Left at a loss after yet another Yankees defeat
Yankees designated hitter Aaron Judge reacts after striking out looking during the ninth inning against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
There was no way to precisely measure the depth of the Yankees’ despair Sunday after they got broomed in the Bronx by the Red Sox. No algorithms exist for such things. The data can’t be found on FanGraphs.
But the sense of futility was impossible to disguise after three score-tying comebacks went for naught in a 6-5 defeat, and it all added up to the Yankees’ eighth straight loss — their longest streak in 28 years.
“It’s tough,” said Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who initially was ruled to have scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning on a controversial play at the plate before the call was overturned (the Yankees’ subsequent blocking-the-plate challenge also was shot down). “That’s a gut punch, especially in the fashion we lost it.”
The Yankees were never really in the first two non-competitive games of this series, getting outscored 16-4, but Sunday was different. Kyle Higashioka, Gleyber Torres and Anthony Volpe each hit a tying homer and Greg Allen came within six inches of belting another one leading off the ninth, but his liner caromed off the top of the rightfield wall.
Allen settled for a double, but after Kenley Jansen plunked DJ LeMahieu, the closer struck out Aaron Judge and Torres, leaving Ben Rortvedt as the last gasp. Why Rortvedt, the .098-hitting catcher? He wound up in the cleanup spot after Giancarlo Stanton was used as a pinch hitter for Jake Bauers in the seventh — Allen had pinch run for Higashioka that same inning — and with the bench empty by that point, Rortvedt flied to center for the final out.
Whatever illusion of hope had lingered in the Bronx, Sunday should have told the Yankees something. They emptied the tank and still couldn’t wrestle one measly W away from the Red Sox, who are 8-1 against them this season, including seven straight wins.
“They’ve kicked our [butt],” manager Aaron Boone said. “We just haven’t been good enough.”
Not that it matters, but this is the part where we feel obligated to mention the Yankees' current predicament: They're four games under .500 (60-64) and nine games out of the third wild-card spot. They’re not mathematically eliminated, of course. But in late August, with that deficit and four teams in front of them? With 38 games left, any chance is down to tenths of a percentage point.
“We got to be unbelievable the rest of the way,” Boone said. “It’s about coming to try and win a game Tuesday. Then all of a sudden you start stacking, and then an amazing thing happens. But we’re so far removed from that right now. We gotta get a win first.”
So what did you expect from Boone? Showing up at the postgame media session waving a white towel and resigning on the spot? The Yankees are paid to finish the schedule, and until they’re officially bounced from contention, you’ll be hearing plenty more of the same. It’s Boone’s job, and he’ll drown in that optimism to the very last drop.
There is an interesting footnote to this eight-game losing streak, however. As we previously mentioned, the last one was way back in 1995, and No. 8 was delivered by the Mariners’ Randy Johnson, who pitched a three-hit shutout to beat the Yankees, 7-0, at the Kingdome on Aug. 26. To that point, Buck Showalter’s crew had lost 14 of 18, dropping them to 53-58 overall. The season appeared to be circling the drain.
But those Yankees rebounded with an astonishing 26-7 sprint, enough to finish 79-65 in the strike-shortened season and clinch the first-ever wild card. So it’s not as if such an “unbelievable” run is unprecedented. There is historical evidence that proves what Boone says is technically possible.
Here’s why he’s wrong this time: There’s no Don Mattingly walking through that clubhouse door. Or Bernie Williams, Wade Boggs, Paul O’Neill, Jack McDowell, David Cone or Andy Pettitte. To pull off such a miracle comeback, you need a special team, equipped with both talent and character. The 2023 Yankees have shown they’re not that.
Sunday’s effort at least provided evidence that the Yankees haven’t totally quit. I’ll give them that much. The Red Sox offered them plenty of opportunities to roll over, punch the clock and get a head start on Monday’s off day, but they refused to take them.
Kiner-Falefa and Volpe remain two of the dwindling number of Yankees who seem to care, as they and Sunday starter Clark Schmidt were the only ones who showed their face afterward.
“I feel like this stretch and these losses are deflating,” Volpe said. “But I feel like it’s because we know we’re capable of a lot more. We have guys in the clubhouse physically and everyone believes we can do it . . . I feel like everyone’s pretty [angry].''
The Yankees have only themselves to blame for that. And now it’s too late to do anything about it but play out the string.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
