Yankees looking to quickly turn page in Atlanta after Sunday's devastating loss

ATLANTA — After the Yankees kicked off their three-city, nine-game road trip with a loss in Chicago to the White Sox, Jake Bauers spoke resolutely about his confidence in the team’s ability to make a late-season run.

“There’s a lot of talent in this clubhouse,” the outfielder/first baseman said. “It’s no secret things haven’t really been going our way. At some point, everything’s going to turn around. We’re going to get hot, we’re going to win some games, and September’s going to come around and we’ll be right in it.”

A week later, with September drawing closer, it’s not a stretch to question if the Yankees will even be over .500 when the calendar changes, let alone battling for a playoff spot.

The Yankees entered Monday’s game against Atlanta (75-42), the team with MLB’s best record, two games over .500 (60-58) and five games behind the Blue Jays for the American League’s third wild-card spot. To reach the postseason, they’ll also have to jump the Mariners (63-54) and Red Sox (62-56).

“It’s not fun when you’re a couple of games over .500,” Aaron Boone said before Monday night’s game. “It’s been a slog, it’s been a grind. It’s not been how we drew it up.”

It certainly won’t be easy for the Yankees to gain ground in the next three days. Atlanta entered the series with an offense that leads MLB in runs (684), home runs (227), RBIs (661), batting average (.274) and OPS (.846).

For much of Sunday afternoon in Miami, the Yankees looked as if they’d win a series against a team with a winning record for the first time since June 23-25, when they took two of three from the Rangers.

It did not happen, as the Yankees suffered maybe their worst loss of a season filled with contenders in that category.

The Yankees led by six runs through 5 1⁄2 innings and by four going into the bottom of the ninth, but the Marlins scored five runs (four earned) off Clay Holmes and walked off with an 8-7 victory.

The inning unraveled quickly for Holmes, who allowed a leadoff double by Yuli Gurriel and committed a critical throwing error on a potential double-play ball with the bases loaded later in the inning. Tommy Kahnle, who took over for Holmes after Luis Arraez hit a two-run triple to tie it at 7, allowed an RBI single by Jake Burger to end it.

From ecstasy to excruciating in minutes, and with little time to process it.

“You’ve got to move forward,” Aaron Judge said. “This one [stinks] right here, especially with the lead we had and the at-bats we had, but we have to show up [Monday].”

The Yankees have preached resiliency throughout what has been a disappointing season, one that is growing more disappointing by the day.

Boone often has said “it’s right in front of us” in discussing his club being capable of making a run at a playoff spot, but the “it” is slowly slipping from the Yankees’ grasp.

“Obviously, we need victories, so any time you lose, it’s tough,” Boone said Sunday. “Difficult way to end the series, but we have to move on. We don’t have a lot of time [to dwell on it]. We gotta get back on the horse [Monday] and find a way.”

A horse that has continued to buck his club, never more dramatically than Sunday, when the Yankees took the kind of blow Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez delivered to Chicago’s Tim Anderson.

“The mountain gets bigger with every loss,” Holmes said. “We have to put together some wins and string them together and get some momentum going.”

Said Boone: “It’s obviously not gone how we’ve wanted it to, and it’s harder when it’s not going great. But you keep going and you keep working, and that’s what I know this group will continue to do. Hopefully we can catch fire at some point to make it interesting.”