BALTIMORE — From brilliant to brutal. From inspiring to deflating. From season-turning win to worst loss of the season.
All in a blink or two, with manager Joe Girardi making crucial wrong moves in his usually stellar bullpen management.
The Yankees lost again to the Orioles on Wednesday night, 5-3 at Camden Yards, and they only can hope they’ve reached a low point. Low as in four straight losses, and as in a season-worst eight games behind Baltimore in the AL East.
Low as in, if the Yankees (61-58) don’t start playing their best baseball of the year by a few lengths, they’re toast.
“It’s not what you want,” Girardi said, using a favorite phrase. “But as I said, you’ve got to get by this. We’ve got to go to Tampa and play well.”
More than anything, they have to hit more. Earlier Wednesday, a few blocks away from here at the MLB quarterly owners’ meetings, Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said, “The offense has been a bit frustrating. They’ve been inconsistent. They know that. That’s got to change, quickly.”
With Steinbrenner making a rare, non-Bronx, non-Tampa Bay regular-season appearance, it didn’t change immediately, with Francisco Cervelli’s third-inning, two-run homer the only offense through eight innings, and that created another night when the onus fell on Girardi and his relievers. That Michael Pineda made his first start in nearly four months and looked quite good, allowing a run in five innings, seemed to give the Yankees some positive momentum.
But that Pineda could make it through just five innings and 67 pitches — no argument on lifting him at that juncture, as he appeared to tire in the fifth — meant Girardi had to navigate through four innings of bullpen work. He got greedy with stud setup man Dellin Betances.
The All-Star Betances cruised through the sixth and seventh innings, throwing a total of 24 pitches. Perhaps he cruised too well, allowing Girardi — who had been tossed from the game in the middle of the seventh, after home-plate umpire Gerry Davis called out Stephen Drew for running out of the baseline en route to first — to push his luck and try Betances for his first outing of more than two innings since May 15.
Betances retired Ryan Flaherty on a pop fly to Derek Jeter, expending another seven pitches, and the next batter Jonathan Schoop lofted a game-tying homer to left field.
“His pitch count wasn’t high, and he was still throwing the ball well,” Girardi said of Betances. “He did a great job for us. It’s unfortunate. He left a breaking ball inside, and he hit it out.”
The gentle giant Betances said he wasn’t surprised to be asked to come back out for the eighth.
“I told myself I wanted to go three,” he said. “I did it a bunch of times last year at Triple-A.”
As Betances threw, closer David Robertson and setup man Shawn Kelley warmed up in the Yankees’ bullpen. Robertson said he had been informed to get ready for a four-out save.
Maybe it should have been a six-out save, given that Robertson last pitched Aug. 7 and the Yankees have Thursday off. Robertson said he felt he could’ve handled a two-inning save, though, “Not saying I would’ve done any better.”
“I liked the way Dellin was throwing, and Robbie’s not a guy that gives you a ton of multiple innings,” Girardi said. “I thought I’d let him face him. It didn’t work out.”
It didn’t end there. Girardi’s bench coach Tony Pena lifted Betances, and in came Kelley, who proceeded to allow a Nick Markakis single, a Chris Davis walk then Adam Jones’ tie-breaking, three-run homer.
Given how badly the Yankees needed this win, perhaps Robertson should’ve entered to go after Jones. Robertson said that once Schoop’s homer tied the game, he was told he would not be entering in the eighth, because it was a tie game on the road.
Eh. Rules are made to be broken. And this Yankees season never has been closer to broken than it is right now.