ATLANTA — The Yankees arrived at the third and final leg of their road trip Monday hoping to bounce back from a late collapse on Sunday against the Marlins.
But beyond their own self-inflicted issues, it proved difficult for the Yankees to find much bounce when they ran into the brick wall that was the Braves’ lineup.
Clarke Schmidt had his worst start in three months, getting shelled by a relentless offensive attack as the Yankees lost their third straight game, 11-3, to the juggernaut Braves at Truist Park.
After making 14 straight starts in which he gave up three runs or fewer, Schmidt was clobbered on Monday for eight runs on nine hits in just 2 ¹/₃ innings.
“Sometimes you get your ass beat a little bit out there and I think that’s kind of, for lack of a better term, what happened tonight,” Schmidt said.
The loss dropped the Yankees (60-59) to 5 ½ games back of the final AL wild-card spot and just one game above .500 for the first time since they were 18-17 on May 7.
With two games left in the series — in which they are scheduled to start the struggling Luis Severino and either Randy Vasquez or an opener in front of him — the Yankees are at risk of leaving here under .500 for the first time all season.
The Braves (76-42), who got back in town early Monday morning after beating up the Mets for 40 runs in a four-game series over the weekend, pounded out 15 hits in their first crack at further sinking another New York nine.
“Right now, they’re the class of the league, clearly,” manager Aaron Boone said. “That’s where you want to be. … [They] have a lineup that’s really, really rugged and balanced. A little peek into where you’re trying to get to.”
The Yankees had early opportunities to cash in against lefty Max Fried, but settled for taking a pair of slim leads at 1-0 and 2-1 before it all fell apart for Schmidt.
From there, Fried cruised, but the Yankees also hurt themselves, highlighted by Harrison Bader getting picked off first base with two outs in the sixth inning of an 8-2 game.
In the process, the Yankees lost for the 10th time in their last 15 games as their runway to finally go on the hot streak they have been talking about gets smaller and smaller.
“We’re obviously a confident team,” Schmidt said. “You see it in our attitude and the way we carry ourselves. It’s not like we’re coming in here defeated.
“But we also are on a time crunch a little bit too with the schedule and how many games are left. So we know that we have to kick it into gear. We can’t give too many games away. Obviously we did that [Sunday] and tonight. We don’t have a lot of room for error.”
The Braves took the lead for good in the bottom of the second inning.
They had runners on second and third with two outs when Schmidt got ahead 0-2 on No. 9 hitter Nicky Lopez before jamming him with a cutter that Lopez sawed off for a single down the third-base line to make it 3-2.
After Ronald Acuña Jr. walked, Michael Harris II followed with a single to left that put the Braves up 4-2 before Schmidt got out of the inning.
But the Yankees didn’t give Schmidt much time to rest between innings, making Fried throw just nine pitches in the top of the third before the Braves got back on the attack.
The Braves then wore down Schmidt in the bottom of the third, at one point recording four straight hits — despite the Yankees right-hander having count leverage in all four at-bats — to extend their lead to 8-2 and end Schmidt’s night early.
“Obviously it’s been a tough stretch and we’ve been wearing it lately,” Boone said. “But I know we’re ready to compete every day and that’s the only thing you control.”
