This is a different Yankees lineup and look, with George Lombard Jr. flourishing early, Spencer Jones given a runway and Luis García Jr. and Heliot Ramos working themselves into the mix with their new club.
And yet this is the same Yankees problem: a lineup lacking a pulse without the heart of the team.
Hours after Aaron Judge declared he would return at some point this season, the lineup he left behind played as if it wanted to convey to the captain that he better hurry up.
A problem that recently has been partially disguised by excellent pitching and Lombard bursting onto the scene had nowhere to hide Wednesday, when the Yankees lineup was silenced 3-1 by the Cardinals in a slog of a game marked by frequent pauses of play and virtually no excitement while the home team was at bat.
New York Yankees third baseman Ryan McMahon reacts after he strikes out in the sixth inning at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 5, 2026. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST
The 37,425 on hand in The Bronx waited through a 68-minute rain delay before the game started, then groaned as Yankee Stadium lights continually turned off in the early innings, then ran for cover during a brief sixth-inning downpour, then checked their phones as a Cardinals pitcher slipped on a slick mound in the seventh, prompting the grounds crew to hustle over and rake the dirt.
The few left by the end were not rewarded for their patience as the Yankees (64-51) dropped the series, fell 4 1/2 games back of the Rays and slipped to a single game clear of the Red Sox for the top wild-card spot.
Aaron Boone’s group finished with four hits, none of which arrived with runners in scoring position (0-for-10), and looked as if most of its at-bats came with the lights out.
The Yankees have scored more than five runs in four of their past 43 games, a startling drought regardless of personnel, spanning a stretch in which they are averaging 3.3 runs per game. The entire stretch has come without Judge, whose fractured rib has threatened to derail the team’s season, though Wednesday he began some light activities.
Will Warren got the ball for the Yankees on Wednesday night. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST
Hollow bats give the pitching staff and defense little margin for error, and Will Warren and arguably Trent Grisham in center field were not perfect.
Warren rolled through four innings before encountering trouble in the game-deciding fifth. With runners on the corners and two outs, young standout JJ Wetherholt hit a high drive to center field that turned around Grisham, who then decided to play the ball off the wall. The ball did not hit the wall, short-hopping it and going for a two-run double, which was followed by another double for the only three runs St. Louis would need.
New York Yankees rookie George Lombard Jr. (96) singles during the fifth inning. Robert Sabo for NY Post
The Yankees had opportunities in the middle and late innings and wasted them.
In the fifth, two reached with one out before Austin Wells hit a comebacker that became a double play.
An inning later, the Yankees scored their lone, cheap run with two walks, a hit by pitch and a bases-loaded walk. But with the bases still full, Ryan McMahon struck out to end the strange rally.
In the seventh, they put a pair on base for García, who grounded out to end the threat.
In the eighth, it was the otherwise exuberant Lombard who swung through Ryne Stanek heat with two runners on board. Lombard (1-for-4 with a few standout defensive plays again) continues to entertain and inspire hope, but when virtually anyone else was at the plate the Yankees looked hopeless.
The night’s leadoff hitter, Grisham (0-for-5), is 8-for-71 (.113) in his past 20 games.
Spencer Jones (0-for-4), who had shown enough hope to keep his big-league spot while Jasson Domínguez was optioned, has gone 0-for-15 in his past four games.
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Chisholm (0-for-2 with two walks) is 1-for-17 in his past five games.
Kervin Castro, Tim Hill and Paul Blackburn kept the game theoretically close, but a two-run deficit feels like miles for the Yankees right now.
