MIAMI (AP) - The Yankees blew a two-run lead, committed three errors, struck out 11 times and lost Wednesday night to the last-place Marlins.
Bring on Baltimore.
Lance Lynn gave up five runs in the sixth inning, and New York’s four-game winning streak ended with a sloppy 9-3 defeat.
Trailing first-place Boston by nine games in the AL East, the Yankees can’t afford losses to last-place teams, and manager Aaron Boone knows it. After a day off New York will begin a four-game series at Baltimore, which has the worst record in baseball.
“We didn’t do a lot great down here,” Boone said. “We’ve got to get after it starting Friday. Obviously these are important. We’ve got to play better than we did tonight. We’re getting into that crunch time.”
The loss came hours after All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman went on the disabled list with left knee tendinitis. He joined three injured regulars on the Yankees’ disabled list, and the offense looked depleted as New York split the two-game series.
The Yankees totaled 10 hits in the final 17 innings against Miami.
Giancarlo Stanton, playing in Miami for the first time since the Marlins traded him last November, went 1 for 3 with an RBI and finished 3 for 9 in the series. He remained at 299 career homers.
Lynn (8-9) had a 2-0 lead in the sixth, but Miguel Rojas’ three-run homer put the Marlins ahead to stay.
“A couple of infield hits, and then a home run,” Lynn said. “I made one bad pitch, and it costs you three runs.”
What made his fastball to Rojas a bad pitch?
“It went over the fence,” Lynn said.
The homer was the 10th for Rojas, who had never hit more than one in a season before this year.
Attendance was 25,547, including lots of Yankees fans, and many of them had departed by the time Miami’s J.T. Riddle delivered a two-run, pinch-hit homer in the eighth.
Neil Walker drove in two runs for New York with a double and a sacrifice fly, and Stanton had an RBI infield hit in the seventh.
Miami’s Trevor Richards allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings and struck out nine. Jarlin Garcia (2-2) retired both batters he faced.
Lynn was charged with five runs for the second game in a row. He worked 5 1/3 innings.
BRAIN CRAMP
A mental lapse cost the Yankees in the seventh. When Miami’s Brian Anderson tried to steal second and Starlin Castro took ball four, catcher Austin Romine made a needless and wild throw to second. That allowed Anderson to advance to third, and he scored an unearned run on a groundout.
SLUMP
Yankees first baseman Greg Bird went 0 for 10 in the series, dropping his batting average to .202.
“It’s not fun going out and not performing,” he said. “You’ve just got to keep going in anything, in life. That’s what I fall back on.”
FAMILY MOTIVATION
Rojas’ mother, sister and grandfather, who all live in his native Venezuela, attended the game.
“They don’t spend that much time with me here in the States,” he said, “but when they come here I try to play with a little more intensity, because I want them to enjoy their time here.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: RHP David Robertson, who has been nursing a tender shoulder, said he was available to pitch.
UP NEXT
Yankees: LHP CC Sabathia (7-4, 3.32 ERA) is scheduled to start for the first time since Aug. 12 at Baltimore on Friday. Sabathia has been sidelined with right knee inflammation. The Yankees are only 6-6 this year against the Orioles.
Marlins: RHP Elieser Hernandez (2-6, 5.08) is scheduled to start Thursday when Miami opens a four-game series at home against first-place Atlanta.
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