Last-Place Yankees Hitting .196 With Runners In Scoring Position
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — For all their great relief pitching, the New York Yankees still are having trouble coming up with timely hits.
After two more scoreless innings from the Yankees' dynamic bullpen duo of Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller, rookie Johnny Barbato (1-1) pitched a perfect 10th inning against Oakland on Tuesday night.
But Jed Lowrie doubled against Barbato with one out in the 11th and scored on Mark Canha's single, sending the Athletics to a 3-2 victory that dropped New York into the AL East cellar.
"We couldn't get the hits with guys in scoring position," Yankees outfielder Carlos Beltran said. "That's something that's been happening lately."
New York went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position, falling to .196 (21 for 107) this season. Didi Gregorius got caught stealing after he was picked off, then couldn't get down a bunt. Inserted as a pinch runner, Jacoby Ellsbury was caught stealing.
"We're just not executing," manager Joe Girardi said. "We are getting runners on, but we are having a hard time getting them in. That's going to change, but while you're going through it, it's pretty frustrating."
New York has lost five of six, and its record is 5-7. The Yankees failed to score in the third, fourth and ninth innings despite the leadoff hitter reaching.
"One guy is not going to bail us out," Girardi said. "Sometimes it can be a broken-bat hit that changes things, and all of a sudden the floodgates open, but right now, we're not getting it."
New York starter Michael Pineda allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings, struck out seven and walked one. Oakland's Eric Surkamp pitched 5 2/3 innings, one shy of his big league high, and gave up two runs and seven hits.
Alex Rodriguez's RBI single in the first was negated by Marcus Semien's run-scoring single on a 3-0 pitch in the second. Beltran's sacrifice fly put the Yankees ahead 2-1 in the fifth, but Danny Valencia tripled off the glove of diving left fielder Brett Gardner leading off the sixth and scored on Lowrie's one-out single through the drawn-in infield.
After Lowrie doubled into the right-field corner in the 11th, tying his career best of four hits, he took third on a groundout by Khris Davis, who had struck out in his previous three at-bats. He fell behind 0-2, then hit a slider off Gregorius' glove and into left for his second RBI this season.
"I just tried to make it too good and left it up," Barbato said. "It didn't break."
Gregorius was upset he didn't come up with the ball.
"That one stings," he said.
GREAT GRABS
Valencia made a diving backhand catch on Aaron Hicks' sixth-inning liner to third. Gregorius went deep into the shortstop hole to snag two grounders in the bottom half and threw out Semien and pinch-hitter Coco Crisp.
TECH TALK
New York installed white iPhone charging stations, with 10 plugs each, over each of the two refrigerators in the Yankees clubhouse.
TRYING TO GET BACK
Nick Swisher is 6 for 18 with one homer and three RBIs for the Yankees' Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre farm team.
REVISION
What originally was scored as a fourth-inning single for Starlin Castro at Detroit on April 9 was changed by the Elias Sports Bureau on Tuesday to an error for right fielder J.D. Martinez, who dropped the line drive.
UP NEXT
New York's Nathan Eovaldi (0-1) is scheduled to start Wednesday's middle game of the series against Kendall Graveman (0-1).
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