The Yankees have been awful for three weeks now. They have been awful, unable to succeed in any aspect of the game. They are the worst in MLB. They are awful.
It began with the Red Sox winning the final two of three games at Fenway Park on June 15 and 16, first dismantling the Yankees’ talented starting pitching and then revealing just how ineffectual the Yankees are at shutting down their defense.
Neither team has been the same since, and the Yankees’ ultimate nightmare scenario involves them finishing with an MLB-worst 4-13 record and three of their most hated teams — the Red Sox, Astros and Mets — doing their best to get back into the mix for a playoff berth.
The door that opens in the Bronx this weekend is a dangerous one for the Yankees, who have spent most of this season trying to move above the Orioles for the top spot in the American League East. Suddenly, with the Red Sox in the mix, the Yankees are under pressure from behind. Boston is just four runs behind in losses, and if you think Red Sox manager Alex Cora is going to do anything but keep his foot on the gas against a team that Boston stole nine bases against the last time they played each other, you haven’t been paying attention in years to how much Cora loves to get on the Yankees’ nerves.
“You’ve got to get beaten down to find out who you are,” manager Aaron Judge said Thursday after the Reds won their third straight game, 8-4. “You’ll find out soon.”
There were two defining moments as the Yankees plummeted from their major league best record of 50-22 since beating the Red Sox 8-1 on June 14. The stolen base streak seemed to rattle the Yankees, revealing a jaw of glass, and the team hasn’t regained its collective confidence since.
Plus, the Yankees’ starting rotation seemed to take a breather once they found out when Gerrit Cole would return. It was as if the other starters were either worn down by the heavy lifting to make up for the loss of the AL Cy Young Award winner, or were mentally deprived of an edge by the return of their ace. Carlos Rodon denied this theory, saying, “The adjustments have been made against us, and now it’s time for us to adjust.”
But the before-and-after picture is all too clear: Through June 14, when the Yankees learned Cole would be in the starting rotation for the next season, they had an MLB-best 2.77 ERA in 72 games. In the 17 games since, their starting pitchers have an MLB-worst ERA of 7.76.
Marcus Stroman gave up five runs in five innings against the Reds on Thursday, marking just the seventh time in the last 17 games that a Yankees starter has allowed five or more runs (starting with Rodon’s five runs in five innings at Fenway). Meanwhile, the Yankees have allowed five or more runs just three times in their first 72 games.
The culprit is obvious: Stroman has allowed three home runs, 21 in his past 17 games by a Yankees starter, and 46 in the Yankees’ first 72 games.
Essentially, the Yankees have been playing the same games over and over again this awful stretch. They have never blown a lead in their past 11 losses. Their offense has stagnated early, their starting pitchers have given up home runs and completely outplayed the Yankees. They have not blown a lead in a single inning in 27 games against the Reds.
They failed to score in the first five innings of the season opener, the first six on Wednesday and the first four innings of the final, losing 5-0, 3-0 and 5-0, respectively.
“We have to play better in every aspect,” coach Aaron Boone said. “We’re kind of desperate to catch up.”
Stroman especially lamented the fact that he gave up a three-run homer to Spencer Stier with two outs in the bottom of the fifth to make it 5-0. Austin Wells and Ben Rice (his first home run) each hit solo homers to put the Yankees in position in the bottom of the inning, but then Tim Hill and Jake Cousins, who were not up to the task of pitching in the White Sox bullpen, gave up three runs in the bottom of the seventh, negating the impact of Juan Soto’s two-run homer in the bottom of the inning.
By then, the full extent of the horror show of the past three weeks had become clear. A brief, sluggish start had forced Boone to ask more of a weak relief corps that had been a part of the rotation for 2 1/2 months. Last year it had been a one-man attack with Judge; now it was a two-man attack with Judge and Soto. Boone tried to spice up the lineup by moving struggling Anthony Volpe to the sixth spot and putting Rice, who, along with Wells, is one of the team’s best-hitting hitters in the leadoff spot.
And yet, for the first time this season, the Yankees have been swept. After losing just eight of their first 30 games, they’ve now lost nine of their next 12 home games. Now the Red Sox are coming to the Bronx. The bad times started in Boston. Can the Yankees stop them in Boston? Or will these three weeks reveal more about the Yankees than the team that showed up at Fenway Park on June 14?
