A night after putting on a spectacular display of defense and grabbing timely hits, the Yankees delivered none of the above; committing four errors and failing to get a hit with a runner in scoring position in a 4-2 loss to the Nationals in Washington on Tuesday night.

New York fell to 78-55 on the year and 13-10 in August.

Here are the takeaways...

- The Nats got something cooking on Gerrit Cole with one out in the first when James Wood smacked a ball to third and beat out a wide throw for an error on Jazz Chisholm before stealing second. But the righty blew a fastball above the zone past Luis García Jr. and induced a flyout to center from Keibert Ruiz.

Cole was back into trouble with one down in the second after a single and then Dylan Crews (the No. 3 prospect in baseball) grabbed his first MLB hit with a double off the wall in right. Ex-Yank Joe Gallo’s groundout put the Nationals up 1-0.

Andres Chaparro, who the Yanks signed as a teenager and played in the organization for six years, got his first big league homer (in his 12th career game) to start the fourth, clocking a 96 mph Cole fastball 376 feet to left. On the next pitch, Jose Tena lined a 96 mph fastball that got too much of the middle of the plate 405 feet to the right-center gap for back-to-back dingers.

Gallo’s one-out double to the wall in right – a ball Juan Soto should have caught – Matt Blake was out for a mound visit, which settled the righty down.

After Cole missed badly on a 3-1 fastball that resulted in a one-out walk to Garcia in the fifth, he looked disgusted with himself as he walked around the mound. One pitch later, Garcia took off for second and Cole didn’t step off, but threw a high 98 mph fastball that Jose Trevino didn’t attempt to catch. Garcia only got to second, but it was certainly a bizarre sequence before the righty escaped without any damage.

His final line: 5.0 innings, six hits, three runs, one walk, seven strikeouts on 91 pitches (56 strikes). Cole did keep the damage to a minimum holding the Nats to 0-for-8 with RISP and leaving five on base.

- Left-hander Tim Mayza was first out of the bullpen and got two dribblers in front of the plate, but on the second Trevino threw errantly to first and Crews got to second base. Trevino had Crews out trying to steal third, but Chisholm missed the tag. On the next pitch, DJ LeMahieu – playing in – mishandled a Gallo grounder at first and the lead was 4-0 on the error.

There was more bad defense when Gallo took off for second and rather than a strike-'em out, throw-'em out double play, nobody covered second base and Trevino's throw sailed into center. (Gleyber Torres was charged with the errror.) Mayza mercifully closed the three-error inning getting a soft grounder to third.

- Patrick Corbin, who entered with the highest ERA in baseball (5.73), highest WHIP (1.542) and highest average against (.307), held the Yanks in check through four frames striking out five and allowing just a two-out double from Aaron Judge in the first and a one-out Giancarlo Stanton single in the fourth.

Alex Verdugo, who had three hits and a spectacular play in left on Monday, smashed a ball to center in the fifth but Jacob Young – the MLB leader in outs above (19) – ran it down to help Corbin get through five scoreless.

A two-out walk to Judge looked to spell the end of Corbin's night, but Davey Martinez elected to leave in the veteran who got Stanton to pop out to close his night after 18 outs of scoreless baseball.

- Anthony Volpe, coming off a three-hit night, added a one-out single in the seventh and Austin Wells, pinch-hitting for Trevino, walked on four pitches, giving the Yanks two on for the first time of the game. Verdugo hit one in the hole at short, but where the visitor’s defense had failed all night, the home team turned an impressive 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.

- LeMahieu (infield hit) and Torres (single through the hole at third) put two on and nobody out for the heart of the order in the eighth. Soto hit a slow roller to second, but Garcia threw high to second and the bases were loaded for Judge. But the slugger pounded a 3-1 cutter into the ground (108.4 mph) for a 6-4-3 double play before Stanton grounded out to end the inning.

- Chisholm laced a double to the wall in right-center to start the ninth and then stole third. Volpe’s ground out to shortcut the lead to two. Wells singled to right and Verdugo singled up the middle bringing the go-ahead run to the plate with one out.

But LeMahieu – who manager Aaron Boone let bat – flied out in foul territory to right and Torres on a 3-2 pitch flied out to right to end it.

New York on the night: eight left on base, 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

In the first two games of the series, Soto is 0-for-8 with two walks and a strikeout, Judge is 2-for-7 with two walks, two strikeouts, and two GIDP and Stanton is 1-for-9 with two strikeouts.

- Tim Hill got a six-pitch, 1-2-3 seventh and Phil Bickford followed suit in the eighth needing 16 pitches.

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