NEW YORK – With a huge series against the first-place Rays looming, the Yankees could do little right in a 6-1 loss to the Twins on Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
For starters, the Yankees needed length from left-hander Ryan Weathers. The last time New York received a quality start was June 24 against the Tigers, and it was Weathers who gave the Yankees that start by allowing two runs (one earned) in six innings.
On Sunday, it was a different story. Weathers pitched four-plus innings against Minnesota and allowed four runs. It didn't help that he was suffering the effects of food poisoning.
“I want to do well for the team and try to win the ballgame. It just didn’t happen today,” Weathers said.
After four frames, Weathers had thrown 77 pitches. Minnesota made him work from the start. In the first inning, Austin Martin scored the first run of the game on a single by Josh Bell. In the fourth, Royce Lewis scored the second run of the game on a single by Brooks Lee.
In the fifth frame, the Twins had runners on first and second and nobody out when Weathers left the game in favor of Paul Blackburn. The Twins didn’t let up on Blackburn, loading the bases on a two-out walk to Bell and scoring two on a single by Lewis.
“The Twins have a good offense, and they put long at-bats against [Weathers],” Boone said. “I thought his stuff and swing and miss were good, but they battled him throughout to make it challenging all day.”
Boone acknowledged that members of the rotation have had “down outings” in recent days, but he was encouraged by Gerrit Cole’s start Friday night against Minnesota. Despite a 53-minute rain delay, Cole pitched five innings and allowed two runs.
The skipper is not worried about Cam Schlittler even though the latter had his worst start of the season against the Tigers on Tuesday, allowing six runs in a 9-3 loss. Schlittler gets the ball Monday night against the Rays in the opener of a four-game series at Tropicana Field. New York (49-40) is four games behind Tampa Bay (52-35) in the American League East.
Boone still expects Weathers and Will Warren to be part of the mix and give the team quality starts.
“We are dealing with attrition right now. A couple of guys have had a couple of rough starts, but I don’t think it’s indicative of where they are and how they are throwing the ball,” Boone said.
On offense, the Yankees struggled against Twins right-hander Joe Ryan, who pitched seven scoreless innings, allowed three hits and one walk and struck out nine. New York didn’t make any serious threat against Ryan until the seventh. It had runners on first and second with two outs, but Amed Rosario struck out to end the threat.
“[Ryan] shut us down. We didn’t do a good job of getting on base,” left fielder Cody Bellinger said. “We didn’t manufacture any baserunners today. It’s hard to win like that. … At the end of the day, we have to get on base, steal bases, score some runs, manufacture runs and give the fans something to cheer about. We didn’t give the fans much to cheer about this series.”
In their past 15 games, the Yankees are 10-for-91 (.110) with runners in scoring position. But Boone looks at his lineup card and believes the team will break out of the slump. Bellinger is on this year’s AL All-Star team, but he is in a 4-for-44 (.091) skid. Paul Goldschmidt is hitless in his past 22 at-bats.
“It’s something that has plagued us when you are not hitting the ball out of the yard,” Boone said. “You are going to go through that stretch every year. That’s the nature of hitting with runners in scoring position. That’s not necessarily what’s ailing us. It’s not helping. When you are not popping balls out of the yard, you have to take advantage of opportunities.”
The bats have to get hot with the Rays awaiting the Yankees.
“It’s a big series, for sure. We can’t look too far ahead,” Bellinger said. “It’s travel day today. … It’s no easy task. They have a bunch of good arms. We have to do a better job of manufacturing runs.”