It was the same old story for the Yankees. They struggled offensively and had to rely heavily on their bullpen, and it proved costly as they lost to the Blue Jays, 5-4, at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla., on Wednesday afternoon. Toronto took two out of three games in the series.

• Box score

Aaron Judge hit two home runs in his first two at-bats, but the offense sputtered. The Yankees didn’t have many scoring opportunities, going 1-for-3 with runners in scoring position. New York got on the board in the first inning when Judge took right-hander T.J. Zeuch deep over the left-field wall to give the club a 1-0 lead. The Yanks became the 30th and final team to manage a first-inning run this season.

Judge connected for another solo shot three innings later, then the Yankees scored two more runs in the frame on a single by Gio Urshela that tied the game at 4-4. But they were held scoreless for the rest of the game.

After 12 games, the Yankees have a .228 team batting average that ranks in the middle of the pack in the Majors, with a slugging percentage of .368 that is in the bottom third of MLB. 

“We are not consistently having quality at-bats, putting the ball in play when we need to, situational hitting,” Judge said. “We have to grind it up. When guys come up in a situation, we need to get a guy over or just get the job done.”   

From a pitching standpoint, Yankees starters other than Gerrit Cole have struggled to pitch deep into the game.

• Notes: Blake on length, Boone on mound

Corey Kluber started Wednesday, but he was unable to give the Yankees length. He pitched four innings and allowed three runs on six hits and two walks, while throwing just 77 pitches. But he feels that he is close to being a quality pitcher, saying his stuff is getting better and he is throwing more strikes.

“I thought it was a step in the right direction. I’m as frustrated as anybody with the results,” Kluber said. “But I can tell things are headed in the right direction. You can pitch as long as they let you.”

Manager Aaron Boone also believes Kluber is close to where he needs to be. 

“It’s movement and precision,” Boone said. “He is getting over that final hump of getting real precise.”

Like in many of the Yankees’ games this season, it was up to the bullpen to keep the Blue Jays in check Wednesday. It didn’t happen this time, though. The relievers pitched a combined four-plus innings and allowed two runs, including Bo Bichette’s walk-off homer over the right-center-field wall in the bottom of the ninth off right-hander Chad Green.

“We’re doing OK because we have been able to protect them,” Boone said of the bullpen. “When they have gone multiple innings, I’ve given them a couple of days off. … I don’t feel we had to use anyone unnecessarily. But as you go and you get later in the month -- and you start getting into May and the summer months -- that’s when you have to lean on the starting pitching to get you deep into games.”   

The Yankees are now 5-7 to start the season and will next face the Rays in a three-game series starting Friday at Yankee Stadium. They will have to play better in every area if they want to win that series.

“It’s the little things,” Judge said. “It’s either baserunning mistakes, mistakes in the outfield, not coming up with the clutch hit. For me personally, [there are] a couple of things I need to work on to help put this team in a better position to come up with a better outcome, especially against a tough team like Tampa [Bay], who is going to give us its best.”