<
        >

          New York Yankees

          D-Rob, Dellin have an off day

          • Andrew Marchand, ESPN Senior WriterJul 27, 2014, 06:29 PM ET
            Close
              Andrew Marchand is a senior writer for ESPNNewYork. He also regularly contributes to SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, ESPNews, ESPN New York 98.7 FM and ESPN Radio. He joined ESPN in 2007 after nine years at the New York Post. Follow Andrew on Twitter »
            Follow on X

          NEW YORK -- Dellin Betances got a spike caught on the rubber, and it cost the Yankees a lead.

          David Robertson just fell asleep for a few seconds, and it helped cost the Yankees a game.

          For the first time all season, the two most reliable players on the 2014 Yankees gave up runs in the same game.

          As good as Robertson and Betances have been, you can't get on them. Still, for Joe Girardi, after losing two of three to the Blue Jays, this one hurt. The Yankees came back three times to tie the game but never could take the lead.

          "It's a frustrating loss," Girardi said after the second consecutive win for Toronto in the Bronx after losing 17 straight here.

          With two outs in the ninth, Jose Bautista stole second on Robertson.

          "You can't let a guy get a walking lead," Girardi said.

          Robertson did not disagree.

          "I wish I had done a better job of holding Bautista on first," Robertson said. "I just let him slip from my memory there for a second. That is all it took and he was on second.

          "To be honest with you, I didn't really think he'd be going. I guess I just gave him an easy time to run. I heard he just took a walking lead. I didn't see him."

          Dioner Navarro blooped a single next, and Robertson, in a rare occurrence, did not do his job.

          Betances did not fully do his either. In the seventh he did well, cleaning up David Huff's two men on, no-out mess.

          In the eighth, with the game tied, Betances walked Colby Rasmus on four pitches to lead off and then moved him all the way to third with an errant throw to first on a pickoff.

          "The throwing error is what killed him," Girardi said.

          Girardi said that Betances' spike got caught on the rubber.

          "I tried to be quick instead of taking my time," Betances said.

          Betances then let up a sac fly to Munenori Kawasaki, which gave the Jays a lead. Afterward, Betances, a deserving All-Star as a rookie, seemed down.

          "I saw him in there and I said, 'It happens,'" Robertson said. "'Look at me, I didn't have my great stuff today. You can't get down on yourself.' He is going to get plenty of opportunities, and he has electric stuff, one bad outing isn't going to bring him down."

          No, it shouldn't, but this was a bad loss for the Yankees, whose playoff chances can probably break either way depending on games like this. It was a little odd to see, the strength of this club not coming through for a day.

          "It tells you how good they've been and how important they have been to our success," Girardi said.

          Robertson added, "Today just wasn't our day. We have been doing a pretty good job of pitching out of the bullpen. I just didn't have my sharp stuff today and I wasn't able to get it done."