Facing Cincinnati closer Alexis Diaz in the ninth, the Yankees’ best hope, as it often does, was waiting for Aaron Judge to get to the plate.
Unfortunately for the Yankees, they needed two batters to reach base to get to Judge — who is making up most of their offense these days.
But Trent Grisham struck out looking, pinch-hitter Austin Wells flied to right and the slumping Anthony Volpe popped out to end a 5-4 loss in front of another big crowd in The Bronx.
With the loss, the Yankees have dropped six of their past eight and nine of their past 12.
They had hoped to have put a subpar June behind them Sunday by closing out the month with a win in Toronto that featured Gerrit Cole’s best performance since returning from the IL.
But the same worrying trends that have hurt the Yankees for much of the last month were evident again Tuesday.
Luis Gil had a third straight ugly outing, unable to get an out in the fifth inning, part of what’s been a growing rough patch for much of the rotation.
Still, after being down by five runs in the fifth inning, the Yankees came back with three in the sixth before Judge’s onslaught continued with another homer an inning later that brought them to within a run.
But the Yankees didn’t get another base runner the rest of the game.
It made the starting pitching woes more pronounced, as no Yankees starter has pitched more than five innings since Nestor Cortes tossed seven innings against Atlanta on June 23.
Tuesday, Gil showed some improvement from his previous two disasters, when he’d allowed 12 runs in just 5 ²/₃ innings.
This time, after a walk to Jonathan India to start the game, Gil retired the next nine batters.
But Elly De La Cruz snapped the streak with a leadoff triple to right in the fourth.
It led to the game’s first run, as De La Cruz scored when Jeimer Candelario followed with an RBI groundout to second.
That was followed by back-to-back walks before Nick Martini flied out to deep right-center.
With runners on the corners and two out, Gil got Noelvi Marte to fly out to right to keep it a one-run game.
Gil, though, stumbled again in the fifth, hitting Stuart Fairchild with a 1-2 changeup then allowing a two-run homer to center to Will Benson.
Gil continued to unravel, as he followed Benson’s home run by drilling India.
That proved to be it for the right-hander after four-plus innings.
Caleb Ferguson entered and immediately gave up a long two-run home run into the visiting bullpen to De La Cruz to make it 5-0
The struggling Ferguson has been scored upon in four of his past six appearances, and the Yankees have lost each of the past six times the lefty has pitched.
The Yankees’ offense finally got to right-hander Graham Ashcraft — who had an ERA of 8.53 in his previous four starts — in the sixth, with a single by Aaron Judge to start, a walk by Alex Verdugo followed by an RBI single from Gleyber Torres.
Facing Nick Martinez, Ben Rice hit a two-run double to right to cut the deficit to 5-3.
Judge’s 32nd homer, a solo shot to left with two outs off lefty Sam Moll in the seventh, made it 5-4.
Scoreless innings out of the bullpen from Jake Cousins, Tommy Kahnle and a pair of shutout frames from Luke Weaver helped keep the Yankees in the game.
As for the rotation, Thursday starter Marcus Stroman has been shaky in two of his three previous starts, and Cortes, who won’t pitch this series, was solid for three straight outings before a stumble in Toronto his last time out.
Most worrisome is Wednesday’s starter, Carlos Rodon — who, along with Gil, has seen his season upended recently.
In his past three starts, Rodon has allowed 20 earned runs, along with 28 hits, six walks and five homers in just 13 ²/₃ innings.
It’s taken the lefty’s ERA from 2.93 to 4.42 and brought to mind plenty of bad memories from his first season in The Bronx.
“I feel all those guys have given us reason to believe they should go out and perform,’’ Aaron Boone said before the game. “There’s optimism there, but obviously we want to be more consistent, too.”