Yankees' subpar record since mid-June can be traced to shaky bullpen

There was no complex secret sauce to the Yankees getting off to the hot start they did, an MLB-best 50-22 after beating the Red Sox on June 14 at Fenway Park.

They hit, fielded and pitched — doing so at a level that was, if not better than just about every other team, then close to it.

The bullpen was as big a cog in the machine as anything. But as the Yankees bring a 23-30 record since June 15 into Tuesday, a leaky bullpen has been as big a contributor to that subpar mark as anything.

Sunday night’s 3-2 loss in 10 innings to the Tigers in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, was only the latest hiccup for the group, whose inconsistencies go well beyond closer Clay Holmes, who blew a save opportunity for the MLB-leading 10th time.

Not to dismiss that total.

Aaron Boone often ascribes “bad luck” to a Holmes blown save. When he does, it brings to mind a line Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning often went to regarding misthrows: “Every interception has its own story.” So does every blown save.

Holmes primarily is a sinkerballer. Instead of strikeouts, he mostly relies on hitters getting themselves out by pounding the ball into the ground. That no doubt lends itself to some bad luck in the form of not-so-hard-hit balls finding their share of empty expanses of grass. (Oddly, Holmes struck out three in the ninth inning Sunday. But he also allowed a one-out double and a two-out single as the Tigers tied it at 1-1.)

Bad luck or not, 10 blown saves is an exorbitant amount for any closer, let alone reaching that figure nearly two weeks before the calendar turns to September. For that reason, even before the bullpen began to sputter, there was no shortage of organizational discussion about the need for a couple of lockdown arms, arms preferably with swing-and-miss stuff, which the bullpen, even when effective, was missing.

Unable to land one of the stud relievers on the market, general manager Brian Cashman swung trade deadline deals for Mark Leiter Jr. (Cubs) and Enyel De Los Santos (Padres), both seen at the very least to possess some of the swing-and-miss needed.

The moves have yet to yield much in the way of results, though. De Los Santos was designated for assignment last Wednesday after posting a 14.21 ERA in five games. Leiter is in no danger of losing his roster spot but has a 6.48 ERA in 10 games.

Even after Holmes blew the save in the ninth Sunday, the Yankees scored a run in the top of the 10th, but Leiter also picked up a blown save and took the loss, allowing two runs in the bottom of the inning.

Though Cashman said after the deadline he wasn’t “in the market for a closer,” left unsaid was a desire to at least have an alternative option or two if Holmes’ blown-save count kept ballooning.

Neither De Los Santos nor Leiter was seen as closer material, and there’s no one in the rest of the bullpen that jumps off the page as such. Luke Weaver and Jake Cousins might be the closest when it comes to combining pure stuff and the mental toughness — there is no metric to measure the latter — required for the job. But as Mariano Rivera, the best closer of them all, used to say of newbie relievers stepping in that role: “you never really know” if a pitcher can handle the job until he has it.

Boone gave Holmes a lukewarm endorsement after Sunday’s loss — extolling some of the other arms in his bullpen and saying, “Right now, Clay’s the guy.” But the reality is it’s unlikely the Yankees will spend the remainder of the regular season trying to break in a new closer.

Holmes, whose mental makeup when it comes to the role isn’t in question, has shown the ability to string long stretches of success together. His first 20 games of this season, when he did not allow an earned run, is one example.

Among Cashman’s go-to phrases over the years has been “bullpens are volatile.” Meaning, their collective performance often ebbs and flows, not only from season to season but from month to month or even week to week.

The Orioles, with whom the Yankees find themselves in a dogfight for the AL East crown, are in a similar boat. Baltimore probably should be six to eight games up on the Yankees but failed to take advantage of the latter’s 23-30 stretch, going 28-28 in that time. The O’s bullpen, headed by the always combustible Craig Kimbrel, has a 5.32 ERA since June 15, ranking them 28th out of 30 teams (the Yankees in that period rank 22nd with a 4.36 ERA).

Increasingly, it sure seems as if the AL East is going to be decided by the Yankees’ and Orioles’ bullpens — and which is the least volatile of the two.