Roger Rubin: Yankees find themselves in storm surge, and things could get even rougher with Rays up next
The Yankees' Jazz Chisholm trots off the field after flying out during the fifth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
The Yankees are playing as badly as, and maybe worse than, anyone might have imagined about two weeks ago.
This club that was 18 games over .500 and 3 1⁄2 games up on a very good Tampa Bay team on June 17 has become one that is failing in every aspect of the game: from pitching to run production to defense.
The Yankees’ completely uncompetitive performance in Sunday’s 6-1 loss to Minnesota before 39,155 at the Stadium — their ninth loss in the last 10 games — underscored what an eyesore they are right now.
They didn’t get a runner into scoring position until the seventh inning and didn’t score until the ninth on Sunday. Starter Ryan Weathers went four innings-plus to extend their run to 10 games without a quality start. Shortstop Anthony Volpe’s sixth-inning error opened the gate for two insurance runs. Jazz Chisholm Jr. got caught off first base while putting on his sliding gloves in the second.
The Yankees were 11-1-1 in series against the Twins dating to 2019 before dropping two of three to close a 1-5 homestand. The Twins hadn’t won a series at the Stadium since 2014.
The loudest the crowd might have gotten was when Volpe had a called third strike overturned on an ABS challenge in the seventh. Few fans were left when they scored on Jasson Dominguez’s double-play grounder.
“It’s been frustrating,” Cody Bellinger said. “We’re in a little bit of a storm right now, and you can’t run away from a storm — it’ll keep on chasing you. So you’ve got to take it head-on.”
There is the specter that this “storm” could go from Category 3 to Category 5 as the Yankees face the AL East-leading Rays in a four-game series at Tropicana Field beginning Monday night. The Rays are four games up (five in the loss column), have won nine of their last 11 and are 31-12 at The Trop.
Hard to believe as it may be, the Yankees, with the second-best record in the AL, could be closer to the last wild-card spot than the division lead by the weekend. And while all wonder what moves they might make at the Aug. 3 trading deadline, general manager Brian Cashman might not have the luxury of waiting if this nosedive continues.
“We’re kind of dragging right now as a team,” said Chisholm, who aggravated a big toe injury on the bases and exited the game early but doesn’t expect to go on the IL. “One guy would have a good game and seven guys wouldn’t, [and] that’s why we’re not really going the way that we want to right now.
“[The] concern level is high,” he added. “Everyone is trying . . . to help the team win every day, and when it’s not going well, it kind of sucks. So a lot of guys are like kind of tense. We’ve just got to remember who we are.”
Yes, pieces are missing. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are out indefinitely with injuries. Max Fried and Carlos Rodon are out with elbow issues. That will be the case for weeks. So short of urgent measures, the Yankees must depend on what they have to get out of the free fall.
“Losing sucks, so any time you go through a 10-day stretch like we’re in right now — we haven’t hit much, we haven’t played well [in the field], we haven’t pitched our best — all of that adds up,” manager Aaron Boone said.
“We’ve got to find a way to turn it around and get rid of the excuses of ‘this guy’s out, that guy’s out.’ We’ve got people capable of going out there and helping us win, but we got to put it together as a group.”
And in this moment, really, the only thing the Yankees really have going their way is that the AL is terrible, with only five of the 15 teams playing above .500. Texas (45-45), which has a tenuous hold on the last wild card, is only 4 ½ games behind the Yankees. Houston is only a game behind Texas.
The Yankees are 13-17 without Judge, but even after he suffered the rib stress fracture that sent him to the IL, the Yankees went 10-5 and averaged 5.4 runs in their first 15 games without him. They have gone 3-12 and averaged 2.7 runs in the last 15, going 10-for-91 (.110) with runners in scoring position.
Asked about effort, Chisholm suggested the issue is more “of a focus standpoint in executing what all of us have to do.”
Said Boone,“We’ve just got to do a better job of stringing some things together offensively right now — it just hasn’t been good enough. We’re certainly capable and have some guys going through it, but we got to find a way right now.”
He added, “The bottom line is we all have to be part of the solution. It’s not going to be some magic pill or magic bullet or a guy throwing the cape on.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
