BOSTON — No one was standing on the top step of the Yankees dugout in the ninth inning.
That told you all you needed to know about the 5-1 loss to the Red Sox Saturday at Fenway Park. After all these years of battling the Red Sox, these injury-scarred Yankees had nothing left at the end of this long day.
They also got nothing from their corner outfielders on a day Alfonso Soriano was removed from the lineup just before the start of the game because of a sprained right thumb, an injury that originally occurred Thursday in Baltimore and flared up Saturday.
Look at these numbers on this road trip: Right fielder Ichiro Suzuki is 0-for-14. Left fielder Vernon Wells is 1-for-8.
Ichiro’s season average is down to .262. Wells is at .243. The body blows of losing both Brett Gardner (oblique) for the season and now this day-to-day injury to Soriano appear to be too much.
The Yankees have overcome so much, but it is hard to overcome losing that kind of production at this critical juncture of the season. With losses Friday and Saturday to the Red Sox, the Yankees are four games back of the Rays in the loss column in the race for the final wild-card slot.
The gap between the Red Sox and the Yankees is a mile wide — the Yankees trail the rebuilt Red Sox by 11 games in the loss column.
This trip to Beantown was going to make or break the Yankees’ season, and on this Sunday the Yankees appear to be a broken team. They need Soriano to bounce back quickly from this troublesome injury, as they are running out of games with just 13 left to play.
The Yankees managed only three hits against Jon Lester and just five baserunners.
With no Soriano to protect him in the lineup, life was difficult for Robinson Cano against the left-hander Lester.
“It’s real difficult,’’ Cano said of losing Soriano. “He can change the game with one swing and he can make some big plays in the outfield. He’s got the most home runs in the second half. Hopefully it is just a few days and we can see him back in the lineup.’’
The Yankees had no firepower. The rebuilt Red Sox have done nothing but hit rockets all season.
More numbers to digest: The Yankees are hitting .246. The Red Sox are hitting .276. The Yankees have scored 617 runs this season. The Red Sox have scored 782 — that’s 165 more runs the retooled Red Sox have scored than the injury-riddled Yankees.
Until these injuries to Gardner and Soriano, I believed the Yankees would make the postseason, but all this appears to be too much for the Yankees to overcome.
Even if they make it to October, and they somehow move on to face the Red Sox, the Yankees have little chance, as Boston improved to 12-6 against them. You have to go all the way back to 1973 — the Horace Clarke years — to find a Red Sox team that has won more games in a season against the Yankees. Those Red Sox won 14 games.
There were no wild cards back then. Sure, the Yankees still have a chance, but the days are dwindling while the Red Sox have found a special kind of baseball magic.
“We’re just hitting our stride,’’ Red Sox catcher David Ross said. “We have fun, we grind it out every game and we are not going to change.’’
Ross noted he was impressed with the job Joe Girardi and his coaches have done with the Yankees.
“They’ve gotten a lot out of those players over there,’’ he said.
In this game, though, there are no apologies for beating injured opponents.
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us,’’ Ross said. “We have three or four closers down in the bullpen. It’s a competitive game and sometimes the luck is on your side and sometimes it’s not.’’
All you had to do was look at the Yankees beaten-down dugout in that ninth inning to see luck is not on their side this season.