A lost weekend in Boston has Aaron Boone and the Yankees back in a familiar spot, rock bottom.
The solid homestand the Yankees had before going into Boston last week has been forgotten. A weekend sweep by their division rivals was all it took to rinse away any good feelings Boone may have had about his team.
The Yankees are now 6.5 games out of first place in the American League east division. What looks even more concerning, if that’s even possible at this point, is there’s no bright spot with this team to feel good about.
Gerrit Cole, the ace of the staff, couldn’t even stop the bleeding. On Sunday, Cole’s first pitch of the game was hit out of the ballpark by Boston’s Enrique Hernandez. Later on in the inning, Rafael Devers took Cole deep for a three-run blast.
Before you could even go to the kitchen for your snacks, the Yankees were in a 4-0 hole.
Cole was awful in a must-win for his team. The Red Sox went on to a 9-2 victory and the Yankees are back to answering the same questions about what’s wrong with their season.
“I think- everybody was well aware of the importance of the game,” Cole said afterwards. “It’s a pretty brutal feeling to let the team down like that.”
Well, it doesn’t get easier for this enigma disguised right now as a baseball team. Monday night, they welcome Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels into Yankee Stadium for a four-game series.
The pressure to get their season turned around before it’s too late is mounting.
On a Zoom call before Monday’s game against the Angels, Boone put it all on the table when asked about the current status of his team.
“Our season’s on the line.”
“Too many ups and downs and we’re in too good of a division to have those ups and downs continue. We can’t afford to play great for two weeks and struggle for a week. Not if we’re going to make up ground. We’ve dug ourselves a little bit of a hole in the division obviously.”
Boone is right, he’s never been more right about his team. Now, it’s time for results.
However, is it already too late? Does anyone believe this team can get hot — and remain hot — long enough to look like the dangerous team their payroll would indicate them to be?
There’s plenty of factors to point towards with what’s wrong with this team. Boone, however, isn’t one of them. He can’t get the hits with runners in scoring position. And he’s not the one on the field making mental errors with the glove or on the bases.
It’ll take more than a couple of games for the Yankees to climb out of the hole they’ve put themselves back in. A strong showing against the Angels this week would be a start.
Image: Getty
