Yankees keep missing chances to back up their constant belief

Give the Yankees this: They know that their solid wild-card standing and alleged, estimated 97 percent playoff chances don’t mean they’re living up to standards — ours or theirs.

The Yankees think they’re better than this, which is a good thing because they’ve been maddeningly inconsistent, and occasionally even horrible. Too frequently they resemble an also-ran, as they did Thursday night in The Bronx and again Friday night during their 1-0 loss.

That was a rare nine-walk, four-error game, their first in almost exactly 50 years (May 3, 1975 was the last time, via Katie Sharp). Throw in the three-disengagement debacle, and it might have been the first of that trio of transgressions.

“We definitely think we’re better than this,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. asserted. “When we’re right, we are the best team. There’s nobody that can beat us in this league when we’re right. We fell off and we’re about to get back on that track right now.”