ARLINGTON — When the Yankees announced that they were pushing Marcus Stroman’s next start back on Aug. 7, the right-hander used the extra time to work on his mechanics.
That effort seemed to help Stroman, as he had a 6.32 ERA over 10 starts prior to the delay but a 2.35 ERA in four starts after it. On Wednesday, however, the veteran appeared out of sync once again, allowing five earned runs in a 10-6, series-deciding loss to the Rangers.
“Yeah,” Stroman said when asked if he felt off mechanically. “Just don’t think I executed when I needed to. They got me some long counts, and then I felt like they were able to just put the barrel on balls.”
With Stroman off — he totaled 3.2 innings and nine hits — the Yankees fell to 80-60 on the season and 40-41 since June 1. They are a half-game behind the Orioles — who lost to the historically hideous White Sox on Wednesday — after losing their third straight series.
“We gotta do better than that,” Boone said when told of his club’s record over its last 81 games. “We know we got to be better than this if we want to get to where we want to go.”
The Yankees’ outfield didn’t help the team or Stroman’s efforts on Wednesday. Such was the case in the second inning, as Leody Taveras got a double out of a ball with a 95% catch probability after it dropped in front of Aaron Judge. Ezequiel Duran followed with an RBI double, giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead after an Adolis García groundout plated a run in the first inning.
Texas scored on a Josh Smith grounder in the fourth before Wyatt Langford plated another run with a knock. The rookie, Tuesday’s walk-off hero, hustled into second after Juan Soto took his time on that play.
Nathaniel Lowe added an RBI single, which forced Stroman out of the game.
Soto made up for his defensive lapse with a two-run, opposite field homer in the fifth, but Mark Leiter Jr. inherited a jam in the sixth and surrendered a two-run double to García. Lowe then scored on a wild pitch.
While those three runs were charged to Tim Mayza, Leiter has had little success since coming over from the Cubs. He was the Yankees’ biggest — and only remaining — addition to a needy bullpen, but he has a 5.79 ERA in 16 games with the team.
A Duran double and a Langford single off Ron Marinaccio gave the Rangers two more runs in the seventh.
“You don’t always get a perfect start that you want,” Boone said. “Sometimes you got to piece things together. We just weren’t able to do it well enough tonight.”
While the Yankees’ pitching staff struggled, Nathan Eovaldi held the team to Soto’s homer over seven innings. The ex-Yank totaled four hits, three walks and six strikeouts.
Trent Grisham did mash a grand slam in the ninth as the Rangers’ bullpen tried to give the game away, but the Yankees were already in too deep of a hole.
“We need to win,” Alex Verdugo said after going 0-for-4. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to win. We get judged by winning or losing. So we just gotta find a way to scratch out 27 outs, win the game and call it that, but I think we’ve been doing a good job.”
In actuality, the Yankees have not been doing a good job.
They have now lost three straight series to inferior teams: Texas, St. Louis and Washington. The Rangers and Nationals are well below .500, while the Cardinals are hovering just above it. Then again, the Yankees have been a sub-.500 team themselves over a sample that equates to half a season.
Boone said his squad had a chance to win all three of those sets, but that obviously didn’t happen. With Baltimore also playing below its standards, the Yankees are wasting opportunities in a competitive division race with 22 games to go.
“We know what’s in front of us,” Boone said. “We gotta go take it. Nobody is gonna give it to us. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. I’m sure a lot of people out there are rooting against us. We got to have that us against the world — go take this thing, go take this division, go take this playoff opportunity. It’s all there for us. We gotta do it.”
Added Judge, who has not homered in nine straight games, his longest streak of the season: “Each game means as much as it did March 28. It’s all the same. Just because we have 22 left doesn’t mean anything to us. It’s about what we do for this next game.”
Stuck in a prolonged stretch of mediocrity after a meteoric start to the season, the Yankees have off on Thursday. They’ll start a three-game series against the Cubs, who are a few games over .500, in Chicago on Friday.
Reinforcements are coming for the Yankees, as Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt are slated to start the first two games of the series following stints on the injured list. Gerrit Cole will take the ball in the finale as the Bombers look for their first series win in a while.
“We trust each other here,” Verdugo said. “We know how good of a team we are. We know what we can do when we’re all clicking and doing the things that we need to do. So really, there’s no reason to panic. We’ve been in this tight AL race all year long and it’s just a couple series, man. We’re right there. We’re going to go to Chicago, handle business over there and kind of right the ship and just take it day by day.”
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