​The Yankee offense, which had begun to percolate the previous three games, fizzled Thursday in a lackluster 5-1 loss to the Astros at Yankee Stadium. The Yanks had scored 24 runs over their last three games entering the finale of a three-game series, but couldn’t get much going in support of Gerrit Cole against four Houston pitchers, including their former farmhand, starter Hayden Wesneski. Their defense didn’t help – another error by George Lombard Jr. led to a late insurance run for Houston. Lombard, the Yankees’ promising young shortstop, has made an error in six consecutive games.The Yankees, who fell to 75-58, lost the series to Houston, two games to one.Here are the takeaways…-The Yankees mustered only five hits – two by Ben Rice – and were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position in the game. Astros pitchers struck out 11 batters.
-Entering Thursday, Cole had been on a heater, much like the rest of the Yankee rotation. In his previous nine starts, Cole had a 2.45 ERA. In his previous five, it was 1.47. He wasn’t quite as pristine against Houston, where he pitched in 2018-19, allowing three runs and six hits over six frames. He struck out five and walked one. The Astros got one run off him in the third inning when Jeremy Peña scored all the way from first on Isaac Paredes’ single toward the right-field corner. In the sixth, they scored two more on Walker’s 24th home run of the season, a two-run shot that gave Houston a 3-0 lead. That homer might gnaw at Cole for this reason – with two out in the inning, he walked Daulton Varsho on a 3-2 knuckle-curve, losing a tough, seven-pitch at-bat and setting up the homer.
-Cole had some moments, though – he twice struck out Yordan Alvarez, who is leading the AL in each Triple Crown category. Cole fell one strikeout short of tying Robin Roberts (2,357) for 54th place on the all-time strikeout list. Next time.
-Before Thursday, Yankee starters had allowed two earned runs or fewer in 11 of their last 12 outings and 22 of their last 26.
-The Yankees got a run back in the bottom of the sixth when Rice led off with a double to right, moved to third on a deep fly out to center by Luis García Jr. and scored on a fly to center by Cody Bellinger. Lombard followed with a triple to center, but he was stranded when Spencer Jones fouled out, ending the inning. It was Lombard’s first career triple.
-The Astros scored a run on a bizarre play in the eighth inning when both Lombard and José Caballero made errors on the same play. With two out and a runner on second, Yainer Diaz hit a grounder toward shortstop that Lombard bungled. The ball caromed to Caballero, who threw wildly to first. Walker, who had doubled, came around to score on the error(s). Lombard has now made an error in each of his last six games. Shudder to think of the reaction if Anthony Volpe, now toiling in the minors, had a streak of six straight games with an error. According to statistician Katie Sharp, the last