Facing Cincinnati closer Alexis Diaz in the ninth inning, the Yankees’ best hope, as always, was to wait for Aaron Judge to step up to the plate.
Unfortunately for the Yankees, it took two batters to reach base to catch Judge, who has been the bulk of the Yankees’ offense lately.
But Trent Grisham struck out looking, pinch hitter Austin Wells hit a fly out to right field and an out-of-form Anthony Volpe was out on a pop fly, resulting in a 5-4 loss in front of a large Bronx crowd.
With this loss, the Yankees have now lost six of their last eight games and nine of their last 12.
The team closed out the month with their best performance since Gerrit Cole returned from injured reserve on Sunday at Toronto, hoping to put a disappointing June behind them.
But the same worrying trends that have plagued the Yankees over the last month were evident again on Tuesday.
Luis Gil failed to get an out in the fifth inning, marking his third consecutive poor outing, contributing to a worsening slump for much of the starting lineup.
Still, after falling behind by five runs in the fifth inning, the Yankees rallied for three in the sixth, and then with Judge’s onslaught in the next inning, they pulled within one.
However, the Yankees were unable to get any more runners on base with the remainder of the game.
This has made the slump in the starting rotation even more pronounced: No Yankees starter has pitched more than five innings since Nestor Cortes went seven innings against Atlanta on June 23.
On Tuesday, Gill showed some improvement from his previous two disastrous losses, in which he gave up 12 runs in just 5 2/3 innings.
This time, after Jonathan India walked to start the game, Gill struck out the next nine batters.
However, Ellie de la Cruz ended the streak with a leadoff triple to right field in the fourth inning.
That led to the first run of the game, as Jeimer Candelario followed with an RBI grounder to second base that scored De La Cruz.
That was followed by consecutive walks and then Nick Martini hit a fly ball to deep right-center field.
With runners on the corners and two outs, Gil got Noelvi Marte to hit a fly out to right field to tie the score at one.
But Gill stumbled again in the fifth, giving up a 1-2 changeup to Stuart Fairchild and then a two-run homer to center field by Will Benson.
Gill followed up Benson’s home run with India’s thumping as they continued to crumble.
This marked the end of the right-hander’s game after pitching four more innings.
Caleb Ferguson took the mound and immediately gave up a two-run homer to De La Cruz to the visiting bullpen, making the score 5-0.
Ferguson has struggled, giving up runs in four of his past six appearances, and the Yankees have lost each of the left-hander’s past six appearances.
The Yankees’ offense finally got a handle on right-hander Graham Ashcraft (8.53 ERA in his past four starts) in the sixth inning, scoring on a single by starter Aaron Judge, a walk by Alex Verdugo and an RBI single by Gleyber Torres.
Facing Nick Martinez, Ben Rice hit a two-run double to right to cut the lead to 5-3.
Judge’s 32nd homer was a solo homer to left field with two outs in the seventh inning off left-hander Sam Mohl to make the score 5-4.
Scoreless innings from relief pitchers Jake Cousins and Tommy Kahnle and two scoreless innings from Luke Weaver kept the Yankees in the game.
As for the starting rotation, Thursday’s starter Marcus Stroman has had inconsistent performances in two of his three appearances so far, while Cortes, who will not pitch in this series, had been solid in three consecutive innings before stumbling in his last outing against Toronto.
The biggest concern is Wednesday’s starter, Carlos Rodon, who, like Gil, has had his season upside down recently.
In his past three starts, Rodon has allowed 20 earned runs, 28 hits, six walks and five home runs in just 13 2/3 innings.
The result was a drop in the left-hander’s ERA from 2.93 to 4.42 and brought back a lot of bad memories from his first season in the Bronx.
“I think all of our guys have given us reason to believe they should go out there and perform,” head coach Aaron Boone said before the game. “There’s some optimism there, but obviously we want to be more consistent.”
