Yankees' offensive struggles hit new lows in shutout loss to Athletics
NEW YORK – One look at the record confirms the Yankees' solid April start, though some unsettling offensive concerns are growing by the day.
In particular, the troubles of Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres continued Monday afternoon, as the Yankees (15-8) were shut out for the fourth time this season, this time by the Oakland Athletics (9-14).
Overall, the Yankees collected just three hits in a 2-0 loss at Yankee Stadium, with 30,366 fans as groaning witnesses.
Even the Mayor of Right Field, the .322-hitting Juan Soto, went 0-for-4. But Judge (0-for-4, two strikeouts, double play grounder) is in a 3-for-28 (.107) slide with 16 strikeouts.
And Torres (0-for-3, two strikeouts), who hammered a foul ball off his leg Sunday, is in a 6-for-43 spinout (.140), with 16 strikeouts.
"Just scuffling a bit. We've got to mount more than that, obviously,'' said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, gone early from Monday's game, in one of the most bizarre ejections you'll ever see.
It appeared that someone in the stands shouted something negatively at plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt, who’d already warned Boone about chirping about an appealed call.
Boone was tossed just five pitches into the game and was forced to watch from his office as ex-Yankees lefty prospect JP Sears tossed seven shutout innings.
Wasting Carlos Rodon's best outing so far
Yankee lefty Carlos Rodon had his best start of the young year, yielding just one hit with two walks across seven scoreless innings.
After using 101 pitches over just four innings in his last start, a loss at Toronto, Rodon expanded well on his heavy fastball-slider mix, utilizing his cutter to good effect.
“Always had the confidence’’ in that pitch, which Rodon is “just using more.’’
In the ninth, .195-hitting Zack Geloff launched an opposite field two-run homer off Yanks lefty reliever Victor Gonzalez, and the Yanks went down meekly against Mason Miller in their half.
After Lucas Erceg's effective two relief innings, Miller struck out the side, including Judge, who had trouble catching up with the fastball - including a 94 mph heater by Sears on a full count in the fourth, when he struck out the side.
"We all know how great he is,'' said Soto of Judge. "At the end of the day, we'll trust him. I’m not worried about him at all.''
Torres had a few caught-in-between swings against Sears, who fanned seven Yankees and yielded just three hits and one walk.
"It was definitely tough to pick up the spin off him,'' Soto said of Sears, particularly the slider, which was "a good pitch for him. Just a white thing coming at you.''
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Yankees offense issues hit new lows in loss to Athletics
