There’s only one player on the Yankees who has won a title in The Bronx, and Brett Gardner had a blunt message for his teammates after another loss on Wednesday night bumped them down into the second wild-card spot, behind the Red Sox.
“We just haven’t been playing good baseball,’’ Gardner said after the Yankees lost to Toronto, 6-3 in The Bronx. “It’s something we’ve got to figure it out here in relatively short order or our season will be over in short order.”
Their September swoon continued with a fifth-straight defeat, which matches their longest losing streak of the season.
Coupled with Boston’s win over Tampa Bay, the Yankees found themselves out of the top wild-card spot for the first time since mid-August.
And with nine losses in their last 11 games — as well as Toronto storming up the standings — the Yankees are in ever-increasing danger of missing out on the postseason, since the Blue Jays are just 1 ½ games back of the Yankees after winning seven in a row.
Aaron Boone has been left with few answers, admitting he’s been “a little bit of a broken record this week.”
But he is still sticking up for his team.
“This is the group we absolutely believe in,’’ the manager said. “It’s certainly been a frustrating several days from the offensive side.”
Despite the disastrous turn following the 13-game winning streak, Boone said the season “is still in our hands. But talk becomes cheap. We’ve got to go out and perform.”
Trailing 3-0 in the fifth, the Yankees got a two-out, three-run homer from Gardner to tie the game and breathe some life into the Stadium.
Gardner’s homer was the team’s first extra-base hit since Sunday — and its only one Wednesday.
“Just because you have a bunch of good hitters doesn’t mean you’re gonna score a bunch of runs,’’ Joey Gallo said.
The momentum didn’t last long.
Marcus Semien opened the seventh with an infield single to shortstop off Clay Holmes and moved to second on a wild, ill-advised throw to first by Andrew Velazquez.
Holmes struck out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and got Bo Bichette to ground out, with Semien advancing to third.
Teoscar Hernandez grounded a single through the right side of the infield to score Semien and give Toronto a 4-3 lead.
The Blue Jays added a run off Chad Green in the eighth on a sacrifice fly and a Guerrero home run against Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, and the Yankees couldn’t rally against Toronto’s troubled pen.
The latest defeat came after a promising start.
Rookie right-hander Luis Gil threw three scoreless innings before his lack of command caught up to him in the fourth.
The 23-year-old walked seven and struck out six in an adventurous 3 ¹/₃-inning, 91-pitch outing that featured just 47 strikes.
In the third, Gil got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam by getting Bichette on a comebacker and striking out Hernandez after falling behind 3-0.
Gil loaded the bases again with one out in the fourth and Boone summoned the lefty Lucas Luetge to face the top of the lineup and left-handed Corey Dickerson.
Luetge’s first pitch got by Gary Sanchez for a wild pitch to score Gurriel and make it 1-0. It also snapped Gil’s scoreless streak to start his MLB career at 19 innings.
Luetge got Dickerson to pop out, but Semien singled to left to drive in two runs. Semien was thrown out at second, as the Yankees trailed 3-0.
Gallo, given the night off on Tuesday while in a horrendous slump, led off the bottom of the fifth with a single. Rougned Odor walked with one out before Gardner launched his seventh homer of the season to tie the game.
The Yankees threatened again in the sixth, but with two on and two out, Sanchez struck out against Trevor Richards.
“You’ve only got two choices,’’ Gardner said. “Show up and fight through it or give up. And we’re not gonna do that.”