Yankees offense lifeless again in shutout loss to Blue Jays
The goose egg reared its ugly head once again on Friday night in The Bronx.
On another lifeless night for their offense, the Yankees were blanked by the Blue Jays in a 4-0 loss at the Stadium.
The Yankees (73-47) lost for the 14th time in their last 18 games and fell to 12-24 since July 8. Their lead atop the AL East that day was a season-high 15 ½ games, but after Friday night, the Blue Jays (64-54) have cut it to eight games — the smallest it has been since June 13.
“I don’t give a crap about the lead,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Play better. We’ll handle it.
“If we play like this and keep walking away at the end of the night, it ain’t going to matter. If we get it together and play our game, then we’ll run away.”
Kevin Gausman became the latest pitcher to shut down the Yankees, who suffered their third shutout in their last six games and fifth in the last two weeks. Gausman scattered just four hits over seven innings, allowing only one base runner to touch second base — and that came in the first inning.
Over their last 10 games, the Yankees have scored just 19 runs — eight of which came in their wild comeback win Wednesday. That game seems little more than a blip on the radar for a team that has otherwise struggled mightily at the plate.
“It’s frustrating when you know that we’re better than how we’re playing,” said DJ LeMahieu, who went 0-for-4. “Just can’t get a whole lot going. When we do, I feel like we’re pressing a little bit. A lot of the things that happen when you’re not going well as an offense.”
Not even Aaron Judge, who entered the night 8-for-20 in his career against Gausman, could put the Yankees on his back. The AL MVP favorite went 0-for-2 with a walk and is now 2-for-23 over his last seven games in a rare off week, though he is far from the only Yankee in that group.
LeMahieu is on a 4-for-28 skid. Anthony Rizzo is 6-for-38. Josh Donaldson is 6-for-37. Andrew Benintendi is 7-for-35. Gleyber Torres is 6-for-40. Isiah Kiner-Falefa is 5-for-33.
“This is unique in that a lot of them are going through a tough period together,” said Boone, who was pointed during his postgame comments.
Oswaldo Cabrera, playing his third major league game and his first as a right fielder, gave the Yankees their best moment of the night on the first pitch of the game, when he committed home-run robbery. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drilled a Jameson Taillon fastball to right field, but Cabrera went back to the wall and used all of his 5-foot-10 frame to pull the ball back in with a leaping grab.
The Blue Jays eventually got to Taillon for three runs across five-plus innings, including a two-run homer from Teoscar Hernandez in the fourth inning. The way the Yankees are hitting these days, a 3-0 lead can often feel like 10-0.
After Donaldson’s two-out single in the first inning, Gausman retired 10 in a row before Torres led off the fifth inning with a single. But Torres was quickly erased when Kiner-Falefa grounded into a double play.
A smattering of boos and grumbling from the sellout crowd of 46,194 followed, which only got louder as the night went on.
“We should be ticked off right now,” Boone said. “We need to start playing better, plain and simple.”
Boone said he did get the sense that his players were ticked off, which LeMahieu agreed with.
“One of the things we preach is having that consistency and being able to handle the good and the bad,” Boone said. “But you should be a little pissed off right now. We have a really good team and it’s been long enough now to where it’s been an extended period of struggle. We need to do better.”
