NEW YORK (AP) — Dellin Betances and the Yankees’ relievers couldn’t see the scoreboard from the bullpen in right-center field, so they had no idea a playoff berth was only a few clean innings away.
Giving up the lead still hurt, though.
Betances allowed up a tying homer and Andrew Bailey yielded the go-ahead hit as New York wasted a chance to secure an AL wild-card spot Wednesday night, losing 9-5 in 11 innings to the Boston Red Sox.
“Today was a tough loss. Any time you have a lead that late, you expect to win,” the All-Star setup man said. “We try to clinch tomorrow, I guess.”
After losses in the first two games of the four-game series and with the chance to wrap up their first trip to the postseason in three years, the Yankees rallied from a 3-0 deficit. Alex Rodriguez reached base four times, and his first homer in two weeks gave them a 5-4 lead in the sixth.
But on a night when Masahiro Tanaka struggled early in his return from a hamstring injury, the Yankees stumbled again. Still, they need just one win in their final four games to earn the playoff spot.
“I thought it was a good sign I came out of this game strong,” Tanaka said through a translator.
Mookie Betts tied it with a seventh-inning homer off Betances — who has allowed six homers this season, all from July 4 on. Betts connected again in the 11th to cap Boston’s season-high sixth straight victory and again deny the Yankees their 10,000th win.
“I don’t think we are necessarily trying to ruin hopes,” Betts said of spoiling Yankees’ chance for milestone. “I think we are just going out and playing the game, trying to win some games, and I just that’s kind of like a bonus.”
Bailey (0-1) gave up an RBI single to Deven Marrero with one out in the 11th. Chasen Shreve yielded a run-scoring sacrifice to Jackie Bradley Jr. and a two-run homer to Betts.
Alexi Ogando (3-1) pitched two innings for the win.
New York, which dropped to 65-3 when leading after six innings, left 15 on base and was 3 for 14 with runners in scoring position. The Yankees walked 11 times, including four times in the eighth — when leadoff batter Jacoby Ellsbury was picked off first.
Tanaka struggled in his first start in 12 days, returning from a right hamstring strain to make what should be his final tuneup before a likely start in the wild-card game on Tuesday.
The Japanese star entered with a deceptive 3-0 record against Boston. He allowed 10 earned runs in those starts, but the Yankees romped to big wins in each. He had trouble Wednesday, too, allowing four runs and five hits in five innings on 95 pitches.
He quickly fell behind, giving up a three-run homer to Travis Shaw in the first.
David Ortiz’s RBI single in the third gave him 105 RBIs, his most since 2007.
“He looked rusty,” manager Joe Girardi said of Tanaka. “He looked like a guy who hadn’t pitched in 12 days.”
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