HIGHWAY TO ‘L’
Skidding Yanks’ swoon continues with brutal loss
Aaron Judge (above) wa alks off after striking out to end the Yanks’Y 7-6 loss to the Blue Jays on Wed The Bronx. Dellin Betan nces (right) walked four in th he eighth to suffer the loss s, the team’s 16th in its last 22 games.
When the Yankees were rolling in April and May, Dellin Betances and Michael Pineda were two very big reasons why. Now with the Yankees in an epic free fall without a parachute, they are among the culprits.
Nobody did more than Betances and Pineda to hurt the Yankees on Wednesday when they absorbed a 7-6 loss to the Blue Jays in front of a sun-splashed Yankee Stadium crowd of 38,691.
“We are scuffling right now but we are still having opportunities to win games,’’ Joe Girardi said after his club lost for the 16th time in 22 games and fell to 44-39, which is a far cry from May 8 when they were 21-9 and had Matt Holliday, Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks in the lineup insteadd on the DL, where the trio currentlytly reside.
On June 12, the Yankeesnkees led the AL East and had a four-length lead over the Red Sox. After Wednesday’s loss — in which they reboundedded from t he 5-0 di tc hh Pineda put them in n across three-plus innings to take a lead only to see a wild Betances spit it out in the eighth —and after Boston’ s 8-2 loss in Texas at night, the Yankees remain edd four games behind nd the Red Sox.
The depressing nummbers don’t stop there. In their last seven series, ies, the Yankees have lostt six and split one. The last time the Yankees won consecutive games was June 11-12, which was the final two victories of a six-game winning streak. “We have an off day [Thursday], which is probably a good time to have it, come back fresh Friday and try and win a series,’’ said Girardi, whose team had played 16 straight days. Three games against the surprising Brewers, who are atop the NL Central, await the Yankees when they go back to work Friday in The Bronx. After those three tilts, the All-Star break arrives and will provide four more days of rest for those not in Miami. Yet, there are so many issues smothering the Yankees that days away from the ballpark aren’t guaranteed to solve them.
And after the break, the Yankees visit Fenway Park for four games in three days to start a three-city trip that rolls through Minneapolis and ends in Seattle.
Betances (3-4) walked four out of the f ive Blue Jays he faced in the eighth and was the losing pitcher. In his last nine games, the four-time All-Star has worked 7 ¹/₃ innings, has given up six hits, nine earned runs (11.0511 ERA) and issued an unfathomomable 14 walks compared to 13 strikeouts.
That the Yankees were in a tigtight game late was because of AaAaron Judge’s two-run homer in ththe fifth off Marco Estrada and a fofour-run sixth, when Ji-Man Choi hihit a two-run home run in his seconond Yankee at-bat. Didi Gregorius’ twtwo-out, two-run double put the YaYankees ahead, 6-5.
Chad Green surrendered a leadofoff homer to Russell Martin in the seseventh that tied the score, then BBetances couldn’t find the plate in the eighth, when Girardi took ththe ball from the big right-hander anand called for Adam Warren after BeBetances walked in what turned ouout to be the deciding run.
There are more reasons for the slislide that won’t stop than Betances anand Pineda. Injuries have had a hahand in it. So, too, did Chris Carter. YeYet, watching Betances and Pineda strstruggle Wednesday was a windodow into how 21-9 turned into 4444-39 and could get worse.