DENVER — The Sean Casey era got off to a rousing start Friday … but it only lasted two batters.
The rest of the night, the Yankees’ offense looked a lot like the one they had in the first half of the season.
After Giancarlo Stanton’s two-run home run in the first inning, the Yankees went down quietly in a 7-2 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field, opening the second half with a fizzle.
The Yankees (49-43) led 2-0 after two batters, but managed only six hits the rest of the way and drew just one walk all night in Casey’s first game as hitting coach.
Instead it was the Rockies (35-57), owners of the third-worst record in the majors, who delivered the boom.
Their offense, led by former Yankees assistant hitting coach Hensley Meulens, crushed three home runs — one off starter Carlos Rodon and two more off the bullpen.
The loss, coupled with the Red Sox’s win over the Cubs, moved the Yankees into a last-place tie in the AL East. It’s the first time since 1992 that the Yankees have been tied for last place this late in a season, according to Stathead.
“Look, we gotta be better, plain and simple,” manager Aaron Boone said. “So I’m not worried about where we are — it’s all there in front of us. We don’t have to go on some incredible run. We control it. But we all know we gotta play better than we’re playing. We obviously gotta get the offense going.”
With 70 games to go, the Yankees (and Boston) also sit two games behind the Astros for the final wild-card spot.
“To be honest, I don’t really look at that and panic, because we’re not so far out of it that playoffs are out of reach,” catcher Kyle Higashioka said. “But at the same time, there’s a sense of urgency here that we gotta get it going pretty quickly.”
Gleyber Torres, who singled to lead off the game and finished 3-for-4, Stanton, who went 2-for-4, and DJ LeMahieu, who was 2-for-4, accounted for almost all of the offense.
The Yankees struggled to get anything going against left-hander Austin Gomber, who entered with a 6.40 ERA, and the Rockies’ bullpen.
LeMahieu accounted for the only hits from the Yankees hitting fourth through ninth in the order.
Rodon was not quite as sharp in his second start of the season as he was in his Yankees debut last week. The $162 million left-hander, who threw 5 ¹/₃ innings of two-run ball on 69 pitches on July 7 against the Cubs, built his pitch count up to 88 on Friday, but that only got him through the fifth inning.
The Rockies got to Rodon for four runs on four hits and two walks across five innings, with most of the damage coming in a three-run second inning.
“I was in a lot of hitters’ counts in that second inning and they made me pay for that,” said Rodon, who found his slider late and used it for five of his six strikeouts. “I definitely wasn’t good. I don’t know if it’s rust. It’s just baseball. It wasn’t good tonight, let’s put it that way.”
Rodon got in trouble in the second inning, when he issued a one-out walk before he allowed back-to-back singles.
Then, after one of Rodon’s three wild pitches on the night advanced the runners to second and third, No. 9 hitter Brenton Doyle lifted a two-run double over Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s head in left field to put the Rockies up 3-2.
Randal Grichuk later led off the fourth inning with a solo home run off Rodon before Kris Bryant added a two-run shot off Michael King in the seventh and Nolan Jones clobbered a solo homer off Albert Abreu in the eighth.
Against the Yankees’ scuffling offense, that was more than enough breathing room.
“I think the energy [Casey] brings to us is really [good],” Torres said. “We didn’t show anything tonight, but tomorrow is another day.”
