The New York Yankees have once again lost to the Cleveland Indians, by a score of 2-1 at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio. The Yankees started hot and then had one bad inning that cost them the game. Danny Salazar gets the win and improves his record to 10-6. C.C. Sabathia falls to 4-9 on the season with an ERA of 5.23. The loss continues the Yankees losing ways as their losing streak extends to five games.
The Yankees got on the board first in the second inning when Brian McCann hit a solo shot to right field that was an estimated distance of 425 feet. The Indians made it a 1-1 game in the fifth when Francisco Lindor singled to right, scoring Roberto Perez. The Indians took the lead for good this time in the sixth inning when Abraham Almonte singled to center, scoring Carlos Santana.
The Yankees top half of the lineup struggled mightily in this game again, going a combined 2-for-17 to make it a combined 4-for-64 since Saturday. In the 10 games prior to the Blue Jays series, the Yankees batted .309 with 21 home runs and scored a combined 90 runs. In their last seven games they have score nine total runs, with a .157 batting average and six homers. Once again, like last night, the pitcher, this time C.C. Sabathia, pitched well but the offense couldn’t do anything to help him. Just two weeks ago these pitchers would be reward for their quality starts with wins.
With the loss tonight the Yankees fall out of first place in the AL East for the first time since July 1st. The Blue Jays are riding high since the acquisition of Troy Tulowitzki and David Price, and won tonight 10-3 over the Oakland A's to extend their winning streak to 10 games. Toronto is now in first place in the AL East with a half game lead over the Yankees. After the loss, the Yankees now reside in the first Wild Card spot, with the Los Angeles Angels 2.5 games behind them in the second spot.
Joe Girardi was asked about the offense and he responded by talking about his impressions, but he was also quick to compliment the Indians, “I actually thought we swung the bats better tonight. I thought they made some really good plays... I mean he’s (Danny Salazar) got good stuff, he’s got power and he’s got an outstanding changeup but I thought we swung the bats better tonight.”
CC Sabathia was asked what it feels like in the clubhouse to be out of first place and he said, “We know what we gotta ahead of us, we gotta lot of games against Toronto so hopefully we can turn it around.”
The final game of this Yankees-Indians series is tomorrow with Nathan Eovaldi looking to get the Yankees back on the right track and improve to 12-2. Eovaldi is going up against Trevor Bauer looking to help the Indians sweep the Yankees and send them to Toronto riding a six-game losing streak.