OFFENSE GOES SOUTH VS. O’s

After one-game breakout, Bombers’ bats flounder again

BALTIMORE — Reports that the Yankees’ bats had escaped from an extended hitting funk were far too premature.

Nine runs Sunday provided data the Yankees were about to flex their muscles, but when Memorial Day dawned Monday in the Inner Harbor, the termites were back gnawing at the Camden Yards bat rack.

Thanks to stellar work from relievers Jonathan Holder and Chasen Shreve, the Dead Bat Society had a chance to make amends late in the game, but didn’t in a 3-2 loss to the reeling Orioles in front of 40,242.

With O’s starter Dylan Bundy gone after seven innings and Darren O’Day splitting after a perfect eighth, the Yankees had Starlin Castro, Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius to provide late lightning against Brad Brach. Instead, Castro grounded out, Judge fanned on a fastball and Gregorius ended the game with a whiff.

“He used his fastball a lot,’’ Castro said of Bundy, who allowed two runs and seven hits to improve to 6-3. “Later in the game he used the changeup. Making it diff icult today was he controlled the fastball and used the corners.’’

The loss dropped the AL East-leading Yankees to 29-19. The third-place Orioles, who had lost seven straight, moved to within 3 ½ lengths of the leaders. The second-place Red Sox remained three games back after a 5-4 loss to the White Sox.

Even though the Yankees didn’t bat with a runner in scoring position across the final six innings, they had plenty of scoring chances against Bundy and didn’t cash in. That hurt, but so did Castro botching Mark Trumbo’s ground ball up the middle with one out in the third that led to two unearned runs.

“I tried to get it on the easy bounce. That’s a play I can make,’’ said Castro, who was behind second base in the shift against the right-handedhitting Trumbo. “It’s not a hard ball for me because I always make that play.’’

In addition to the two unearned runs Jordan Montgomery gave up in the third, the rookie lefty surrendered a run in the first inning when he needed 34 pitches to get three outs and strand two runners. By the end of the second his pitch count was at 56. To register nine outs Montgomery (2-4) needed 71 pitches.

As for the chances against Bundy, they were plentiful. Brett Gardner opened the game with a single and was erased when Matt Holliday banged into a 4-6-3 double play. Castro was drilled in the left arm by Bundy in the second and scored on Aaron Hicks’ fly to right, but the Yankees stranded two. Gardner started the third with a double, but was thrown out trying to go from second to third on Gary Sanchez’s fly ball to Trey Mancini in left. Joe Girardi said information from the scouting report made running on Mancini’s arm a gamble worth taking, but Gardner was out by inches.

Sanchez ’s lead off single in the sixth was negated by Holli day hitting into a 4-3 double play. Judge’ s 17 th homer to start the seventh cut the deficit to 3-2, but a two-out walk to Chase Head ley was followed by Bundy striking out Chris Carter.

“It looked like we were just missing some pitches, whether that was late movement or a little ride on his part,’’ said Girardi, whose team has scored 37 runs in the last 11 games, going 5-6 during that stretch.

Montgomery’s command wasn’t good and Girardi said Castro’s error “really hurt.’’ But the biggest reason a 13-game stretch against AL East teams started poorly was a recent culprit: limp bats.