Cam Schlittler shaky, Yankees’ bats worse in sweep-clinching loss to Rays

As it turns out, Cam Schlittler is human.

The Yankees‘ young star hasn’t been at his best recently, and that continued in their 5-4, sweep-clinching loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field — recording their fifth loss in a row. Schlittler tossed five innings, allowing three runs on eight hits while striking out eight. The right-hander reached 99.5 mph, as the velocity on his fastball saw a small uptick — 0.3 mph — on the afternoon.

Schlittler, coming off his worst outing of the season, allowed three runs in five innings to the A’s on April 7, didn’t deliver one of his dominant outings for a lineup that desperately needed it for most of the afternoon.

Drew Rasmussen kept the struggling Bombers at bay for the entirety of his outing. The Rays starter tossed six shutout innings, allowing just one hit while striking out seven. The Yanks had no answer for the veteran righty and didn’t score their first run of the game until the seventh inning on a Cody Bellinger single.

Giancarlo Stanton also knocked in another run in the seventh on an RBI groundout to make the game 4-2.

Aaron Boone’s stable didn’t exactly do its job either, as Ryan Yarbrough allowed a run in his lone inning of work in the sixth, as did Brent Headrick in the eighth — and this would end up hurting them. With the Bombers trailing three in the ninth, Aaron Judge swatted a two-run homer to right-center field – his fourth of the season — to bring the Yanks to within one.

Ryan McMahon later stepped up with runners on first and second and promptly grounded out to first, ending the game at 5-4. The struggling Yanks will head back to the Bronx to take on the Angels on Monday night. Will Warren will look to continue his strong season against Angels southpaw Yusei Kikuchi.