It was a disastrous weekend at Yankee Stadium for the men in pinstripes.
In a boo-filled 8-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, fans flooded the field with bass balls and other objects in the eighth innings, causing a brief delay. On Saturday, the New York Yankees could not solve Tyler Glasnow, and the Rays won 6-3. On Sunday, fans even mocked Gerrit Cole as he stepped down the hill after giving a double-double to a struggling Yoshi Tsutsugo in the seventh innings; the Rays win 4-2, and the Yankees leave the field to another chorus of evil, rather than “New York, New York.”
Give credit to Tampa Bay first. The Rays are now 5-1 against the Yankees in 2021, after beating them 8-2 last season, plus a win in the U.S. League Series. Including the series, the Rays have now won seven consecutive series against the Yankees, returning to their 2019 final showdown.
The current problems of the Yankees go beyond the rays, but only the number. The Yankees have the worst record in the U.S. league at 5-10, which is the most games in a season, where they had the league’s worst record since going 9-17 in 1991. The general rule in baseball is not to mention the first few weeks of the season – as a reminder, was the last time the Yankees started 5-10 in 1997, and finally finished 96-66 and made it to the playoffs – you can look for patterns. It should be of concern that the Yankees struggled in rotation, in defense and on the board.
–The rotation misery has been documented. The beginners have an ERA of 4.74; take out Cole and it balloons to 6.39. Note, Cole started four of the team’s 15 games or 27%. The ratio will drop to around 20% by the end of the season, assuming he starts 33 of 162.
The current adaptation of catcher Gary Sanchez, midfielders Gleyber Torres and Rougned Odor and midfielder Aaron Hicks does not feel like a defense on championship. The Yankees can work a bit on that when Kyle catches Higashioka and finally when DJ LeMahieu returns to second base after Luke Voit returns.
– The big surprise is an offense that only hits .210 / .296 / .346. This is the lowest batting average for the Yankees through 15 games since 1968 and the lowest OPS through 15 games since 1973. The power is supposed to be the team’s strength, but their opponents have more home runs (21 to 16) and more doubles ( 22 19).
The slow start led to manager Aaron Boone apparently falling back after Friday’s loss. Asked about the match, Boone said, “It’s in there.”
But field worker Clint Frazier said, “He’s so cold that when he addresses us, everyone has to listen.”
Frazier said they will be ready Saturday; Instead, the Yankees have now run their losing streak at five in a row.
“I’m frustrated, personally frustrated,” said LeMahieu, the 2020 AL batting champion, hitting 0.28 with one home game. “No one is going to feel sorry for us. No one is going to throw us softer or easier. We have to find it in ourselves to keep getting better and playing as we are capable.”
While LeMahieu concluded that the team was’ stiff and urgent ‘, Cole seemed to take things a little more in his shift, saying:’ You’re playing this game long enough, you’re going through a bit kak. through the mud. ‘
Indeed, the 1997 Yankees are an example. After the start of 5-10, they win eight of their next ten to climb over 0.500 again before the end of April. Back to 1996, here are the top five records of teams that started 5-10 or worse, thanks to ESPN Stats & Information:
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2001 A’s: 102-60 (start 4-11)
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2002 Angels: 99-63 (starting 5-10)
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2000 Giants: 97-65 (start 4-11)
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2018 A’s: 97-65 (starting 5-10)
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1997 Yankees: 96-66 (starting 5-10)
On the other hand … many more bad teams start 5-10, as you would expect. I looked at all the teams that started exactly 5-10 from 1996 to 2019, with 62 teams telling everyone. Their final average record was 73-89. In addition to the three above-mentioned such teams, only four other 90 games would win: the Indians 2013 (92-70) and the Rays (92-71), the 2011 Red Sox (90-72) and the 2009 Rockies (92-70).
This Yankees team reminds me a little bit of the Boston Red Sox of 2019. With a World Series title, the Red Sox team started slowly, 5-10 to 15 games and 9-15 to 24. In a sense Boston never recovered from the slow start, falling seven games out of first place. at the end of April and to never get closer to three games for the rest of the game before it ended 84-78.
The Yankees are tied with the Rangers for the lowest OPS in the majors at .642. I am confident that the Yankees will not be in that position at the end of the season. Giancarlo Stanton, Frazier, Torres and Hicks all hit below .200. It could help help Voit, the lead in the 2020 major leagues.
Torres is the tough one to figure out, having scored 38 home runs in 2019 at the age of 22 and looked like a future star. He actually improved his chase rate in 2020 (from 31.3% to 20.1%) and again in 2021 (to 13.9%), and usually better discipline leads to better numbers; instead he sits there with no home runs and one RBI. Perhaps a more aggressive approach – he swung more frequently on the first pitch in 2019 – works better for him.
That’s 15 games in a very long season anyway. Yankees fans are demanding that Boone be fired. Columnists make a joke that Jay Bruce should not have retired because he might have done cleanup this week if Boone wanted to shake things up. Twitter was filled with comments like, “The Yankees are 5-10, but it looks worse” and “I’ve literally been waiting my whole life for one bad Yankees season.”
Put it in your back pocket: the last time the Yankees had a losing season was in 1992.
(And to name it, it’s now a lock that the Yankees win 12 of 14 and move to first place on May 4. Thank you to me later, Yankees fans.)