OAKLAND, Calif. — No time for extended hangovers.
The Yankees admirably climbed back into this playoff race … and plenty of time exists for them to fall back out of it.
When Tony Kemp crushed an eighth-inning Chad Green fastball over the Oakland Coliseum right-field wall early Sunday evening, the Yankees sealed their fate, a 3-1 loss, and their second straight defeat following their historic, 13-game winning streak.
A two-game losing streak, in a vacuum, represents a hiccup amidst a 162-contest marathon. However, these 2021 Yankees possess a history of taking two steps forward, then two steps back. If they have come a long way with their 35-13 showing, they also required such a surge after starting the schedule with a perfectly mediocre 41-41 mark which featured an array of peaks and valleys.
And boy, at times these past two days, the Yankees sure looked like they were playing the hits of that rough beginning. “Hits” in this case absolutely not meaning singles, doubles, triples or home runs.
“You’re going to hit a bump in the road along the way even when we’re playing great,” Aaron Boone said, disagreeing with the thesis of this column. “Onto Anaheim. Our focus is right where it needs to be.”
The proof will indeed come in Anaheim, where the Yankees will launch a three-game series against the mediocre Angels on Monday night. Because these past two days, which ended the Yankees’ run of consecutive series wins at 11, felt more hungover than Jack Tripper waking up and discovering a tattoo on his rear end in “Three’s Company.”
On Sunday, Gio Urshela made a pair of errors at third base, the first one leading to the A’s opening run in the fourth and the second prolonging Jonathan Loaisiga’s seventh inning (and making it a no-brainer to turn to the less-reliable Green for the eighth). Their lone run came courtesy of two A’s errors in the seventh inning, as they totaled only five hits, none of them for extra bases. They grounded into two double plays, giving them three in two games after they hit into just four over the entirety of the winning streak (thanks, ESPN).
And Boone made another call — or non-call, in this instance — that backfired: Green-lighting the right-hander Green — who performs better against righty batters, to pitch to the lefty-swinging Kemp, who fares better against righty pitchers — with two outs rather than walk him with first base open (and with Mark Canha on second base after a scalding double) and go after the light-hitting, righty-swinging ninth-hitter Elvis Andrus.
Mitigating factors: 1) Andrus was 3-for-5 lifetime against Green, although that became 3-for-6 when he grounded out after Kemp’s homer; 2) Veteran lefty swinger Mitch Moreland stood in reserve as a potential pinch hitter there. Bottom line, it didn’t work.
Because it didn’t work, and because the Yankees went down quietly against Andrew Chafin in the ninth, Boone’s bunch now sits six games behind the first-place Rays, who won yet again, in the American League East. They maintained their two-game lead over the Red Sox in the race for the top AL wild card, although the A’s picked up ground.
A letdown after such an intoxicating ride can be expected. It just can’t be tolerated for any considerable length of time due to the Yankees’ tenuous standing.
“We’ve played two really close games,” Green pointed out. “It would be one thing if it was a blowout loss that carried over to the next game. We just haven’t been able to pull through. I think we’re still playing pretty good baseball.”
Eh. It’s not winning baseball against a good opponent. It’s nowhere close to the brand of ball they had been playing.
Whatever you want to call this blip (for now), a hangover or something else, they must get over it quickly to honor what they did to reach this perch.