Yankees’ offense completely disappears in ugly shutout loss to A’s

Forget flirting with a no-hitter.

Clarke Schmidt would have had to pitch a perfect game for the Yankees to have had a chance against the A’s on Saturday.

Instead, Schmidt — who hadn’t allowed a run in his previous three starts — gave up four and the Yankees offense went missing again, as they were thumped, 7-0, by the lowly A’s in The Bronx.

After picking up a win on Friday with just four hits, the Yankees were completely shut down Saturday against an ex-Yankee — JP Sears — and the A’s bullpen.

And the defeat displayed several worrying trends for the Yankees, who remain in first place in the AL East, but often haven’t looked like a first-place team.

Aaron Judge continued his cold streak, and the rest of the lineup hasn’t been able to pick him up.

He left a pair of runners on in the third, although he nearly sent one out in the sixth. Then he ran into an out at third base to end the game.

Giancarlo Stanton hasn’t homered since his season debut nearly two weeks ago, while Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Volpe, DJ LeMahieu and — especially — Austin Wells are in serious slumps.

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When that happens, mistakes like the one Wells made on Max Muncy’s bunt in the eighth and a botched relay to third from Cody Bellinger to Jazz Chisholm Jr. later in the inning become more magnified.

On Saturday, the Yankees did just about everything wrong.

In Schmidt’s first start since he pitched seven innings of no-hit ball before being pulled after 103 pitches, the right-hander was solid until the sixth.

Schmidt saw his scoreless streak end at 26 innings when Brent Rooker took him deep with one out in the fourth.

And he gave up a three-run shot to Nick Kurtz with one out in the sixth, as Schmidt allowed more than three runs- as well as more than one homer- for the first time since April 21.

The Yankee offense threatened against Sears for the first — and only — time in the bottom of the third.

LeMahieu opened with a walk before Sears retired Jasson Domínguez and Goldschmidt.

Volpe followed with the second walk of the inning to bring up Judge.

After a visit from pitching coach Scott Emerson, Sears fell behind Judge 3-1 before Judge flied out to the warning track in right to keep the game scoreless.

Rooker homered off Schmidt in the next inning, which proved to be enough for Sears and the pen.

The lefty tossed 5 ⅔ shutout innings, surprisingly dominant given Sears’ recent performance.

He began the season with an ERA of 2.80 over his first eight starts, but followed that with an 8.75 ERA in his next eight and had allowed eight earned runs in 8 ⅓ innings in his previous two starts heading into Saturday.

But he kept the Yankees off balance, with Bellinger’s opposite-field single in the first hit their only hit until Goldschmidt led off the bottom of the sixth with a base hit.

The A’s took control of the game in the sixth after Schmidt walked the first two batters of the inning — his first walks of the afternoon.

He recovered to fan Rooker on three pitches, but Kurtz homered into the right field seats to put the Yankees in a 4-0 hole.

After Goldschmidt’s single to start the sixth, Sears got Bellinger to fly to left and Judge sent a fly ball to the warning track in center for the second out. 

In the eighth, with Allan Winans in the game, the A’s had runners on first and second with no one out when Muncy popped up a bunt in front of Wells, who let it drop and then fired late and wild to first base and no outs were recorded.

Austin Wynns’ two-run single gave the A’s more insurance, as they won for just the second time in seven games.