WASHINGTON — Carlos Rodon was hot and certainly bothered.
The Yankees left-hander had plenty to be frustrated about early Wednesday night, from persistent PitchCom issues to the 98 degrees at first pitch with heavy humidity.
But Rodon may have been most upset with himself as he let the Nationals hit him around and run at will off him in the Yankees’ 5-2 loss to drop the series at Nationals Park.
Rodon put the Yankees in an early hole that they could not climb out of — 4-1 by the end of the second inning — getting held in check by a Nationals lefty for the second night in a row, this time MacKenzie Gore, who tossed six innings of two-run ball.
The Yankees (78-56) went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, making it a brutal 1-for-26 across the three-game series, as their lead atop the AL East shrunk to a half-game pending the Orioles’ late result against the Dodgers.
For the second straight night, the Yankees had a chance to come back in the ninth after the Nationals (61-73) ran themselves into a bizarre double play in the bottom of the eighth on a deep single to center field.
Anthony Volpe singled and Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked to lead off the ninth against Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan before Aaron Boone sent up Oswaldo Cabrera as a pinch-hitter for DJ LeMahieu — a night after letting LeMahieu hit for himself against Finnegan and fly out.
But the end result was the same, as Cabrera flew out to center, Alex Verdugo grounded out to Finnegan and Gleyber Torres struck out to leave Juan Soto on deck to end it.
