Why left field continues to be disaster for Yankees

Left field has been a mess for the Yankees since Andrew Benintendi got an extra year and more money to sign with the White Sox as a free agent this offseason.

Jake Bauers made the start there in Thursday’s 8-2 loss to Tampa Bay in The Bronx.

While the lefty-swinging Bauers had the Yankees’ only two hits until the eighth inning, he came up limping after he made a sliding catch on a Josh Lowe liner to end the top of the ninth.

Aaron Boone said he thought Bauers was OK following the game.

The Yankees left-field situation, though, is not.

They entered the game with a .566 OPS at the position, a number dragged down by the struggles of Oswaldo Cabrera, Franchy Cordero and Aaron Hicks.

Hicks is still feeling tightness in his hip after leaving Tuesday’s game with the injury.

He went through pregame Thursday and isn’t sure if an stint on the injured list will be necessary.

“We want to get it out of there,’’ Hicks said of the injury.

The long-struggling Hicks, who has been abysmal at the plate — and occasionally in the field — for much of the past two years, was coming off two straight games in which he had an extra-base hit, his first of the season.

He had more imaging done on the hip Thursday.

The Yankees’ outfield has been a bit of a mess for much of the season, with the team’s right fielders combining for an OPS of just .517, mostly because Aaron Judge was forced to play center with Harrison Bader out until recently with a strained oblique.

Bader and Judge are back and Bauers got the start in left Thursday, with Willie Calhoun starting at DH.

But the hole that was in left all offseason remains in place.

Cabrera hasn’t shown he can hit consistently in the majors after proving his versatility in the latter part of last year.

Giancarlo Stanton remains weeks — at least — away from returning from a left hamstring strain.

And while Kole Calhoun, recently signed to a minor league deal, continues to hit well with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he hasn’t been considered an option to be called up to The Bronx.