Yankees' bullpen the culprit in loss to Nationals 

For weeks, the Yankees have proven, in ways large and small, that their season is all but over. There was the nine-game losing streak, of course. But there was also the organizational shift to focus on developing young talent now in a potential rehearsal for next year.

On Thursday afternoon, there was another, glaring sign: Their bullpen — the only truly reliable piece of this tattered team — faltered in catastrophic fashion, as the Yankees dropped the rubber game against the Nationals, 6-5, at Yankee Stadium. It was the Yankees' 10th loss in 11 games; they have either lost or tied nine straight series.

The culprit Thursday was Tommy Kahnle, who coughed up four runs in the seventh to erase a 3-1 advantage, and Clay Holmes, who gave up a pivotal run in the ninth.

“They’re right over the middle,” Kahnle said of his pitches — notably the changeup he relies on 80% of the time. “It appears that guys are starting to catch on. That’s my go-to pitch and it seems like I have to make an adjustment."

The two home runs that the Nationals hit in the seventh — both on Kahnle’s changeups — support that theory.

The Yankees, who have an MLB-best 3.25 bullpen ERA, actually got a capable performance from opener Michael King, and a duo of sterling appearances from Keynan Middleton and Jhony Brito before Kahnle was tasked with preserving the lead with two outs in the seventh and the Nationals' No. 8 hitter ahead of him.

Instead, Jake Alu hit a 100.8-mph liner to shortstop, which glanced off Anthony Volpe’s glove for a single to score Carter Kieboom from third and keep the inning alive. Alex Call then pulled an 0-and-1 changeup 411 feet to the visitor’s bullpen in left-center, giving the Nationals a 4-3 lead. The next batter, CJ Abrams, then manhandled a changeup down the middle, driving it into the rightfield stands to give the Nationals a 5-3 lead. (Volpe had also committed an error in the third that allowed a run to score.)

Giancarlo Stanton led off the eighth with a home run to cut the deficit to 1.

“We were at the back end of our bullpen,” Boone said of the decision to lift Brito, who had thrown 34 pitches but can stretch out much further than that. “You're going to have points in the season where that happens. We were set up there with Tommy, Lo [Jonathan Loaisiga] and Clay to close it out."

Kahnle has allowed eight of nine inherited runners to score this season, according to statistician Katie Sharp. He’s also allowed three homers in his last two outings. Brito, however, has historically struggled against lefties like Alu — they’re hitting .290 against him as opposed to .224 against Kahnle.

“Today, he just lacked some depth to his pitches,” Boone said of Kahnle. “When he’s really good, he’s got great arm speed and great deception with his changeup…I thought his pitches looked a little vulnerable.”

In the ninth, Holmes allowed back-to-back, two-out singles, hit Lane Thomas with a pitch and couldn't handle a swinging bunt by Joey Meneses that scored a run for a 6-4 Nationals lead.

Oswald Peraza led off the ninth with a single off closer Kyle Finnegan, Gleyber Torres added a two-out single and Stanton singled to left to draw the Yankees to within one. Down to their final at-bat, Harrison Bader skied a ball to the warning track in center — just barely corralled by Call for the final out.

“It’s been a lot of factors,” DJ LeMahieu said of the hope-dashing swoon. “It hasn’t been pretty. It hasn’t been fun.”

Patrick Corbin mostly contained the Yankees' offense, allowing three runs on seven hits with three walks and seven strikeouts over six innings. 

Four of the Yankees’ runs came courtesy of the long ball: One came from Aaron Judge to give them a 1-0 lead in the first, which came a day after he launched three homers and broke the Yankees’ nine-game losing streak. Another came from Torres in the third, a two-run shot that made it 3-1. And finally, Stanton hit his 19th homer in the eighth.

King, potentially auditioning for a starter role, was effective if not remarkable over 2 2/3 innings, allowing the unearned run on one hit with two walks and three strikeouts over 50 pitches.

The Yankees' bullpen, meanwhile, didn’t allow a run or a hit for 3 1/3 innings, until Brito let up a long double to Kieboom in the seventh. That, though, signaled the call to the bullpen, and the beginning of the end.

“It’s the big leagues and some guys are going to adjust and I’ve got to adjust better,” said Kahnle, who’s slowly ramped up from throwing his changeup just around 40% of the time five years ago. “There’s nothing I can do but just keep on going. I’ve got to work on some things and hopefully it gets better.”

Correction: Aaron Judge hit three home runs in Wednesday's Yankees game. The number of home runs was incorrect in a previous version of the story.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.