YANKS’ EFFORT
Bullpen & bats let Kuroda down
THE YANKEES finally got a power boost Tuesday night. Then their power arms in the bullpen let them down for the second time in three days.
Mark Teixeira returned after a cortisone shot in his ailing right wrist sidelined him for two days, putting the Yankees on the board with an RBI single in the first and snapping a tie game in the seventh with a solo homer, his team-high 10th of the year. But Brandon Moss bashed two homers, including a go-ahead shot in the top of the 10th against Adam Warren, lifting the A’s to a 5-2 win over the Yankees, who lost for the fourth time in five games.
Two days after Dav id Rober t son su ffered a ninth-inning meltdown against the Twins, it was Dellin Betances who failed to hold a late lead this time, allowing a run in the eighth to let a potential win slip away and give the American League’s best team new life.
Warren — the other superb member of the bullpen this season — gave up three runs in the 10th, including Moss’ second homer of the night, the first homer allowed by Warren since April 18. “They’ve been really good and they’re not going to be perfect,” Joe Girardi said. “We know that.”
The bullpen implosion may have been the primary reason for the loss, but the offense continued to leave the pitching staff with little-to-no wiggle room, failing to crack the threerun mark for the fifth straight game and the sixth time in the past seven. The Yankees are 6-19 this season when scoring three runs or fewer.
Teixeira’s home run was the Bombers’ only extra-base hit Tuesday night, leaving them with only 12 in their past eight games.
“We’ve just been struggling for the last week or so,” Brett Gardner said. “We need to get out of it.”
With Teixeira battling his wrist issues and Carlos Beltran on the disabled list with a bone spur in his elbow, the offense has become a major issue for the Yankees, who are 7-9 in their past 16 contests.
“You’ve just got to keep running them out there and they’ve got to get the job done,” Girardi said. “That’s the bottom line. We’ve had different people in the lineup and everyone’s had a shot. We’ll continue to try to put out what we feel is the best matchups against certain people, and we’ve got to get it done.”
They didn’t get it done Tuesday, wasting a solid effort by Hiroki Kuroda, who took a tough no-decision after 6.2 superb innings, holding the A’s to one run on two hits and one walk.
Scott Kazmir matched Kuroda most of the way, allowing two runs on six hits and two walks, striking out 10 over 6.1 innings.
Still, the Yankees were in position to win, holding a onerun lead with two out and Betances on the mound i n the eighth thanks to Teixeira’s two big hits.
“We’ve said all along we missed him because he’s a run producer,” Girardi said of Teixeira, who didn’t stick around to speak with reporters after the game. “That’s exactly what he did tonight.”
Teixeira’s big seventh-inning swing proved that — at least for the moment — his wrist isn’t an issue. It was only the Yankees’ second home run in their past 261 at-bats, the other coming from Yangervis Solarte in Saturday’s win over the Twins.
Betances struck out Moss to end the seventh, but the A’s got to him in the eighth as Alberto Callaspo drew a two-out walk, setting up Stephen Vogt’s pinch-hit double to right center, squaring the game at 2 in a rare failure by the Yankees’ stud rookie. “I felt like I was one pitch away from giving the ball to D-Rob,” Betances said. “I definitely let the team down today, but tomorrow is a new day and I’ll try to do the best I can whenever my name is called again.”
Robertson tossed a perfect ninth to preserve the tie in his first outing since Sunday’s disastrous blown save, but Warren’s horrendous 10th inning left the Yankees staring at yet another one that got away.
“It’s been a bit of a rough stretch,” Warren said. “We just need one good game and we’ll get going a little bit.”