In the aftermath of an extra-inning loss Monday night Brian McCann stood in front of his locker and candidly admitted he is among those swinging dead wood who are putting added pressure on the Yankee pitchers.
Then he said when — not if — him and his mates shake off a first-half slump they will be a formidable opponent.
“Horrible hitting,’’ was McCann’s appraisal of himself following a 4-3 loss in 12 innings to the Rays in front of 36,052 at Yankee Stadium. “I feel good behind the plate but I have to swing the bat better.’’
So does Carlos Beltran and anybody who plays third base and right field.
In a dozen innings the Yankees collected nine hits and needed Brian Roberts’ one-out bases-empty homer in the ninth to get the game to extra innings.
“These are two extremely tough losses,’’ said manager Joe Girardi, whose club dropped a 2-1 decision to the Red Sox Saturday night when Masahiro Tanaka went nine innings and lost.
At 41-40 the Yankees are 2 ½ games back of the AL East-leading Blue Jays and exactly at the halfway mark of the season with a .252 team batting average.
Still, McCann is looking at the glass as half full.
“Once our offense clicks on a daily basis we will be tough to beat,’’ McCann said.
Monday night that wasn’t the case and it left the pitchers with very little room for error.
David Robertson allowed one of the two runners he inherited from Dellin Betances to score in the eighth. Because Girardi used Adam Warren, Betances, Robertson and Shawn Kelley after starter David Phelps and had already warmed up a heavily used Matt Thornton, neophyte Jose Ramirez started the 12th.
In his eighth big league game and armed with a mid-90s fastball, Ramirez retired the first two Rays before walking Brandon Guyer. He swiped second and scored on Logan Forsythe’s single.
“We got good pitching, we didn’t get the big hit when we needed it,’’ said McCann, who was 1-for-5, fanned twice, heard boos and is batting .221. “We fought but we didn’t score enough runs.’’
David Phelps gave up solo homers to Matt Joyce in the first and No. 9 batter Kevin Kiermaier in the third and nothing else in his 5 ²/₃ inning stint.
Rays counterpart Chris Archer allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings and was poised to win if Joel Peralta didn’t give up Roberts’ homer in the ninth.
Robertson, who hadn’t worked since a five-out save Wednesday in Toronto, didn’t blame rust for his ineffectiveness.
“I didn’t have good command and wasn’t making quality pitches,’’ said Robertson, who gave up an RBI single to Ryan Hannigan in the eighth that snapped a 2-2 tie and hit Desmond Jennings in the ninth.
Being one game over .500 at the halfway mark the Yankees understand they are fortunate to be only 2 ½ games out of first place. However they also have to believe if the hitting woes continue in the second half the distance between themselves and the top is going to increase.
“It seems like we are right there with everyone else,’’ Robertson said. “There is a lot of opportunity to gain ground.’’
There was also a lot of opportunity in the first half to put themselves in better position than where they are and they didn’t take advantage. That’s something that can’t happen in the second half no matter how much general manager Brian Cashman improves the team through trades prior to the July 31 trade deadline.