The New York Yankees had a nightmare-ish weekend in Miami, which resulted in them being swept by the Miami Marlins and handed a couple of disastrous losses. It is a microcosm of a larger trend for the Yankees; they just have not been playing their best baseball over the last two months. Next up for the Yankees is the red-hot Texas Rangers on the road.
New York is 25-30 since June 1st, has already seen its division lead collapse, and is now in a tight American League Wild Card race where its division rival, the Boston Red Sox, has now leapfrogged them in the standings. Following a three-game losing streak, manager Aaron Boone called out the team to get their act together, as it could be now or never.
âGut-Check Time!â, Says Boone
After the 7-3 loss to the Miami Marlins on Sunday, Boone acknowledged that it’s getting late in the season, and the club has been struggling for a prolonged period of time. The New York Yankees have been dealing with a slew of injuries, but so is every other team at this time of year, and Aaron Judge is reportedly going to return sometime this week. The truth is, New York has just run into some bad luck and unfortunate situational plays. They also ran into one of the hottest teams in baseball in the Marlins, who improved to .500 on the season.
The three high-leverage relievers they acquired at the deadline had a tough first series, and Luis Gil didn’t look all that promising in his first start of the season on Sunday.
Friday’s 13-12 loss marked the first time in 85 years that the Yankees lost on the road when scoring at least 12 runs.
Here were Boone’s comments about the urgency of the season:
“It’s getting to be real gut-check time. It’s getting late. It’s certainly not too late for us, and I am confident that we’re going to get it together, but that’s all it is right now. It’s empty until we start doing it.”
“We’re going into another tough opponent that’s playing well. We’ve got to do it. We’ve got to find a way,” Boone said Sunday.
The Yankees are now entering a pivotal three-game set with the Texas Rangers, where if they get swept again, they could potentially no longer hold a playoff position.
Is It Panic Time in New York?
The New York Yankees are certainly trending in the wrong direction at the time of year when you want to start playing your best brand of baseball. Getting Judge back will help offensively, but he won’t single-handedly fix the baserunning blunders and the high number of errors the team has been making. They seem not to be able to get out of their way, and now they are rewarded with six more games on the road against two playoff contenders (Texas and Houston).
Boone also noted to the media on Sunday that he’s surprised the slump has lasted as long as it has, and feels like this team has a chance to be just as good as last year’s club, which played in the Fall Classic.
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