BALTIMORE — The last room on the right as you exit the Yankees’ clubhouse at Camden Yards houses the visiting coaches.
Seated in there Saturday night in silence with eyes trained on the Astros-Diamondbacks game on the television high on the wall were first base coach Tony Pena, third base coach Joe Espada and bench coach Rob Thomson.
Having just dropped two games to the Orioles there was nothing the coaches, players, manager, general manager, or ownership could do about the Yankees’ fate.
An Astros loss and the Yankees would host Tuesday night’s AL wild-card game at Yankee Stadium. But the Astros won.
The Yankees still are in position to play the game in The Bronx by winning Sunday, but based on the way they have been playing, that might be too much to ask for a reeling team that has lost five of six and scored five runs in two games.
“We have to find a way to play better,’’ Chase Headley said following a 4-3 loss in the nightcap after the Yankees absorbed a 9-2 beating in the first game. “We are frustrated because we aren’t playing the way we want to.’’
After Ivan Nova killed the Yankees in the first game by giving up five runs and eight hits in 5 ²/₃ innings and finished the season 6-11, Luis Severino put the Yankees in a 2-0 hole in the first frame of the second tilt. Across the next six innings, however, he gave up just Manny Machado’s second homer of the day and 35th of the season to give the Yankees a chance.
The Yankees scratched a run out in the second on Didi Gregorius’ sacrifice fly and tied the score, 3-3, in the fifth when Slade Heathcott doubled home Rob Refsnyder and Carlos Beltran drew a bases-loaded walk against Ubaldo Jimenez.
Nevertheless, Brian McCann stranded three with a pop up to short right.
Across the final four innings the Yankees batted once with a runner in scoring position and Dellin Betances uncorked two wild pitches in the eighth, the second of which allowed Paul Janish to race home with the game-winning run.
“You would have to have your head in the sand not to know what we need to do,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of what awaits the Yankees on Sunday, when their travel plans rest of the inconsistent Michael Pineda.
By the time Sunday’s action is complete — and the Rangers are in the picture — the Yankees could be hosting Tuesday night or playing in Houston or Arlington.
When they arrived in the Inner Harbor some Yankees still had a champagne buzz lingering after celebrating clinching the wild card spot Thursday night at home and needing only one win in three games against the Orioles.
Then they lost two in one day, have dropped five of six and are sending Pineda (3-2 with a 5.74 ERA in the last seven starts) to the mound Sunday against Chris Tillman.
“I have been on both sides of that where you have played extremely well going into the playoffs and you don’t play well in the playoffs,’’ Girardi said of ending the season on a downer. “Then you are not playing very well and then you run the table. That can go both ways. Everything starts new on Monday. That’s not a concern but it would have been nice to have home field advantage wrapped up.’’
Instead there is a strong possibility the Yankees won’t have the crowd on their side Tuesday, won’t be able to take advantage of Yankee Stadium’s right-field porch and will spend a night in a Texas hotel instead of at home.