After 4 hours 32 minutes, appearances by seven pitchers and three late rallies that fell short, the Yankees trudged off the field on Saturday evening looking deflated and exhausted.
And this was just the first game of a single-admission doubleheader.
A pivotal four-games-in-three-days series against the Toronto Blue Jays — the team above them in the division standings — was quickly spiraling away, and the Yankees seemed to sense it as they fell, 9-5, in 11 innings at Yankee Stadium.
There were opportunities knocking — in the eighth inning, for instance, with a runner on third with one out, and in the 10th, when a runner reached second.