The Yankees cannot afford for a Spencer Jones home run robbery to transition into a home run gift.
They cannot afford for Cam Schlittler to struggle to any degree, much less this degree.
They cannot afford for José Caballero to throw wide of Anthony Volpe, erasing a possible double play and allowing a pair of runners to remain on base, both of whom would score.
Given their sudden offensive ineptitude and that Tarik Skubal was the opposing starter, the Yankees’ defense and pitching needed to flirt with perfection to give them a chance. The flirtation was over within minutes.
A rough first inning put the Yankees in a four-run hole, which felt more like a four-run canyon, in what would become a 9-3 smacking by the Tigers in front of 37,211 frustrated, booing fans in The Bronx on Tuesday.
The Yankees (48-37) have dropped a season-high six straight games, are doing nothing right, hitting particularly wrong and hearing from the crowd after each mistake. They have finished June swooning.
Never in the Yankees’ century-plus of baseball had they been held to three or fewer hits in four straight games before their four games from Friday through Monday. They managed to snap this streak Tuesday — only because a couple of garbage-time knocks in the ninth doubled their hit output to four.
They finished with one hit in six innings against Skubal, who upstaged Schlittler (four innings, six runs on four homers) in a matchup that was far more appealing on paper than on the field.
Ben Rice cranked a home run in the bottom of the first, but the next 13 Yankees were retired by Skubal, who sure looked like the prize of the trade deadline.
But then again, Detroit’s Casey Mize (seven scoreless, one-hit innings) looked like a Cy Young candidate Monday. Just like Boston’s Sonny Gray (7 ¹/₃ scoreless, one-hit innings) looked like a superstar Sunday.
Just like Boston’s Jake Bennett (6 ¹/₃ one-run, three-hit innings) looked like a revelation Saturday. Just like Boston’s Payton Tolle (seven scoreless, one-hit innings) looked like the AL Rookie of the Year on Friday.
A team that does not have Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Trent Grisham and Ryan McMahon has fallen into a funk whose depth, at least when measured in hits, had never been seen before in franchise history.
Paul Goldschmidt is 0-for-16 in his past five games. Rice’s homer broke a five-game hitless drought. Cody Bellinger took a seat against Skubal amid a 2-for-27 skid.
No one has stepped up at any part of the lineup for a team that has scored 15 runs in six games and has not scored more than four runs in a contest since June 19.
Max Schuemann getting plunked to begin the bottom of the sixth qualified as a rally and earned loud, partly sarcastic cheers. Ali Sánchez followed by reaching on an error by shortstop Zach McKinstry. A legitimate threat, though, was quickly extinguished by a double play off Goldschmidt’s bat.
By then, though, the game was just about over — and might have been over in the top of the first.
The third batter of the game, Kerry Carpenter, launched a two-out drive to deep center. Jones had a bead on it, reached the wall, jumped and used his 6-foot-7 stature to bring his glove high above the wall’s height.
The ball landed in the glove, and Yankee Stadium cheered — before realizing that as Jones hit the wall, the ball had bounced out of his glove and into the home bullpen for a home run. Jones appeared in disbelief that he did not catch the ball.
What happened next was probably more unbelievable.
Schlittler, who could have been out of the inning, instead threw 27 more pitches while allowing three more runs, including homers to Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson.
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The early front-runner for the AL Cy Young served up another to Greene in the fourth on a night when his ERA rose from 1.62 to 2.08.
The Tigers added on against Ryan Yarbrough in the sixth, when second baseman Caballero fielded, spun and threw a potential double-play ball into left. On the next pitch, James Outman smoked a three-run homer.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
