CHICAGO — With their postseason hopes dwindling by the day, the Yankees had their hottest starter on the mound Wednesday night and the lineup had posted a season-high in hits in the previous game.
Then Michael Pineda experienced a nightmare second inning and the bats went limp against Miguel Gonzalez in a hard-to-watch 5-0 loss to the White Sox in front of 21,144 at U.S. Cellular Field.
“We can’t get over the hump,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of his 41-43 club that dropped two of three in San Diego and did the same against the White Sox. “We can’t play consistent enough to get five games over, 10 games over [.500]. It’s a number of different things. The games we lost here we didn’t hit with runners on.’’
Or get enough from the starting pitcher.
Monday, the Yankees went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position in an 8-2 loss. Wednesday, it was 0-for-8. Tuesday, when the Yankees collected a season-high 20 hits, they went 5-for-18 in the clutch.
Monday, CC Sabathia got tagged for four runs and eight hits in six frames. Wednesday, Pineda allowed five runs and five hits in six frames. Tuesday, ace Masahiro Tanaka provided 7 ²/₃ innings of shutout pitching in a 9-0 romp.
“In the second inning after two outs I made a little mistake with my slider. I tried to put it in the dirt to finish the inning and it didn’t happen,’’ Pineda said of the pitch to Avisail Garcia that he hit for an RBI single.
Pineda (3-8) then left a 95-mph fastball up to J.B Shuck and that resulted in an RBI double. That was followed by a slider that wasn’t far enough away from Tim Anderson and he laced a two-run double for a 4-0 lead. The White Sox added a run in the sixth on Brett Lawrie’s fielder’s choice ground ball that scored Melky Cabrera.
Pineda started the game with a 1-1 record and 2.75 ERA in his previous six starts.
In his first big-league relief appearance since 2011, Nathan Eovaldi worked two scoreless innings in which he didn’t give up a hit but walked two. He is out of the rotation until sometime following the All-Star break.
The loss dropped the Yankees to eight games back of the AL East-leading Orioles and sent them to Cleveland for four games against the AL Central-leading Indians starting Thursday night.
“They are playing extremely well and it all starts with their starting pitching,’’ Girardi said. “The bullpen has done a nice job and they have young players playing extremely well. They are a complete club and they are not going to beat themselves. It will be a tough series.’’
It could be a bloodbath based on what the Yankees didn’t show in San Diego and against the White Sox.
“I liked the position we were in last year compared to the position we are in this year,’’ Brett Gardner said of the Yankees, who led the AL East by 1 ½ games on July 7 a year ago. “We are what our record says we are. I think we are capable of playing a lot better baseball. It’s really important we finish up good before the [All-Star] break.’’
The record screams mediocre and the schedule gets brutal. Four with the Indians before the All-Star break and 10 at home against the Red Sox, Orioles and Giants when play resumes.