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Yanks kick off important week with ugly loss to Indians

What could be a seasondefining week opened with the Yankees staring at Indians ace Corey Kluber on Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

While the Yankees countered with their top starter, Luis Severino, they were dominated by Kluber for the second time inside a month and absorbed a 6-2 loss to the Indians in front of 36,253.

On Aug. 3 in Cleveland, the right-handed Kluber went the distance in a 5-1 win over the Yankees. On Monday night, he allowed two runs and three hits over eight innings while walking one, fanning seven and improving to 13-4.

“Everybody knows that Kluber is a good pitcher,’’ Gary Sanchez said. “He throws a lot of strikes and he is a tough pitcher.’’

That is especially true versus the Yankees. Kluber is 5-1 with a 1.80 ERA in seven career starts against them.

Kluber’s dominance and an Indians lineup that slugged four homers — three off Severino — denied the Yankees a chance to remain 2 ½ lengths back of the AL East-leading Red Sox. They beat the Blue Jays and hold a 3 ½-game edge over the secondplace Yankees.

After two more games against the AL Centralleading Indians, the Yankees host the Red Sox for four games starting Thursday night which could go a long way to determining what the Yankees will be playing for after Sunday night.

First place in the AL East or one of two AL wild-card passes into October?

Across five innings the Kluber-Severino battle lived up to the pregame belief that it was going to be a low-scoring affair since the Yankees led, 2-1, thanks to Chase Headley’s leadoff homer in the third and Todd Frazier’s twoout, RBI single in the fifth that stopped a 0-for-16 funk.

Then Jose Ramirez’s second homer of the game landed in the second deck in right field in the sixth to tie the score. Some sloppy fielding by second baseman Starlin Castro and a wild pitch by Adam Warren that Sanchez couldn’t block led to a second run in the seventh after Carlos Santana had homered off Severino. The Indians’ Austin Jackson homered against Warren in the seventh and Bradley Zimmer doubled in a run off Chasen Shreve in the ninth for the final run.

“I made a couple of mistakes in the middle of the plate and I paid for it,’’ said Severino, who is 11-6.

In 6 2/3 innings he allowed four runs (three earned), four hits, walked three and struck out nine.

Manager Joe Girardi said he was impressed with his guy despite the fact he allowed three homers.

“His stuff was really good. He made a couple of mistakes,’’ Girardi said of Severino, who dominated the Indians in Cleveland on Aug. 6 when he allowed a run, two hits and fanned nine in 6 2/3 innings.

After Frazier’s two-out, RBI single in the fifth Kluber faced 11 batters and the only base runner was Aaron Hicks, who started the sixth with a walk and never moved off first base.

“He was really good again,’’ Girardi said of Kluber, who faced a Yankees lineup without Aaron Judge. “He has a great combination of pitches.’’

With the first of a crucial seven-game stretch history the Yankees’ lineup needs to do more

against Trevor Bauer on Tuesday night since Jaime Garcia makes his fifth start for the Yankees. In the previous four the lefty is 0-1 with a 5.95 ERA.

Bauer-Garcia is a repeat of the Aug. 4 game in Cleveland which the Indians won, 7-2, when Bauer allowed a run and seven hits in seven innings. Garcia gave up six runs (five earned) and five hits in 4 2/3 innings in his Yankees debut.

And it comes 24 hours after the Yankees sent their best against the Indians’ best and lost.