They were no less excited after the loss to the Rays, whom the Yankees had beaten in the first three games of the weekend series. In this one, starter Jordan Montgomery could not get out of the third inning, allowing four runs on six hits and leaving the Yankees in a 4-2 hole.

And despite the hitting of Ronald Torreyes, who accounted for all of the Yankees’ offense with a two-run home run in the second and a double in the fourth, the Yankees — who had only four hits — were unable to capitalize on eight free base runners (seven walks and a hit batter). They blew huge scoring opportunities in the fifth and sixth innings, when they stranded five runners and went 0 for 5 with men in scoring position.

Still, they were in position to pull off another thrilling victory when they put two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth, bringing Aaron Judge to the plate with one out. But Judge, mired in a 10-for-53 slide (.189) since the All-Star break, fouled out, and Matt Holliday, batting just .133 (9 for 66) since returning from the disabled list with a viral infection, grounded out to end the game.

“No matter how he’s swinging, that’s the guy you want up in that situation because he can change it really quickly,” Girardi said of Judge. “It’s hard to predict why some days you get a ton of hits and some days you don’t.”

As for the 31-year-old Garcia, he has a 67-52 career win-loss record and a 3.65 E.R.A. in nine major league seasons, the first eight with the St. Louis Cardinals, with whom he won a championship in 2011. Garcia was traded to Atlanta last December and made 18 starts for the Braves this season, going 4-7 with a 4.30 E.R.A.

Atlanta then traded him to Minnesota on July 24, and Garcia won his only start as a Twin, beating the Oakland Athletics on Friday. The Yankees will assume the remainder of the six-year, $50 million contract he signed with the Cardinals in 2012, which has about $4 million still to be paid.

Todd Frazier, who faced Garcia 23 times, with six hits, while a member of the Cincinnati Reds, called him “a crafty left-hander.”