When a team goes through these kinds of losing streaks, it's important for us to remember that things can get better.
Can, not will.
Unfortunately, that negative philosophy is one we'll have to use when looking at tonight's game, as the Yankees fell to the Blue Jays 7-6, their fourth consecutive loss.
In the last three, as you probably already know, the Yanks never fell by less than five, at first appearing to make this contest an improvement.
However, after a quick look at the boxscore that belief is revealed as a misconception, as everything from the Bombers' hitting with RISP to their starting pitching struggled in this evening's defeat.
To start things off, David Phelps gave up six earned runs in just 5 innings of work, with a long three-run home run from Dioner Navarro and a two-run single from Colby Rasmus highlighting his bad outing.
On that hit by Rasmus, a failed rundown by Derek Jeter allowed a third run to score, bringing the Jays' lead to 6-0 and again making the Yanks look done.
Fortunately, that wouldn't quite be the case, as the Pinstripes would rally to tie it up in the sixth and seventh when Jeter somewhat made up for his earlier mistake with a shot to left, Brian Roberts drove in a pair with another homer off Mark Buehrle (6.2 IP, 4 ER), Jacoby Ellsbury singled home Brett Gardner, and a two-out, two-run throwing error by Jose Reyes made the score even at 6.
Still, none of that would matter due to a disastrous ninth from the Bombers, in which they failed to get Gardner in from third and lost in the Jays' half of the frame, when Yangervis Solarte threw a Melky Cabrera sac bunt into foul territory.
Prior to that error, Adam Warren allowed a lead-off double to the aforementioned Reyes, causing him to take the loss, his fourth already this season.
Besides him, though, the Pinstripes' bullpen was actually pretty good (getting a combined three scoreless innings from Matt Thornton and Dellin Betances), a fact that can only make this defeat more painful, as the Yanks are now 3.5 games out of first place.