Yankees lose series to White Sox, kissing AL East hopes goodbye

Yankees fall 4-1 to White Sox to lose the rubber game of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium.

NEW YORK — The Yankees‘ American League East hopes once again are slip, slipping away.

Some of the ground made up on the first place Boston Red Sox last week already has been lost because the Yankees couldn’t take care of business at home against one of baseball’s worst ballclubs.

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As great as the Yankees have been all season – as good as they’ve been playing with several injured stars on the disabled list – they can’t be losing series at Yankee Stadium to the Chicago White Sox in the dog days of August.

The White Sox bested the Yankees for the second time in three days on Wednesday night, prevailing 4-1.

Meantime up in Boston, the Red Sox smoked the Miami Marlins 14-6 at Fenway Park, and now the gap between the top two teams in the division is 7 1/2 games with the regular season down to a month. The Yanks were 10 1/2 back on Aug. 18, but got to within six games last Sunday after sweeping a four-games series in Baltimore.

The Yanks have 29 games remaining, one more than the Red Sox. The clubs play six more times next month, three in New York from Sept. 18-20 and three in Boston on the final weekend of the regular season.

The Yanks’ effort in the rubber game against the ChiSox – most of the series, actually was lackluster.

“I walk in there pissed off every night when we lose,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s disheartening whoever we lose against. I don’t get caught up in the opponent; We’ve got to win this many against this team.

“It’s today and we’re going out and we’re laying it on the line and that’s the expectation and I feel like we like we do a really good job of that.

“In this game of Major League Baseball, 162 (regular-season games), the bottom line is you’re going to have some bumps where you lose to a team that maybe you don’t think we should lose to. And that’s always frustrating. The losses stink.”

A night after rallying from a 4-0 sixth-inning deficit to win 5-4 on a ninth-inning walk-off homer by Neil Walker, the Yankees fell behind 2-0 in the second inning and never caught up.

Yankees starter CC Sabathia (7-5) finished with a respectable final line – three runs on five hits over six innings – but he allowed three runs in the first four frames.

White Sox left fielder Ryan LaMarre was the hitting star of the game, as he was 3-for-4 with a homer, two doubles and all four RBI batting out of the No. 8 hole.

Facing Sabathia, LaMarre drove in the game’s first three runs by lacing a two-run, two-out double in the third off right fielder Giancarlo Stanton’s glove and a two-out RBI double to left in the fourth.

“Two strikes both times,” Sabathia said. “That was frustrating. I’ve just got to make better pitches. (LaMarre) hit some pitches that I didn’t execute.”

LaMarre later greeted reliever Chad Green with a homer to left in the seventh to make it a 4-1 game.

Meantime, the Yankees didn’t do much at the plate for the second time this month against White Sox righty starter Reynaldo Lopez, who allowed one run and five hits over seven innings.

On Aug. 7, Lopez (5-9) also had a one-run, seven-inning outing against the Yankees in Chicago, a game in which the Yankees prevailed 4-3 in 13 innings.

Ronald Torreyes drove in the Yankees’ only run with a bases-loaded, one-out single in the fifth that made it a 3-1 game, but Lopez struck out Brett Gardner for the second out and Torres was thrown out at the plate by catcher Kevan Smith trying to score on a wild pitch.

“We are aggressive on the bases and it was an opportunity to score,” Torres said. “I know I was out, but the catcher and pitcher made a really good play.”

NOTABLE

— Right fielder Giancarlo Stanton was 0-for-3 with a walk, leaving him 2-for-26 in his last seven games, but he hit balls home-run distance that curled foul and was out on a scorched groundball to third.

— Second baseman Gleyber Torres stayed in the game after suffering a bloody left hand when he was spiked by Yolmer Sanchez during a seventh-inning caught stealing. Torres led off the bottom of the inning with a line single to left. After the game, Torres said his hand “is really good.”

— First baseman Greg Bird ended an 0-for-21 skid with a second-inning double to right. He finished 1-for-3 with two flyouts and ended the night hitting .198.

— Gary Sanchez caught all nine innings and he didn’t hit the ball hard going 0-for-4 playing another Triple-A rehab game. He’s now 3-for-12 (.250) in three games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and 3-for-15 (.200) in four overall games counting one rookie league contest.

LOOKING AHEAD

Thursday, Detroit Tigers at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., YES. LHP Francisco Liriano (3-9, 4.82) vs. LHP J.A. Happ (15-6, 3.80).

Friday, Detroit Tigers at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., YES. RHP Jordan Zimmermann (6-6, 4.38) vs. RHP Luis Severino (17-6, 3.27).

Saturday, Detroit Tigers at Yankees, 4:05 p.m., YES & FS1. TBA vs. RHP Masahiro Tanaka (9-5. 3.97).

Sunday, Detroit Tigers at Yankees, 1:05 p.m., YES. LHP Matthew Boyd (8-12, 4.22) vs. RHP Lance Lynn (8-9, 4.84).