Well, the Yankees have returned to their losing ways. Yesterday, in the first game of their three games series against the Toronto Blue Jays, they lost 1-7 despite Clarke Schmidt (who has had a better than expected season) being on the mound.

Today, with another much improved pitcher, Michael King on the mound, they lost again – this time 1-6. This time, though, the starting pitcher had very little to do with the loss. The main feature of King’s season has been the way that the Yankees have been able to build his stamina, so he has gone from being a long reliever to one of the starters. In these days of many injured Yankees’ starters, this has proved a key element. Today, he delivered up 7 innings for only 1 run, and a career-high 13 strikeouts. And still the Yankees lost.

The key thing is that their batters are even more feeble than they have been all season. Gleyber Torres, Austin Wells and Oswaldo Cabrera were the only ones in the line-up to deliver a hit. No surprise that Torres made it to base with a hit and a walk. Something of a huge suprise that Wells was the strongest of the batters. Picking up any hit would have been a huge day for him. To perform as he did was a huge confidence builder, both for himself and the fans and coaches looking on.

In the first, King struck out the Toronto batters 1-2-3. In his turn, Kevin Gausman was less convincing. He walked Aaron Judge and Torres back-to-back, but the inning ended suddenly when designated hitter, Giancarlo Stanton hit into a 6-3 doubleplay. Unlike Wells, Stanton is really not taking his opportunities.

There were two more strikeouts for King in the second, whilst Cabrera (batting seventh and in leftfield today) delivered a single after Gausman struck out Anthony Volpe.

And then came the pantomime. Aaron Boone has decided that his main tool in seeking to motivate his batters is to get into a row with the home plate umpire. The outcome is inevitable, and once again he was ejected. It’s a tired old routine, and it achieves nothing. He has been thrown out of the game far more than any other major league skipper this season. It is just simply tiresome.

Oswald Peraza and Estevan Florial were both struck out swinging in the midst of all this nonsense, and the Yankees went into the third with the game all square.

The third was King’s weakest inning. After getting Daulton Varsho to fly out to left, and Alejandro Kirk to strikeout, King temporarily lost his way. He gave up consecutive singles to Kevin Kiermaier, George Springer, and Bo Bichette. The last of these brought Kiermaier home. 1-0. Cavan Biggio then hit a soft one back to King, who completed the out by throwing to first baseman DJ LeMahieu.

Judge walked for the second time, and despite a single from Torres, the Yankees’ half of the inning was fruitless, with Stanton hitting a weak popfly into foul territory.

A double from Whit Merrifield was the only hit in the fourth, with both King and Gausman adding two more strikeouts to their tally.

The Blue Jays kept the edge in every way, in the fifth. King struck out Springer, but Gausman struck out LeMahieu, and Judge, in order for the Toronto outfit to preserve the narrowest of leads.

In the sixth, King tried to give the Yankees the momentum as he struck out the side in order. And when Wells hit a ground rule double with one out, it seemed that there might be something in the air. The Yankees reckoned, though, without Stanton who struck out, leaving Volpe to feebly bring an end to the inning.

King survived the seventh despite a single, a stolen base, and a wild pitch. A familiar face replaced Gausman in the bottom of the seventh, with former Yankee Chad Green coming in to strikeout two as he delivered an inning without any hitches.

If the Yankees were going to lose anyway, their pitching substitution ensured that they did. Tommy Kahnle gave up 4 walks (3 consecutively), and two wild pitches. Kahnle was lifted amidst the meltdown for Ian Hamilton, but there was no immediate improvement. Hamilton walked Merrifield with the bases loaded, and by the time the Yankees stumbled somehow out of the inning, they were very lucky only to be three down.

A team performing this badly must look for small positives. After Hamilton gave up 3 more runs in the ninth (on four hits and a walk), Greg Weissert was brought on to get the final out, leaving the runless Yankees half-an-inning to clear a six run deficit. There was a bright spot. Austin Wells who had earlier doubled, now hit his first major league home run.

Being realistic, it only lifted Wells to a .163 batting average, but given his solid defensive work perhaps something is beginning to come together for him with the bat.

I’m not convinced but it’s worth a wish and a prayer in these difficult days.