Yankees make so many baserunning mistakes in ‘crappy’ loss to Mariners
SEATTLE — The Yankees are still a first-place team.
But they sure haven’t looked like it lately.
The Yankees couldn’t hit and ran the bases like the Keystone Kops again in Tuesday’s 1-0, 13-inning to the Mariners, their sixth defeat in seven games.
Jonathan Loaisiga allowed a walkoff single to pinch-hitter Luis Torrens with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 13th to score automatic runner Eduardo Suarez in a 1-0 defeat to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
“Just a crappy way to end the night,’’ Aaron Boone said after the 4:07 marathon during which the Yankees ran into five outs on the bases.
“Mistakes,’’ Boone said of the plays. “It’s been one of the strengths of this team. I don’t want us to lose our aggressiveness, but we’ve got to be a little smarter. … We’ve had a couple of those the last couple weeks.”
The Yankees also had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the 13th, but Gleyber Torres struck out and Miguel Andujar grounded out, as they went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
Before that, they had automatic runners thrown out in three straight innings,
Andrew Benintendi took off to steal third too soon in the 10th. He was caught in a rundown and thrown out between second and third and the Yankees didn’t score.
In the 11th, Aaron Hicks led off with a liner to second. This time, Andujar broke toward third and was doubled off second. And in the 12th, Jose Trevino was caught off second on an Isiah Kiner-Falefa comebacker and to make matters worse, Kiner-Falefa was thrown out trying to get to second for an ugly double play.
“We try to be aggressive all year and tonight it backfired on us,’’ Kiner-Falefa said.
It wasted the pitching staff’s effort, led by Gerrit Cole.
Cole redeemed himself after his rough outing against the Mariners last week in The Bronx with seven scoreless innings, while Luis Castillo threw eight innings without allowing a run for the Mariners in the pair of aces second matchup in less than a week.
“He’s a bulldog,’’ Cole said of Castillo. “You can see why we were pushing hard for him and why the Mariners decided to go over the top to get him [from the Reds].”
It was a stark improvement over Cole’s previous start — when he gave up six runs — and three homers — in the first inning.
On Tuesday, Cole retired the first seven batters he faced — with the help of diving catches by Aaron Judge in right field and Benintendi in left.
But the Yankees had no better luck against Castillo.
Benintendi singled and stole second with two outs in the first and was stranded when Josh Donaldson struck out.
Judge singled to start the fourth before Donaldson hit into an inning-ending double play.
Cole gave up a one-out double to Raleigh in the fifth that deflected off the glove of a leaping DJ LeMahieu at first. It was Seattle’s first runner in scoring position of the game and Cole rebounded by getting J.P. Crawford to pop out and Haggerty to fly to right.
It was also Seattle’s last runner in scoring position against Cole, as he retired the final eight batters he faced.
The Yankees, meanwhile, didn’t even get another hit until Andujar’s flare to left with one out in the eighth.
Aaron Hicks followed with a walk for the Yankees first runner in scoring position since the first inning.
Jose Trevino then hit a slow chopper to third for the second out, but both runners advanced.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa, overmatched by Castillo in his first two at-bats, grounded to second to keep the game scoreless.
And eventually, the Yankees faltered first, as they fell into a tie with Houston for the best record in the American League.
“Those little details end up costing you,’’ Cole said of Tuesday’s miscues. “You have to be so fine in games like this.”
