BOSTON — Joe Girardi can discover a flicker of light in the darkest moments.
Yet, sitting in the visiting manager’s office after his lethargic club got swept by the Red Sox late Sunday night Girardi couldn’t sugarcoat the lost weekend.
“We stunk here, we didn’t play well here,’’ Girardi said after absorbing a 9-2 loss that was witnessed by 37,137 delirious Red Sox fans who are bathing in the glow of their team that will clinch the AL East title shortly. “We got an option. We can continue to stink or play better. If we play better we have a shot.’’
Even that might not be enough to cop one of the two wild-card spots. Texas and Tampa Bay each lost Sunday so the Yankees failed to lose ground. With a dozen games left the Yankees are three back of the Rangers and Rays and four in the loss column. They were mathematically eliminated from the AL East title hunt Sunday night.
Three of those games are against the Rays; the others are versus the Blue Jays (3), Giants (3) and Astros (3). They are all in last place and from the outside looking in the Yankees should be able to take advantage of the soft slate.
Yet, their starting pitching has gone to seed and Ivan Nova is leading the slide.
After being named “Pitcher of the Month’’ for August when he was 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA in six starts, Nova has been brutal in three September outings.
Sunday night he lasted four-plus innings, gave up five runs (four earned), six hits, walked four (one intentional) and hit a batter.
After Nova’s previous start he talked of a biceps problem that robbed him of velocity. Girardi said Sunday night it wasn’t an issue and Nova explained “My arm had nothing to do with it.’’
In three starts this month Nova is 0-1 with a 7.07 ERA and has given up 17 hits and eight walks in 14 innings.
“We were hoping he would give us a little more but it didn’t happen,’’ Girardi said of Nova, who is 8-5 and as big a question mark as Hiroki Kuroda and CC Sabathia have been down the stretch.
What would a Yankees game be without an injury? Sunday night it was Alex Rodriguez leaving in the fifth inning with a tight right calf.
“If I can play I will play,’’ said Rodriguez, who didn’t sound optimistic he will be ready to go Tuesday night in Toronto. Rodriguez had been limited to the DH role the past five games because of a left hamstring problem that surfaced in Baltimore last week and has severely hampered his running.
Then there were the bats. After collecting three hits against Jon Lester Saturday, the Yankees were held to two hits and an unearned run by Clay Buchholz who is 11-0.
Finally, Ichiro Suzuki looked lost in right field where he misjudged two balls.
As dark as the weekend got, Girardi still has faith his club can bounce back starting Tuesday night against the woeful Blue Jays.
“I don’t stop believing. We aren’t the only team that has ran into hard times,’’ Girardi said. “These other teams are running into hard times, too. We still have a great opportunity. Yeah, we have to win a lot of games but the opportunity is in front of us.’’
Getting away from the Red Sox who eliminated the Yankees in the long ago over AL East race and won 13 of 19 games will help the Yankees.
Still, that window of opportunity is slim at best.