PITTSBURGH — The old baseball adage goes that you can’t win a pennant in April, but you can lose one.
The 2016 Yankees, 8-14 in April, exemplified the former component.
These 2017 Yankees, now 10-6, personalize the latter.
This important pinstriped tour of the 1903 World Series locales, first the Steel City and then Boston, started off on the wrong foot Friday night with a 6-3 loss to the (emotionally) hurting Pirates at PNC Park. CC Sabathia got knocked around early; the Yankees went hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position; and Starlin Castro added to his impressive collection of poorly timed misplays by dropping a seventh-inning pop fly that blew the game comfortably open for the Buccos.