NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Hicks was at third base in the 10th inning, 90 feet from scoring the run that would raise the New York Yankees three games over .500 for the first time this year and keep up their push to avoid a sell-off before the Aug. 1 trade deadline.
He never got there, and the Yankees wilted like so many of their fans on the 93-degree afternoon.
Brian McCann flied to shallow left field on the first pitch from Santiago Casillo and Starlin Castro flied out to right, leaving the bases loaded. After New York’s No Runs DMC bullpen trio pitched four scoreless innings, the San Francisco Giants went ahead in the 12th against Anthony Swarzak and beat the Yankees 2-1 on Saturday.
“We have to go out and perform, but the organization’s going to make whatever decision they’re going to make,” Carlos Beltran said. “So you can’t worry about that.”
New York (49-48) dropped to 5-4 on its 10-game homestand and 19-2 in games featuring No Runs DMC. How much longer it remains together is unclear.
A little more than a week before the deadline for trades without waivers, the Yankees trail AL East-leading Baltimore by 7 1/2 games and are 4 1/2 games back of Toronto for the AL’s second wild card, with Houston, Detroit and Seattle also ahead.
“It hurts, ’cause we had opportunities to score some runs, and we weren’t able to do it.” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
His heralded trio likely won’t be available for Sunday’s series finale.
Chapman threw a season-high 36 pitches in the ninth and 10th innings after tossing 17 Friday night, and Miller’s 10 pitches in the eighth increased his two-day total to 42. Betances’ 16 pitches in the 11th made it 37 in two days for him.
Asked whether he could have pitched the 12th, Betances responded: “What are you trying to do, kill me?”
New York went ahead in the fourth after Didi Gregorius reached on an infield single leading off. Mark Teixeira, in a 1-for-15 slide and dropped to seventh in the batting order for only the third time since 2004, singled to right. Mac Williamson allowed the ball to kick off his glove for an error, and Gregorius came all the way around, tumbling across the plate.
Williamson homered off Ivan Nova in the fifth inning, and the score remained tied until the 12th. Trevor Brown hit an opposite-field double to right off Swarzak (1-1), and Williamson singled up the middle with one out, just past the glove of diving Gregorius at shortstop.
Hicks had walked leading off the 10th and advanced on Buster Posey’s passed ball. Brett Gardner walked, and Girardi told Jacoby Ellsbury to sacrifice, knowing the Giants would intentionally walk Beltran.
“You know that all you need is a sac fly, and you’ve got incredible speed on third base, and there are a lot of things that can happen there,” Girardi said. “It’s a tough call, but you want to make sure that you have that opportunity.”
New York went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position and has a .219 RISP this season.
“I’ve got to do a better job,” McCann said. “I tried to drive the baseball, got a pitch I liked. Just didn’t hit it hard enough.”
WEB GEMS
Posey flied to right with runners at the corners and one out in the first, and Pagan held at third in respect of Hicks’ strong arm. Crawford then sliced a liner to left, and Gardner stuck out his right arm to make a sliding catch. With a runner at first and two out in the second, Ramiro Pena lofted a double to the left-center gap. Gardner grabbed the wall with his bare hand and, without setting, made a one-hop throw to Gregorius about 30 feet onto the outfield grass. The shortstop then threw to McCann, who tagged Williamson at the plate.
UP NEXT
Jeff Samardzija (9-5) starts for the Giants on Sunday and Nathan Eovaldi (8-6) for the Yankees. Eovaldi beat Baltimore on Tuesday in his rotation return, ending a six-start winless streak.
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