HR robbery unable to inspire sluggish Yanks

The first pitch Oswaldo Cabrera saw as a big league outfielder was blasted in his direction, sending the rookie retreating toward the warning track in right field. He spun in the wrong direction, corrected course and leaped. The ball smacked into his outstretched glove, and he shouted excitedly as all of Yankee Stadium roared.

It was quite a way to begin the evening, but unfortunately for the home team, there would be little else to celebrate. Cabrera’s defensive gem saved a run, robbing Lourdes Gurriel Jr. of a homer, but the Yankees went down quietly Friday in a 4-0 loss to the Blue Jays -- their third shutout loss in the last six games.

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“We’re going through a tough stretch,” said infielder DJ LeMahieu. “It’s frustrating when you know that we’re better than how we’re playing. We just can’t get a whole lot going. I feel like we’re pressing a little bit -- a lot of the things that happen when you’re not going well as an offense.”

New York moved just one runner to second base in the defeat -- Aaron Judge worked a first-inning walk, advanced on a single and was stranded there. The Yankees have lost 13 games over a 16-game span of a single season for just the third time in the Wild Card Era (May-June 1995, Sept.-Oct. 2000), and manager Aaron Boone said his prevailing emotion is “frustration.”

“One of the things we preach is having that consistency and being able to handle the good and the bad, but you should be a little pissed off right now,” Boone said. “We’re a really good team. It’s been long enough now to where it’s been an extended period of struggle. We have to do better.”

On the morning of July 9, the Yankees held a 15-1/2 game lead over their competition in the American League East, all but assuring they wouldn’t play another meaningful game until October. Friday’s loss shrank the advantage to just eight games over second-place Toronto, with a pair of contests still on deck in this four-game weekend series.

“I don’t give a crap about the lead,” Boone said. “We need to play better. If we play like this, it’s not going to matter anyway. If we handle our business, we’re in a great spot. We understand that, but we need to handle our business.”

Though there should be some credit given to the seven commanding innings in which Toronto’s Kevin Gausman carved through the lineup, the time for hat-tipping is past for this offense -- after all, no team can win if they don’t score.

The Yankees are 9-19 since returning from the All-Star break, and five of their 11 shutout losses have come in their last 13 games. Boone said the bats have been “a real struggle for us” since the Aug. 8-10 series against the Mariners in Seattle.

“We have a lot of guys who can put runs on the board with one swing,” said catcher Kyle Higashioka. “I think at times we can feel like we need to play the hero a little bit too much. I think we’re at our best when we’re just getting hit after hit and keeping the line moving.”

Charged with three runs and six hits over five-plus innings, Taillon lamented a grooved fourth-inning fastball that Teoscar Hernández slugged over the wall for a two-run homer, but he had no margin for error anyway.

“All we can do is pull for each other, keep believing in ourselves,” Taillon said. “We need to understand that this is the same group that won a bunch of games earlier in the year, and we can do it again. We just need to get that little spark and get going again.”

Taillon struck out five without a walk, permitting a third-inning run on a Gurriel groundout, then handed a first-and-third jam to the bullpen in the sixth. Lou Trivino wriggled free, retiring the side on a popout, strikeout and fielder’s choice.

Trivino, Wandy Peralta and Jonathan Loáisiga pitched effectively, but Aroldis Chapman’s control problems popped up again in the ninth, with a hit and two walks leading to a run and an unwanted emergency call for rookie Ron Marinaccio to finish the inning.

“This was a rough one tonight,” Boone said. “We’ve got to get after it with [Chapman] to get him back in line with how he’s been. I know he’ll come in ready to work to get that right.”

Toronto’s resulting four-run cushion felt almost insurmountable, a jarring reversal for a first-half juggernaut that never seemed to be out of any contest.

“I know we’ve got it in us,” LeMahieu said.