If it happens again, the Bronx will go quiet, the conversation will end, and the stars will shine in other cities. The loss snapped a four-game Yankees win streak, and provided an extra dose of reality for a team that still finds itself in fourth place in the AL East with a little more than a week until the August 1 non-waiver trade deadline.
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Then general manager Brian Cashman into an auctioneer come the August 1 trade deadline, and fans will start their long gaze toward 2017 from their couches, likely with anything but the YES Network on the TV. It may very well be the Yankees’ last stand. In failing to complete what would have been their first four-game sweep of Baltimore since September 2005, the Bombers slipped back to 6 ½ games behind the Orioles and the Red Sox in the AL East pending Boston’s game Thursday night against Minnesota.
The Orioles wasted no time getting on the board against CC Sabathia. The Yankees had just five hits, only one for extra bases. Yankees pitchers had permitted one run or fewer in each of their previous four victories, matching the team’s longest such streak since September 2003. They followed that by losing six of their next eight.
Even with a winning record, they seem back in that familiar state of buy-or-sell uncertainty 10 days before the trade deadline.
Only, not as much headway as they would have made in either case had they been able to complete a four-game sweep of Baltimore.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi taking the ball from starter CC Sabathia after Sabathia allowed a two-run double to the Orioles’ Jonathan Schoop in the seventh inning Thursday.
Schoop’s liner skipped into the corner, bringing home Caleb Joseph from second base easily.
J.J. Hardy grounded a two-out, two-run single off the glove of shortstop Didi Gregorius in the first inning, and Jonathan Schoop sliced a two-out, two-run double in the seventh.
The pitch was a 85-mph slider.
That last out of the seventh inning, though, was a problem. It was the sixth outing in a row the tall lefty gave up at least four earned runs and his ERA jumped from 3.94 to 4.04. The Yankees have won four straight overall to move two games above.500 for the first time since April 12.Sabathia has been hit hard during a five-start winless drought but will look to continue a strong run by New York’s pitching staff, which has yielded three runs during the winning streak. Of course, that same Tigers team started the year 3-25 and ended up losing 119 games. J.J. Hardy smoked a Sabathia pitch toward Gregorius, but it was too hot to handle and two runs scored on the single.
Green pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief. Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira combined to go hitless in 11 at-bats.
Bloop or blast, it makes no difference if the hits lead to runs.
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Zach Britton notched his 30th save of the season.
