A big series, a huge series is upcoming for the Yankees against Boston.
“I’m not going to downplay the magnitude of this series,” manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s a really important series for us.”
So look ahead. Do not look back — especially at the past few days. We’re talking Mona Lisa with facial hair ugly, including a doubleheader sweep by Cleveland on Wednesday.
“A tough day,” Brett Gardner said. “Any time you lose two games in one day it’s about as frustrating as it gets.”
The frustration began in the first inning and never stopped. The Yankees dropped the opener, 2-1, when Cleveland did its scoring in the first inning. Then, in the first inning of Game 2, the Indians sent 10 men to the plate, scored four times and won, 9-4, their seventh straight win and the Yankees’ third consecutive loss before an announced crowd of 39,598.
“All these games at this time are important, coming down the stretch in August and September,” said CC Sabathia, who opens the series Thursday against fellow lefty Eduardo Rodriguez. “We’re in a good spot. You can’t hang your heads.”
The spot though isn’t nearly as good as it once was. After the Red Sox defeated Toronto 7-1 on Wednesday night, they enter the series 5 ¹/₂ games up on the second-place Yankees, whose wild-card perch is suddenly not overly attractive, either.
“As I’ve said all along, really we’re in charge of our own destiny. We have to win games. But it’s impossible not to look at the scoreboard. It’s right there. I’d have to really have my head in the sand not to see the scores of games,” Girardi said. “We have to worry about ourselves.”
But Wednesday hurt. Until Greg Bird, who singled in the Yankees’ first run in the nightcap, unloaded a three-run ninth inning homer, the Yankees had managed 12 hits in the doubleheader, including 11 singles.
“We lost those three games and the series. We’ve got to keep our heads high and focus on the upcoming four games with Boston,” Gary Sanchez said.
“You’ve got to move on. You’ve got to put this behind you,” Girardi said. “Let’s just try to win a game tomorrow. That’s the most important thing, that you get back on track. There’s still 30 games left.”
That’s the optimist’s view.
“The calendar’s going to flip to a new month here pretty soon and we’re running out of time to catch those guys,” Gardner said of the Red Sox.
The Yankees summoned Jordan Montgomery (7-7) from Triple-A for Game 2 and Cleveland forced him into a 42-pitch first inning that included an RBI single by Edwin Encarnacion, an RBI double by Carlos Santana and a two-run single by rookie Yandy Diaz.
“I just didn’t set the tone,” Montgomery said. “My curveball was good. I just didn’t throw it where I needed to.”
Cleveland poured it on to the end for rookie starter Ryan Merritt (2-0) against relievers Chasen Shreve and Caleb Smith, adding Encarnacion’s 31st homer, Austin Jackson’s RBI double, Yan Gomes’ two-run homer and Francisco Lindor’s solo shot.
In the opener, Cleveland staked righty starter Trevor Bauer (14-8) to a 2-0 lead. Lindor scored on a Sanchez passed ball and Diaz singled in a run against starter Jaime Garcia (0-2 with Yanks) who exited after walking Santana to start the sixth. Chad Green entered and set a MLB record striking out seven of the eight batters he faced. Didi Gregorius stroked an RBI double for the Yankees’ run.
Now Boston for four in the final regular-season games between the rivals.
“At this point, you’re going to be able to say those are the most important games of the season because we won’t run into them and [because of] where we are in the standings,” Girardi said.
“We just got to do what we did in the first half where everyone was just having quality at-bats,” said Aaron Judge, who started the second game after he pinch hit and fanned to end the opener. “When we do that collectively good things happen.”
The Yankees need something good after all the bad against Cleveland.