Yankees' offense still awful in loss to Rays

Yankees bats fall silent — again — in another loss to the Rays, this time 4-0 at Tropicana Field on Saturday.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees couldn’t get runs if they chugged a pot of coffee.

For the second straight day, the lowly Rays smothered the Yankees’ powerful bats, this time to the tune of a 4-0 defeat at Tropicana Field on Saturday.

Somebody named Wilmer Font held the Yankees scoreless for 5 2/3 innings while his counterpart, Sonny Gray, let Tampa Bay ahead early.

Manager Aaron Boone’s offense — with rest days given to second baseman Gleyber Torres and catcher Gary Sanchez — scraped together just four hits a day after netting only five in a 2-1 loss to the Rays.

What it means

The Yankees lost back-to-back games for the first time since May 22-23 in Texas. That’s also the last time they had lost a series.

The have scored just one run in 25 innings and four runs in their last three games.

The Yankees were shut out for the second time in two weeks. Their first blanking had come at the hands of the Mets in Citi Field on June 10. Before that, they hadn’t been shut out all season.

The Yankees started the day a game ahead in the American League East. The second-place Red Sox were slated to host the Mariners later Saturday night.

How it happened

The Rays jumped out to a quick three-run lead.

A leadoff single from Kevin Kiermaier led to Jake Bauers’ one-out double bringing him home for Tampa Bay’s first run.

The nabbed another two in the second inning. C.J. Cron and Daniel Robertson hit back-to-back doubles to start the frame. Robertson’s scored Cron. A sacrifice bunt from Mallex Smith moved Robertson to third base before No. 9 hitter Will Adames drove him in with a single.

The Yankees had the infield in on Adames and his light chopper bounced between third base and shortstop.

The Yankees wasted leadoff doubles from Giancarlo Stanton (second inning) and Austin Romine (third inning).

Stanton had runners on the corners with two outs in the sixth but struck out swinging. The Yankees went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded four runners.

Good and bad Gray

Gray had looked like he was starting to turn around an otherwise awful season. In four June starts, Gray was 2-0 with a 2.63 ERA.

Nope.

Gray took another step back in a season filled with them, putting the Yankees in an early 3-0 hole because he couldn’t limit hard contact to start the first two innings.

Of course, he rebounded, retiring 15 straight batters until Adames crushed a solo homer to right field that made it a 4-0 Rays lead and ended his night.Gray’s final line: 6 2/3 innings, four earned runs, six hits, seven strikeouts and a walk.

Boone brought in Shreve for Gray. Shreve loaded the bases with a pair of walks sandwiched around a single but got Wilson Ramos to strike out to keep the game from completely getting away from the Yankees.

You should know

Brett Gardner finished 0-for-4. Greg Bird went 0-for-2 with a walk.

Neil Walker started in place of Torres and went hitless.

In the ninth, the Yankees sent Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorius and Giancarlo Stanton to the plate against Sergio Romo. They went down in order.

NEXT

Sunday: Yankees RHP Domingo German (2-4, 4.77 ERA) vs. TBD Rays pitcher, 1:10 p.m. at Tropicana Field.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.