MILWAUKEE — The Yankees don’t lose series often, but when they do, they get swept.
At least their last two times, anyways, this one in crushing fashion.
After arriving here as one of the hottest teams in baseball, winners of 16 of their last 19 games, the Yankees delivered a dud of a series, getting swept away by the Brewers, the last two games by walkoffs.
On Sunday afternoon, it was David Bednar who gave up the game-winning home run to Brice Turang with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, handing the Yankees a 4-3 loss at American Family Field.
That came on the heels of Saturday’s 4-3 loss in 10 innings in which the bullpen and offense combined to waste Cam Schlittler’s gem.
The series loss was the Yankees’ first since April 10-12, when they were swept by the Rays at Tropicana Field.
In between, they went 6-0-1 in series.
Making his first start in seven months, with elbow surgery in between, Carlos Rodón looked like he was still knocking off some rust Sunday in his season debut.
The left-hander walked five, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch, which turned into three runs across 4 1/3 innings in which he only gave up two hits.
After undergoing surgery in October to remove loose bodies and shave down a bone spur, Rodón had previously acknowledged that his command might be a work in progress as he learned to use his new range of motion in his left arm.
That certainly appeared to be the case on Sunday, when he only threw 42 of his 78 pitches for strikes.
Rodón walked the leadoff man in three of his first four innings.
He pitched around it the first two times before it finally came back to hurt him in the fourth inning.
He threw eight straight balls to begin the frame, then two pitches later, misfired a 95 mph fastball that hit Andrew Vaughn on the left shoulder to load the bases.
After Rodón got the first out at home on a fielder’s choice, Garrett Mitchell lifted a sacrifice fly to make it a 2-1 game.
Then, with former Yankees farmhand Blake Perkins at the plate, Rodón sprayed a slider that got past J.C. Escarra to the backstop, allowing the runners to move up to second and third.
That proved costly when Perkins roped a single to center field, allowing both runs to score for the 3-2 Brewers lead.
But the Yankees tied it back up in the top of the sixth.
After Aaron Judge was thrown out trying to steal second, Cody Bellinger drew a walk and came all the way around to score on Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s double into the right-field corner off lefty reliever DL Hall.
The Yankees had quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead by the second inning.
Judge crushed a solo shot off Logan Henderson in the top of the first — his 16th of the season and 13th in his last 27 games — before Spencer Jones picked up his first career hit with an RBI single smoked up the middle in the second.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
