The New York Yankees fell to the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday evening 9-2 but walked away tying the series with two wins apiece. The Yankees are currently five games above .500 and sit 4.5 games back from Tampa in the AL East. They are preparing to take on the Boston Red Sox, who are 2.5 games ahead, but within reach as the Bombers attempt to break out of their funk.
The Yankees’ success simply relies on their offensive production, and their inadequacies have plagued them all season long. One surefire way to put a few wins in the right column would be to activate their slugging abilities, which have been absent as of late.
However, it doesn’t help when the umpire is calling a one-sided game. In Thursday’s loss, home-plate umpire Chad Whitson was inefficient with his called strikes, forcing manager Aaron Boone to take his anger out.
Good news and bad news for the Yankees:
Boone showing a flurry of emotion hopefully gave the players a bit more confidence, knowing their manager has their back. While Aaron wasn’t open to sharing what he had to say to the umpire, it was clear most of the words used would be shunned on live television.
“I just expressed some things and got run,†Boone told reporters via Zoom. “I just wanted to get my point across. I thought there were some close pitches, but the Rays outplayed us (Thursday). I just had some disagreements throughout the day with them and got run obviously when i went out to the mound. Probably said some things that I can’t get away with. That’s about it. That’s about the gist of it.â€