When the Rangers are done providing shade for a very flawed Yankees team, the baseball season in The Bronx could be circling the drain.
By now even the most casual Yankees follower knows the Yankees couldn’t score in a Nevada brothel with Donald Trump’s money.
After Tuesday night’s 5-2 loss in 10 innings to the A’s in front of an announced Yankee Stadium crowd of 41,677, which had to wait 1 hour, 12 minutes for the third straight loss to begin due to rain, the Yankees have touched home plate 10 times in the past five games.
Add in shaky outings from Dellin Betances and Adam Warren, and a very fine performance from Hiroki Kuroda was flushed.
“You keep running them out there and they have to get the job done, that’s the bottom line,’’ Joe Girardi said of his anemic lineup that collected seven hits off five A’s pitchers and went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. “Everyone has had a shot. We have to get it done.’’
Though it’s only the early days of June, it would be wise of the Yankees to break out of their hitting funk soon because the Blue Jays are poised to run away in the AL East, a division that doesn’t appear to house one of the two wild-card tickets to October.
The Yankees’ third straight loss and fourth in five games dropped them a season-high five games behind the Blue Jays and into third place.
Mark Teixeira returned to the lineup and hit a solo homer in the sixth off Scott Kazmir that broke a 1-1 tie and drove in the other Yankees run in the first with a bloop single.
Carlos Beltran could come off the disabled list Friday, but that’s not a guarantee.
So the Yankees scuffle for runs, and while no hurler will admit it, the pressure mounts for pitchers to be perfect.
Armed with a slim 2-1 lead to start the eighth, Betances walked Alberto Callaspo with a 3-2 pitch and then gave up a full-count double to pinch-hitter Stephen Vogt that tied the score, 2-2.
“The double tied it, but I felt the walk hurt me more,’’ said Betances, who was saddled with a blown save.
Warren started the extra frame with the score tied, 2-2, and gave up a leadoff homer to Brandon Moss, his second of the game, on a slider that caught too much of the plate and landed in the second deck of seats in right field.
“They aren’t going to be perfect,’’ Girardi said of Betances and Warren.
Considering how the Yankees bleed for every run, perfect might not be good enough for the hurlers. It certainly wasn’t for Kuroda who gave up a run and two hits in 6 ²/₃ innings.
When a team is having difficulty scoring, they can’t botch sacrifice bunt attempts like Brendan Ryan did in the seventh with Scott Sizemore and John Ryan Murphy first and second, no outs and the Yankees up a run against Kazmir.
Ryan fouled off one attempt and didn’t offer at the second strike. With the bunt off he was called out looking.
“I started and pulled back. I got ready late,’’ Ryan said. “He makes the last pitch one seam on the black.’’
Kazmir caught Brett Gardner looking and Derek Jeter, who has one hit in 13 at-bats, on a routine fly to center to squash the threat.
“In tight games you have to execute,’’ Girardi said.
At some point the Rangers’ magical season is going to end and there will be no more shade for the Yankees, whose bats have wilted in the late May, early June sun.