BRONX, NY — The Yankees were shut out for the sixth time this season Saturday afternoon in the Bronx, 7-0, and the Athletics, a team last in the AL West, looked more like a team headed to the postseason.
Not to say the A’s are taking the field with a desire to go home. They are young, and athletic. Jacob Wilson is batting .330 (10 multiple hit games this month). Nick Kurtz has homered in his last 10 games, including one that went for three runs in the sixth inning off Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt.
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That home run provided the A’s with a 4-0 lead. The A’s can also pitch, their starting rotation provides some length. But they have lost 13 games by eight or more runs. Basically the Yankees are expected to beat teams that are a bit lower in the standings
Again, though, the Yankees went in the opposite direction. Again after an opening game series win Friday evening, they failed to gain momentum and consistency. It’s getting to the halfway point of the season and the Yankees can’t depend on Aaron Judge to be the run producer game-after-game.
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Manager Aaron Boone will say his team is making contact, getting good at-bats. Again, though, too many at the bottom of their lineup have failed to provide some spark. Too many are chasing pitches, even Judge. With all of his MVP numbers he has swung at pitches out of the zone.
“The last two days, we’ve been shut down a little more than we’d like,” Boone said. “We’ve just got to get a couple guys going. In times like this, it comes down to getting a big hit with runners out there.”
However, they failed to get another big hit. All three hits were singles, 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. Former Yankee southpaw JP Sears (6-7) in 5-⅔ innings allowed two hits, the changeup and sweeper too much to handle for the Yankees bottom of their lineup.
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Austin Wells is not making contact, though his 11 home runs as a catcher are fourth most in the majors. Regardless, the home runs have not been timely and the manager is confident Wells will become that run producer.
And a team that leads baseball in home runs needs to step up a notch, the Rays are on their first place standing in the AL East. Jasson Domínquez collected a career high four hits Wednesday at Cincinnati, inconsistency again Saturday, (0-for-3,) with three strikeouts while batting 9th in the order.
But optimism for a pitching rotation, Marcus Stroman comes off the injured list and gets the start Sunday afternoon as the Yankees look to take the series.
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Schmidt, after throwing a career-high 103 pitches and seven-no-hit innings against the Orioles, allowed four runs and four hits in six innings. Boone will accept that inconsistency of the lineup is a cause for concern even at this juncture of the season.
Six innings in four consecutive starts, the Yankees have to be pleased and with seven strikeouts. Schmidt gave the Yankees length and if not for the strikeouts this game would have been out of reach.
Schmidt’s scoreless streak of 28 ⅓ innings was stopped, longest for a starter in baseball this season.
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But it came down to the Yankees’ failure to get any momentum. Seems that has been a probable cause of a June swoon, a month that allowed the Rays to creep into their division lead.
Said Paul Goldschmidt, who had one of those three hits, “We weren’t able to get any momentum going. And DJ LeMahieu said, “A couple of guys are doing their thing, but collectively we just haven’t been consistent enough.”
“We haven’t performed our best the last couple of weeks,” added Goldschmidt. “There’s going to be ups and downs. I think the point is to just keep going. Keep making the adjustments that are needed individually and as a group.”
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He said it’s about having good-at-bats, the Yankees and their manager believe they are. He and as a group know this is a Yankees team with talent and capable of going on a streak, games like this put in the rear view mirror.
And surely there is ample time to begin that consistency and gain momentum, though Saturday in the Bronx was a stinker.
Rich Mancuso is a senior writer and columnist at LatinoSports.com – X (@Ring786), Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
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