Yankees offense wastes opportunities in frustrating loss to White Sox

CHICAGO — The fury that Aaron Boone let out on home plate umpire Laz Diaz on Monday night mirrored how many Yankees fans feel about the state of the team — specifically the offense.

Neither Diaz, nor the Yankees lineup, had a pretty game at the plate, sending Boone’s club to its latest frustrating defeat.

On a night when they were no-hit through 5 ¹/₃ innings and loaded the bases three times, the Yankees continued to squander opportunities as they fell to the White Sox 5-1 at Guaranteed Rate Field.

After stranding 15 runners in Sunday’s loss to the Astros, the Yankees (58-55) left 13 men on base in Monday’s loss to the lowly White Sox (46-68) that kicked off a nine-game, 10-day road trip.

They went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position as they dropped to 5 ½ games out of the final playoff spot.

While Diaz did not lose the game for them, the Yankees were unhappy with his strike zone all night. It built to a crescendo in the eighth inning in what was then a 2-1 game, when Boone was ejected — after Diaz made a called strike three on a pitch in the zone to Anthony Volpe — and subsequently lost it on Diaz, including mimicking his strikeout call and drawing lines in the dirt to demonstrate pitches missing the plate.

Gerrit Cole allowed four run over seven innings in the Yankees’ loss to the White Sox on Monday night.AP

Monday also proved that not even Gerrit Cole can pull the Yankees from the depths of despair every time they need it.

The ace entered the night 9-0 when starting after a Yankees loss, but another strong outing of his went to waste. It was also spoiled late — he had given up just two runs through seven innings before giving up back-to-back singles to start the eighth inning, with both of them later coming in to score against Tommy Kahnle.

The Yankees did not record a hit against Dylan Cease until there was one out in the sixth inning, at which point they had drawn seven walks but stranded all of them.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone mocks umpire Laz Diaz’s strike-out call during the eighth inning. AP

Then in the seventh, they came up small again after loading the bases with no outs for the second time in the game.

Billy McKinney hit a sacrifice fly to pull the Yankees within 2-1, but DJ LeMahieu struck out looking (on a pitch well outside the strike zone) and Harrison Bader struck out swinging to waste another chance.

The Yankees had their first prime opportunity of the night in the second inning but instead put up a goose egg.

Cease walked the bases loaded with no outs, but he came back to get Volpe and Ben Rortvedt to fly out to shallow left field, with McKinney having no shot to tag up from third base on either one.

Jake Bauers then hit a dribbler to the left of the mound that Cease made a nice play on to get out of the inning unscathed.

Aaron Judges strike out during the Yankees’ loss to the White Sox on Monday night. Getty Images

The White Sox, in fitting fashion, quickly answered by taking the lead in the bottom of the inning.

Cole walked Yoan Moncada with one out before Andrew Vaughn crushed a fastball on the inside corner for a two-run home run.

After walking two more batters in the third inning and on in the fourth, Cease had his first 1-2-3 inning of the night in the fifth, when he struck out Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton around Gleyber Torres flying out to center field.

But the Yankees finally found the hit column when LeMahieu roped a single through the left side.

That knocked Cease out of the game after throwing 104 pitches, and the Yankees greeted reliever Brent Honeywell with back-to-back singles from Bader and Volpe to load the bases.

Boone sent up Isiah Kiner-Falefa to pinch-hit for Rortvedt, but he flew out to shallow right field for the second out.

Giancarlo Stanton gets out of the way of a high pitch in the Yankees’ loss to the White Sox on Monday.Getty Images

Vaughn then robbed the Yankees by making a diving stop on a hard ground ball up the first-base line from Bauers and racing to the bag to beat him to end the threat.