CHICAGO -- The Yankees finally found a swing powerful enough to cut through the wind at Wrigley Field.
Their lead didn’t even survive one batter.
Spencer Jones launched an opposite-field homer in the seventh inning, but Nico Hoerner answered with a leadoff shot in the bottom half before the Cubs capitalized on a costly defensive misplay to hand the Yankees a 5-2 loss Saturday night.
Jones’ Statcast-projected 106 mph liner barely cleared the left-field wall despite the wind gusting in from center, giving New York a 2-1 lead. It marked his second homer in as many games and his third in seven games since being recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on July 26.
Hoerner immediately erased the advantage, and the inning unraveled from there. After Pedro Ramírez worked a two-out walk, Pete Crow-Armstrong lined a ball down the right-field line that got past Jasson Domínguez, allowing Ramírez to score as Crow-Armstrong raced to third. Seiya Suzuki followed with an RBI single to extend Chicago’s lead to two runs.
The late breakdown wasted another strong effort from the Yankees’ starting rotation. Max Fried allowed one run on two hits across 5 1/3 innings, striking out seven and issuing one walk while throwing 54 of his 78 pitches for strikes in his third start back from the injured list.
Chicago’s only damage against Fried came without a hit in the first inning. Crow-Armstrong walked, advanced on Fried’s first wild pitch and a groundout, then scored on another wild pitch to give the Cubs an early lead. Fried settled in from there and allowed only one additional hit.
The Yankees tied the score in the fifth after Jones reached on an error with two outs. Ali Sánchez and José Caballero followed with softly hit singles to right field, with Caballero’s knock bringing Jones home.
But New York produced little else against David Peterson and the Cubs’ bullpen, continuing an extended offensive lull in which the pitching staff has repeatedly been asked to operate without margin for error. On Saturday, even Jones’ latest jolt was not enough to cover the cracks.