The New York Yankees have been embarrassed by the Toronto Blue Jays over three consecutive games, failing to produce enough run support to help Gerrit Cole secure victory on Saturday afternoon.
The Bombers managed only two runs, courtesy of an Estevan Florial single to that field in the bottom of the 2nd inning and a Gleyber Torres homer to right in the bottom of the 8th. However, a big 5th inning from the Blue Jays put the game out of reach, despite a potent Yankees batting order.
You don’t have to look too far to figure out why the Yankees are struggling, just look at their primary hitters. Aaron Judge is batting .148 with zero homers over his last eight games played.
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Torres hosts a .171 average over his last 19 games and Anthony Rizzo is hitting .143 in his last 11 games. However, it doesn’t end there, with DJ LeMahieu batting .189 over 13 games and Andrew Benintendi hitting .192 since joining the Yankees over a 22-game sample size.
The Yankees need to stop speaking and need to start performing:
After the disappointing loss, manager Aaron Boone erupted, showing fiery emotion to spark some urgency.
“We have to play better. Period,” Boone said, pounding his hand on the table in frustration. “And the great thing is, it’s right in front of us. It’s right here, and we can fix it.”
The Yankees once held a 15 1/2 game lead in the AL East several weeks ago, but they now sit a paltry seven-game ahead. While they still have a bit of cushion left, they need to begin winning games, or their World Series aspirations could come crumbling to a halt.
“It’s there and we can run away from this thing,” Boone said. “And we got the dudes in there to do it. But we have to do it. If we don’t score, it’s tough to win.”
The starting pitching has been adequate for the Yankees mostly, despite a bad performance from Frankie Montas on Thursday, giving up six earned runs over eight hits.
Based on the hitting metrics listed above, it is quite clear that the Yankees’ offensive production has been lackluster at best. In fact, over their last seven games, they failed the score a run in three of them. The team went on a stretch this past week scoring one run over a three-game stretch.
“We’re not happy about it,” Aaron Judge said. “If you lose one game, or if you lose 10 games, you’re not happy at all. But if we sit here and stay frustrated about one game, it’s going to lead into the next game.
Judge displayed some motivating words, but talking isn’t getting the job done at this point. The team tried to inject more youth into the equation with Oswaldo Cabrera and Florial, which has produced results to a degree. Cabrera has been phenomenal defensively and contributed a few hits, but the Yankees need their primary playmakers to rise to the occasion, which simply hasn’t happened.
“So, it’s about us picking ourselves up, and not forgetting we’re the New York Yankees. And we have to go out there and show people that.”
There’s still plenty of time for the Yanks to turn things around, and it needs to start with Aaron Judge finding his bat once again. He’s been mostly quiet the past few weeks, but the team finds ways to rally around his production. A cold bat for Judge is devastating to the team’s success.