ST. PETERSBURG – One week ago, Aaron Judge stood in front of his Yankee Stadium locker, diagnosing the issues that have been ailing his team’s offense. Collectively, the Yankees’ captain said, everyone has been trying to do too much: “Trying to be the one guy that will hit the grand slam with nobody on.”
Judge expressed confidence that the rough patch was close to ending, but that wait continues as pressure mounts. Gerrit Cole provided the deep outing the Yankees were hoping for, but their bats remained silent in a 3-0 loss to the Rays on Wednesday evening at Tropicana Field.
“I’m not in anyone’s heads, but just looking at the outcomes, it’s not where we want to be,” Cole said. “And it’s not good enough to compete for first place right now.”
The Yankees (50-42) have lost 15 of their past 20 games, the Majors’ worst record since June 18. They fell to five games behind Tampa Bay (54-36) in the American League East, New York’s largest deficit since May 23.
“We’ve got to get some guys going. That’s reality,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But ultimately, we’ve got to go do it. I do believe we’ll get through this, but there’s not much more to talk about. We’ve got to go make some things happen.”
By the end, the lineup card rested in the hands of catching coach Tanner Swanson – Boone and bench coach Brad Ausmus were both ejected, with the umpires saying they waited too long to challenge a sixth-inning caught stealing of José Caballero at second base.
Both men lost their tempers, and Caballero said it’s clear that everyone in uniform feels the weight of the skid.
“Personally, I think it’s us thinking about the bad stretch and taking it heavy on ourselves,” Caballero said. “It doesn’t get easier if you just continue thinking about it. For me, I just think we should keep it simple and trust the room. We know how good we can be.”
After striking out 34 times in the first two games of this series, establishing a franchise record for consecutive games the Yankees would rather not hold, their challenge didn’t get any lighter against Shane McClanahan.
The left-hander has historically pitched well against the Yankees, and he continued that mastery over 6 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and striking out five without a walk.
New York’s best scoring opportunity against McClanahan came in the second inning, when with one out and runners at the corners, Max Schuemann dropped a bunt that didn’t get past the mound. McClanahan tossed home, where Jasson Domínguez was tagged out sliding headfirst into catcher Nick Fortes.
“That’s a play where we’ve got to get a ball to one of the sides of the field,” Boone said.
Otherwise, it was more of the swing-and-miss story – the Yanks have struck out 45 times in the first three games of this series. Their 56 runs scored since June 18 are the Majors’ fewest, and their 212 strikeouts since then are the Majors’ most – none of it a recipe for consistent success.
Even in Monday’s series opener, the Yanks’ victory was powered by three homers – two by Caballero and one by Ben Rice. Those were their only hits.
As Judge noted a week ago, much of the lineup has gone cold at the same time; Paul Goldschmidt is hitless in his last 34 at-bats, the longest hitless drought of his career. Cody Bellinger is in an 8-for-70 slide.
“Controlling the strike zone, we’re not winning in that regard,” Boone said. “We’ve got to turn that around.”
Cole said that he generally can separate his mound work from whatever is going on with the offense, saying that his mindset is to “just keep plugging away, regardless of the score.”
On that front, he offered a lukewarm review of Wednesday’s outing, in which he was charged with three runs on seven hits and one walk over 6 1/3 innings.
In his ninth start since returning from Tommy John surgery, Cole threw 69 of 97 pitches for strikes, touching 99 mph and sitting 96.9 mph with his fastball. Cole also surpassed the 2,000 innings mark, now with 2,003 for his career.
“I felt all right,” Cole said. “I gave it a good fight. I’m just a little disappointed on some mis-executed pitches.”
Jonathan Aranda drove in all three of the Rays’ runs. Yandy Díaz doubled and scored on Aranda’s third-inning single, then Aranda knocked in Fortes with a fifth-inning double. Aranda lifted a sacrifice fly off Fernando Cruz in the seventh, a run charged to Cole.
“I did not handle the top two guys well,” Cole said. “With that said, Yandy just had a great night, and so did Aranda. They’re great hitters. I wish I made it a little tougher on them.”