Where’s Jim Mora when you need him?
While the Yankees’ season disintegrates, all that’s left is for manager Joe Girardi to finally say, “Playoffs? Don’t talk about … playoffs? You kidding me?”
Though there still is chatter about making a postseason push, it’s becoming increasingly clear the Yankees more likely are on their way to a second straight baseball-free October.
The latest evidence was another loss to the Astros in The Bronx on Wednesday, this one 5-2 thanks to a no-show from the offense and a seventh-inning collapse by the bullpen.
When Jacoby Ellsbury, representing the tying run, flied out to right to end the game, it left the Yankees five games back in the race for the second wild card, with three teams ahead of them, and a stadium semi-filled with disgruntled, booing fans.
“The bottom line is we can’t worry about who’s in front of us,” Girardi said of his team’s postseason hopes slipping away. “If we don’t play better, we can’t get there. Right now this homestand has not started off the way we wanted.”
The Yankees got yet another solid performance out of a starter, as Michael Pineda retired the first nine batters he faced and left with a 2-1 lead in the seventh after walking Jason Castro to lead off the inning.
With a depleted bullpen, Girardi turned to David Huff. The lefty struck out Jon Singleton, but Marwin Gonzalez singled and Esmil Rogers entered.
Rogers then gave up four straight hits, including a run-scoring single by Jake Marisnick to tie the game and a two-run single by Robbie Grossman to make it 4-2. Houston added another run on Jose Altuve’s single to center.
Girardi said he wasn’t going to use Dellin Betances and was saving Shawn Kelley for the eighth, since he couldn’t use him for multiple innings. He turned to Huff and Rogers and it didn’t work out.
But the Yankees still haven’t scored more than four runs since Aug. 8, which consistently puts the pitching staff in an impossible situation.
“It’s disappointing,” general manager Brian Cashman said afterward. “We’re just not scoring runs. … No results. That’s all I can say. Just no results.”
Brett Gardner singled with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, before Derek Jeter walked to bring up Ellsbury, and liked the way the team made it “interesting” at the end.
That won’t get them to the postseason.
“We’ve got five weeks left,” Gardner said. “We’ve got time to make it up. We’ve just got to play better.”
Even when they did score, they did so in unlikely fashion. They took the lead on a two-out safety squeeze from Ellsbury that scored Ichiro Suzuki from third, left to manufacturing a run with the middle of the lineup.
After falling behind in the seventh, Ellsbury made a bid to get the Yankees closer in the bottom of the inning, just missing a two-run double down the left-field line that landed foul. He ended up striking out.
That was all the offense could produce and it wasn’t enough for Pineda.
In his second start since returning from a pine-tar suspension and muscle strain, Pineda was very good, practically dancing on the mound. Grossman started the fourth with a single to right for the first Houston base runner.
But Pineda wasn’t good enough and now the Yankees need a victory Thursday just to avoid a sweep and have dropped four straight at home. It’s left them with a daunting task.
“Anything can happen in baseball,” the injured Carlos Beltran said. “I’ve seen a lot.”
— Additional reporting by Fred Kerber.