It may not be time just yet to hit the panic button, but anyone that’s concerned about what has been going on with the Yankees over the past month certainly has a right to be.
Highlighted by the chaotic basepath errors that cost them a game on Tuesday night in Seattle. The Yankees found themselves tied for the best record in the American League with the hated Houston Astros heading into Wednesday’s series finale with the Mariners.
Base running errors had been an issue that plagued New York in the second half of the year last season and it seemed like the Yankees had solved that issue. Tuesday in no way means that the Bombers have regressed back to their old ways, but combined with some of the issues that have faced them, the Yankees don’t seem as unbeatable as they once did.
Their dominant pitching has not seemed as dominant as it once did and the starting rotation has raised some eyebrows. Gerrit Cole recovered from an ugly start in his last trip to the mound, however, the Yankee bats and baserunners couldn’t seem to get it together.
“It’s like leaning into those things and understanding where the league makes some adjustments to you,” manager Aaron Boone said to YES Network before Wednesday’s game about the recent blunders. “Not wanting us to lose the aggression, but hey it’s a wake-up call to be really smart in certain situations. And a lot of that stuff happens, not only before the game, but before a pitch is thrown within that at-bat. So we’re thinking properly, we’re thinking through things properly and hopefully putting ourselves in a position to react then in the correct way.”
While the Yankees have remained at the top of the division standings and went into Wednesday’s game with a 10.5-game lead on the Toronto Blue Jays, New York has struggled to beat some of the league’s best. They came out of the MLB All-Star break and lost a doubleheader to the Astros and then dropped two to the Mets at Citi Field.
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And now Tampa Bay, Toronto and the Mets are all on the horizon after a trip to Beantown this weekend.
“I know what everyone does every night cause I follow the game,” Boone said when asked about the Astros specifically. “But our focus is on trying to win ballgames. Ultimately you can’t worry about what everyone else is doing. This is about us and hit a little bit of a rough patch here and getting us moving in the right direction.”
