Yankees lose fifth straight, drop out of top wild-card spot

At least they had Derek Jeter.

For much of Wednesday night at the Stadium, the most consistent cheering from the 25,873 in attendance came between innings when various tributes to Jeter, officially inducted into the Hall of Fame earlier in the day, played on the towering scoreboard in center.

There was the exception caused by Brett Gardner’s tying three-run homer, but that was the exception.

Otherwise, it was another no-show from an offense that continues to be in a deep slumber, leading to the Yankees’ fifth straight defeat, this one a 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays.

The Yankees' ninth loss in the last 11 games cost them, for the moment, the top wild-card spot in the American League as the Red Sox rallied to beat the AL East-leading Rays on Wednesday night. The Yankees (78-61) are a half-game behind Boston and 1 1/2 games ahead of Toronto. The Blue Jays (76-62), who have won seven straight and 10 of 11, have gained eight games on the Yankees in the last 12 days.

"We just haven't been playing good baseball," said Gardner, who hammered a full-count fastball from rookie righthander Alek Manoah 408 feet to right-center with two outs in the fifth to tie it at 3-3. "And, obviously, that's something we've got to figure out here in relatively short order or our season will be over in short order."

Before Gardner's homer, the Yankees had managed only one run and 16 hits, all singles, in the previous 25 innings.

Marcus Semien led off the seventh with a slow roller that Andrew Velazquez barehanded, then threw away. It was scored as an infield single and an error, putting Semien at second. Clay Holmes struck out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and got Bo Bichette to ground out, but Teoscar Hernandez poked a 1-and-0 fastball to right for an RBI single to make it 4-3.

Toronto made it 5-3 in the eighth off Chad Green when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. tripled to right — the ball ricocheted off the rightfield wall and past Aaron Judge back toward the infield — and pinch runner Jarrod Dyson scored on Jake Lamb’s sacrifice fly to right.

In the ninth, Guerrero lined Aroldis Chapman's third pitch over the leftfield wall for his 41st homer. Chapman’s struggles showed no signs of abating as the closer was pulled with two on and two outs (Wandy Peralta got the third out).

A bright spot for the Yankees, other than Gardner’s blast, came much earlier in the night with rookie righthander Luis Gil, though his performance was a mixed bag.

Gil had not allowed a run in 15 2/3 innings in his first three starts. After escaping a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the third, he ran that mark to 18 2/3 innings to set a franchise record. According to Elias, the previous record was Slow Joe Doyle's career-opening 18-inning scoreless streak in 1906.

But Gil, whom the Yankees are considering for some kind of role down the stretch, saw the command issues so much a part of his minor league development rear their head. He allowed only one hit and struck out six in 3 1/3 innings but walked seven, becoming the first Yankee to do that since Joba Chamberlain walked seven on Aug. 6, 2009 against the Red Sox.

After Gil allowed three straight one-out walks in the fourth, Lucas Luetge's first pitch was in the dirt, and the wild pitch made it 1-0. Semien’s two-out, two-run single made it 3-0, with all three runs charged to Gil.

"It’s still in our hands," said Aaron Boone, whose team slipped to 28-35 against the AL East. "We have to be able to get past this and trust that what we're capable of doing is next. I could sit here and talk about it, but talk becomes cheap. We have to go out and perform and we’re not doing it at a high enough level right now."

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.