Yankees bats revert to old ways in ugly loss to Astros

For one night, a Yankees offense that had been emerging disappeared.It happens.But the Yankees would have a real problem if those bats do not reappear this weekend.

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.Manager Aaron Boone’s bunch will welcome the Red Sox to The Bronx for one of the most significant series of the season on a down note, dropping the rubber game to the Astros 5-1 on Thursday in front of 41,203 whose best moment of the evening was receiving the George Constanza bobblehead.The Yankees (75-58) fell four games behind the Rays in the American League East and are just two games clear of Boston for the top AL wild-card spot, which provides a touch more intrigue for the four games in three days that begin Friday — games that could decide home-field advantage for a wild-card series.“They’re one of the best teams in the game right now,” said Boone before the game of the Red Sox.

They are on the Yankees’ heels in part because they have been unstoppable during the second half and in part because the Yankees offense went to sleep without Aaron Judge.At least until Monday, when the Yankees began a three-game surge in which they scored 24 runs on 34 hits with the kind of balanced, powerful and patient attack that the club long has envisioned.And the kind of attack that was not evident against former farmhand Hayden Wesneski and three Houston relievers, who Thursday held the Yankees to five hits and, critically, none with runners in scoring position.The Yankees had plenty of chances and plenty of frustration, finishing 0-for-9 with runners on second and/or third to waste a solid effort from Gerrit Cole (who pitched better than his six-innings, three-runs score line).Cole was mostly dominant until the sixth, when Daulton Varsho worked a two-out walk and Christian Walker following by lifting a knuckle-curve just deep enough to right-center for a two-run ...