Yankees Reeling After 'Unacceptable' Loss In Chicago
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The New York Yankees have had some tough losses, but Wednesday night in Chicago was as bad as it gets.
Up 4-0 early against the White Sox, the Yankees fell for the 14th time in 20 games after Mariano Rivera blew the lead in the ninth and Robinson Cano hit a go-ahead homer in the 12th.
New York, on the wrong end of the sweep, went just 2-6 on its road trip.
"It's tough," Rivera said after Alejandro De Aza's game-winning triple in the 12th rallied Chicago to a 6-5 win. "I think we played a tremendous game and a hard game to win it. And we just gave it right back.
"This one feels worse because we came out today playing hard. Not that we didn't try to do that, but we had a chance -- we had two chances -- and we couldn't hold one of them. It's bad. We cannot do that. It's unacceptable."
They're 11 ½ games out of first place in the AL East, a stunning number for a team that hadn't been 10 or more games off the lead since Sept. 17, 2008. They're seven games back in the wild-card race and in danger of slipping below .500 at 57-56. Even the Subway Series rival Mets (51-60) are catching up in New York's bragging rights race.
"You know, when you look at it, we're down to the last strike twice, down to the last out twice and for whatever reason, we didn't get it done," said manager Joe Girardi. "We had chances to win that game. We had chances to blow that game open and we didn't do it. It was not a good road trip and we need to turn things around."
"We're battling," Rivera said.
The blown save was just the third in 38 opportunities for Rivera, who allowed one run over two innings. And it denied CC Sabathia his first win in more than a month after he pitched into the eighth.
"This one is tough to go back home without a victory," Rivera said.
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