It was supposed to be a good start to September.
The Yankees began the final month of the regular season with an ugly, sloppy and unsightly 14-7 loss to the Cardinals in the Bronx on Sunday.
To make matters worse, they are trying to hold onto their lead over Baltimore in the American League East but have lost four of five games, losing two straight series to National League teams that are no longer in the playoff picture.
Sunday's loss was the result of a combination of factors, including poor starting pitching from Nestor Cortes, awful performances from the relief pitchers and shaky defense and baserunning.
Despite making mistakes in the field for most of the afternoon, the Cardinals still managed to beat the Yankees, allowing a season-high 21 hits to the Yankees.
After falling behind 7-2 in the top of the fifth, the Yankees added three runs in the bottom of the fifth and two more in the sixth to tie the game, but their efforts were for naught as St. Louis struck out Jake Cousins and Tommy Kahnle to score five runs in the top of the seventh.
The biggest blow was a three-run double by Lars Nordbar off Kahnle.
The misery began with Cortez, who had given up just one run in 20 2/3 innings in his three previous starts, but was pummeled Sunday, giving up five runs on nine hits in four innings.
Juan Soto was out trying to steal second base in the first inning, then misplayed Brendan Donovan's fly to deep right-center field and doubled to score the first run of the game, but Soto didn't help him out.
Donovan scored on Jordan Walker's single to right to give St. Louis a 1–0 lead.
Cortes allowed three consecutive hits in the top of the second inning, with runners advancing to first and second with no outs. Victor Scott attempted a sacrifice bunt, but Anthony Rizzo, playing for the first time since June 16, dove for the ball and threw it hard to third base for the force out.
Cortes then tagged Notebar at second base to bring the score to within one run.
Giancarlo Stanton's 112 mph rocket into the left field stands tied the game in the bottom of the inning, then Walker's second bad play in right field led to Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s ground-rule double.
Chisholm ran to third base when Nolan Arenado was nowhere near the base, scored from second, and then scored on Mikolas' throw to third base that went off Arenado, giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead.
However, St. Louis took the lead again in the fourth.
With the skies briefly open in the top of the inning, Cortez allowed two singles but struck out the next two batters swinging before Mashin Win smashed a two-run double down the left field line.
Luken Baker then hit a two-run homer to left field to make the score 5-2.
Scott Efros, taking the mound for the first time since Tommy John surgery in 2022, pitched a terrible fifth inning.
All four batters he faced hit balls faster than 100 mph, including a two-run homer by Jordan Walker.
The Yankees rallied back in the bottom of the fifth against right-hander Miles Mikolas.
Chisholm reached base on a single and scored on a double by Rizzo down the left field line.
Anthony Volpe followed with a comeback run, and Mikolas hooked Rizzo between second and third base, but inexplicably threw the ball to first, where Goldschmidt dropped it for an error.
With a runner on third base, Alex Verdugo hit an RBI single followed by a run-scoring hit by Gleyber Torres to end Mikolas' afternoon.
Facing left-hander John King, Soto was hit into a double play.
After King was trailing 2-0 by Aaron Judge, the Cardinals issued an intentional walk and Austin Wells was out on a grounder.
The Yankees had runners on first and third base when Riley O'Brien came on base to face Volpe.
Volpe scored a run when Wynn failed to hit a bounced ball for a hit, then Verdugo singled and Torres loaded the bases and hit a sacrifice fly to right-center field to tie the game.
Soto then sent a ball over the fence in left, but Nootbah managed to catch it.
The Yankees lost the game in the seventh inning.
