The Yankees came out flat and never got going in a 4-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, securing a three-game series defeat.
Five things to know from Saturday's game
1. Jameson Taillon's troublesome third inning skewed what would have been an otherwise solid start. A leadoff walk to Victor Caratini and Christian Yelich single around Taillon's strikeout of Garrett Mitchell set the table for a three-run home run by Willy Adames, who put the Brewers up 3-0. Taillon responded by getting Rowdy Tellez and Hunter Renfroe, but Adames' long ball did damage. Two frames later, Taillon ran into trouble again -- after fanning Caratini to lead off the fifth inning, Mitchell's single and Yelich's RBI double tacked on another run and kept the Yankees in a hole.
Taillon (13-5, 4.04 ERA), threw 94 pitches (61 strikes), allowed four runs on as many hits and struck out four and walked two in five innings. Ultimately, though, Taillon was unable to give the Yankees enough of a chance after Frankie Montas' ineffective start in Friday's 7-6 loss.
2. Josh Donaldson stayed hot -- somewhat. After Friday's three-RBI performance, including a game-tying home run, the cleanup-batting third baseman went yard again. In fact, Donaldson offered a response that the Yankees needed following Taillon's three-run third, leading off the bottom half with a moon shot to left-center field. Donaldson's solo homer, his 15th long ball of the season, put the Yankees on the board in a 3-1 deficit. However, he did nothing more -- including three groundouts.
3. Despite Donaldson's effort, the Yankees subsequently squandered the potential rally. After Miguel Andujar reached first on a throwing error by Adames, the next three batters -- Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza and Kyle Higashioka -- went down in order to keep the Yankees in a 3-1 hole. New York's inability to build momentum was a theme for the evening.
4. Aaron Hicks entered for Marwin Gonzalez, who left in the third inning after he got hit on the left side of his head during a throw back from the catcher to the pitcher, was up and down following Friday's two-hit game. Hicks led off the fifth inning with a single -- stranded by Aaron Judge's flyout to right field, and strikeouts from Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres -- but also grounded into a seventh-inning double play that wiped the Yankees' leadoff hit batsman, Peraza. Hicks' single was his only knock as he finished with a 1-for-3 night.
5. Speaking of Judge, the slugger's home-run chase remains at 57, but he reached base twice in his latest outing. Judge is on an eight-game hitting streak after lacing a one-out double in the third inning, his 24th two-bagger this season. Judge, who is slashing .312/.415/.687 with 123 RBI, once again anchored the Yankees' lineup from the leadoff spot and could continue to do so even when DJ LeMahieu returns.