Cruz takes the 'L' -- but the Yankees' offense takes the blame

CHICAGO – The pitch that sent the Yankees trudging off the field with their eighth extra-inning loss of the season sailed up and away out of Fernando Cruz’s hand. But when Aaron Boone evaluated how they had gotten to that point, the manager refused to raise a finger toward his pitching staff.

That has been keeping the Yankees afloat for weeks, with a starting rotation handing off to relievers who have gamely shouldered increasing workloads.

Boone pointed instead at the Bombers’ diminished lineup, which has struggled to put crooked numbers on the board -- a situation that creates outcomes like their 2-1 11-inning loss to the White Sox on Thursday afternoon at Rate Field.

“We have to score a freaking point,” Boone said. “The pitchers again did their job. The bullpen was good, including Cruz. We’ve got to score. That’s the story, the beginning and end of it. We’ve got to find a way.”

With Monday’s 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline approaching, a potent bat is believed to be high on the Yankees’ wish list, bolstering an offense that has struggled to produce with stars Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton on the shelf.

Even with significant names out, Jazz Chisholm Jr. said he believes the current roster should be mustering more production.

“One thousand percent,” Chisholm said. “One or two guys in a lineup doesn’t change much. Yes, it makes a difference with the [three] guys that we have out of the lineup. But at the same time, I feel like there’s a lot of players that we could do a lot better and play a lot more team ball with.”

Though Boone said he has been sending his “thought bubbles” about potential acquisitions to the front office, he doesn’t want his players looking toward the door for help.

“I’m not going to play the speculative game every single day now,” Boone said. “What’s going to happen Monday will happen or not happen. We have to score better. We have to do a better job offensively, period, and not looking over our shoulders for anyone. We have to find a way.”

Having absorbed a 12-inning loss on Wednesday, New York eventually settled for a split of the four-game series, but it took a while. Neither club was able to score through nine innings; the Yankees’ closest threat came in the sixth inning, when Jasson Domínguez appeared to triple but overslid the bag.

That was the Yanks’ loudest knock against Sean Burke, who struck out 10.

“We couldn’t get anything going, and it’s unfortunate, because the pitchers really threw the ball well today,” Paul Goldschmidt said. “They’ve been throwing the ball well for a while.”

Trent Grisham knocked in the contest’s first run with a 10th-inning single, an encouraging sign for the veteran outfielder, who had been 3-for-47 since returning from the All-Star break.

The advantage didn’t hold, as Andrew Benintendi answered with a game-tying knock in the home half facing Angel Chivilli.

New York was 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position before Grisham’s hit and finished the game 1-for-15. Entering Wednesday, the Yanks’ .209 average with runners in scoring position since losing Judge ranked 27th in the Majors.

After battling back from a 3-0 count to strike out Colson Montgomery, Cruz couldn’t repeat the trick a second time, firing four straight out of the zone to walk Tristan Peters with the bases loaded.

“I believe in my heart and soul that the things we’re going through now – especially when we’ve been able to win games doing it – being in these kinds of games all the time are going to serve us well down the road,” Boone said.

At least Chisholm’s situation seems to be less significant than it initially appeared. Dealing with cramping in his right hamstring that began in the eighth inning, Chisholm limped off the field after a ninth-inning groundout, but he continued to play until being lifted for a pinch-runner in the 11th.

“I started to feel better as the game went on,” Chisholm said. “They just wanted to play it safe to avoid injury.”

Ryan Weathers permitted three hits over seven scoreless innings, providing a boost for a Yankees bullpen that has been worked heavily on this trip. The left-hander walked three and struck out four in a 106-pitch effort (62 strikes), generating 11 ground-ball outs.

“We’ve run into some really good pitchers,” Weathers said. “Just like we’ve been throwing the ball well, other teams are throwing the ball well. We’ve just got to keep grinding. We’ve still got a lot of baseball left.”