DENVER – This weekend represents a lose-lose situation for the Yankees at Coors Field.
If they win, they are supposed to.
If they lose, it will be treated by some as a catastrophic event against the historically awful Rockies.
Friday represented the latter, and while the sky did not immediately fall on the Yankees, perhaps that is just because it was reserved for the Knicks back in New York.
Facing the team that was off to the worst 50-game start to a season in the modern era at 8-42, the Yankees fell flat in a 3-2 loss to the Rockies in front of a jubilant sellout crowd of 47,211 at Coors Field.
The Yankees (30-20) came into the night on a four-game winning streak, having won 11 of their last 14, while the Rockies (9-42) were on a five-game losing streak, having lost 17 of their last 19 games.
And, well, that’s baseball, Suzyn?
“For those of us who have been around this game for a long, long time – it’s baseball,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game. “Anything can happen on any given night.”
Aaron Judge, playing his first career game at Coors Field, had put the Yankees ahead 2-1 in the top of the fifth with his 17th home run of the season in a 2-for-4 effort.
But the Rockies came back to take the lead in the bottom of the inning after Clarke Schmidt recorded two quick outs.
Ezequiel Tovar and Hunter Goodman extended the frame with back-to-back singles, knocking Schmidt out of the game at 97 pitches, with Boone calling on lefty Tim Hill to face the left-handed hitting Ryan McMahon with runners on the corners.
McMahon delivered a two-run double that hit off the top of the center-field wall, putting the Rockies ahead 3-2 and doing what no other lefty hitter had done against Hill this season: record an extra-base hit.
Entering the night, lefties were 3-for-35 against Hill with three singles, but McMahon pounced on an inside sinker to do damage.
The Yankees could not scratch across any offense the rest of the way as Tanner Gordon tossed six innings of two-run ball before handing it off to the Rockies bullpen, with Jake Bird, Seth Halvorsen and Zach Agnos each tossing a scoreless frame to pull off the upset.
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