MIAMI — The Yankees loss on Friday night was the kind that could keep them up at night.
“Melatonin helps,” manager Aaron Boone said with a grin before another loss, 2-0, to the Marlins on Saturday afternoon.
The bewildering 13-12 loss to the Marlins was difficult to swallow — blowing leads of 6-0 in the fifth inning, 9-4 in the seventh and 12-10 in the ninth — especially with their newest trade deadline acquisitions each having a hand in making it happen.
The three new Yankees relievers — Jake Bird, David Bednar and Camilo Doval — combined to give up nine runs (seven earned) on nine hits and two walks across 2 ¹/₃ innings, while new utilityman José Caballero committed a costly error in right field in the bottom of the ninth.
Still, one brutal game did not change how the Yankees feel about the impact they brought in at Thursday’s deadline.
“It’s one of those that you wake up and it’s like, ‘Dang, that still happened,’ ” Boone said. “But there’s also, walking in here, some comfort in knowing that what we did at the deadline to fortify our bullpen is real. While [Friday] obviously did not go well, there’s still a lot of confidence in what we have down there moving forward. That flips my brain for a day.”
In his first start as a big leaguer where he was not necessarily looking over his shoulder, Cam Schlittler turned in his best one yet.
The rookie right-hander, whose spot in the rotation was solidified Friday when the Yankees released Marcus Stroman to make room for Luis Gil’s season debut Sunday, was solid across five innings.
He struck out six, walked two and gave up four hits.
Schlittler got hurt by two swings — a pair of solo home runs by former Yankees prospect Agustín Ramírez, which was enough to be the difference on a day when Boone’s club was suffocated by Eury Pérez.
“I think it was obviously a lot better than last week, just trying to get the offspeed in the zone, trying to get the fastball in the zone,” said Schlittler, who gave up three runs in 4 ¹/₃ innings against the Rays his last time out.
Mark Leiter Jr. (left fibular head stress fracture) threw a scoreless inning in a rehab game Saturday night with Double-A Somerset.
It’s possible the reliever might only need one game before returning to the Yankees as soon as their next series against the Rangers.
“We’ll see how today goes and then make a call here in the next couple days,” Boone said. “If we want one more or if we take him in Texas, we’ll see.”
“The hits they really had were just me being behind in the counts. When I was ahead, I got good results. Just trying to work on getting ahead, staying ahead and not letting them get those opportunities.”
Ryan McMahon’s defense has been as advertised since arriving in a trade from the Rockies, giving the Yankees a stabilizing presence at third base that they have not had in a few years.
“His clock is excellent,” Boone said. “He really seems to slow it down over there. I used to say about Gio [Urshela], it’s like he’s slipping into a warm bath. McMahon’s got that a little bit too.”
Aaron Judge (right flexor strain) took on-field batting practice Saturday for the second straight day before flying to Tampa, where he will get a few days of live at-bats.
If that goes well, he could be activated off the injured list as soon as Tuesday.
Fernando Cruz (oblique strain) got on the mound Friday for the first time since late June, throwing a light bullpen session as he tries to make a return to the bullpen by late August.
“He felt really good,” Boone said.
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