’ rest, 4-0 with a 1.05 ERA on five and 2-0 with a 3.27 with six days or more of rest. Brian McCann, whose 15th homer in the fourth provided the Yankees’ only run, was impressed with McCullers (6-4), who attacked with a knee-buckling curveball and a mid-90s fastball.
“He has one of the better curveballs you will see,’’ McCann said of the righthander who allowed a run, five hits and fanned 10. “Out of the 90 pitches it seemed like he threw 89 [curves].’’
As for missing a chance to cut into their deficits, Mark Teixeira explained late July is too early to be thinking that way even if everybody was aware the three AL East clubs had been beaten.
“Every ballpark has an out-oftown scoreboard and if you are aware of your surroundings, and we all are, you notice,’’ Teixeira said. “The last week of the season you [lament not winning when others are losing] but at this time of the year we have to worry about ourselves. It’s way too early for that.’’