New-look Yankees lineup puts up familiar dud in disappointing loss to Cardinals

This is a different Yankees lineup and look, with George Lombard Jr.flourishing early, Spencer Jones given a runway and Luis García Jr.

and Heliot Ramos working themselves into the mix with their new club. And yet this is the same Yankees problem: a lineup lacking a pulse without the heart of the team.  Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.Hours after Aaron Judge declared he would return at some point this season, the lineup he left behind played as if it wanted to convey to the captain that he better hurry up. A problem that recently has been partially disguised by excellent pitching and Lombard bursting onto the scene had nowhere to hide Wednesday, when the Yankees lineup was silenced 3-1 by the Cardinals in a slog of a game marked by frequent pauses of play and virtually no excitement while the home team was at bat. The 37,425 on hand in The Bronx waited through a 68-minute rain delay before the game started, then groaned as Yankee Stadium lights continually turned off in the early innings, then ran for cover during a brief sixth-inning downpour, then checked their phones as a Cardinals pitcher slipped on a slick mound in the seventh, prompting the grounds crew to hustle over and rake the dirt. The few left by the end were not rewarded for their patience as the Yankees (64-51) dropped the series, fell 4 1/2 games back of the Rays and slipped to a single game clear of the Red Sox for the top wild-card spot. Aaron Boone’s group finished with four hits, none of which arrived with runners in scoring position (0-for-10), and looked as if most of its at-bats came with the lights out. The Yankees have scored more than five runs in four of their past 43 games, a startling drought regardless of personnel, spanning a stretch in which they are averaging 3.3 runs per game.

The entire stretch has come without Judge, whose fractured rib has threatened to derail t...