Yankees fall flat again in loss to Rays as skid hits three after quiet trade deadline
After an underwhelming trade-deadline day from their front office, the Yankees followed its cue.
Or was it vice versa?
Either way, the Yankees took the field 68 minutes after the deadline passed and continued to fall flat, losing 5-2 to the Rays on Tuesday night in The Bronx.
As the Yankees (55-52) lost their third straight game against the AL East competition that is running farther away from them, they recorded only seven hits.
Four of them came in the ninth inning, when they saved themselves from being shut out by the Rays (66-33) and even brought the tying run to the plate, only for pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton to strike out to end it with a smattering of boos.
The loss followed an uninspiring trade deadline in which the Yankees’ front office chose not to add a bat to a scuffling offense for the final two months of the season, instead settling for just a rental reliever and a Triple-A pitcher.
“Like we’ve been saying all week and the past couple days, it’s on us as players,” Aaron Judge said. “We’re fully capable with the guys we got in this room to go out and compete on a daily basis. The results haven’t come, obviously all year, but we still got two months left in the season and we got a lot of work to do. We gotta step up in this room and keep moving forward.”
Asked about the message that the front office sent the clubhouse with the minimal trade activity, manager Aaron Boone echoed Judge.
“It’s on us,” Boone said. “It’s on the people in that room, that we gotta figure it out if we’re going to get to where we want to go. I know it looks bad right now. We understand that. But we gotta find it from within now. It’s come and gone. It’s on all of us in that room to figure it out if we’re going to climb back into this thing.”
In five games since Judge returned from the injured list on Friday — which the Yankees were hoping could give them a shot in the arm — their offense has put together one productive game, which was their only win in that stretch.
In the other four, they have combined to score six runs on 23 hits.
In the process, the Yankees remained 3 ½ games back of the Blue Jays for the third and final AL wild-card spot, but with multiple teams between them.
Most of the contenders in the playoff race added before Tuesday’s deadline while the Yankees largely stood pat.
“That’s the decision of the guys upstairs,” said Carlos Rodon, who gave up four runs across four innings Tuesday to put the Yankees in an early hole. “We just show up with the guys we have here, the 26 guys we got, and we’ll make do. We lost today, but [Wednesday] we got our ace [Gerrit Cole] on the mound and it’s a big game. Every game matters.
“I put the boys behind today and didn’t really give us a chance to win. Tomorrow’s another day and we have to show up, whether it’s with a new guy or not, doesn’t really matter.”
Of course, the way the Yankees have been hitting lately, it would take more than one bat to solve their current issues — as Judge’s return has shown.
On Tuesday, Rays right-hander Zach Eflin became the latest opposing starter to dominate against the Yankees. He scattered just three hits — two singles and a double — and did not issue a walk while striking out five across six shutout innings.
“He went through us pretty easily,” Boone said.
With the deadline now behind them, the Yankees tried to turn their focus to the final 55 games of the season, hoping for a different result from mostly the same roster.
“We are definitely not playing good baseball,” Rodon said. “We’re just going to have to scratch our way out of it. We’re going to claw our way, climb out of a hole. It’s in front of us. Every day you get a chance to win or lose. Right now we’re losing.”
