ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — For the first time in three games, the Yankees did not strike out 17 times Wednesday night, so there was that.
Otherwise, their lineup remained abysmal as their deficit in the AL East grew larger.
The Yankees wasted a quality pitching effort from Gerrit Cole because the only thing they are doing consistently well of late is slumping together offensively, their latest collective dud resulting in a 3-0 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field.
In a game in which their frustration began to boil over, with Aaron Boone and bench coach Brad Ausmus both getting ejected in the sixth inning, the Yankees (50-42) lost for the 11th time in their past 13 games while dropping to five games back of the Rays (54-36) for the division lead.
“Just looking at the outcomes, it’s not where we want to be, and it’s not good enough to compete for first place right now,” Cole said.
After the Yankees had struck out 17 times in each of the first two games of this series, they whiffed just 11 times Wednesday, yet they still mustered just six hits (all singles, only three of which left the infield) as they were stifled by lefty Shane McClanahan and the Rays bullpen.
They had just one hard-hit ball all night, coming on a Ben Rice groundout.
They will try to salvage a series split Thursday afternoon, but that will be a difficult task against Rays All-Star Drew Rasmussen, who has pitched the Yankees tough (including 13 shutout innings this season) even when they are not going through a death spiral.
“You can feel it,” José Caballero said of the lineup’s struggles. “Personally, I think it’s us thinking about the bad stretch and taking it heavy on ourselves. I can speak for myself, I don’t like knowing that the last seven to 10 games, I’m doing bad. You think about it too long and it doesn’t get easier if you continue thinking about it. For me, we should just keep it simple and trust the room. We know how good we can be and we know how good we are.”
During the first three games of this series, the Yankees have recorded 45 strikeouts and two walks.
The Rays always pitch them tough, but this is taking that to another level of dominance.
The top four hitters in the Yankees lineup — Paul Goldschmidt, Ben Rice, Amed Rosario and Cody Bellinger — went a combined 2-for-16 on Wednesday.
Goldschmidt is now in an 0-for-34 skid after striking out three more times, giving him 10 punchouts over his past three games before he likely sits Thursday.
Bellinger went 0-for-4 and is now in an 8-for-70 (.114) slump.
“Obviously offensively now is a real struggle for us. I keep saying that,” Boone said. “It’s no secret. There’s no magic pill. … I do believe we’ll get through this, but there’s not much more to talk about. We got to go make some things happen.”
Cole allowed three runs across 6 ¹/₃ innings while throwing 97 pitches, his most since returning from Tommy John surgery.
He was hurt by the top two hitters in the Rays lineup, on a night when Yandy Díaz had four hits and Jonathan Aranda drove in all three runs.
But even a shutout wouldn’t have been enough.
The Yankees had a chance to take a lead in the second inning after back-to-back singles by Jasson Domínguez and Anthony Volpe with one out.
But Max Schuemann came up next and dropped down a safety-squeeze bunt to the pitcher, but Domínguez got a late break from third and was easily thrown out at the plate.
Austin Wells followed by popping out in foul territory, on the way to finishing the night batting .148.
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McClanahan retired 10 straight batters into the sixth inning, when Caballero led off with a bunt single. But he was soon erased on a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out double play with Goldschmidt providing the whiff.
The Yankees tried to challenge the play at second, but did so too late, which resulted in Boone and Ausmus getting tossed by home plate umpire Doug Eddings.
“I feel like sometimes you get beat up a little bit, you can have that defeated feeling,” Boone said. “We got to avoid that. This game waits for no one. It’s hard as can be. We got to get over ourselves in that.”
