On Saturday, like most things over the past roughly five weeks, runners were the big development for the Yankees.
These days, any sign of discomfort is something to cherish.
And with the Yankees already trailing by four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Aaron Judge’s walk as leadoff hitter offered a glimmer of hope.
Those hopes were quickly dashed by reality when rookie cleanup hitter Austin Wells slammed Taj Bradley’s first pitch into the ground for a double play, ending any chance of a comeback.
The Yankees’ two-man offense was reduced to zero and they suffered another lackluster loss to the Rays, 9-1, in front of a crowd of 43,173 in the Bronx.
The Yankees lost for the 19th time in their last 28 games after their offense, on the verge of their seventh shutout of the season, hit a string of ground balls, allowed Juan Soto to triple in the ninth inning and scored in garbage time.
Aaron Boone’s team finished the game with five hits (three in the final inning) while the Rays finished with four home runs.
From the start of this slump on June 15 through Friday’s game, the Yankees (59-41) have scored 127 runs, good for the 19th-most in that span and one fewer than the Nationals and Tigers.
On days when Judge and Soto can’t inject some life into the offense, it too often stagnates.
Boone has tried some lineup changes, first moving Ben Rice to the leadoff spot (Rice has stagnated there recently) and then promoting Wells and demoting Alex Verdugo on Saturday.
The problem seems to be with the batters themselves, not the batting order.
Rice’s average dropped to .218.
LeMahieu is without a point in his last 17 games.
Verdugo is struggling with only three hits in 35 at-bats.
Even Wells, at a high level, has only three hits in his past 21 at-bats.
Rice gave the Yankees the lead in the top of the first inning with a double into the right-center field gap.
Soto advanced Rice with a grounder, then Judge and Wells struck out to leave Rice on third base.
The Yankees had no runners in scoring position or recorded a hit until the eighth inning.
On a day when you can’t even get runners on base, scoring nine runs feels like a mountain to climb.
Nestor Cortez, who was great in the Bronx but not so much on the road, turned things around by bringing his struggles home.
The left-hander’s production and velocity were declining — he only whiffed five of the Rays’ 48 swings — and he often suffered whiplash as Tampa Bay threw pitches all over the park and hit three home runs.
He gave up six runs in 4 1/3 innings and his ERA rose to 3.99.
After avoiding trouble through the first two innings, Cortes saw his errors begin to be punished in the third inning.
Curtis Mead hit a double off the left-center field wall to score the first run.
Next inning, a single and a walk allowed Alex Jackson to advance to second base and then hit a three-run home run that just cleared the right field fence and over Judge’s leaping glove for a four-run lead.
In the fifth inning, Isaac Paredes, a third baseman the Yankees might target at the deadline, hit a sweeper over the left-field fence.
Two batters later, Randy Arozarena hit the first of two home runs to left-center field, and on this day the Rays (49-49) looked like a team worth buying at the deadline.
Josh Maciejewski gave up a second home run to Arozarena, but the Yankees’ relief pitchers just got through the innings.
After Judge walked in the fourth inning, the next 12 batters were retired.
The Yankees continued to pound the ball into the ground against Bradley, who recorded 21 outs but only two through the air.
Anthony Volpe ended his no-hitter streak with a one-out double against right-hander Shawn Armstrong in the eighth inning.
But LeMahieu saw three balls fly over the middle of home plate and missed two for an out, leaving Volpe with a runner on second and Rice to strike out.
