It may only last a few days — for now, anyway — but life without Juan Soto has not been kind to the Yankees.
With their star left-handed bat sidelined a second straight game because of forearm inflammation, the Yankees had another quiet night offensively and looked flat overall on the way to dropping just their third series of the season.
After the Yankees wasted some early chances in what was then a tight game, the night unraveled late and got ugly as they fell to the Dodgers, 11-3, on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 48,274.
The Dodgers (41-25) blew the game open in the eighth inning, which they entered with a 4-2 lead.
Two walks from Tommy Kahnle and another fielding error from Gleyber Torres loaded the bases for Teoscar Hernandez, who crushed his second home run of the night, this one a grand slam to put the Dodgers ahead 8-2.
By the end of the game, the Yankees (45-21) needed Oswaldo Cabrera to record the final out of the ninth inning for a scuffling Dennis Santana, though not before the utility man walked in a run.
The Yankees went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base in a frustrating night for the offense.
After going scoreless for the first 10 innings Friday night on the way to a 2-1, 11-inning loss, the Yankees scored a pair of early runs Saturday off right-hander Gavin Stone, but then went silent before Aaron Judge clubbed his second home run of the game in the ninth inning, his MLB-leading 23rd of the season.
After winning 16 of their first 20 series of the season, the Yankees will try to avoid their first sweep of the year Sunday, when they likely will be without Soto again.
Manager Aaron Boone said before Saturday’s game the Yankees were leaning toward giving Soto “a couple” more days off to allow the inflammation to subside.
Soto’s impact to the lineup has been obvious when playing, co-starring with Judge to get the Yankees off to a strong start.
But it has been just as noticeable without him through the first two games of this series.
In Soto’s absence, Alex Verdugo has bumped up to batting second.
But that weakens the middle of the lineup as the Yankees’ four through six hitters (Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres) have gone 1-for-26 with a walk in the first two games of the series.
Meanwhile, Nestor Cortes was not as sharp as he typically has been at Yankee Stadium this season, getting tagged for a pair of home runs and four runs (tying a season-high) across 5 ¹/₃ innings.
He avoided any big innings but gave up single runs in the second, third, fifth and sixth.
Cortes did not appear to be pleased when Aaron Boone pulled him with a 1-0 count to Teoscar Hernandez with runners on the corners and one out in the sixth, the Yankees trailing 3-2.
The lefty handed the ball to Boone and quickly walked off the mound, going right down the dugout steps as Michael Tonkin, who had been rushing to get ready, entered from the bullpen.
Tonkin got a ground ball for the second out, but it scored Freddie Freeman — who had doubled on a line drive that went over the head of Verdugo, the normally reliable left fielder who came in on the ball — from third to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 4-2.
The Yankees had a prime chance to tie the game or take the lead in the bottom of the inning when they put together a two-out rally with singles from DJ LeMahieu and Austin Wells and a four-pitch walk by Trent Grisham to load the bases.
That knocked Stone out of the game but lefty reliever Alex Vesia came in and got Anthony Volpe to fly out, letting the air out of the stadium.
