Baseball isn’t as fun for the Yankees as a couple of weeks ago.
Nope, not much fun at all.
When we last left the Yankees, they were thinking less and having fun. A sweep of the Chicago White Sox put them a season-high nine games over .500.
What clicked then, for the Yankees, isn’t clicking now.
After splitting a four-game series with their rival, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Yankees (31-26) are 3-7 in their last 10 games.
Their most recent loss, a 9-2 defeat to the Rays Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, returned New York to third place in the American League East. They’re 4.5 games behind the first-place Rays.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected in the seventh inning after seeing enough of the questionable strike zone from home-plate umpire Chad Whitlock. It was the second ejection of the season for Boone.
The frustration from Boone also should’ve been reserved for his team. The offense was inept for their ace, Gerrit Cole. It’s not the first time this has happened. And on a day where Cole didn’t have anywhere near his best stuff, it would’ve been nice of the Yankees to give him some run support.
But there was DJ LeMahieu, of all players, losing his cool after a called third strike by Whitlock. The sight of LeMahieu slamming his helmet in the dugout wasn’t too surprising, when you factor-in the below-average season he’s having.
While Cole labored through five innings of work, his opponent, Rays starter Ryan Yarbrough, went the distance for the complete-game victory.
The offense – they’re inconsistent again. The bullpen – they’re exhausted. And Boone doesn’t have many State of the Yankees left in him to address the media.
It wasn’t more than two weeks ago when Aaron Judge and the Yankees were “thinking less and just playing ball”. Well, where did that team go?
They won’t have long to think about that. The Boston Red Sox are coming to town for the weekend.
Image: Charles Wenzelberg
