ARLINGTON, Texas — The Yankees rolled out their specialty lineup for lefthanders Monday night, featuring three of their trade deadline acquisitions who have generally thrived in their careers hitting lefties.
It had the effect of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Called on to protect a one-run lead in the ninth, Devin Williams allowed a one-out, pinch-hit homer to Joc Pederson.
After Austin Wells grounded into an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play in the top of the 10th with runners at first and third, Josh Jung’s two-out, three-run homer off Jake Bird in the bottom half sent the still-skidding Yankees to a crushing 8-5 loss to the Rangers in front of 33,320 at Globe Life Field.
The Yankees (60-53), who have lost 28 of their last 46 games, including a weekend sweep by the Marlins, extended their losing streak to four. They fell 5 1/2 games behind Toronto in the AL East, and 2 1/2 games behind second-place Boston.
It was the second demoralizing loss on this trip, the first being Friday night’s 13-12 loss in Miami in which the Yankees blew leads of 6-0, 9-4 and 12-10.
Does Aaron Boone feel this stretch of poor play, now nearing the two-month mark and threatening to bury the season, is “weighing” on his team?
“Yes. Doesn’t matter, though. Doesn’t matter,” Boone said afterward. “Weigh on us, stress, we gotta win. Period. We know that. Nobody cares how stressful it is. That’s all noise, excuses, whatever. We gotta go play better, we gotta win, and we know that.”
With two outs and extra-inning bonus runner Corey Seager at second, the Yankees intentionally walked Wyatt Langford, 2-for-3 with a walk to that point, to get to Jung, who was 1-for-3.
“Just kind of picking your poison there with the two outs and the open base,” Boone said. “Kind of a close decision there but decided we wanted to face Jung.”
Going into the ninth, the Yankees led 5-4 — courtesy of Giancarlo Stanton’s two-run homer in the fourth. Relievers Luke Weaver, Camilo Doval and David Bednar retired nine straight entering the ninth and Williams made it 10 straight before Pederson’s blast, which came on a 2-and-1 changeup.
Williams, who seemed to have turned his season around after a rough April, which temporarily cost him the closer’s job, has allowed runs in each of his last three outings.
“I’m trying to throw it down and away there, missed middle, and obviously he did what he did,” Williams said. “This game and the last one [a blown save Wednesday against the Rays], it was really one pitch that hurt me. But that’s the difference between winning and losing sometimes, and I can’t let that happen … The game’s got to end there with me.”
Max Fried, 12-4 with a 2.62 ERA coming in but with a 5.54 ERA in his previous five starts, had an uneven performance, allowing four runs, eight hits and three walks in five innings, striking out seven.
After a 14-pitch first, Fried, with a 3-0 lead as the Yankees’ righty lineup beat up Rangers lefthander Patrick Corbin, needed 35 pitches to get through the second inning as the Rangers (59-55) sent nine to the plate and scored four runs. That put the Yankees behind until Stanton’s 10th homer, and sixth in his last 12 games, gave them the 5-4 lead.
“It’s frustrating, especially coming out, [us] needing a win and putting us in a hole,” Fried said. “Guys scraped it together and were able to fight back but I gotta do a better job.”
Against Corbin, the Yankees’ lineup had Amed Rosario in right, Austin Slater in left and Jose Caballero at third.
Slater left the game in the first inning with left hamstring tightness after beating out a potential double-play ball. Boone said Slater will require an IL stint, which will be the roster move when Aaron Judge is activated Tuesday.
The lineup paid immediately as Paul Goldschmidt led off with a homer and Rosario followed with a double. Goldschmidt doubled in the second and Rosario drove him in to spark a two-run inning but Fried gave it back and another brutal loss was in the offing.
“Gotta get over it,” Boone said. “We gotta win games. The season’s getting shorter in a hurry. I know everyone feels like crap but we gotta go take it, and we haven’t been able to do that on this road trip so far.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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