NEW YORK -- During their historic nine-game losing streak, one of the Yankees’ fatal flaws was an inability to score first, at one point going 61 consecutive innings without a lead.
Aaron Judge changed that on Wednesday night, blasting a solo homer in his first plate appearance en route to his first career three-homer game. Less than 24 hours later, he did it again, staking the Yanks to a lead in the opening frame of Thursday afternoon's all-important rubber match.
It wouldn’t hold up, however, as reliever Tommy Kahnle gave up back-to-back homers to Alex Call and CJ Abrams in a four-run seventh inning, sinking the Yankees (61-66) to a 6-5 loss to the Nationals (59-69) at Yankee Stadium. New York has not won a series since it swept the Royals -- the second-worst team in the American League -- from July 21-23.
“Talk about winning a series -- for nine games there, we couldn’t win a game,” said manager Aaron Boone. “I thought we swung the bats well today. Made a couple mistakes that show up in this game. … So, yeah, it's frustrating you couldn’t finish it off, especially when you got a lead and you know the back end of the bullpen’s coming. But we've got to move on.”
Opener Michael King -- making his second start of the season as the Yankees try to build him up to help their injury-riddled rotation -- allowed just one unearned run on one hit and two walks over 2 2/3 innings before giving way to relievers Keynan Middleton and Jhony Brito. The duo combined to keep the Nats at bay through six innings.
After Brito gave up a leadoff double to Carter Kieboom and recorded the first out of the seventh, Boone turned to Kahnle with the idea of tasking his high-leverage arms with maintaining a two-run advantage. That came courtesy of a tiebreaking blast in the third by Gleyber Torres, who reached the 20-homer mark for the fourth time in his career.
Kahnle, who also allowed a go-ahead homer to Abrams in the eighth inning of Tuesday's 2-1 series-opening loss, struck out the first batter he faced on three pitches. But the trouble began when Jake Alu hit a first-pitch RBI single that bounced up awkwardly on shortstop Anthony Volpe and caromed into center field.
The homers followed consecutively after that, with all three run-scoring knocks coming off Kahnle’s changeup, which he throws 79.6% of the time, according to Statcast.
“It’s basically just location,” said the 34-year-old right-hander. “I mean, they're right over the middle. And it seems that guys are starting to catch on that that's my go-to pitch, and [it] seems I need to make an adjustment and go from there.”
Though Kahnle then struck out Lane Thomas on three pitches to end the frame, the damage had been done. He walked off the field with his head hung low, as boos rained down from a crowd of 39,681 fans in the Bronx.
“It looked like he just lacked some depth to his pitches; that's what I noticed today,” Boone said. “When he's really good, he's got great arm speed and great deception with his changeup. … I thought his pitches looked a little vulnerable.”
After a first half in which Kahnle did not allow a run across 16 appearances (15 1/3 innings), he has a 6.14 ERA and an 0-3 record in 17 outings since the All-Star break.
The Yankees attempted to mount a comeback of their own in the eighth, with Giancarlo Stanton blasting a leadoff homer to narrow the deficit to one. Two punchouts later, No. 3 prospect Everson Pereira -- who was called up before Tuesday’s game -- smacked a double to the left-field corner for the first hit of his Major League career. But pinch-hitter Jake Bauers was unable to drive him in, striking out in an eight-pitch at-bat against Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan.
After the Nats added an insurance run off closer Clay Holmes in the top of the ninth, the Yanks threatened once more as Stanton cut the deficit back to one with an RBI single (his season-high fourth hit of the game). But with the final crack of the bat, as rain descended from the Bronx skies, Harrison Bader flied out to the warning track.
“I feel like we've been frustrated a lot this year,” King said. “We're doing our work. We're trying to stick with our routine, trying to turn this thing around. … It just didn't all come together, and that's when you know you're going through it. When the pitchers do well, the hitters aren't; when the hitters are doing well, the pitchers aren’t. It's tough that way.”