Still all wet
Rangers shut down bombers
Look at the bright side: At least the Yankees didn’t have to wait until 2:44 a.m. to lose to the Rangers on Tuesday night.
No, this time, the Yankees lost their third straight in more typical fashion in a 7-1 defeat.
The loss left the Yankees two games under .500 (37-39) and without their best offensive player, Carlos Beltran, who left with a tight right hamstring after his single in the first inning.
Afterward, the Yankees said Beltran was day-today. As for their season, it sure seems to be slipping away.
“We’ve kind of been playing mediocre baseball for a while now,” said Chase Headley, who couldn’t come up with Adrian Beltre’s grounder, which helped lead to a fiverun eighth.
“We fought really hard to get back in this thing and then we’ve sputtered around .500. We’ve got to play more consistent. We’re running out of time to prove we’re a team that can contend.”
At this point, the notion this team can contend is getting much harder to back up.
The offense was shut down by Texas starter Cole Hamels, and though CC Sabathia pitched well for much of his outing despite a sore right ankle, he was done in by Beltre’s first-inning homer and then a string of mistakes in the eighth.
It was just another lackluster performance by a team that often shows few signs of life.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” said Sabathia, who ended up surrendering six runs after pitching into the eighth for the first time this year. “We’re not playing the way we want to. We have to turn it around. It’s time now.”
The forecast hardly seems promising, with two more games upcoming against the AL West-leading Rangers, followed by a 10-game road trip heading into the All-Star break.
The Yankees look like they could use some time off even before that.
“We need to win games,” manager Joe Girardi said. “This homestand has not [gone] the way we wanted so far. We need to turn it around.’’
Following Monday’s fiasco, when Girardi helped stall the game in the ninth, only to see his team implode after a 3 ¹/2-hour rain delay, the Yankees looked lost against the Rangers.
Sabathia, who said his ankle held up fine, settled down after the early mistake, and after Prince Fielder followed Beltre’s homer with a single, the lefty went on to retire 15 of the next 16 batters he faced.
Hamels was better, giving up three or fewer runs for a sixth straight start. He allowed just six hits and a walk.
The latest setback left the team without many answers.
Girardi dismissed the notion an addition to the lineup — like, say, hot-hitting Aaron Judge from Triple-A Scranton/WilkesBarre — would fix the situation.
“If you could get a jolt from anyone, you would ask for it,” Girardi said. “[General manager Brian Cashman] would do something about it. I know [Judge] is swinging the bat well.”
Instead, he’s hoping for more from the roster that has put them in this spot in the first place — which is quickly fading in the AL East.
“We need something,” Girardi said. “We need to start playing better.”
When Carlos Beltran grabbed his right hamstring after his first-inning single Tuesday, it was easy to fear the worst.
For now, it seems as if he and the Yankees caught a bit of a break in the 7-1 loss, when an MRI exam showed no damage to the hamstring, leaving Beltran day-to-day instead of dealing with a potential lengthy absence.