Rough start for Carlos Rodon as last-place Yankees lose fourth straight

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Mets aren’t the only New York baseball team that should consider selling before the trade deadline.

The Yankees, looking every bit like the last-place team they currently are, lost to the Angels, 7-3, Wednesday night to finish a six-game trip that was nothing short of a disaster.

The Yankees (50-47), who have lost four straight and nine of their last 11 to fall to the bottom of the AL East, went 1-5 on the trip, which began with them losing two of three to the NL West cellar-dwelling Rockies.

“We stink right now,” Aaron Boone said. “We acknowledge that.”

The Yankees’ play of late left them no choice but to acknowledge it.

The Yankees, who struck out 16 times for a total of 42 in the series — which established a team record for a three-game set — are off Thursday before playing the Royals, last in the AL Central, Friday night in front of what is sure to be a surly Yankee Stadium crowd.

“It’s obviously frustrating,” said rookie Anthony Volpe, who went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

A second straight poor outing by Carlos Rodon and — no surprise here — little offensive production sunk the Yankees Wednesday against an Angels team that entered the series having lost 11 of its last 13 but departed it feeling far better about themselves.

The Yankees have had that effect more often than not on the opposition — starting pitchers especially — in this stretch without Aaron Judge. They are 15-22 since the reigning AL MVP last played June 3, dropping them 3 ½ games behind the Blue Jays for the third and final AL wild-card spot. The Angels (49-48), who are without Mike Trout, climbed within a game of the Yankees in the wild-card standings.

“We’re not very good right now, we understand that. Certainly this is a low point for us,” Boone said. “This doesn’t feel good when you’re getting your teeth kicked in and you have a bad road trip or you’re going through a tough stretch. But we have to deal with it . . . ”

Rodon, signed to a six-year, $162-million free agent deal over the winter, has not been a great story in his brief time since coming off the injured list, turning in the worst of his three starts. He allowed six runs — all in the first three innings to put his club in a 6-0 hole — four hits and five of the Yankees’ 11 walks overall in 4 1⁄3 innings, which lifted his season ERA to 7.36.

“Haven’t really done my job at all,” said Rodon, who engaged in some bad optics while walking off the field in the second inning when he blew a kiss to heckling Yankees fans behind the visitor’s dugout.

The Yankees, who outhit the Angels 8-6, didn’t get their first run until Giancarlo Stanton’s 12th homer of the season, a solo shot off righthander Chase Silseth in the sixth. The Yankees scored a second run in the inning off righty reliever Jose Soriano to make it 6-2. Franchy Cordero’s homer off lefty Matt Moore, his fifth, in the eighth made it 6-3. Moore struck out the next three batters, running the Yanks’ strikeout total to 15.

The Angels tagged Tommy Kahnle for a run in the bottom of the eighth to make it 7-3.

The Yankees, meanwhile, are running out of caps to tip to rival starters, with the 23-year-old Silseth the latest in an endless line of them. Silseth, called up earlier in the day from Triple-A Salt Lake and 1-1 with a 5.30 ERA in nine appearances (one start), allowed one run, four hits and a walk over 5 2⁄3 innings in which he struck out a career-best 10. His previous best was six.

“The silver lining in it all is it’s in front of us and we control that,” Boone said. “Acknowledging that we’re not in a good place as a team right now, we’re not playing anywhere near the ball we need to be able to play to put ourselves in a good position at the end of the season, but understanding that we are in the fight and we need to continue to stay in the fight and understand that we control all of this with our play.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.