This isn’t just a “rough time,” as manager Aaron Boone sometimes calls it. No, this isn’t just a rough time.
This is a Yankees team that looks like it’s in trouble. If this team wants to get where it wants to get, it’s going to have to play like a champion.
In fact, it needs to wake up.
last out of the 10th inning of the Yankees’ 5-3 loss to the Red Sox. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
This is a team full of solid, seasoned veterans and it’s not playing like it should. The 5-3, 10-inning loss to the hated rival Red Sox in front of a sold-out stadium on Friday is a new low in a rising storm of theirs.
Red Sox contact man Masataka Yoshida’s two-out, two-strike, ninth-inning homer off Yankees closer Clay Holmes wasn’t even the low point. And neither was Ceddanne Rafaela’s two-run, game-winning homer an inning later.
In falling to 4-14 in their last 18 games, the Yankees made what will probably go down as the dumbest play of the year — a double-double blunder more likely to be seen in a high school game. Worse yet, it followed a memorable blunder the day before (more on that below).
“We’ve got to play better than that,” Boone said afterward. “We’ve got to play clean baseball.”
Boone’s ability to keep things positive eventually faded — at least for a few minutes. This loss was too full of blunders — there were two fielding errors, too — to ignore the obvious. Boone was emotionless as he spoke, but he made it clear that the Yankees had blown it on the bases (and elsewhere).
He also suggested that they should play better. And quickly.
“It’s a difficult time and we have to dig deep and find out what we’re made of,” he said.
Referring to Saturday’s early 1:05 a.m. start, Boone added: “We’ve got to turn the page quickly.”
And what an ugly chapter this is.
With runners on first and third and the force play off after Red Sox first baseman Romy Gonzalez reached first on the second out after fielding Ben Rice’s grounder, Anthony Volpe inexplicably slowed just before home to watch DJ LeMahieu run out the final out of the inning. The young Volpe ran as if he didn’t understand the rule, but the ultra-experienced LeMahieu should surely know how to get himself into a rundown.
If manager Boone is not going to take the drastic step of cutting starting players while the team is understaffed and struggling, it is high time he acknowledges the obvious. Spinning things in a positive way may not always be the way to go.
I get it, to a point. Positivity for the players in the press has been a winning strategy for Boone. If this doesn’t work for Boone, he can make it in politics. Or better yet, in diplomacy.
I like Boone a lot (and I don’t mean this just diplomatically), but it’s time to find words that fit the dire situation.
Boone continues to be relied upon to find the kindest way to describe every mistake and misplay. While it has worked well for him — he is in his seventh year as Yankees manager, the longest stretch in that chair without a championship — he can sometimes be too gentle with his troops, as was the case the day before.
That is where we may need to intervene. A counterbalance is necessary. Reality needs to come back to the surface. Unwashed honesty can be healthy. (More below.)
Boone drew the ire of some fans when he threw a pass to Gold Glove reserve center fielder Trent Grisham after Grisham’s obvious carelessness had cost the Yankees a base on Sunday. (When he caught a single, the normally excellent outfielder looked like me picking up the Mail when it arrives at 6 a.m.) And even the next day, Boone continued to argue that the play didn’t look good because Grisham is so talented and plays so easily.
While his defensive talent is undeniable, it was also a shockingly poor play that should be criticized as such.
“I try not to be so emotional because we’ve lost or won a couple of games,” Boone explained before Friday’s game. “I have the conversations that I need to have.”
Give Boone this. As for the bigger point, Boone talked to Grisham, and he apparently said it to him straight in the face. Either way, Grisham got the message, and that’s what counts.
“I should have made the play,” Grisham told me bluntly.
Boone handled that internally, but after another unfathomable play the next night, it might be time to try something else.
Let’s try a little more reality check. They’re playing at a .222 clip since they started sliding in Boston three weeks ago, and they look worse. They’re still 18 games above .500. But they’re going downhill fast, and the Red Sox are only happy to help the drastic decline.
Let’s face it, not much is going right, aside from 1) Aaron Judge, who is still on Babe Ruth’s pace, 2) Juan Soto, who is not far off, and 3) the return of Gerrit Cole.
Boone often talks as if this is just a minor mistake. But it doesn’t feel that way at all.