Cam Schlittler rocked in Yankees’ ugly loss to Tigers as skid reaches six

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The Yankees cannot afford for a Spencer Jones home run robbery to be foiled. 

They cannot afford for Cam Schlittler to struggle to any degree, much less this degree. 

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Given their sudden offensive ineptitude and that Tarik Skubal was the opposing starter, the Yankees defense and pitching needed to flirt with perfection to give them a chance. The flirtation was over within minutes. 

A rough first inning put the Yankees in a four-run hole, which felt more like a four-run canyon, in what would become a 9-3 smacking by the Tigers in front of 37,211 frustrated, booing fans in The Bronx on Tuesday. 

“We’re not scoring. That’s the name of the game,” said manager Aaron Boone, whose Yankees (48-37) have dropped a season-high six straight games, are doing nothing right, hitting particularly wrong and hearing from the crowd after each mistake. 

Never in the Yankees’ century-plus of baseball had they been held to three or fewer hits in four straight games before their four games from Friday through Monday. 

They managed to snap that streak Tuesday — only because of a couple of garbage-time knocks in the ninth doubled their output to four hits. 

They finished with one hit in six innings against Skubal, who upstaged Schlittler (four innings, six runs on four homers) in a matchup that was far more appealing on paper than on the field. 

“It’s difficult, but all we can do is show up tomorrow and get to work,” said Anthony Volpe, 2-for-21 (.095) in his past seven games. “Everyone’s pissed.” 

Ben Rice cranked a home run in the bottom of the first, but the next 13 Yankees were retired by Skubal, who sure looked like the prize of the trade deadline. 

But then again, Detroit’s Casey Mize (seven scoreless, one-hit innings) looked like a Cy Young candidate Monday. Just like Boston’s Sonny Gray (7 ¹/₃ scoreless, one-hit innings) looked like a superstar Sunday. Just like Boston’s Jake Bennett (6 ¹/₃ one-run, three-hit innings) looked like a revelation Saturday. Just like Boston’s Payton Tolle (seven scoreless, one-hit innings) looked like the AL Rookie of the Year on Friday. 

A team that does not have Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Trent Grisham and Ryan McMahon has fallen into a funk whose depth, at least when measured in hits, had never been seen before in franchise history. 

“Right now it’s kind of like the whole team is kind of going through something all at once,” said Rice, whose homer halted a five-game hitless skid. 

Paul Goldschmidt is 0-for-16 in his past five games. Cody Bellinger took a seat against Skubal amid a 2-for-27 (.074) stretch. José Caballero, who also botched a potential double-play ball that immediately preceded a three-run homer in the sixth, is 1-for-17 (.059) in his past five games. 

No one has stepped up at any part of the lineup for a team that has scored just 15 runs in six games and has not scored more than four in a contest since June 19. 

“We got some guys missing that are key, but the people we got are very capable,” said Boone, whose Yankees are ending June swooning. “And we need to start getting some of our offensive mojo back.” 

The final 8 ½ innings felt inconsequential after the top of the first, this version of the Yankees seemingly incapable of mounting threats. 

The third batter of the game, Kerry Carpenter, launched a two-out drive to deep center. Jones had a bead on it, reached the wall, jumped and used his 6-foot-7 stature to bring his glove high above the wall’s height. 

The ball landed in the glove, and Yankee Stadium cheered — before realizing that as Jones hit the wall, the ball had bounced out of his glove and into the home bullpen for a home run. Jones appeared in disbelief that he did not make the catch. 

What happened next was probably more unbelievable: 27 additional pitches from Schlittler in the frame, including homers to Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson. 

“[We are] just not playing good ball right now,” said Schlittler, whose ERA rose from 1.62 to 2.08. “It’s my job to come in here and try to stop that bleeding, and I couldn’t get that done.”