NEW YORK – The New York Yankees should give their fans a refund.
Loyal, paying customers showed up on Saturday in the Bronx to support the Yankees in a pennant race. Then, they watched them get humiliated by the ever-hated Boston Red Sox. Their division rivals were hungrier, savvier, quicker, and playing with the type of urgency that the Yankees have failed to show, time and time again.
Loud and angry boos rained down on 161st Street, as the crowd of 45,512 voiced its displeasure at wasting a warm and sunny, summer weekend afternoon watching a Yankees team surrender instead of making a statement.
A game that started out with the New York bats being over-matched by Boston ace Garrett Crochet ended in a disastrous 12-1 blowout that marked the Yankees’ eighth consecutive loss against the Red Sox. Boston scored seven runs in the ninth inning, aided by more of the Yankees’ sloppy play. Throughout this weekend’s series, the Yankees have committed more errors (5) than runs scored (4). The Bronx Bombers were out-hit 17-7 on Saturday alone, as they fell to 1-8 on the season against the Red Sox.
It doesn’t get worse than that.
“We’re definitely – I can only speak for myself – definitely angry,” said Yankees captain Aaron Judge. “Especially against your rivals, you don’t like the show we’ve had here at home. So, just got to step up. That’s it, gotta step up.
“Everybody in this room’s gotta play a little bit better. Pick it up a notch, and go out there and take care of business tomorrow. Nothing we can do about the past 100 or something games we’ve played. We gotta focus on what we can do now, and that’s all you can do.”
What can the Yankees do now to drastically improve the way they’ve been playing? To start, they can go back and watch the film from Saturday’s loss, because there was at least one team that put on a clinic on how to gain an edge by doing the little things the right way.
Alex Cora’s club put pressure on the Yankees by being aggressive on the basepaths every chance it had. Routine single to right field with a man on first? You better believe the Red Sox put their heads down and sprinted to third for an extra base. Sacrifice fly to the outfield that didn’t even land as far as the warning track? No matter. Boston’s runners still advanced and moved up an extra 90 feet. A solo home run from Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton to trim New York’s deficit to three runs? All good. Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story led off the next inning with a solo shot to gain that extra run right back.
“They’re executing when they need to,” Stanton said of what the Red Sox are doing differently this season.
It was gutsy and gritty baseball from a Red Sox team that had to be dynamic and energetic throughout all 27 outs to keep its playoff hopes alive. Boston played its rivals like it couldn’t afford to lose and, in doing so, the Red Sox went 1.5 games ahead of the Yankees in the American League wild-card standings. Aaron Boone’s team could learn a thing or two – or three or four – from Boston’s bold and smart plays.
The Yankees know this. Everyone from Judge, to Stanton, to the former Yankees legends in the YES broadcast booth was gushing over the way the Red Sox outplayed the Bombers by playing heads-up baseball.
“We got to get gritty, we got to do the little things that put ourselves in the best position,” Judge said. “You know, we can’t give teams extra outs. If teams are going to give us a chance to score or get some guys over, we have to capitalize. We just haven’t done that, especially these past three games. So that’s what it comes down to.”
Added Stanton: “(It’s) unacceptable. We all know that. So, we just got to get tomorrow.”
The Yankees scored just four runs in the first three games of their four-game series against the Red Sox. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
Why should fans continue to believe things will change on Sunday in the series finale against the Red Sox, as the Yankees try to avoid being swept? The problems in Saturday’s loss were the same trends we’ve seen all year from the Yankees. Not taking advantage when they have runners on base. Not capitalizing on momentum. Failing to put the ball in play. Being unable to go one game without playing crisp baseball. Making silly, avoidable mistakes – like Anthony Volpe’s MLB-leading 17th error on an airmailed throw to first, and Jazz Chisholm’s apparent inability to cover second base.
The mental lapses and countless examples of poor play are piling up to the point where that’s what fans should believe. This is who the Yankees are.
“We gotta play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. Coaches can’t fix that. Fans can’t fix that. Media can’t fix that. It’s the players in this room. We got to step up and that’s what it comes down to.”
And yet, if the season ended on Saturday, the Yankees would have a seat in the playoffs. Even though they’re six games behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East, the Yankees are tied with the Seattle Mariners for the final AL wild-card spot. As rough as things have been in the Bronx of late, the Yankees would have to completely collapse to fall out of postseason contention. As of this moment, the Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers are not a threat to take away their playoff spot.
But, let’s face it. The Yankees are running out of time to prove to anyone who’s watching that they deserve to be in the playoffs. If being embarrassed by their division rivals won’t snap them out of it, what will?
“We can’t focus on anything slipping away.” Judge said. “We got a big game against the Red Sox to end the series tomorrow, and that’s all we can do. We just focus on that. If we start sitting here trying to count the games, count the games in the division, that’s what you guys do. It’s not what we do.”
Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her at @DeeshaThosar.
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