The Yankees broke their five-game losing streak on Tuesday, but one night later, their brutal early-season offensive funk remained alive and well.
Without the basesloaded wild pitch the Braves gave them on Tuesday to mask their fight, the Yankees offense continued to sputter in a freezing Yankee Stadium on Wednesday-evening in a 4-1 loss against Atlanta.
It was another lifeless loss for the Yankees (6-11), who collected only five hits (all singles). They walked six times, but stranded nine baserunners and didn’t score until Clint Frazier’s RBI bloop single with two outs in the ninth. That came one night after five hits were just enough to give a win over the Braves (8-10), but on Wednesday there was no life raft from the Atlanta bullpen.
Corey Kluber gave the Yankees a solid start. He was in control for four scoreless innings until he lost command in the fifth and gave up a few runs. But even a perfect outing wouldn’t have been enough to save the Yankees tonight.
Braves starter Ian Anderson, a native of New York City in upstate New York, looked good at pitching at home in the chilly conditions. The Yankees barely made him sweat most of the night as he drove through six innings on just 78 pitches.
They finally posed their biggest threat of the game in the seventh inning when a Mike Ford-single and two outs to Gary Sanchez and Frazier loaded the bases. But AJ Minter solved Anderson and put out the fire by grounding DJ LeMahieu.
Manager Aaron Boone juggled the line-up ahead of Tuesday’s 3-1 win, then adjusted it again on Wednesday, trying to find some sort of spark. He bumped Giancarlo Stanton for the first time this season in the three holes and had Gio Urshela, one of his most prolific hitters of late, clear an at bat. Struggling outfielders Aaron Hicks and Frazier also re-joined the line-up after not starting on Tuesday
It hardly made a difference. Urshela, after going 1-for-3, left the game in the eighth inning with a tight low back. Stanton was 0-for-4 with a strikeout, while Hicks and Frazier were combined 1-for-5 with three walks.
Kluber was sharp through four innings, induced weak contact while giving up only a single and a walk and stranding both runners. He got some help in the third inning when Frazier ran far in to make a diving flyout into left field on a flyout by Ehire Adrianza.
But Kluber started to wear out in the fifth inning. Pablo Sandoval made the hardest contact with him all night, starting fifth with a line-drive single to the right. One out later, Kluber put Austin Riley in a 0-and-2 count, only to let him out. He then walked No. 9 batter Guillermo Heredia to load the bases.
Adrianza gave the Braves the 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly to midfield, when Sandoval came home from third base for the first run of the game.
Kluber then walked Freddie Freeman on four pitches – his third walk of the inning – to reload the bases and mark the end of his evening with 91 pitches.
Nick Nelson replaced Kluber and walked Marcell Ozuna on four pitches to force a run to make it 2-0 for Braves. Nelson finally found his command by striking out Travis d’Arnaud, leaving the bases loaded.