MLB

Yankees stall in clutch, lose 2-1 to Royals

KANSAS CITY, MO. — What is the best way to get Yankees hitters out?

Put a lot of runners on second and third.

Sunday, in the latest gathering of the Dead Bat Society, the Yankees were presented with plenty of chances to score multiple runs but were beaten, 2-1, by the Royals in front of 24,614 at Kauffman Stadium.

“We had a lot of opportunities,’’ Derek Jeter said after the Yankees went 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position, stranded nine runners and didn’t score in the second inning after they loaded the bases with no outs against James Shields. “We have to find ways to score runs. I feel bad for Hiroki [Kuroda]. He did exactly what you wanted.’’

Yet, thanks to the limp bats it wasn’t enough for the right-hander to cash in with his best outing of the season. In seven innings, Kuroda allowed two runs and five hits but fell to 4-4.

“The biggest thing is: The team lost and that is disappointing,’’ Kuroda said.

Having dropped seven of 10, the Yankees aren’t showing signs the deep hitting funk is going to clear. Or that all of a sudden hits with runners in scoring position are going to surface.

In the last six games, the Yankees are batting a putrid .185 (10-for-54) in the clutch. During the 3-7 slide, they are batting .240 (80-for-334), have hit four homers and driven in 24 runs.

“We have to find a way to get it done,’’ Joe Girardi said. “You can’t win games like this.’’
Despite the scoring faucet turned off, Girardi eschewed having Jeter, an accomplished bunter, attempt to squeeze Brett Gardner home from third with one out in the seventh and trailing, 2-1.

“You got Jake [Jacoby Ellsbury] on deck who has been swinging the bat really well and I wanted to give him the opportunity to drive the run in, too,’’ Girardi said of Ellsbury, who went 1-for-4 and has hit in 13 straight games.

If Jeter couldn’t deliver Gardner, Girardi was banking on his hottest hitter coming through with a two-out hit.

But Jeter, hitting with the infield in, grounded to short and Ellsbury was called out on a borderline 3-2 pitch.

Even the Yankees’ run came with a price because Yangervis Solarte scored from third on Ichiro Suzuki’s ground out in the sixth.

A final scoring chance developed in the ninth, when Ichiro led off with a single against closer Greg Holland, who immediately wild-pitched the potential tying run to second.

Knowing Holland had 37 strikeouts in 23 2/3 innings, Girardi wasn’t going to use an out and ask Brian Roberts to bunt Ichiro to third against a pitcher who pushes the speed gun close to triple digits.

“You got a strikeout pitcher and also a guy who gets ground balls,’’ Girardi said. “It’s not an easy guy to bunt [off] throwing 97-98 if you ever tried it.’’

Roberts popped to short left field, pinch-hitter Mark Teixeira grounded to first and with Ichiro 90 feet away from the plate Gardner whiffed on a 3-2 pitch to end another hard-to-look-at hitting display.

“You have to stay positive and not make too much of one day,’’ Girardi said.

But it just wasn’t Sunday. In the past 10 games, the Yankees are averaging 2.5 runs per tilt and putting enormous pressure on their pitchers to be perfect.

Jeter, who went 0-for-4 and has four hits in 30 at-bats (.133), doesn’t believe a secret code has to be cracked in order for the Yankees to escape a suffocating funk.

“The only way to get out of it is to swing out of it,’’ Jeter said.

That sounds like logical thinking until you can’t delete Sunday’s 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position. And the one hit didn’t score a run.