Yankees run out of pitching, can't sweep Orioles

NEW YORK — The Yankees are so accustomed to the excellence of Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman that they sometimes forget there are other relievers in their bullpen.

That point was hammered home twice Sunday as Jonathan Holder couldn’t preserve a sixth-inning lead and, after another Yankees comeback, Bryan Mitchell allowed three 11th-inning runs in a 7-4 loss to Baltimore that ended the Yanks’ four-game winning streak.

“After coming back, you want to win the game,” said Betances.

The Yankees, who fell back into a tie for the AL East lead with the Orioles, didn’t win because they ran out of fresh pitchers.

They used five, including Betances and Chapman an inning apiece, and Mitchell was on his second stint after playing an eventual inning at first base.

After contributing a scoreless ninth inning, Mitchell was the first baseman in the 10th because manager Joe Girardi rightfully speculated he had to keep Mitchell in the game because he didn’t want to use Tommy Layne and Adam Warren, who pitched Saturday.

So when Didi Gregorius, who’s had three multi-hit games since coming off the disabled hit, delivered a game-tying two-run single with two outs in the ninth inning, Girardi took out Chris Carter, who struck out to end the inning, and moved Mitchell, who last played first in high school, to first. His thinking was that with strikeout-throwing Chapman on the mound, Mitchell’s fielding chances would be limited.

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“I guess I should have expected that one would find me,” said Mitchell.

After he dropped a foul ball, Mitchell caught one for the only out Chapman didn’t provide with strikeouts. The Yankee Stadium crowd of 41,022 responded with a Bronx cheer.

“That was pretty funny,” Mitchell said.

There was nothing funny about the 11th inning, as Mark Trumbo’s two-out single put the Orioles ahead before they added two more insurance runs.

“It was a little different,” Brett Gardner said of Mitchell, who used Greg Bird’s glove, changing positions.

So was the rest of the game. After scoring 26 runs and hitting nine homers in the first two games of the series, the Yankees stranded 16 baserunners, their highest count since they left 17 on in a 14-inning win over Oakland in 2012.

“We were never able to get that big hit,” Girardi admitted.

Especially in the first three innings, when they stranded seven. Orioles starter Wade Milley labored through five innings and 114 pitches, including a first-inning homer by Matt Holliday, Friday night’s hero, but he was in line for the win until Gregorius’ hit.

Yankee rookie Jordan Montgomery was also a possible winner until he turned the ball over to Holder.

As raw as sushi, the young left-hander, who allowed three hits and struck out seven, walked the first two batters in the sixth inning. In came Holder, who allowed two hits, featured by Jonathan Schoop’s go-ahead double, and a walk.

“The walks were costly,” said Girardi. “But I thought he (Montgomery) threw the ball pretty well.”

The four hour, 37-minute marathon had something for everybody. Orioles manager Buck Showalter was ejected after he protested a balk call on Darren O’Day in the Yankees’ ninth-inning rally, and Yankee fans were half amused by Mitchell playing the field.

“Everybody is going to talk about the one he missed, not the one he caught,” said Gregorius, amused by it all.

But there was nothing funny about the Yankees who came out of the bullpen, not named Betances or Chapman.

They offered no relief when it was most needed.